Online Personals Watch: News on the Dating Industry and Business

Modern Dating Offers Innovative Ways To Meet New People

SOUTH UNIVERSITY - Feb 5 - Janis Spindel of Serious Matchmaking, says her business has gone up by 62% since shows such as Bravo’s The Millionaire Matchmaker have made her matchmaking services better known. Spindel goes to breakfast, lunch, or dinner every day of the week with a different potential client. She takes note of behaviors such as good eye contact. Spindel’s clients are all men, ranging in age from 27 to 78 years old. She describes them as very well-educated, upscale, professional, awesome men. In order to find matches for her clients, Spindel accepts applications through her website from women hoping to meet them. The women need to be well-educated, well-spoken, intellectually stimulating, grounded, and must follow a healthy lifestyle. Having things in common is also an important part of a successful match. Shannon Smith, a representative from Plenty of Fish (POF), says the site’s matching system is based on a combination of the information members enter into their profile and their user behavior. “If they have specified that they are looking for blondes, but search for brunettes, they will get matched with brunettes,” Smith says. “If a user will not date a smoker, they will not see smokers in their matches. POF has ~38M users worldwide. POF also has a mobile app. “Currently, upwards of 60% of our users under the age of 40 in the US access the site via mobile device", Smith says.

by Laura Jerpi
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Janis Spindel Gets Stuck In Elevator

DNA INFO - Nov 4 - Matchmaker Janis Spindel says she lost out on a lucrative client and and a quarter of a million dollars because she got stuck in her building's elevator. Janis Spindel, who charges ~$50,000 - $500,000 to her clients for her matchmaking services, claims she was off to meet with a successful divorcee. The billionaire client left before she arrived. She says she'll sue the landlord for the fee she lost from her client while stuck in the elevator. FULL ARTICLE @ DNA INFO

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$100,000 Matchmaker

TIME - Aug 2 - In this economy, it seems unthinkable that people would pay up to six figures just to find a mate. And yet expensive matchmakers are reporting that business is up these days. Janis Spindel, who charges clients between $50,000 and $500,000 a year to find the "woman of their dreams," says membership jumped 41% in 2009 from the year before and is up 46% so far this year. Premier Match, a New York City–based agency where annual membership costs a min of $5,500, logged $1.5M in sales last year, a 30% increase from the previous year. Matchmaking agencies advertise different strengths to attract high-end clients. Barbie Adler, CEO of Selective Search, worked in executive recruitment before she started her agency in Chicago 10 years ago. "My experience has been crucial to looking beyond a résumé to make a good match," she says. Indeed, clients are willing to part with a minimum of $15,000 for Adler to work with them. Other firms take a scientific approach. The British firm Seventy Thirty, which charges its clients a min of $15,000, has a team made up exclusively of psychologists. FULL ARTICLE @ TIME

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Matchmaker Masters The Chemistry Of Dating

27EAST -- Sep 7 -- On August 8, matchmaker Janis Spindel hosted a “mini-match” dinner party with 20 of the most eligible, beautiful and smart women sharing a five-course dinner with 10 of her “top” men. The event is one of the ways Ms. Spindel connects singles. While women do not pay to be part of those parties, the men each dished out $10,000. For an annual subscription to Ms. Spindel’s Serious Matchmaking fees begin at $50,000. With over 800 marriages and 1,200-plus relationships under her belt, Ms. Spindel knows what works. A client usually has only two 2 years to work with Janis. If they do not find a match in that time, then they are not ready to settle into a relationship, she says. FULL ARTICLE @ 27EAST

Mark Brooks: If they do not find a match in 2 years, they should have just gone to Match / eHarmony / Plentyoffish.  ;-)

Janis Spindel Now Accepting Donations

THE NEW YORK OBSERVER -- Nov 10 -- The high-end matchmaker Janis Spindel, who charges up to $250,000 for her services, told the Daily Transom she's been receiving more barter offers than ever. "Instead of writing me a check, they want to give me townhomes, cars, diamond jewelry", Ms. Spindel said. Last weekend, the owner of a high-end car dealership enticed Ms. Spindel with a brand-new Rolls Royce. She and her prospective client are still negotiating the terms of their contract, but Ms. Spindel is more than willing to make it work. "It's really not a bad deal," she said. "He wants a wife and I want a red Corniche." FULL ARTICLE @ THE NEW YORK OBSERVER

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Janis Spindel, Serious Matchmaking, Inc. Interview

OPW INTERVIEW -- Sep 6 -- Internet Dating sites charge $15-$50 a month. But we’re leaving money on the table it seems. Matchmakers charge $3k on up. Way up. Up to $500k in the case of Janis Spindel? How so? Service! Matchmakers get people on dates, and help with the follow up. A wonderful luxury if you have the money. Here’s our interview with Janis Spindel, a Serious Matchmaker who works all across North America. - Mark Brooks

What is the founding story of Janis Spindel Serious Matchmaking, Inc.?
I’ve been a people person my entire life and I was always introducing friends, and 14 couples that I introduced, all ended up getting married in less then six months. That was 16 years ago, 809 couples later and that was when I looked at my husband and the phone and knew that a matchmaker was born.

What makes you stand out in the matchmaking world?
I would really believe it’s because of who I am. They basically made me and threw away the mold. I will leave no stone unturned until I introduce my clients (who are men only) to the perfect wife.

What process do you use?
The target market, that I’ve chosen to represent, is a very well educated, well groomed, upscale professional preferably non-smoking, athletically inclined, financially secure, powerful picky man who outsources people to do the editing for him. I deal with men all over the country. My youngest client is 27 and my oldest client, believe it or not, is 77. He’s probably one of the easiest people to introduce. And they’re all looking for the perfect package.

They want the beauty, the brains, the body and the balance and they just don’t know where to meet the type of woman that they’re looking for and so they outsource someone to do the editing for them. Obviously that’s where I come in.

What areas do you operate in?
I handle the entire country as well as Canada and the surrounding areas. I have clients in every major hub city. I have multiple men in Boston, Los Angeles, Southeast Florida, Las Vegas, Albany, North Carolina, Atlanta, Aspen, of course the Tri-State area, Washington DC, Seattle, Vancouver, Montreal, Toronto.

How many men do you have in your subscriber base?
I don’t bite off more then I can chew. I like to consider myself extremely boutiquey. I’m very selective on who I pick and choose as a client to work with. If I don’t feel that I can deliver what they’re asking for or I feel they are delusional in their expectations of what they’re looking for, then I walk away. So it would be safe to say that I deal with maybe one hundred men a year.

How much do you charge?
The fees vary depending on the program they choose. I have three different programs – basic, preferred and elite. It really depends on how much work and time is involved. If I have in my existing membership pool what the guy is looking for, its a lot less expensive than if I have to work with my entire staff across the country and do the ‘bachelorette search’.

The lowest basic fee is $25,000 up front and the success fee is on the back end. The most expensive is a half a million dollars.

How do you think that the Internet dating and matchmaking industries can work together for the good of their users and clients?
To be honest, I don’t think they can. I think that the whole Internet dating has probably quadrupled my business. It’s proven statistically that 30% of the men online are married, women lie about their age and their weight and men lie about their age and their height.

The men, that I deal with, are too public and too powerful so they would never put their pictures on the Internet. The privacy and confidentiality reasoning is why they come to me. I deal with a lot of celebrities, I deal with a lot of politicians and a lot of the Forbes and Fortune 500, and they’re not exactly going to put themselves on Match.com.

Online Dating Site Launched Run by a Real Live Matchmaker

PR WEB -- Nov 25 -- Janis Spindel only takes the best as clients and her high standards apply to all the members of her database - she will accept nothing less on her website. Janis specializes in pairing up highly successful, well-educated, attractive professionals, including public figures and celebrities.  RELEASE @ PR WEB

Matchmaker Says Phoenix Hot Market

BUSINESS JOURNAL -- Apr 1 -- Janis Spindel, founder and owner of Janis Spindel Serious Matchmaking, is on her usual mission of matching time-starved rich businessmen with beautiful, intelligent and single women. Those interested in being interviewed should be in their early 30s, 40s, or 50s "if they are really pretty," Spindel says. She charges clients anywhere from $20,000 if in the New York area to $40,000 if she has to travel out of state on her mission. However, being a matchmaker for the elite is not without its risks. In 1999, a Manhattan doctor filed a $4 million lawsuit against Spindel. The suit alleges that she overcharged him and thousands of other single men for her services. Dr. Paul Dantzig was hit with a $50,000 bill. He never got a match, and he says New York state law prohibits her from charging such high fees. Spindel's company, started in 1994, has more than 10,000 members in the New York, New Jersey and Connecticut areas, she says, and works one-on-one with between 50 to 100 men at a time. The ages of the men range from the late 20s to mid-60s, with the middle ages the most plentiful.