Mark Brooks: I'm starting a new series of posts on bad press releases. Here's the first one.
Online Dating Has Been Taken to The Next Level
WEBWIRE — Sep 1 — Find a Date helps connect people that are looking for relationships {what kind of relationships?}. This free site offers interactive features such as voting on who's hot and who's not, there's a blog to get up to date information on dating. The forum is especially unique in that you can ask the members what they are looking for in a partner {how is this unique?}. If you're looking for advice as a guy or a girl on how to ask someone out or how to present yourself, visiting Findadate.com isn't just a recommendation, it's a must! {fluff} As if that wasn't enough {more pitchy fluff}, there's even a virtual 3D World. FULL ARTICLE @ WEBWIRE
Decent first attempt, check out my category of bad press releases. You know you borrowed the idea from me, how about some attribution?
Decent first attempt, check out my category of bad press releases. You know you borrowed the idea from me, how about some attribution?
Hi Dave,
What blog is that on?
Hi Dave,
What blog is that on?
Hello Mark,
I am sorry that you didn’t like our very first press release for the new Find A Date site.
We didn’t write the release, but don’t think it is quite as bad as you make it out to be.
A little background:
FindADate.com was most recently affiliated with a large company as an affiliate and sold over 4,000+ paid date site memberships during our time with them.
The domain findadate.com being a generic direct navigation domain, has always received 3-400+ type-ins a day, so we are getting very targeted traffic for people looking to “find a date”.
Why not put this targeted traffic to use and start our own free site?
In April 2008 we decided to start our own free date site. Not a totally unique concept nowadays, but at least we don’t have to pay for targeted dating traffic to gain members so our costs are minimal.
We have no ads on Find A Date and plan to keep it that way until our bandwidth increases to the point we need to.
Since all the features on the site are free to all members, I guess we should expect to get some criticism from pay sites.
I admire Marcus from PlentyOfFish and what he has done in the dating industry and can only hope to one day reach 1/1000th his level of success.
For our very first press release I would have liked a better review, but heck at least we should be happy to have made it to the front page of your site 🙂
Thanks for the extra exposure,
Robert L. Kuhn
Hello Mark,
I am sorry that you didn’t like our very first press release for the new Find A Date site.
We didn’t write the release, but don’t think it is quite as bad as you make it out to be.
A little background:
FindADate.com was most recently affiliated with a large company as an affiliate and sold over 4,000+ paid date site memberships during our time with them.
The domain findadate.com being a generic direct navigation domain, has always received 3-400+ type-ins a day, so we are getting very targeted traffic for people looking to “find a date”.
Why not put this targeted traffic to use and start our own free site?
In April 2008 we decided to start our own free date site. Not a totally unique concept nowadays, but at least we don’t have to pay for targeted dating traffic to gain members so our costs are minimal.
We have no ads on Find A Date and plan to keep it that way until our bandwidth increases to the point we need to.
Since all the features on the site are free to all members, I guess we should expect to get some criticism from pay sites.
I admire Marcus from PlentyOfFish and what he has done in the dating industry and can only hope to one day reach 1/1000th his level of success.
For our very first press release I would have liked a better review, but heck at least we should be happy to have made it to the front page of your site 🙂
Thanks for the extra exposure,
Robert L. Kuhn
Nice work with the site. Please send me your next press release before you send it out and I’ll critique it before it hits the airwaves.
Nice work with the site. Please send me your next press release before you send it out and I’ll critique it before it hits the airwaves.
>>Nice work with the site. Please send me your next press release before you send it out and I’ll critique it before it hits the
airwaves.<< That would be great! Thanks Mark:) Robert
>>Nice work with the site. Please send me your next press release before you send it out and I’ll critique it before it hits the
airwaves.<< That would be great! Thanks Mark:) Robert
funny exchange all around…just goes to show that even bad press is good press =)
funny exchange all around…just goes to show that even bad press is good press =)
All this attention led me to check out the FindaDate site. It seems that so many sites launch before they are ready. The FindaDate site shows absolutely nothing that would make me want to join. There is one testimonial posted from 2006. The Dating News says it has 4 steps to managing free time, but there is only one incomplete paragraph under that heading, again from 2006. Under the heading of Success Stories, nothing is listed. No stories. The Site Tour is full of bad grammar and incomplete sentences. There are lots of promises of dating advice and tips to come, but I don’t believe that as they can’t even correctly post what they do have up. The site obviously does not care about its members, or they would not have copy dated 2006. Please take notice that it is currently 2008. As a single in the dating world, my profile is posted only on top sites that meet my highest standards. My internet time is valuable and I do not waste it on half-baked sites with bland outdated copy that is not even proofread for grammar and completeness. The review of the press release was kind. A review of the actual site would have been much more negative. Mark, how about a series of articles on what to do “right” as a new site to draw and keep your audience? How about some stats on how many new startups actually make it a year after launch?
All this attention led me to check out the FindaDate site. It seems that so many sites launch before they are ready. The FindaDate site shows absolutely nothing that would make me want to join. There is one testimonial posted from 2006. The Dating News says it has 4 steps to managing free time, but there is only one incomplete paragraph under that heading, again from 2006. Under the heading of Success Stories, nothing is listed. No stories. The Site Tour is full of bad grammar and incomplete sentences. There are lots of promises of dating advice and tips to come, but I don’t believe that as they can’t even correctly post what they do have up. The site obviously does not care about its members, or they would not have copy dated 2006. Please take notice that it is currently 2008. As a single in the dating world, my profile is posted only on top sites that meet my highest standards. My internet time is valuable and I do not waste it on half-baked sites with bland outdated copy that is not even proofread for grammar and completeness. The review of the press release was kind. A review of the actual site would have been much more negative. Mark, how about a series of articles on what to do “right” as a new site to draw and keep your audience? How about some stats on how many new startups actually make it a year after launch?
Kerry,
Thank you for pointing out that we do have a couple of items to work out yet with the site.
>>As a single in the dating world, my profile is posted only on top sites that meet my highest standards.<< Really?.... how many sites have you had to join to garner interest in your profile? Most serious people that join date sites are looking for love and/or companionship. Most people have common sense and realize that no one is perfect and that everyone has flaws. It isn't a perfect world. As much as we would like it to be, it simply isn't. Some serious advice: If the tone of your profile reads anything like your post, your proclivity for perfection may be the reason you need all the extra exposure on all these dating sites. It may require many additional dating site memberships to find someone that special. Robert
Kerry,
Thank you for pointing out that we do have a couple of items to work out yet with the site.
>>As a single in the dating world, my profile is posted only on top sites that meet my highest standards.<< Really?.... how many sites have you had to join to garner interest in your profile? Most serious people that join date sites are looking for love and/or companionship. Most people have common sense and realize that no one is perfect and that everyone has flaws. It isn't a perfect world. As much as we would like it to be, it simply isn't. Some serious advice: If the tone of your profile reads anything like your post, your proclivity for perfection may be the reason you need all the extra exposure on all these dating sites. It may require many additional dating site memberships to find someone that special. Robert
Seriously, Mr. Kuhn. A personal attack on me does nothing to better your site. There are more than a “couple” of things wrong there. Why not give the readers of OPW some info on how you plan to fix those, or tell us why there is incomplete, dated copy from 2006? There are no success stories and one testimonial, again from 2006. You know nothing about me and my success on dating sites; a personal attack is simply unwarranted here. I was trying to give you feedback about your site. If you think singles go their lifetime on just one or two dating sites, think again. I assume you know your market better than that. Only the top sites that treat their customers like they are valuable and intelligent keep their business.
By the way, after a couple of “dud” sites, I had great success with a great profile up, and I currently rewrite profiles because I’m pretty good at it. I could give you some great copy for your site in a very short time. I then found the love of my life on Plenty Of Fish, and if you can work out a personal attack from that info, more power to ya.
Seriously, Mr. Kuhn. A personal attack on me does nothing to better your site. There are more than a “couple” of things wrong there. Why not give the readers of OPW some info on how you plan to fix those, or tell us why there is incomplete, dated copy from 2006? There are no success stories and one testimonial, again from 2006. You know nothing about me and my success on dating sites; a personal attack is simply unwarranted here. I was trying to give you feedback about your site. If you think singles go their lifetime on just one or two dating sites, think again. I assume you know your market better than that. Only the top sites that treat their customers like they are valuable and intelligent keep their business.
By the way, after a couple of “dud” sites, I had great success with a great profile up, and I currently rewrite profiles because I’m pretty good at it. I could give you some great copy for your site in a very short time. I then found the love of my life on Plenty Of Fish, and if you can work out a personal attack from that info, more power to ya.
What is the fascination with free dating sites??
Markus has this wrapped up and it’s worth significantly less than paid dating. He’s quoted as saying he anticipates US$5-10million income over the next year which is what a relatively small paid online dating site can expect to generate.
We’ve got over a dozen partners generating over US$1million/year in revenue without all the costs Markus has to incur.
I’m surprised FindaDate.com didn’t go the white label route – it’s a great domain and they’re obviously good marketeers. I’d expect them to be generating a lot more if they’d gone that route.
Ross
What is the fascination with free dating sites??
Markus has this wrapped up and it’s worth significantly less than paid dating. He’s quoted as saying he anticipates US$5-10million income over the next year which is what a relatively small paid online dating site can expect to generate.
We’ve got over a dozen partners generating over US$1million/year in revenue without all the costs Markus has to incur.
I’m surprised FindaDate.com didn’t go the white label route – it’s a great domain and they’re obviously good marketeers. I’d expect them to be generating a lot more if they’d gone that route.
Ross
Ross, you are right. White label dating is the way to go, and it is currently underutilized. That won’t last very long. The benefits of white label dating are too great to ignore. I agree that free sites are not that great. I wish plentyoffish had real people handling their customer service. Five friends recently had all their legitimate profiles deleted by the plentyoffish electronic spamware catcher just because they were created on the same computer. They were all so disappointed; their profiles were there one day, gone the next. Emails to customer service were never answered or acknowledged at all. They can’t find out how to prevent their profiles from disappearing again, so they have zero interest in creating another one. I would gladly pay for a little customer service, good attention to my account, and a site that won’t delete on a whim a great profile that I worked hard to create. Plentyoffish doesn’t save any profiles, either, so once it’s gone, whether by their mistake or yours, it’s gone. A paid site gives you greater customer service; I guess you get what you pay for.
Ross, you are right. White label dating is the way to go, and it is currently underutilized. That won’t last very long. The benefits of white label dating are too great to ignore. I agree that free sites are not that great. I wish plentyoffish had real people handling their customer service. Five friends recently had all their legitimate profiles deleted by the plentyoffish electronic spamware catcher just because they were created on the same computer. They were all so disappointed; their profiles were there one day, gone the next. Emails to customer service were never answered or acknowledged at all. They can’t find out how to prevent their profiles from disappearing again, so they have zero interest in creating another one. I would gladly pay for a little customer service, good attention to my account, and a site that won’t delete on a whim a great profile that I worked hard to create. Plentyoffish doesn’t save any profiles, either, so once it’s gone, whether by their mistake or yours, it’s gone. A paid site gives you greater customer service; I guess you get what you pay for.
Looks like a great site for chat and dating. Way to go.
Looks like a great site for chat and dating. Way to go.