So, contrary to your assertion that “free” dating will benefit from a recession, my take is that dating sites in general will prosper - but only those that are already established, whether generic ones like Match.com or Yahoo Personals, or specialized ones, like eHarmony or ChristianCafe.com.

Time will tell. But, if I was a betting man, I would put my money on sits like ours.

I ran across your blog. Thank you for mentioning my video “Before You Commit—Internet Dating” on it.

You are correct that some of what I suggest can be found for free on the Internet—although few people would go to all the work it would take to find it. But, most of what I present in the DVD is all new. I did the documentary because of what wasn’t on the Internet.

The advertised parts show how to tell if the people at the other end of your email: are who they say they are, are the sex they say they are, are the age they say they are, look like their pictures, aren’t going to rip you off and aren’t scary people. Most of which I couldn’t find online.

I had to figure out how to solve these problems.

I assume people who run gay web sites know the advantages of Internet dating for gays and lesbians—but I haven’t seen it presented that way. Plus, everything in the video in addition to those specific advantages applies equally to gays and lesbians.

What relationships are likely to be most successful with people who have been in prison was my biggest challenge.

I couldn’t find anything anywhere on it. But after four months of research I was finally able to find people who because of their expertise and jobs were able to put together useful tips.

When people kept saying to me, “If you meet someone (online) who has been in prison—forget it;” I realized that’s too many people to forget, or give up on. It’s a problem for anyone who may date someone who has been in prison, but it’s especially a problem for black women who are uncomfortable dating guys who aren’t black, or guys who aren’t black just aren’t a part of their social life—because almost a-third of black men in the United States will spend time in a state penitentiary or federal prison during their lifetime,” says Isenberg*.

I also go into why black men are likely to end up in prison for things that white men wouldn’t.

The first problem I attack is the need to understand what a healthy relationship is before you can have a healthy Internet relationship: information which applies to all kinds of relationships, including both traditional as well as Internet.

I spend about a third of the documentary on healthy relationships because even people who have been raised in, or have been in, healthy relationships probably haven’t consciously thought about why those relationships were healthy and what to look for and avoid in their current relationships.

I’ve designed the documentary so that if people watch it now and run into a potential problem they would have missed in the future—they just won’t feel right and will dig deeper before they get hurt.

It looks like you live near Glenwood Springs. If you want to look at the video-I’d love to have you drop by.

*Thirty-two-point-two percent of black males born in 2001 would go to prison during their lifetime, assuming current incarceration rates held steady throughout their lives.”—Christopher J. Mumola
Policy Analysist
Corrections Statistics Program,
Bureau of Justice Statistics
U.S. Department of Justice

Nick Isenberg
http://www.nickisenberg.com

1. meetic.com - huge in Europe
2. lavalife.com - #1 in Canada
3. lavalifePrime - prime.lavalife.com for Boomers aka old folks

The fact that you are ashamed to post your name speaks leaps and bounds. I make more then enough money, my mom taught me how to treat a lady, have all my teeth, and live in one of the nicest neighborhoods in my area. I’m not defaming women, just ones who chase money and nothing else. I know lots of great “real” women, the ones who look at the big picture, and not just how fat my wallet is. Good luck with chasing that cash, it won’t make you happy in the end…

I am not a betting man, but if I was, I wouldn’t bet anything that any other “free” datingsite breaks into the top 25, let alone top 5. Ain’t gonna happen!

Thanks guys!

No I have never used your service, and I have no want or need to (your pr firm contacted me, not the other way around). BlaBlaBla, your personal attacks on me just play into the idea of the type of people (like yourself) that may want to use your services.

Your giving me too much credit, I run my company first, and blog as a hobby, your right I don’t get paid to do it. I find satisfaction in pointing out things going on in the dating market.

My “3rd grade” education has been working just fine so far… oh wait, I have a BS in Aerospace Sciences, man I must be an idiot.

Thanks for reaffirming my opinion (and my reader’s) of your service… and to think I may have wrote something positive in the future. Oh well
Best of luck in your “endeavor”.

Hey Andy:

Watch your mouth…or you could be treading in lawsuit territory. I created the intro movie to our website and I have to disagree with your assessment that we are “slinging slime”. Have you used our services? How can you make an unbiased, well-informed statement on something you haven’t even used? Do you even understand what a real matchmaking service does? That there are wealthy men in this world that are just too busy and/or unable to find women of quality through the “normal channels”? Our female clients are not “high priced hookers”, as you so eloquently state. They are beautiful, educated, young women with careers of their own interested in meeting successful men. But, I guess somebody like yourself just wouldn’t understand this.

By the way, where did you learn how to write in such an unintelligent, third grade manner? Oh, I understand…you’re a journalism reject that has to vent his anger and frustration, yet the only way you can do this (since your writing skills are rather sad) is through your own blog since nobody will pay money for your trash.

Best of luck…and thank you for the publicity. Remember, if people aren’t talking about you (good or bad), you must be doing something wrong! Guess we’re doing something right!

Paid is growing in new markets(like Europe and Asia), but has slowed drastically in places like the US where it has been around for a while. Your right, no other free dating site has gained a lot of traction yet besides POF, but it’s still very early in the game for free dating. Collaboradate has only been around for a little more then a year.

I would be totally surprised if another free site doesn’t break the top 5 in the US by the end of next year. We are still working hard on the next version of CD, and it will, no doubt be what facebook was for social networking. It will just take a while because I don’t have a war chest like match or yahoo…

Meantime, we have a $1B+ annual paid dating industry out there - and it is growing, not shrinking.

So, I don’t buy any argument that “free” will “overtake” paid. Anytime soon.

Paid dating will never be “dead”, however pof will take the #1 spot shortly. Calling it an abnormality is crazy. If someone offers a site that has paid quality for free will win in the end, maybe not in terms of profit, but in terms of traffic. I’m not about the dollar, i’m about making people happy and making a living out of it.

These ratings had nothing to do with cash, and have everything to do with quality, value, and customer satisfaction.

My prediction: free singles sites will never gain traction (except POF, an extreme anomaly) and paid will be king for years to come.

Another point: you rate eHarmony poorly. How can a $200M annual company (with 30% growth & $100M in the bank after only 7 years online) be doing poorly? I guess you are basing it on other than financial success.