Month: April 2010

eLove.com Launches eLove Select Member Verification Membership Option

Posted on April 26, 2010

Elove logo PRESS RELEASE – Apr 26 - eLove, a dating site that offers both online dating and matchmaking services, announced the availability of “eLove Select,” a new level of membership. elove Select membership gives members the distinction of a Platinum Certified seal attached to all their correspondences within the online community. The Platinum Certified seal is indicative of three things that are important to other online daters who are looking to find their perfect match: that a member has been verified by eLove; s/he is motivated and serious about finding a relationship and s/he has completed an identity and background check.

The full article was originally published at PR Inside, but is no longer available.

Mark Brooks: Mark Ezra with Honesty Online provides this service to eLove.

See all posts on eLove

Marriage-minded Do Better Online Than At Bars

Posted on April 26, 2010

Online dating5WASHINGTON POST – Apr 25 - More than twice as many couples who married
last year met through online dating services than at a club or social
event, according to a new survey by Match.com. The survey found that
17% of those who married in the past three years met online, making it
the third-most-frequent method of introduction, behind meeting through
a mutual acquaintance or at work or school. A Harris Interactive poll
sponsored by eHarmony found that only 9% of couples married that year
were introduced through such services. (The Harris study claims that 2%
of recently married American couples met through eHarmony.) FULL ARTICLE @ WASHINGTON POST

See all posts on Match.com
See all posts on eHarmony

Cyber Cyrano For Hire

Posted on April 26, 2010

Matt prager GUARDIAN.CO.UK – Apr 24 - Matt Prager views part of his role as "dating coaching": He
will talk to the client to find out what his expectations are, and the
kind of woman that he is seeking. "Then I just tell them to look at
their online account, email me details of the ones that they're
interested in and we'll take it from there. Imagine if you contacted 20
people, crafted these emails, and not one person contacted you back.
It's so frustrating. My clients don't have to experience that stuff,
because I experience it for them", said Matt. Prior to the first date,
Prager compiles a "cheat sheet", consisting of a picture of the woman
and a summary of their correspondence. While Prager's involvement is
not entirely dissimilar to that of a traditional matchmaker, in this
case one of those involved in the prospective courtship is not aware of
the presence of a third party. FULL ARTICLE @ GUARDIAN.CO.UK

Mark Brooks: Matchmakers are usually kicked off dating sites. That's a shame. Monster.com offers memberships for headhunters. Dating sites should offer special memberships to matchmakers. Now we see a rise of these sly services where virtual matchmakers are misrepresenting themselves and posing as users. That undermines the user experience in some ways.

AshleyMadison.com Getting More Canadian Hits

Posted on April 26, 2010

Ashleymadison logo new apr 2010 VANCOUVER SUN – Apr 23 – Across Canada, membership of AshleyMadison.com, the adulterous dating site, has grown 79% year over year, but the number of newlywed female members tripled, surging by 291%. As for the rise in female newlyweds looking for a tryst, CEO Noel Biderman says infidelity is born of opportunity, and as women have accumulated more education, landed better jobs and achieved more financial independence, their ability and tendency to stray has increased.

The full article was originally published at Vancouver Sun, but is no longer available.

See all posts on AshleyMadison

Moses Brown, Founder Of HerWay.com And OnlineBootyCall.com

Posted on April 26, 2010

Black_shirt_headshot OPW INTERVIEW – Apr 26 – I first met Mo when I was working at FriendFinder in 2003. He’s done very well with OnlineBootyCall and has turned some of his attention towards developing an interesting new site called HerWay.com. I interviewed Mo back in August 2007. (Full Disclosure: Mo is a client of Courtland Brooks)

What did you do before you started OnlineBootyCall?
I was a software engineer. I worked as a database administrator and one of my side projects was an online dating site. That is how OnlineBootyCall started.

Why did you choose OnlineBootyCall? What other names did you consider?
There was really no name consideration. I just registered the domain so I could use it to do some web development and I had no idea the site was going to take off. I was the first member and now we’re close to 5 million members now.

Congratulations. You’re working on a new site, HerWay.com. How does this site work and how is it different from other dating sites?
HerWay, as the name implies, works a little differently. We set it up so it works similar to the Sadie Hawkins dance, a high school dance in which female students invite male students to dance. So on HerWay we allow the females to make the first move.

Isn’t this a distinctly American concept?
I would say 95% of the people I’ve asked heard of the concept. The dance idea started in the US but I’m not sure how many people internationally know about it.

It sounds like you’re empowering women but do women really want to be empowered in this particular respect or do the guys really want to lead?
I wouldn’t necessarily call it empowering women. It is more about saving them from being inundated with emails from guys who they aren’t interested in. So giving them the opportunity to search for someone they really want versus fielding messages and responding to winks and stuff or responding to guys telling them they’re not interested, is a lot more efficient. One of the things we’ve noticed is women are often inundated and guys are often ignored on dating sites.

So it sounds like you’re trying to readdress the boundaries with HerWay.com?
Yeah I think so. I’ve talked to a lot of women who have joined the site and they appreciate it. It’s like a breath of fresh air. It’s not for everybody, of course. Some women like to be chased and they like the traditional dating experience.

What inspired you to start HerWay.com?
While operating OBC, I started noticing that whenever a female would reach out to a guy, the response rate was sometimes up to 10 times better than the other way around. So it led me to believe that it’s really up to the female to decide who she’s going to meet regardless of who initiates the contact.

How is the site growing? How are you getting the word out?
Right now it’s mostly word of mouth. We’re growing at nearly 1000 members a day with little to no marketing efforts, which is going to change pretty soon.

Do you have any other projects in the pipeline?
We do but it is a little too early to discuss right now. There are a couple of projects we’re excited about to get started. So when that comes up we’ll definitely let you know about that.

See all posts on HerWay.com
See all posts on OnlineBootyCall 

Is Marriage Good For Your Health?

Posted on April 25, 2010

Marriage health article picture NY TIMES – Apr 12 - In 1858, a British epidemiologist William Farr set out to study what he called the “conjugal condition” of the people of France. He divided the adult population into three distinct categories: the “married,” the “celibate,” and the “widowed”. Farr analyzed the relative mortality rates of the three groups at various ages. The study showed that the unmarried died from disease in undue proportion to their married counterparts. And the widowed, Farr found, fared worst of all. Married people, the data seemed to show, lived longer, healthier lives. In the 150 years since Farr’s work, scientists have continued to document the “marriage advantage”: the fact that married people, on average, appear to be healthier and live longer than unmarried people. But one recent study suggests that a stressful marriage can be as bad for the heart as a regular smoking habit and that single people who have never married have better health than those who married and then divorced. Some of today’s most interesting research on the relationship between marriage and health is being led by a pair of researchers at Ohio State University College of Medicine. The duo, Ronald Glaser and Jan Kiecolt-Glaser, are also, fittingly, married to each other. Published in 2005 in The Archives of General Psychiatry, the Glasers’ findings help explain epidemiological data showing that couples in troubled marriages appear to be more susceptible to illness than happier couples. The results may also have practical relevance for surgical patients, for instance, waiting for incisions to heal. But most important, the study offered compelling evidence that a hostile fight with your husband or wife isn’t just bad for your relationship. It can have a profound toll on your body. Last year, The Journal of Health and Social Behavior published a study tracking the marital history and health of  9,000 men and women in their 50s and 60s. The study found that when the married people became single again — either by divorce or because of the death of a spouse — they suffered a decline in physical health from which they never fully recovered. These men and women had 20% more chronic health issues, like heart disease and diabetes, than those who were still married to their first husband or wife by middle age. The divorced and widowed also had aged less gracefully, reporting more problems going up and down stairs or walking longer distances. FULL ARTICLE @ NY TIMES

Swiss Formula For A Successful Marriage

Posted on April 24, 2010

Swiss flag7NEWS – Mar 25 – The divorce rate in Switzerland is ~25%, which is ~20% points below the rate here in the United States. Swiss statisticians said they've developed a formula to increase a couple’s chances of attaining a happy marriage. They said the ideal wife she should be five years younger than her husband and come from the same cultural background. Researchers also said the wife should be exactly 27% smarter than her husband.

The full article was originally published at 7News, but is no longer available.

Mark Brooks: That explains everything. Irena and I are deliciously happy, 5 years and 2 babies into our marriage. She's 7 years younger and has an IQ about 25% higher than mine. Trust the Swiss to come up with this formula. Hmm, I wonder how Basisnote is doing on SwissFriends.ch?

For Web’s New Wave, Sharing Details Is The Point

Posted on April 23, 2010

Mark brooks NY TIMES (Front page) – Apr 23 - People are becoming more relaxed about privacy, having come to recognize that publicizing little pieces of information about themselves can result in serendipitous conversations. Mr. Brooks, a 38-year-old consultant for online dating sites, publishes his travel schedule on Dopplr. His DNA profile is available on 23andMe. And on Blippy, he makes public everything he spends with his Chase Mastercard, along with his spending at Netflix, iTunes and Amazon.com. “It’s very important to me to push out my character and hopefully my good reputation as far as possible, and that means being open,” he said, dismissing any privacy concerns by adding, “I simply have nothing to hide.” Blippy, which opened last fall, was the first site to introduce the notion of publishing credit card and other purchases. Last month it attracted ~125,000 visitors and closed an investment round of $11M from venture capitalists. “Ten years ago, people were afraid to buy stuff online. Now they’re sharing everything they buy,” said Barry Borsboom, a student at Leiden University in the Netherlands, who this year created a site called Please Rob Me. The site collected and published Foursquare updates that indicated when people were out socializing and therefore away from their homes. FULL ARTICLE @ NY TIMES. Also in Argentinas LA NACION, SJ MERCURY NEWS.

Mark Brooks: Will people share this kind of extraneous information in their internet dating profile? Should they? Your comments please.

Do Singles Today Have Too Many Choices?

Posted on April 23, 2010

SEA COAST TIME – Apr 23 – A psychologist named Barry Schwartz has written a book called "The Paradox of Choice." The basic premise of his book is that the number of choices that people face in today's world creates what he terms a "paralysis of choice." The more choices we have, the more difficult the choice. We end up less satisfied with the result of the choice than we would be if we had fewer options to choose from. Between matchmaking services, online dating services, speed dating programs, and various singles activity groups, many single and divorced men and women have such a plethora of people to meet that they find it difficult to settle on just one person, always wondering who else is out there. What is most interesting is that single people with fewer choices often not only seem to settle down with one person quicker than many "serial daters," but they also seem happier, more contented, and more appreciative of that person. FULL ARTICLE @ SEA COAST TIME