Frequent Flirters

Casual Dating Affiliate Payouts Top The Industry

FF -- Feb 15 -- Does anyone know of any dating affiliate programs that pay out higher than casual dating sites?  The super fast growing dating sites Fling and SexSearch are topping my research on payouts. SexSearch is paying out $90 and Fling $50 per paid sign up over Valentines. Adultfriendfinder is definitely feeling the heat on its tail from these two. I'm surprised how many dating sites don't have affiliate programs. Match, eHarmony, Perfectmatch and Yahoo! have good programs, but many top and second tier players have relatively small programs, if they have them at all. From the affiliate perspective adult dating sites just plain convert better, which would partly explain the rise in popularity of casual dating sites over the last few years. CJ, Linkshare, Azoogleads, Shareasale, Primary Ads, and Link Connector all drive significant amounts of traffic to dating sites.  CJ seems to have the most offers. Email me at mark@onlinepersonalswatch.com for a copy of my spreadsheet listing all the dating offer payouts on the top affiliate networks. - Mark Brooks

TRUE Live On CX Interactive

FF -- Dec 20 -- TRUE canceled their Commission Junction affiliate program and relationship and I just got a heads up that they have started up with CX Interactive. They canceled with CJ because, they said, they had an unacceptably high level of fraud. CX have just run their first couple of million impressions with TRUE.  They're running all standard ad units. CX seems keen to ad more dating offers from other providers.

Spark Networks Consolidates CJ Affiliate Programs

ONLINE DATING INSIDER -- Nov 15 -- Spark Networks Limited has rolled all of its CJ accounts into one. Now you can promote AmericanSingles, BlackSingles, ChristianMingle, Date.ca and JDate all from the same program. FULL ARTICLE @ ONLINE DATING INSIDER

Commission Junction Announces New Clients

ONLINE MEDIA DAILY -- Sep 11 -- ValueClick’s Commission Junction, a provider of affiliate marketing solutions, reported Monday that it broke a record for new client contract signings. New clients include Air France Canada, Avenue.com, Borders, Café Press, Corel, E*TRADE FINANCIAL, Intuit, Lavalife, Oneida, shop.com, and Tinderbox.com. FULL ARTICLE @ ONLINE MEDIA DAILY

CafeMom’s Affiliate Program On Commission Junction

AFFILIATE MARKETING BLOG -- Aug 23 -- CafeMom, the sister company to ClubMom that shut down their affiliate program in March of this year, launched its own affiliate program on Commission Junction in May. CafeMom, an online community created especially for moms, is paying a $2 CPA and a 5-25% conversion rate. FULL ARTICLE @ AFFILIATE MARKETING BLOG

CPC Option for Some Google Advertisers

BIZ REPORT -- Feb 21 -- Starting next month, some Google advertisers will be able to choose CPC advertising options to place display ads on specific websites. Google is looking for advertisers to take part in the pilot program. FULL ARTICLE @ BIZ REPORT

Mark Brooks: How will the likes of CJ and LinkShare fare when Google gets traction with CPA advertising?

CJ For Sale?

REVENEWS BLOG -- Oct 11 -- ValueClick aquired BeFree in March 2002 for $128 million in an all stock deal, however, BeFree had about $110 million in the bank, and so ValueClick bought BeFree for next to nothing. Then, in 2003, ValueClick bought CJ for $58 million in cash and stock. ValueClick has combined these two affiliate networks into one network powerhouse. So, in aggregate, ValueClick paid around $60 million for their affiliate marketing business. CJ has a number of two stand out business risks. First, eBay has outgrown its partnership with CJ, and it is clearly time for eBay to become less dependant on CJ and recently move set up their own affiliate infrastructure. Second, industry watchers have privately wondered if the ValueClick leadership understands affiliate marketing. Also, employees are leaving in droves which demonstrates a problem. 

Back in May, ValueClick and Aqauantive had merger talks that fizzed out, but this demonstrates that the Aquantive model is very attractive to ValueClick. Aquantive is AvenueA/Razorfish (Agency), Atlas (ad serving technology), and DrivePM (ad network).

ValueClick's affiliate marketing revenue last year was $78 million and for 2006, I would expect revenue to be about $100 million given their growth trajectory this year so far. If ValueClick sells CJ, this would give Zarely and Vadnais the cash to buy agency and create another Aqauantive type player. FULL ARTICLE @ REVENEWS BLOG

Mark Brooks: And Google is working on a CPA network...  That would but a kink in CJ and Linkshare's market share. Google would undercut and outdo them, most surely.