Dating affiliate programs have high conversion rates. The dating industry online has taken off like wildfire. Many a fortune has been made at the big mainstream sites. There are dating sites for everyone now. From everyman’s traditional site like eHarmony and Match to very narrow sites with a niche focus like jDate and USMilitary Dating. Then there are the more exotic sites for married daters, cougars, cubs, and every sort of fantasy out there. Finally, dating advice is a growing business.
Why Dating Affiliate Program
Dating and relationships are an evergreen market. There are always new players entering the market. But more importantly, dating is one of those “go-to have” niches. Certainly, you can make money on a fishing or camping niche. But no one has to camp or fish. Dating is something that everyone needs if they are single. It is a primal human need that must be fulfilled.
Mainstream Dating Affiliate Programs
The mainstream dating sites are the household names like Cupid.com and eHarmony. They are mainstream in that they overlap well with the average person. They are not exclusive of any race or sexual preference.
CUPID.COM
Commission Rate: up to 90%
Cookie Length: 30 days
Affiliate Info: Cupid.com Affiliate Program
Cupid is another relatively legit and popular website. You can earn $15 just on a free sign-up and up to 90% on paid membership.
Dating Direct
Commission Rate: 45%
Cookie Length: 30 days
Affiliate Info: Dating Direct Affiliate Program.
DatingDirect is a fun and friendly place to meet new people and explore relationships. They focus on high-quality automated matches based on profile and application information. They are part of Match.com
eHarmony
Commission Rate: 45%
Cookie Length: 45 days
Affiliate Info: eHarmony Affiliate Program.
eHarmony is one of the largest and well-known dating sites. They were among the first to match you as opposed to having you just browse the listings.
Elite Single
Commission Rate: $7 per application
Cookie Length: 45 days
Affiliate Info: Elite Singles Affiliate Program
EliteSingles is an innovative matchmaking service designed for sophisticated and ambitious professionals of all ages. They cater to an older more mature crowd of successful 29+-year-old professionals. Learn about them on CJ Affiliate.
Match
Commission Rate: 75%
Cookie Length: 120 days
Affiliate Info: Match Affiliate Program.
Match claims to “redefine the way single men and single women meet, flirt, date, and fall in love through online dating”. They are a well-known and trusted brand. They have a complete network of other dating sites to consider.
Our Time
Commission Rate: 80%
Cookie Length: 30 days
Affiliate Info: Our Time Affiliate Program.
OurTime is a dating site that understands what it is to be over 50. They focus on and celebrates daters over 40... In addition to the 80% commission rate, they have a $10 per lead that completes the application. free trial.
Chemistry.com
Commission Rate:75%
Cookie Length: 45 day
Affiliate Info: Chemistry.com Affiliate Program
The Chemistry.com affiliate program gives your audience access to their personality test to help match up people with similar interests and personalities. By focusing on like-minded matches you are more likely to find your soulmate.
Niche Dating Affiliate Sites
If you have a dominant characteristic you want in your date there is likely a matching dating site. Sites where only like-minded people are looking for partners. The types of niches for dating include:
- Religion
- Fitness
- Politics
- Music Tastes
- Country
- Professionals
- Race
- Size
- Sexual Orientation
- 420 Friendly
- Golfers
- Gamers
- and more …
If there is something so important in your life that it needs an understanding partner, then these sites are for you. Here is a sample of these types of sites but there are many many more.
Christian mingle
Commission Rate: 50%
Cookie Length: 30 days
Affiliate Info: Christian Mingle Affiliate Program.
Christian mingle is a Christian dating site for both men and women who are looking for a “God-centered relationship”. There are many people who only want to date within their faith. This is an ideal affiliate for religious focused sites with authority within that domain.
Jdate
Commission Rate: 50%
Cookie Length: 45 days
Affiliate Info: Jdate Affiliate Program.
Jdate is the dominant dating site for Jewish singles looking to make great connections. Like Christian Mingle Jdate allows singles to meet and date other like-minded individuals.
USMilitary Singles
Commission Rate: 50%
Cookie Length: 30 days
Affiliate Info: USMilitarySingles Affiliate Program
Military families are a special group. They are close-knit and have similar experiences and even political views. With the US Military Single active-duty to retired military singles can meet and form relationships with the common knowledge of the complexities of military life.
Country Match
Commission Rate: 50%
Cookie Length 30 days
Affiliate Info: Country Match Affiliate Program
Yeeha! Sorry I couldn’t resist. Country Match lets guys and gals appreciate the country experience. Of course, all men aren’t pickup-driving cowboys but the singles here appreciate the family-focused nature of their lifestyle, music, food, and culture.
BBW Datefinder
Commission Rate: 59%
Cookie Length: 30 days
Affiliate Info: BBWDatefinder Affiliate Program
Real women aren’t all size 2 waifs. A recent study published by the International Journal of Fashion Design, Technology, and Education determined that “The average size of an American woman is now between 16 to 18.‘ That’s the average! So there is plenty of fun, happy, and curvy full-sized guys and gals out there. BBW is the perfect place to meet and mingle with plus-sized singles.
Gamer Dating
Commission Rate: 20%
Cookie Length: 45 days
Affiliate Info: Gamer Dating Affiliate Program
It turns out dating for geeks is a large market. Where a startup coder working 100 hours a week and needs to find singles who understand that lifestyle. Or just someone who can talk their language and enjoy similar entertainment and activities.
Single Parents Match
Commission Rate: 40%
Cookie Length: 60 days
Affiliate Info: Single Parents Matcher Affiliate Program
Single Parents have a unique problem. They are already in a relationship… with their kids. So finding a mate who gets understands the priorities, time constraints and hectic schedule of a single parent is welcome.
Fitness Matchmaker
Commission Rate: 40%
Cookie Length: 60 days
Affiliate Info: Fitness Affiliate Program
For many people who make the commitment to stay in top shape, there is almost an inability to understand how some people can squander the one body they are given (guilty!). Many expect to find a partner who matches their physical focus. Also, gym rats have to put aside the hours to stay in shape and it is great to have a workout partner.
Out There Dating Affiliate Programs
These dating sites are for people seeking partners who are younger, richer, looking for multi-partner relationships, married looking for a fling, etc. You get the idea.
“Don’t judge lest I be judged.”
These can often be an impulse buy but do be careful your audience is similarly open-minded. I would not risk a Paypal account to receive payouts with adult sites. Just get wire-transfer, check, or other methods.
Ashley Madison
Commission Rate: 75%
Cookie Length: Lifetime
Affiliate Info: Ashley Madison Affiliate Program.
Ashley Madison is an online dating service aimed at people who are married or in relationships. People are upfront about their marriage or partner — but want more for a variety of reasons. Some people are just not monogamous. In this case, they are at least honest with the new friends (maybe not their existing partners, however). They are not a cheap service and you can earn up to $145 per sale.
Whale Cash
Commission Rate: 75%
Cookie Length: 30 day
Affiliate Info: Whale Cash Affiliate Program
Whale Cash is a network of dating and adult sites. Again certainly a large market. Only you know if your audience or prospects are appropriate for this network.2-tier system with 3% of your referral earnings paid to you.
Cougar Life
Commission Rate: 75%+
Cookie Length: 30 days
Affiliate Info: Cougar Life Affiliate Program
Not hard to figure out who this dating site is for. Their stated mission is to “connect ‘modern, confident women with energetic younger men.” This would be a good site to explore some higher volume low-competition keywords. If your site's topical authority is older women or younger men there may be an overlap. And 75%-80% is nice.
Sugar Daddie
Commission Rate: 50%
Cookie Length: 45 days
Affiliate Info: Sugar Daddie Affiliate Program
Another self-descriptive site. The site focuses on younger women looking to date older men of means. An upfront quid pro quo of nice dinners, and deluxe events for an attractive younger companion. It is an established site with many happy customers. With you as an affiliate it is a win: win for the daters and you.
Adult Friend Finder
Commission Rate: 75%
Cookie Length: Lifetime
Affiliate Info: Adult Friend Finder Affiliate Program
We have not entered the world of swingers, hookups, and other more adventurous sexual encounters. They are part of a network of sites that will all pay commissions on referrals. They even have a recurring commission. After the initial 75%, you will receive 55% on renewals from your referrals. Affiliate commissions can ad up with memberships running from <$100 — $150.
Seeking Arrangement
Commission Rate: 75%
Cookie Length: 30 days
Affiliate Info: Seeking Arrangement Affiliate Program
This program has the aspects of Sugar Daddies, Sugar Mommas, married daters, and similar.
Victoria Milan
Commission Rate: 75%
Cookie Length: 30 days
Affiliate Info: Victoria Milan FR Affiliate Program
The Victoria Milan FR affiliate program is a European dating site for couples and married people looking for confidential relationships.
Just Cash
Commission Rate: 75%
Cookie Length: 30 days
Affiliate Info: Just Cash Affiliate Program
Just Cash is a dating program focused on Gay men. They operate a number of sites in various sub-niches of the gay community. They are very flexible in their payout methods: Bank Wire, Paxum, QIWI, Payoneer, Yandex, PayPal, ePayments, Bitcoin, WebMoney, EPESE,
Dating and Relationship Advice
The reason that dating sites do so well is that many people are lonely. But dating can be challenging for many and dating sites can even add some anxiety for some of us. Dating advice has become a big business to help and guide people in relationships.
David Wygant
Commission Rate: 50%
Cookie Length: 30 days
Affiliate Info: David Wygant Affiliate Program
A very well-known and popular dating and relationship advice celebrity. With programs for both men and women he has you covered. The focus of his program is to learn how to stand out and be successful in the dating world. With an audience of 1.7 million monthly visitors, the program is a huge success. There are many products from low-cost books to higher-priced training and consulting.
Tao of Badass
Commission Rate: 75%
Cookie Length: 60 days
Affiliate Info: Tao of Badass Affiliate Program
Learn how to be a man’s man and get more women.. or something like that. This is a classic ClickBank-type offer. A video hooks the prospect and lands the sales. If you have an audience or mailing list that resonates with the MMO market this product may be a good fit. Be careful that you don’t send this offer to more conservative email segments or other groups as you may get many unsubscribe or spam complaints. But at $67 and a 75% commission you can earn if you have converting traffic.
How to Market Dating Affiliate Programs
There are a few options for marketing these affiliate programs. Email marketing paid ads and SEO and content marketing You could also consider a combination of using low-cost long-tail ad keywords to test the appeal of certain offers. When you find an offer that converts well you can build a content marketing plan around it.
I am not a big fan of Solo Ads but if you have a vendor you like these offers may resonate with their make money online crowd. An ad campaign or email outreach should bring people to a landing page where you can get an email at least and possibly conversion.
Most dating sites will pay their affiliates when the new member signs up for a paid membership. This is a revenue-sharing situation and is often recurring. As long as the member is paying their monthly fee, you will get a percentage.
Some dating sites have additional opportunities for you to earn. You may want to incorporate these offers into outbound campaigns as well as your content marketing activities.
Trials
You can get paid when someone starts a trial. This is a kind of marketing effort for the dating site. They are paying for leads. These tend to be in the $2-$5 range. These are great for people with appropriate e-mail lists. If you can get 100 trials then you will receive $200-$500. And what’s easier than getting someone to enroll in a free trial? The best part is some of those will convert to becoming members and you will then get a much larger commission.
App Installs — PPI for Dating Sites
Manu of the dating apps will pay you when your traffic installs the dating app. Like the trials, these are going to be low-paying affairs. You can find many of these CPA-type offers in CPA search engines like Offervault and Affpaying.
Content Marketing
Dating is a broad niche with lots of competition. You also have the vendors trying to get SEO traffic.
Best to concentrate on low competition lower volume keywords. A search like “dating site” has a huge volume of 119,000/mo even “best dating site” has a volume of 12,000/mo but the major players with deep authority will dominate these. On the other hand a keyword like “dating site for gamers” had a surprisingly large amount of search traffic at 2,900/mo and “best dating site for gamers” is searched 150 times per month. These are much less competitive and you have a shot at these terms with good topical content.
Lower Competition Keywords
Focusing on the head keyword, Adult dating sites will likely not be the most productive way to get search traffic.
The search volume is ok but the SEO difficulty is pretty high. A quick check of sites with “adult dating sites” in the title reveals lots of content competing for that keyword — Better to search for longer-tail keywords and specific sites.
Look for low competition keywords like the ones below. Consider using a method like the Keyword Golden Ratio to uncover easily ranked keywords.
- gay dating sites — 18,000/mo
- dating sites for professionals — 4,400/mo
- dating site for gamers — 2,900/mo
- dating sites for seniors 1,200/mo
For specific sites, there are even more interesting content opportunities. Take Ashley Madison for instance. The head keyword is a monster …673,000 monthly searches!
But the difficulty is way up there and there is a broad mix of search intent in that keyword. You want to find people who are really interested in joining, not researchers and voyeurs. So again, move down the longtail keyword ladder. There are lots of opportunities that are a better fit for conversions and not as competitive. Remember almost all of the actual traffic generated from SEO traffic comes from page 1, the first 10 links in the search result.
You also need to build authority in a topic. Be it dating and dating advice or if you were after the best gamer dating site query you could have gaming authority.
But your site should be focused, and the keywords you target should be within your area of authority and expertise to rank well.
User Testimonials
Dating is a very personal thing and people want to trust they are not getting involved in a scam. Having user stories with happy endings is a great way to get this kind of validation.
Social Media
Social media is perfect for promoting dating sites. Dating sites themselves are a form of social media so it makes perfect sense. Facebook can be used with retargeting ads. It is usually best to send the ad clicks to your review or another landing page. You generally don’t want to send them directly to the dating site.
Wrapping Up
Dating is a powerful niche that will always bring traffic. Chooses dating affiliate sites that align well with your audience. Do be protective of your audience with some of the more exotic programs out there.
Dating sites are money makers for affiliates. Everyone wants to be in a relationship it is human nature. Love will always be a winning niche.
