Online personal sites are a lot like social networks; the most critical factor for a site’s success is people. More specifically, the volume and activity level of members needs to be high enough for users to make connections, and for visitors to be enticed to join. But despite the online personals market becoming increasingly crowded with newcomers, the top dogs of the industry seem to be as strong as ever.

The chart below compares total site traffic to total active members for the top US online personal sites. By comparing these two numbers, its possible to see how factors such as acquisition efforts, site design, and audience impact site usage.

• Mate1.com and True.com both do a terrific job of driving visitors to their sites, but this traffic simply doesn’t convert. Members represent 13% and 24% of total visitors (respectively).
• HotorNot.com members also make up a small share (21%) of total visitors, but this results from the fact that visitors can rate members (the main draw of the site) without being a member themselves.
• Plentyoffish.com, a service built on ad revenue is a great success for all involved. More visitors become members because the service is completely free, and the site generates an a great deal more money because members consume considerably more pages.
• Niche dating site BlackPeopleMeet.com also sees a large number of members as a share of total visitors (71%) due to a very targeted audience.

The next step in the love equation is member usage, and if repeat visitation is any indicator, consumers find a great deal of value in free (or at least open) services. The chart above shows overall member involvement (measured as the total number of times a member accessed each site). Since this metric is a function of both total members and member activity, it paints a more accurate picture of each site’s base.

• SinglesNet.com, ranked 4^th in terms of UVs, ranks first in total member visits at over 27 million in December. A fairly open platform and free trial membership helps encourage registrations and an average of 10.7 monthly visits per member.
• PlentyofFish.com, despite having around 1/5 as many visitors, nearly ties Yahoo Personals in terms of total visits. The entirely free service encourages users to communicate, and drives Plentyoffish members to visit the site an average of 14 times a month.
• While the represent major dating services in terms of total visitors, both True.com and Mate1.com look like they compete more with Niche site BlackPeopleMeet when compared on the basis of member visits. Aggressive acquisition and sales tactics (such as requiring a subscription for any type of user-to-user communication) are prime factors in their equally low repeat visitation (around 5 times per month per user)

With social networking providing much the same service as a dating site, its interesting that pure online personals sites continue to grow. But then again, “looking for anything I can get” doesn’t really mean anything on Facebook, but it will probably get you a full inbox on Mate1.

Wedding season is in full swing, and I’ve learned first hand that planning a wedding is no easy task. Theknot.com is a social networking website that allows “brides-to-be” to research, shop, plan, and share their stories. As with many wedding websites, seasonality proves to be a limiting factor in terms of traffic. Theknot.com experiences a decline on average of about 22% in unique visitors from October to December each year. Similarly, weddingchannel.com experiences a 29% decline during that holiday season.

Theknot.com and its closest competitor, weddingchannel.com, both peak in traffic during the month of June. However, both sites experienced a y-o-y decline last month by 23% and 11% respectively. Couples preparing to have their wedding on the “luckiest wedding day ever” didn’t seem to have an impact either sites traffic. Last month, weddingchannel.com had over 50k more unique visitors than theknot.com, but couldn’t stack up in terms of attention.

Theknot.com’s sister site, thenest.com, features home and money advice, decorating tips and recipies. By promoting migration over to thenest after the big day, theknot manages to keep couples “engaged” long after the honeymoon is over.

The first quarter of the year represents a busy time in the online dating world, and 2007 has been no exception, with traffic to mainstream dating sites growing by 15% from December to February. The real story, however, is told through members.

The chart below ranks online dating services by member activity, which was described in more detail in December. In February, we improved the metric to include direct logins through email, and this had a significant impact on the rankings.

• True, previously ranked 9th in terms of member logins, moved into the top five sites. Like many dating services, True sends email as a way to encourage paid subscriptions, and in February nearly 60% of member traffic came through this channel.
• Match took the lead with nearly 20 million member logins in February.
• PlentyofFish.com, the largest free site in the group, was pushed out of the top 5 but still captured over twice the member activity of 7th place Mate1, despite being 1/5th its size in visitor traffic.

Continue reading “Love Doesn’t Equal Loyalty: Online Dating in February 2007″ »

The holiday season is supposed to be a time when people come together. But for lonely singles, it can also highlight the fact that they are, well, lonely and single. Whether it’s for a New Years date, a resolution to finally find a soul mate, or even pressure from family to settle down, online dating services see a ramping up of activity, starting around Christmas. How does this trend look, and what does it mean for the big players in the industry?

The chart above ranks online dating services by member activity, which was described in more detail last month. The site rankings are relatively unchanged from last month. However, in general Member activity increased.

• Match.com moved up one spot in rank. While it’s not shown in this chart, total traffic to the site grew more than 50% from November to December, which could have resulted in new membership.
• Yahoo Personals member visits increased by 13% from November to December, capturing the top spot, and the biggest change from the previous month.
• eHarmony member activity actually declined from November. Perhaps their compatibility service is too good at finding matches?
• Sticking with it’s provocative ad campaign on social networking sites, True still hasn’t been able to convert its heavy traffic (nearly no change from the previous month) into member activity.

How big was the holiday ramp up this year? Looking at total weekly traffic to mainstream dating sites, it’s apparent that interest in online dating services starts to grow right around Christmas. These sites saw about a 13% change in visitors and visits (a proxy for activity) since the week of the December 10th.

‘Tis the season to be in a relationship I guess.

Get SnapShots of sites mentioned in this post:

• TRUE
• Match
• Mate1
• Singlesnet
• eHarmony
• American Singles
• eCrush
• Plenty of Fish
• Gay.com

To differentiate themselves from the competition, online dating services use “data” like the number of members, criteria used in matchmaking or (my personal favorite) the number of marriages “created.” But how do these sites really stack up in terms of traffic?

Looking at the number of November site visitors, Yahoo Personals and TRUE lead the industry, with about 2 times the volume of 3rd place Match.

But ranking online dating sites purely on visitor traffic is flawed; membership is a prerequisite to use the services, and member activity is the foundation of successful matchmaking. Looking at how members use a site gives a clearer picture of the online dating landscape, and changes these rankings dramatically.

The chart above shows overall member involvement (measured as the total number of unique times a member accessed the site). Since this is impacted by both the volume and activity level of members, member visits start to reveal actual engagement.

• Yahoo Personals grabbed the top rank on every measurement. This great overall performance shows a balance of both driving traffic to the service, and encouraging active participation.
• While TRUE placed 2nd in visitors, its 8th rank in member logins indicates that much of this traffic came from TRUE’s intense (and apparently misguided) advertising efforts on youth oriented social networking sites. In addition True members represented a mere 8% of total visitors, less than a quarter of the market average.
• Plentyoffish.com showed that free services can be successful; 9th in terms of visitors, the site leapt to 5th in member interaction. More importantly, it was one of 5 sites with more than 10 million member visits, putting it in a class with much higher trafficked sites and besting its next competitor by a multiple of 2x.

For this analysis, Msn dating, a division of Match.com, was aggregated into the Match.com calculations. eSpinthebottle.com and eCrush.com were also counted as one site.

Get SnapShots of sites mentioned in this post:

• TRUE
• Match
• Mate1
• Singlesnet
• eHarmony
• American Singles
• eCrush
• Plenty of Fish
• Gay.com

As Thumper, the lovable rabbit in Disney’s classic movie, Bambi, astutely noted, “Nearly everybody gets twitterpated in the springtime. You get weak in the knees. Your head starts to whirl. Before you know it, you’re knocked for a loop!” Spring and summer are indeed the seasons of love, and judging by the internet activity since January, this is one season people do not take lightly.

Many dating service websites experienced a substantial increase in traffic in the six month period from January to June. Webdate.com, currently has over 500,000 singles searching their pages. The leader in this genre, personals.yahoo.com, boasted an impressive 8.3 million people in June.

So what do these websites offer in order to help singles connect with other singles? Once you create a personal profile, you can search for other users by gender, age, region, physical characteristics, interests, religion, and even zodiac sign! For those unsure of how to best approach finding a potential mate, personals.yahoo.com offers a relationship test that helps singles figure out what they are looking for in a partner. For a more scientific approach, match.com, the current number three dating site, boasts a MindFindBind™ program in which Dr. Phil imparts his relationship wisdom to users via video modules, podcasts, audio tips, and workbooks.

With each site posting countless success stories of happy couples who met online, it appears that online dating services are effective in helping people find their true loves. So if you are yet to experience the excitement of twitterpation this season, hop on line and find out if one of the millions of singles out there is right for you.