From My Perspective – Official DateHookup Blog

Another Valentine’s Day, another surge in traffic for DateHookup.com.  Or is it?  I can never really tell what months are up and what months are down with my traffic.  Every year has been different.  The reason is I always make changes.  Last year I made some changes that really increased traffic to the site, right around Valentine’s Day.  Was it solely my changes or was the season part of the reason for the increase? 

I am crossing my fingers, hoping there will be a nice increase in traffic over the next couple of months.  January was higher than December, but it wasn’t much higher.  I was hoping for more.  So far I am not really seeing much of a change leading up to V-Day.  I made some changes again too that are definitely going to raise traffic, at least in the short term.  I like to really confuse myself so I never know what the hell is going on.  So again, I probably won’t be able to tell if the season leads to more traffic or not.  Hopefully it will lead to a crapload of traffic and I will know once and for all.  I mean Valentine’s Day, online dating, come on those are pretty related.  People should be looking to meet someone, which should mean more traffic to dating sites.

Come on people!!! Come to DH!!!

So I’m browsing DH the other day and guess what I see?  This ad, which Zoosk was running on DateHookup.com through Google AdWords.  Seriously?  You run this ad on DateHookup and you don’t think I might have a slight problem with it?  WTF??? 

Needless to say I disabled this and a few other ads, luckily they just started running them the same day.  Lesson for the day: Always remember to go to the Ad Review Center in AdSense every once in awhile to see what ads companies are running on your site.  Keep in mind just browsing your site is not good enough as an advertiser can customize their targeting by location.

Only slightly less insulting is this ad, which one will see if they type in ‘datehookup’ into Google:

Cute isn’t it?  Not only are they infringing on my trademark but they are talking crap about my site too!  Nice.  Well until I get my trademark officially registered I guess I can’t do anything about it.  Weak.

Do you own a dating site (or any site for that matter)?  Type your name into Google and see which a**hole companies are putting your name in their ad.  I know Zoosk does this with other dating sites.  It’s one thing to advertise with your name as a keyword, but it’s quite another thing to stick the keyword in the ad.  Not cool, and not really legal either.

So Apple finally unveiled their new tablet, the iPad.  I figured they would go 1 of 2 ways with this device, it would either be a a giant iPhone or it would be something totally new that we never would have expected (I don’t know exactly, some super awesome new technology that made it super thin or something).  They went with the giant iPhone.  Seriously it looks almost exactly like an iPhone except super big.

Why am I not impressed?  Mainly because I could have already predicted this exact device.  I expect more from Apple.  When the iPhone came out it was revolutionary.  The iPad is nothing more than a heavy iPhone that doesn’t fit into your pocket.  The price is good though, I’ll give them that.  $499 is really good for a new device, and you know Apple always maintains high margins so they are making good profits off each one most likely.

Now of course I have not tried one of these babies out yet, maybe it’s cooler than it looks.  It’s going to depend a lot on publishers really.  If they can create some compelling content then it might be worth having.  I like reading magazines, I get like 5 subscriptions sent to my house every month.  Could this replace those?  I don’t know.  Could this device replace my laptop when out of town?  Perhaps.  That might make it worth having right there.  How does it read?  Does it hurt your eyes after awhile?  If you can legitimately read a book on it without it bugging your eyes then that would be pretty cool (but then I wouldn’t be building my physical book library anymore, hmmm).

In the end I’m sure I’ll buy it because I always buy this crap.  It should come in handy while traveling (I watched a movie on my iPhone on my last trip, it’s a pretty crappy experience let me tell you).

(BTW, if the web browser doesn’t support Flash and file uploads I’m going to be seriously pissed, Apple better not F this up)

I have decided to take this blog in a new direction.  As you can see this is the first post in like a year.  Originally this blog was going to be about dating.  Dating advice, articles, and other related content.  I decided that’s kind of boring so now it’s going to be my personal blog.  My name is Dustin, I run DateHookup.com.  What I hope to do here is share my experience running one of the bigger dating sites around.  It won’t all be about datehookup.com though.  There are a lot of things that go on when running a business, I hope to touch on everything over time.

Now the question is, will I update this thing regularly?  I have a tendancy to get bored with stuff, and writing is definitely not my strong suit.  So we’ll see.  If you don’t see a new post in months, I’m probably not dead, just got bored.

I was perusing the DateHookup forum today and came across multiple posts by users involved in “friends with benefits” situations. If you are unaware of what this term refers to, let me fill you in. A friend with benefits is pretty much one step up from a booty call. They are someone you call up for a good time, but for whatever reason are not your boyfriend or girlfriend. This may be because they just don’t fit the criteria or it could be because neither of you are looking for anything serious. Ideally, a friend with benefits should be a friend. They should treat you with respect and vice versa. You get many of the fun aspects of having a relationships, i.e. sex and companionship, with no strings attached. Does it sound too good to be true? That’s because it is.

Photo By Duchessa

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I just finished looking through my boyfriend’s box of photographs.  What a terrible idea that was.  Besides the random party shots, family photographs, and the ever-so-embarrassing wallet sized school pictures, in this box I found pictures of the ex.

Photo By: Nils Geylen

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Even the happiest, healthiest relationships run into their snags now and again. By nature, people argue, and when you spend a lot of time with one person, you’ll lose your cool every now and again. I had one boyfriend with whom I had a very intense relationship. We argued about the tiniest, most insignificant details of life, but when we weren’t fighting, life was good. Very good. Eventually the fighting ended the relationship, but for the last few months of the relationship, I kept a log of some of the insane things we argued about. I’m publishing it here as sort of a cautionary tale. I guess these should have been warning signs, huh?

Photo: Guido Alvarez

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We have all heard the expression “the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach”. Any food lover out there knows that nothing hits the spot or the heart like a home cooked meal made with love. I was recently planning on cooking dinner for a new love interest, so I went online to do a little research and was a little shocked by some of what I read. I found tons of articles and blogs recommending that I make an elaborate spread with lots of overly (in my opinion) romantic touches. The whole thing seemed a little forced and I couldn’t imagine my date coming to my apartment and enjoying a meal of oysters and caviar by candlelight. Maybe this works if you’re in a serious relationship or into that kind of romance, but it just didn’t seem right to me. I ended up opting for something more casual and decided that (for me at least) there are some more important factors besides romance that go into planning a meal for a man (women too! most girls wouldn’t turn down a free meal ).

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March Madness is fully underway, and if you don’t even know what March Madness is, you’re probably like a lot of women out there (come on ladies, read up). It seems to be one of the fundamental differences between men and women: guys are content to drink beer and eat chips while watching grown men fight with each other, while women are more than happy to hit the mall during this strange male ritual. Unfortunately, there will probably be a time when even the most sports-aversed girl will have to begrudgingly watch a few quarters of a game. But it doesn’t have to be that way! There are a lot of ways you can tolerate – or even enjoy! – sports.

Photo: Brandon P.

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It’s that time of year again; Springtime.   If you were to search images on the internet for “springtime”,   you are most certain to receive pictures of flowers, sunlight, blue sky, green grass, etc.   But when I look out the window, all I see is piles of snow, decaying leaves and grass in a disgusting shade of brown, and frigid looking puddles of water scattered about.   But nevertheless, the calendar says it’s springtime.   And I think the biological clock instilled in all living things agree.

Credit: Beamillion

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