Online dating services are fairly big business on the Web. As previously discussed, the potential for earning big bucks with dating websites is part of the reason why there are so many fake profiles on the internet. But fake profiles aren't the only way to lure in potential victi... er... I mean customers.

Offline marketing is a relatively untapped resource for pushing online services. However, that doesn't mean there aren't any companies out there taking advantage of some "old school" marketing tactics. Take this recently published article where a guy discovers just how far a particular company has gone by using good 'ol lawn signs of all things.

continue reading...

In part 1 of my Fake Profiles series, I talked about how people use fake profiles on social networking sites like MySpace to create large friends lists that are nothing more than lead lists to push various marketing efforts. In part 2 I will be focusing on how (and why) people use fake profiles for online dating websites like Match.com and Yahoo Personals.

Like social networking sites, dating websites have become big lead sources for internet marketers (aka, spammers and scammers) to attack. With online dating websites they are able to focus directly on a particularly lucrative niche - singles looking for dates. Having such a valuable and focused niche has drawn all sorts of seedy Web individuals to exploit these types of websites and users by creating fake profiles in an attempt to lure unsuspecting singles seeking net-goers.
continue reading...