[Online Dating] Affiliate Niche Research

Affiliate Programs, Keyword Lists, and Niche Research for Online Dating

Despite me not being able to get a date through OKCupid, online dating websites seem to be very, very popular. There are HUGE traffic numbers for keywords, and an extremely wide variety of very niche focused dating scenes.

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This graph from Google trends doesn’t support that last paragraph though.

But you can see individual graphs tells a different story. Here’s one for Tinder from 2014 (and it’s still growing).

Here’s one for OKCupid

In fact, this is such a huge industry, I’m not exactly sure how I would start a website about “online dating” in general. I’ll get more into the details of what I would personally do, but there are many possible avenues profit here. It’s just a matter of locking one down that works for you.

Because this is an evergreen topic and in many ways, a “hungry market”, I think this niche, or a subcategory of this niche could be a winning affiliate marketing business for just about anyone. Even a dork like me. How about datingfordorks.com? lol

Potential Sub Niches

• dating by race
• dating by age
• dating by interests
• dating by religion

Top 3 Affiliate Programs

My Thoughts

There’s certainly no shortage of affiliate programs for dating sites. I’ve listed quite few below, but there are more. One tip I have for you if you wish to continue your research is to search for dating sites FIRST, then search for specific affiliate programs for that company.

I searched for “online dating affiliate programs” and turned up almost nothing. Once I started searching for programs from specific companies I had much better better luck.

To find companies, simply search for niche dating sites like “cougar dating sites” or “hispanic dating sites” and there will be plenty of Top 10 lists to check out.

There’s also a lot more research and an amazing infographic here with some fun facts, keywords, affiliate programs, and more.

I would have liked to find more recurring commission affiliate programs, but that doesn’t seem to be standard practice in this niche. There are a few, but not many. I listed one in my top 3. Keep your eye open though, I’m sure there’s more out there.

Match.com (US)

• Signup URL: match.com/affiliates
• Focus: General online dating
• Commissions: 75%, bonus incentives for 100%, non recurring

Comments: This is clearly one of the most well known brands out there, and a long established site in the online dating niche. They pay good commissions and have a detailed affiliate agreement which I think is reflective of how serious they take their affiliates (as opposed to some others listed in the “other” section below.

Also:  People Media (match.com)

• Signup URL: peoplemedia.com/Affiliates
• Focus: Niche dating websites (seniors, single parents, black people, fat people, Christians, Mormons, +more)
• Commissions: Terms not mentioned but probably the same as match.com

Comments: I chose this program for two reasons. One, it demonstrates the wide variety of niche dating sites out there, and places quite a few affiliate programs in a ‘hub’ that you can consider for your strategy. Secondly, if their commissions are similar to match.com, then 80% is nothing to scoff at. Too bad they aren’t recurring.

Ashley Madison

• Signup URL: affiliate.ashleymadison.com
• Focus: People looking to have an affair
• Commissions: $200 per signup for some packages, 70% commissions on initial purchases, other bonuses

Comments: They’ve got a sleek website, and this is a very specific niche. I’m not sure if you could build a whole website based around affairs, but regardless of where you stand morally on the topic, there’s some money to be made here.

Adult Friend Finder

• Signup URL: adultfriendfinder.com/partners
• Focus: Hookups and adult themed online dating
• Commissions: $1 per click, 75% on initial orders, 55% recurring, $4 per lead, $130 per order

Comments: I guess I’m not representing the online dating scene very well with my top 3 picks, since 2/3 are sex focused. Maybe that just says something about our culture. Don’t blame me! But seriously, I included this one because it was the only affiliate program with recurring commissions, and 55% is very high.

All the numbers listed above are based on which part of the program you join, so I don’t think you can pick ALL of them. You’ll need to dig to find out the details.

Other Affiliate Programs

Match.com (UK)

• affiliation.uk.match.com
• £4 Cost Per Lead

Cougar Life

• cougarlife.com/affiliates
• $80 per signup, $80 on first sale
• This is a great example of ‘niche’ dating

eHarmony

• eharmony.com/affiliate-program
• Commissions and other terms unknown

Perfect Match

• perfectmatch.com/affiliates
• 70% commissions
• 5 different dating sites including religious, senior, and hispanic

Christian Mingle

• christianmingle.com/affiliates
• 55% commissions
• Christianity is the #1 religion in the Western world

How About We

• howaboutwe.com/affiliates
• 75% commission

Chemistry.com

• chemistry.com/affiliates
• 100% commission, 25% bonus incentive
• A total of 125% possible commissions is pretty crazy. I wasn’t too hot on the site itself, but definitely worth looking into a bit more

Online Dating Keywords Breakdown

Top 10 Low Competition Keywords (Searches/QSR)

• safe reliable gay online teen dating site (82 0)
• first date after divorce tips (24/1)
• top online dating site canada (88/2)
• which dating websites are scams (64/3)
• best gay online dating website (40/3)
• best second date questions (32/4)
• zoosk dating site reviews (89/11)
• examples online dating profiles (338/18)
• okcupid profile review (112/21)
• catholic dating sites reviews (86/22)
• hiv positive christian dating site (213/24)

What’s QSR?

Top 10 High Traffic Keywords (Searches/QSR)

• japanese dating sites (7988/186)
• dating site reviews (7354/159)
• herpes dating site (4687/233)
• christian singles online dating(3836/178)
• online dating black people (3137/30)
• disabled singles dating (3116/145)
• match com reviews (2704/146)
• jewish single dating service (681/75)
• dating site scams (679/182)
• std dating sites (547/191)
• best dating app droid (235/0)

Why Is This Different From Google’s Number?

Though Google’s Keyword Tool has improved in recent years, it still gives inflated (inaccurate) traffic numbers. The keyword tool I use takes data from a variety of search engines, not just Google. Remember that Bing + Yahoo own 30% of the search market.

Other Great Keywords (high traffic, low competition)

• chinese dating sites
• how to kiss a girl on the lips for the first time
• disabled dating sites
• dating black women
• how successful is online dating
• impress a girl on Facebook
• good first date ideas
• disabled online dating
• winter date ideas
• dating site scam warning signs
• 50 cheap date ideas
• dating sites older men
• prison dating sites
• women prison dating
• over 50 dating sites reviews
• dating sites hiv positive people
• asian dating site reviews
• badoo dating site scam
• speed dating tips for men
• dating tips for men over
• dating tips for men over
• milf dating site reviews
• colombian cupid reviews
• online dating scam stories
• christian dating online UK
• successful online dating profiles
• speed dating honolulu
• online dating scam list
• tips dating recently divorced woman

Affiliate Marketing Action Plan For Online Dating

This is a tough call – I know how I would personally do this niche, but I don’t know which path is going to be best for you. There are a lot more affiliate offers than I’ve listed in this post. Many people make a full time living promoting dating sites without even having a website, through other forms of online advertising like banner ads, popups, and just doing CPA offers.

If you are looking to build an affiliate website, here are the three main ideas I have:

• Dating advice for [niche person]
• How to date [niche people]
• Reviews of Dating websites

Personally, I’d probably start off with a review of dating websites. You could go through each site, talk about pros and cons, and do comparisons. Pretty easy, right?

There’s no shortage of websites to review if you count the smaller, less well known ones. You can categorize them by topic too, so review 10 different black dating websites, 10 different catholic dating websites, etc. Then pick a Top 3, and a #1 choice for each category.

As you expand the site, you can do dating advice for specific types of people, or folks looking to date in a specific niche. I would probably do interviews, and collect advice from experts (or normal people), like “Here’s 10 pieces of dating advice from real life cougars to younger men” or “Top 5 things Christian girls want to see in a guys online dating profile”.

The “review” keywords are pretty low competition, so an easy place to start, and can contain original research. Once you get some traffic flowing in, you can start driving traffic to your Top 10 posts, and maybe even get some rank for higher competition phrases like ‘best Japanese dating sites’ and other pieces of dating advice that get asked a lot like “Why are girls not responding to my profile”.

About Branding

One very important thing I would do is decide early on what I want my brand to be. You can’t give advice to everyone. Are you going to be the understanding smart girl that gives honest advice to guys, the rude-dude talking to his bros, or the good girl navigating a world heathens?

Need Extra Help?

Online dating is not an easy niche to get started in, but it can be extremely profitable. Are you ready to do it alone?

If not, you should consider joining a community of affiliate marketers just like you that are learning how to build a website, drive traffic to it, and make money from it! Isn’t that the end goal…to make money?

It’s a very supportive place, where people share ideas, create tutorials for each other, and even critique each others website. But those are just extras, and the real attraction of this community is the comprehensive affiliate training, starting from Step 1 (choosing a topic), all the way to social media, content creation, PPC, outsourcing, and scaling.

What would be your plan of action?

photo credit: seeminglee

Nathaniell

What's up ladies and dudes! Great to finally meet you, and I hope you enjoyed this post. My name is Nathaniell and I'm the owner of One More Cup of Coffee. I started my first online business in 2010 promoting computer software and now I help newbies start their own businesses. Sign up for my #1 recommended training course and learn how to start your business for FREE!