OPW – Aug 17 – Mary.com, the dating and social network, is for sale. The
asking price is $100K and includes ~500,000 profiles (67% women) and a
great domain name. FYI, every month there are 45,500,000 searches for
the term "mary" and Mary.com is always on the first page of the search
results. Mary.com launched in Feb 2005 by Patrick Dines as a safe and
fun place for women to meet the right guy. It offers a big variety of
personality and relationship tests. Contact Patrick if you are
interested in Mary.com.
Category: Mary.com
Match.com Expands Portfolio
PR NEWSWIRE — Jan 15 – Match.com, today announced the launch of DownToEarth.com, a free online dating site. DownToEarth.com's pioneering RealRatings system that encourages daters, after meeting in person, to rate the accuracy of the information provided in the other person's profile.
The full article was originally published at PR Newswire, but is no longer available.
Internet Dating Conference Top Picks
OPW — Jan 8 — Here's some must-see sessions at the Internet Dating Conference:
Thursday 31st January
8:30 AM State of the Internet Dating Industry
Mark Brooks, (Editor), Online Personals Watch
11:30 AM – How to Make Money with Online Dating by Making Your Customers Happy
Evan Marc Katz, (CEO), E-Cyrano
3:30 PM – Dating Software: Trends and Industry Direction
Gary Taylor, (Partner Manager), White Label Dating
Robert Fathers, (CEO), World Dating Partners
Elena Kolyasnikova, (Director of Sales), Pilot Group
Friday 1st February
9:00 AM – Media Metrix and Market Analysis for Internet Dating
Sarah Stevens, (VP Marketing Solutions), ComScore
10:30 PM – Panel Session: Matchmaking and Internet Dating
Paul Falzone, (CEO), Together Dating
Dr. Patrick Perrine, (Founder), myPartner.com
Bill Broadbent, (CEO), Instinct Marketing
Moderated By: Julie Ferman, (Founder / Personal Matchmaker), Cupid's Coach
1:30 AM – Compatibility Matching Online: The Scientific Method
Pat Dines, (CEO), Mary.com
(Full Disclosure: Together Dating and myPartner.com are clients of Courtland Brooks) – Mark Brooks
Chemistry.com in Spat With eHarmony.com
THE WASHINGTON POST — May 16 — A name-calling catfight, complete with accusations and counter-accusations, has broken out between eHarmony.com (13 million registrants since 2000) and an offshoot of Match.com over a subject familiar to any luckless dater. Rejection. Chemistry's (2 million registrants since 2006) TV commercials and magazine ads feature young men and women wondering why their applications to join eHarmony were turned down. No fair, says eHarmony, concerned that its rival's ads suggest that eHarmony is being arbitrary or discriminatory in turning people away. It wants Chemistry.com's ads changed or dropped. eHarmony’s legal counsel, Lanny Davis (who spun the media for President Bill Clinton during his “relationship problems” with Monica Lewinsky), last week asked NBC and People magazine to stop running Chemistry.com's current ads, or at least insist on some fine-print qualifiers about what “1 million rejected” really means. (As of Friday, NBC hadn't responded to Davis; People magazine said that it wasn't taking sides in the feud and that it would continue running the ads.) eHarmony turns people away for controversial reasons. One is being gay. CEO, Greg Waldorf says eHarmony's matching system is based on psychological research about heterosexual relationships. Because it doesn't have similar data on gay people, he says, the company isn't confident that it can offer successful matches to same-sex couples. “I'm not saying anything precludes us from going into the same-sex market in the future,” he says, “but it's not a service we offer now.” Firing back, eHarmony accuses Chemistry's parent company of hypocrisy. It notes that IAC made formal overtures to buy eHarmony in 2004, but a deal never came off.
Mark Brooks: These days the best kind of advertising spawns press, word-of-mouth, and riles up the competition. Match.com has kicked off on every level with their campaign. This year we should surely see a free version of eharmony startup. Perhaps the fresh faced (new) Mary.com or LTR.com, or the current dominant free dating market leader PlentyofFish.com. Beyond that, MyPartnerPerfect.com is due to launch shortly as the quality, long term focused, personality profiling, all gay matchmaking site, headed by the young Patrick H.Perrine.
Personality Profiling Sites: Who Would You Trust
ONE2ONE MAGAZINE — Sept 15 — ARTICLE BY MARK BROOKS, ONLINE PERSONALS WATCH EDITOR/BLOGGER — Which of these people would you trust with probably the most important decision you'll ever make? Dr Warren of eHarmony is a clinical psychologist with a theology background and 30 years of counseling experience. Dr Houran of TRUE is a young clinical psychologist with 15 years counseling experience and many journal papers to his name. Then we have the sociologist Dr Pepper Schwartz of PerfectMatch.
SIMILAR/COMPLEMENTARY: eHarmony matches on similarities whilst PerfectMatch offers you a choice. You can see people who are similar to you, and also people who are complementary to you. TRUE is mainly focused on matching you with people who have complementary traits.
MAGIC BOX: eHarmony does the searching for you. PerfectMatch and TRUE take alternative approaches. You have more visibility and control over the way you are matched and the speed at which you can get out on a date. PerfectMatch and TRUE also offer instant messaging which eHarmony doesn't favor. Both TRUE and PerfectMatch are less decisive, and more open box rather than magic box. Dr Pepper Schwartz of PerfectMatch commented, "I'm a sociologist, not a deity."
ON CHEMISTRY: Cupid.com CEO, Eric Straus argues that chemistry can only be gauged in the real world, by meeting and getting eyeball to eyeball. "There's no mathematical formula to love," affirms Abe Smilowitz, CEO of WebDate.com. "You can't qualify love by doing a profile analysis. Love is about feelings and a persons emotions." On the other hand Pat Dines, CEO of Mary.com argues, "chemistry works in unison with long term compatibility. Compatibility tests simply identify who you are compatible to be friends with. You need to meet many 'compatible' people to find chemistry." Dr Glenn Wilson is one of the fathers of compatibility testing and states, "[Compatibility testing] will not tell you whether or not you are going to fall in love with another person in a compulsive, 'chemical' way, just whether or not it is a good idea if you do."
Imagine, you walk into your favorite coffee shop, bar or club and meet someone that you click with. You spend the next six months with them, only to find you're COMPLETELY incompatible. Would you have had a better time with someone who was a 'good match.' How about the perfect match? Relationship based online personals sites hold high promise. They are new. They are still experimenting. Dr Houran confirmed, "we're in the infancy of compatibility testing." FULL ARTICLE @ ONE2ONE MAGAZINE
Mark Brooks: ONE2ONE Living (available on Amazon) is a magazine for the singles lifestyle…'Fuel for the single life: entertainment, travel, culture, events, style, dating.' I thought Halle Berry's quote in the latest magazine was fascinating. "I'll never get married again, and I always hate to say never to anything, but I will never marry again… I want love and I'll find it hopefully and have a committed relationship, but no more marriages." These attitude is fueling the decline in number of people getting married… and the future success and growth of the online personals industry.
Marnie Macauley Joins Mary.com as the Voice of Mary
PRWEB — May 3 — Mary.com has announced that Marnie Macauley, better known as the internationally syndicated Ask Sadie, has joined Mary.com as the voice behind Ask Mary; straight-shooting, no preaching, saucy and always on target. Marnie on Love: Trying to figure why love sours is one of the great mysteries of the cosmos, right behind the existence of white chocolate. Marnie on Personal Power: You’re the author of your own life. Quit hiring outside writers and script it your way. Mary.com serves confident women and men interested in fulfilling, long-term relationships and pleasurable short-term dating experiences. RELEASE @ PRWEB
Mark Brooks: Mary.com is a new online dating site. One to watch.
Tech-Savvy Singles Find Online Personals Nothing Like Real Thing
SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS — Feb 13 — Nearly all of the 1,650 new Bay Area members who joined Table for Six in 2004 were singles who stopped fishing online, said owner Julie Paiva. "A big reason why someone does online dating is to expand their social life,'' said Paiva. "But they find out what they're mostly doing is spending time in front of a computer screen." Cali, for one, paid for memberships at five sites before pulling the plug. “If you're serious about finding someone, you have to spend money and stick around to make the effort,'' she said. In 2000, when eHarmony homed in on the population of serious daters — armed with a 436-question personality test — many of its competitors laughed. EHarmony's algorithms for romance struck a chord; boasts a membership of 6.5 million, up from 1 million in 2003. Yahoo Personals, True, PerfectMatch.com and Tickle followed suit with their own love alchemy tests. At ColorCupid members are matched based on color preference tests. Mary.com launched this month offering compatibility testing, background checks and certified photos taken by its photographers to ensure people look like their photos.
The full article was originally published at Mercury News, but is no longer available.
Mark Brooks: Mary.com, what a great name!