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Inside The Online Dating Industry
by Joe Tracy,
publisher of Online Dating Magazine
Online Dating
Industry Grab BagAfter being on hiatus for exactly
one year, I'm pleased to announce that the Inside the
Industry column is back for good with weekly updates
for those who are a part of the online dating industry.
For my first column back, I've decided to tackle several
different subject in this grab bag of online dating
topics. Let's start with Don't Date Him Girl.
Don't Date Him Girl Lawsuit
If you recall, I once tackled
the topic of
reputation management systems, like Don't
Date Him Girl, and the flaws they contain. In the case
of Don't Date Him Girl, since I last wrote about them,
they had a lawsuit filed against them by a man named
Todd Hollis. The suit was for defamation of character
where Don't Date Him Girl allowed a person to anonymously
post alleged erroneous information about Hollis. Don't
Date Him Girl also had his picture posted, name, address,
and other personal identifying information.
The case was filed in June 2006 and just this week
a judge dismissed the case on a technicality. The lawsuit
was filed in Pennsylvania, but Don't Date Him Girl
is located in Florida and the judge said the lawsuit
should have been fired there. The ruling isn't an outright
victory for Don't Date Him Girl as it leaves the door
open for the lawsuit to be re-filed in Florida.
There's a great article titled "Unethical
Website of the Month" that perfectly points out
the many problems with Don't Date Him Girl and hopefully
some day the site will be held accountable for their
actions.
New Service May Set Standard for Refund Policies
Research shows a growing dissatisfaction with people
who use online dating services. Most service charge
high prices and make it very hard to unsubscribe.
Customer service is virtually non-existent. A new
online dating service, however, is setting the bar
high in how it deals with refunds. The site is called
Let's Grab
a Drink. As of this writing, they were
only available in Houston, Minneapolis, and Chicago
(starting small like this is smart). But what I want
you to read is their refund policy, which states:
"You
may cancel your membership at any time by merely
clicking on the 'Cancel Membership' link
at the bottom of every page. Follow the simple instructions.
If you are a paying member, your account will be
immediately cancelled and a pro-rated credit will
be issued to the credit card you used when subscribing
to the service. You may cancel at any time for any
reason, no questions asked."
Can you image how much more popular online dating
services would be if they had a policy like this? All
you have to do is look at complaints filed against
online dating services with the Better
Business Bureau to see that more than 90% of the complaints deal with
refund policies. True and eHarmony.com are
two of the worst offenders in this area. Making canceling
easy and offering a refund of the remaining balance
is smart... very smart. It's nice to see someone stepping
forward to create a better experience for the end user.
Office Hours with Dr. Jim
Dr.
James Houran offers a lot of insight to our online
dating readers. In addition, he often touches on
topics that industry insiders should be reading.
I'm highlighting two of his recent columns that I
think you should read:
1) Compatibility Tests and Attraction
2)
Universal Attraction and Physical Attributes
3) Online Dating Sites Losing Edge?
His columns are published every Monday and can be
accessed from the Office
Hours with Dr. Jim page.
LavaLife Changes
Lavalife.com is migrating from a credits service to a monthly
fee, thus removing one of the major advantages of
using the service. Effective immediately, members
can only purchase a monthly subscription. Those who
were already members can continue to purchase credits
for a limited time.
It will be interesting to see how this works. Lavalife.com
has been rebranding its identity lately to be more
of an adult online dating service. That, coupled with
going to a monthly subscription fee, really changes
the branding of the company. It will be interesting
to see what happens in the months to come with this
new migration.
Online Dating Banner Exchange Changes
The Online
Dating Banner Exchange, which is owned by
Online Dating Magazine, has made a major change to
its service. As of this month any sites signing up
for the exchange must display the banners at the
top of their page(s). Our aim is to become a premium
service and increase the clicks people receive. No
longer are sites allowed to just stick a banner on
a Links page and receive credits.
Top of the page banners gain greater exposure and
more clicks, thus making the exchange much more effective
for everyone.
It's great to be back and I look forward to our discussions
in the future! And we'll still continue with the...
Tip of the Week
The tip of the week is back and this week we are looking
at unique selling points.
Tip #11: Get Your Unique Selling Point in Front
of Users
This week's tip is inspired by something I
mentioned in my column - the refund policy of Let's
Grab a Drink. As we know, online dating services which
are not free do not like to part with money. They will
make sure their policies dictate you don't get any
refunds and make it hard for you to unsubscribe. The
Better Business Bureau is swamped with complaints on
this issue. That means that Let's
Grab a Drink has
a unique selling point to help sell its service
to potential online daters. This is something that
should be highlighted and advertised by the company.
And your unique selling points should too.
First, keep in mind that your unique selling point
needs to be something other online dating services
don't do. For example, few offer background checks,
but True.com does.
This is its unique selling point. True makes it known
on the front page that they screen for felons and if
one gets through, they will sometimes take the person
to court and put out press releases about it that are
picked up by major media.
When PlentyofFish started,
it had a unique selling point of being free. The concept
caught on quick and now the site makes hundreds of
thousands of dollars... a month... in
advertising (most of it from Google Adsense -
)
PlentyofFish's success
has spawned a lot of competitors, but the service
has already solidified their position because they
once had something that virtually no other online
dating services had - a unique selling point.
You need to create a unique selling point for your
company then use that to provide reasons why people
should use your service over the hundreds of online
dating services crowding the information superhighway.
Note: If you know something an online dating service
is doing right, please
let me know. We are going to
be highlighting more of the positives of specific services,
providing them with free publicity as a result of their
desire to be more user friendly.
Joe Tracy is
publisher of Online Dating Magazine and is often quoted
by the media in relation to online dating topics. His Inside
the Online Dating Industry column is published once a month.
> Perfectmatch.com - The best approach to find the one.
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