PR WEB -- June 29, 2005 -- A war is being waged on the Internet for
dominance of the online dating world and surfers are caught in between.
Some smaller dating sites have come to fight and have prepared very
well. Said Jeff Mayhew, owner of LoveMatch.com,
"competing in the online dating market used to be really easy. But in
the last two years it has gotten a lot harder." The return on
advertising revenue is slim so he's been forced to take a cautious
approach. LoveMatch spends about $30 a month on advertising, relying
heavily on top lists and smaller sources of traffic to populate the
site. Jordan Ravka, owner of CasualKiss.com, said he spends about $50 a month on marketing. Then there are companies like True.com,
which advertised it's need for an ad sales company to manage a
multi-million dollar advertising budget. "In all honesty, I have no
idea how people find out about CasualKiss," said Ravka. "We charge
about five times less than our competitors, therefore we will never be
able to spend as much to acquire new customers." Charging less and
providing more for consumers seems like a decent way for smaller
companies to compete, but not all practice this approach. FULL ARTICLE @ PR WEB

Mark Brooks:
When users sign up for online dating sites they expect to be able to
search from as large a pool of people as possible, for the best
possible matches. Small sites that pretend to be large sites,
offering extremely limited pools of users, are a huge disservice to the
industry. The smaller the pool of users, the less the utility.
$20 a month fees are 'throw-away.' Everyone can afford $20.

Monthly fees simply demonstrate user commitment. We're seeing
companies such as True and eharmonyup the ante on fees for two reasons. 1. Marketing costs are
indeed rising. 2. Higher fees filter for those who are committed
to the process. Users put more time into searching, responding
and dating when they are paying $50 a month; higher response rates,
overall activity rates and a better user experience overall. This
is good. I urge users to conisder the value of their time and the
importance of finding a good match, rather than the paltry fees the
online dating services charge.