OPW -- June 25 -- In case you missed Markus Frind on The Today Show from last Tuesday:
When it comes to masters of romance Spain has Don Juan, Mexico has Zorro and Vancouver Canada has a 29 year old computer programmer who has turned his knack for playing Cupid into one of the biggest sensations on the Internet. His identity is a mystery. Until now.
I’m looking for Marcus.
Markus: That would be me.. Come on in and let me show you around. This is my global headquarters.
Markus Frind is the founder of Plentyoffish.com, the number one dating website in Canada and one of the top 5 in the US and growing.
It’s a lot like a spare bedroom.
Markus: Yeah people say that but a lot happens here.
Don’t let this modest office fool you, Markus is making millions but not off you, his website is for free. He is making money off these little ads.
This is the website? Pretty basic.
Markus: Yeah, I like to keep it very simple. When I first created this site it was just a hobby, like it wasn’t meant to become anything.
But become something it did. Attracting viewers by the price and keeping them by his unusual approach to matchmaking, giving people what they don’t want.
Markus: What people say they want and what people want are actually two completely different things. On my site if someone is searching for a clean cut guy but they really are messaging all the bad boys, I’ll show them more bad boys then good guys.
So on Marcus’ website it’s much more important who you are clicking on than who you think you click with.
How much time in a given day do you spend working on a website?
Markus: An hour.
That’s it?
Markus: That’s it.
44 million visitors in an average day and you spend an hour running this site that satisfies them all day long.
Markus: I know it’s a bit long isn’t it?
And its not just his work day that is smaller then most. His staff is too.
Let me get the team down. You’re the President, so who is the head of business development?
Markus: That would be me.
And tech support?
Markus: That’s me again.
And marketing?
Markus: That’s me again.
By keeping Plentyoffish.com a company of one, Markus can spend his time as he pleases, reading on the beach, having a leisurely meal of mussels or depositing his latest million dollar check for ad space. Even website trend analysts don’t know what to make of Markus’s success.
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