We’ve received a lot of feedback on the previous post and would like to give Robert Fathers another opportunity to speak on our blog. Below you can find his thoughts on the dating industry, as it moves and changes in the current economic climate.

The Big Dating Sites

Dating is divided into several markets. Let’s say, the Big guns, like Match, Lavalife, Meetic etc; they are totally focused on their brand and very little else, they mainly rely on mass media advertising which is expensive and, more often than not, ineffective. They are purely working on a Business to consumer basis and miraculously many of them don’t have an affiliate system, mostly rely on expensive alternatives, such as Commission Junction and other larger services for affiliates, but of course CJ takes most of the money and the end result is very little profit and high advertising costs. This year highlighted many of these companies as losing money; my own belief is they will survive by their sheer size and backers, like Microsoft behind Match, but never to be that successful in their own right; their sites are also so basic, that most dating scripts even have more to offer.

Small General Dating sites

A very hard time for them: most are joining systems like our own, as they cannot get good deals with merchant accounts and overheads are difficult to cover in a market that is already flooded. However, the light at the end of the tunnel for them is by joining our system; this will help them to clear all operating costs and expand their brand with other languages, currencies and niches. This is a real solution for sites in hard times to expand and make money in an otherwise difficult market.

One off Niches

Each site should have their own unique quality, whether it’s a concept like eHarmony or a niche like JDate.com. These are, of course, more successful, but, of course, limited to a smaller segment of the market. Many of these sites cannot cope with ethnic sites. For example, try Chinese dating in the USA, or Indian dating in the UK. If jDate could cover all languages and countries then their niche becomes larger and, of course, more profitable.

Multiple Niches

The smaller the Niche the higher the profits, any Google AdWords specialist will tell you that this is the answer to real success. Building through 100 of these is no mean task.

Some ideas to dating webmasters and site owners

• How about starting your own dating empire? Where would you begin?
• A good name, a good Domain. Create your brand and design - and you have the beginning of your supersite.
• Build your site outwards, let’s call it superdaters.com
• Clone your site for each country, using the relevant language and currency for each site, link them all together.
• Create Niches around the same brand that cross sale well, like Gay dating or Adult Dating, and you are already making your own advertising for your other sites.
• Expanding on the above, you could create your own free dating site; why not add it to your social network? It’s a great fit and suits the free concept. Use the free dating site to make advertising revenue and then cross sell your free dating sites to your paid dating sites.
• The combinations of ways you can do this are endless; we estimate that you can create up to 13 million niches in our system. The beauty of it all is that anyone can do it from professional to amateur.
• This is a long lasting strong model that can last a lifetime and, I can say this honestly, completely addictive.

Robert Fathers, CEO, Datech Limited

Q: What is Datech Ltd., and what do you do in online dating business?

A: Datech Limited is technology partner to anyone online; whether they are large brands, want a community dating site or affiliates whose only target is to make money through a system that will earn a good return in revenue. Datech offers a full range of solutions, from white labeled sites, template sites, affiliates marketing tools and – later this month – free dating sites as well. Our unique position in the marketplace is that we are the only provider worldwide that offer true white labeling and not simulated sites with just header and footer. There is also an outstanding ability to allow partners to filter data from our database of 17 million members, into any possible niche they could imagine, in over 14 languages (‘Add your own language’ is just part of the service too) and any currency at prices that suit the targeted market. It is all operated under World Dating Partners brand and covers all the headaches of running a dating site, like Merchant accounts, customer support, anti fraud scrubbing, partner support, a server system with 100% uptime and unlimited capacity for traffic. Our system is used by major dating sites like dating.com who find that our model cuts running expenses and leaves them with what they do best – marketing. Best of all of course, everything is FREE and we run as a true partnership on shared revenue with recurring payments AND re-bills, something that other sites don’t pay out on. As a partner you can also sell to other sites if you prefer Business to Business and get a generous override/commission over total revenue for every site you bring in.

Q: Your software development office is situated in Ukraine. What’s the best about it and what’s the worst?

A: We have worked in the Ukraine for over 10 years, an outstanding achievement as our own outsourcing company, where most companies fail in their first year. We believe that our key to success is our ability to understand and sympathize with a different culture, to pay fair wages and treat our team of developers and other staff like a family and part of our UK office, instead of looking on them as a resource to exploit. Our team in the Ukraine is just as much involved in the running of the company as any in our UK team, if not more. I am very proud of them all and they give all they can. This can all be achieved with very good communication and the right person in the Ukraine as a team leader. For the future we will add more and more responsibility to our Ukraine office, as the country becomes more aware of marketing techniques, we find that these skills are something to look out for in the future.

Q: Do you work with big name companies only or also with individual web entrepreneurs as well?

A: Datech has over 21,000 partners, from small to major, and running business across different industries shows the flexibility of who we work with: we work alongside over 47 TV networks worldwide, over 250 radio stations, over 120 affiliate networks, have many celebrities who work with us. Some of our bigger names are Cellcast, Bauer media, Perfspot, Sky TV; quite honestly, really too many to mark down on one page. In 2007 World Dating Partners took over and ran Relationship Exchange, the forerunner and previous leader of this industry.

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Q: How do you position Meet Market Adventures on the market?

A: We have positioned ourselves as a one stop shop where singles can connect online or off at local events and adventures or on exotic vacations.

Q: Do you consider traditional dating sites as your competitors?

A: The other dating services that are out there do not offer the same services that we provide. Meet Market Adventures offers a wide range of events, adventures and fun for singles in the city. We also have an online community that allows singles to create profiles, talk about events or experiences with Meet Market Adventures. Our no pressure community gives individuals the opportunity to meet other singles in a social setting that other dating services do not offer.

Q: What’s included in Free Membership and what is your business model?

A: Our Free Membership includes unlimited use of our social networking platform, access to fun events and adventures, local discounts and cheap single vacations. Our model is 3 tiered. Our revenue comes from up selling on the group discounts we get from local vendors and operators, Travel Commissions and advertising.

Q: Do you target some specific social groups or anyone can join?

A: We do not reach out to a specific social group and anyone is free and able to join Meet Market Adventures. Our target market is singles between 30 and 50. This group seems to represent the majority of our members because of trends in lifestyle, changes is personal circumstances or personal choice.

Q: What areas and cities do you already cover?

A: Our goal is to be in every major city across North America in 5 years. We are currently represented in the following cities:

• New York
• Philadelphia
• Chicago
• Toronto
• Montreal
• Ottawa
• Winnipeg
• Calgary
• Edmonton
• Vancouver

Q: How important is your own website for your business?

A: Our website is crucial. Without it we would not have been able to grow as fast as we have. Our website acts as our store front for our events, adventures and social community.

Q: I am sure you also have groups and fans in Facebook and MySpace. Do you feel the emerging impact of social networks on your business?

A: Yes, we are covered on all Social Networks. It allows us to access millions of potential clients and has become our major marketing initiative. It is a great way to virally grow your business. It is has been beneficial to see what features and applications these companies are using and how you can incorporate them into your own model.