Online Dating Sites Unlucky In Love

from the all-the-wrong-places dept

Online dating has gone mainstream. What was once considered the ultimate sign of a desperate single has become an everyday affair — but that’s not a good thing for dating sites, which are seeing slowing growth. Curious single-seeking surfers aren’t hitting the sites as much these days, while what CNN/Money refers to as “the creepiness factor” is turning some people away. It’s the same problem people have with old-fashioned personal ads, being contacted by all sorts of people they’re not interested in, or might not be what they seem. Dating sites are turning to two tried-and-true internet strategies to keep the revenues coming: appealing to niche audiences (with sites like “cowboydating.com”) and selling advertising space.


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Comments on “Online Dating Sites Unlucky In Love”

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7 Comments
COD (user link) says:

No Subject Given

It seems like the dating sites have not rally changed the way personal ads work. They’ve just taken the ads onine and made them a bit more convenient.

Now, if you took the idea of LinkedIn, and connected to a dating site, so that the ony way a introduction happens is by a referral from a trusted source, you’d have something different that just might be a lot more effective.

Or not. I’m married, and have been since well before Netscape’s IPO, so I have no practical experience to draw on here 🙂

dorpus says:

Simple Questions

How long until people make it their standard protocol to put people through extensive questioning? I’ve read books on police interviewing techniques, so when I meet people online, I go through the procedure. I ask them questions about their background, look for inconsistencies. Invariably, the perverts have no patience and quickly give themselves away. If the subject passes the screening, I then talk to them on the phone, get to know them over weeks and months, before I ever agree to meet up with them. With this method, I’ve never had a problem with the people I meet.

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