Online Personals Watch: News on the Online Dating Industry and Business

What Love Means To A 4-8 Year Old...

OPW - Mar 2 - Paul at eLove.com sent this to us. Here's our favorites...

A group of professional people posed this question to a group of 4 to 8 year-olds, 'What does love mean?'

The answers they got were broader and deeper than anyone could have imagined.

'When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn't bend over and paint her toenails anymore. So my grandfather does it for her all the time , even when his hands got arthritis too. That's love. - Rebecca, age 8

'When someone loves you , the way they say your name is different. You just know that your name is safe in their mouth' - Billy, age 4

'Love is what makes you smile when you're tired' - Terri, age 4

'Love is when my mommy makes coffee for my daddy and she takes a sip before giving it to him, to make sure the taste is OK.' - Danny, age 7

'Love is what's in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen.' - Bobby, age 7 (Wow!)

'If you want to learn to love better, you should start with a friend who you hate.' - Nikka, age 6 (we need a few million more Nikka's on this planet)

'Love is when you tell a guy you like his shirt, then he wears it everyday..' - Noelle, age 7

'I know my older sister loves me because she gives me all her old clothes and has to go out and buy new ones.' - Lauren, age 4

Brenan McGarrigle: Professional Matchmaker Interview

BOSTON.COM - July 3 - As a professional matchmaker for eLove, Brenan McGarrigle claims to have helped facilitate over 600 marriages in her 29 years on the job. eLove, formerly named The Right One and Together Dating, has an online registration process, followed up by a detailed questionnaire and one-on-one consulting. eLove members pay a fee of $3K and up to join. 

Q: How have online services changed the dating landscape?
A: It’s more about quantity than quality.

Q: How do you tactfully give advice when needed if someone has some big turnoff?
A: When leaving the office, I give them a little sticky note and tell them to put it on their mirror. I might write, “Get a haircut that makes you look like you live in this century".

Q: How did you meet your husband?
A: It might sound a little contradictory, but we met at a bar during homecoming.

by Cindy Atoji Keene
See full article at Boston.com

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Matchmaking Service An Alternative To Web Dating

TELEGRAM.COM - June 24 - Even with the popularity of Internet dating sites, matchmakers has survived. They make up ~14% of the $2 billion dating industry. Through eLove Matchmaking, Ms. McGraw, of Lexington, met seven men before she was introduced to the Littleton man who became her boyfriend. They’ve been together for a year. eLove consultants ask a lot of questions before they match a potential couple. Computers help them search the client database to find matches faster, but otherwise, technology hasn’t changed the business, said Paul Falzone, the company’s CEO and co-owner. It’s still about getting to know people. eLove, which is based in Norwell, has ~40 offices in the US and recently opened three in Canada. The company is expected to earn $18M in revenue this year, up from $15M in 2011.

by Priyanka Dayal McCluskey
See full article at Telegram.com

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eLove Matchmaking Expands To Canada

SB WIRE - May 7 - eLove Matchmaking is opening offices in Toronto, Edmonton and Calgary and has acquired Real Connections, with its offices in Calgary and Edmonton. Professional matchmakers do the recruiting, marketing and interviewing for their members to ensure their privacy and safety. eLove conducts a mandatory background check for the safety of each single they match.

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Attitudes about Dating Changing in This Dour Economy

CONTRA COSTA TIMES - July 27 - With 14.1M workers unemployed in June, men and women are adjusting their ideas on what makes a great date. For many people, unemployment would no longer be a deal-breaker. April Braswell, a dating expert, says that although singles are generally looking for financial stability, they will be more forgiving of someone who has just lost her job -- as long as she shows motivation to get a new one. When the economy crashed in 2008, Match.com had its best quarter. New couples are also more willing to accept a date paying with a coupon from a daily deal site than they were in years past. Paul Falzone of eLove, a matchmaking service since 1974, says singles don't have to impress one another by ordering the most expensive cocktail or having the best seats for the stadium concert.

by Laura Casey
See full article at Mercury News

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Matchmaking Pre-Session at iDate Los Angeles

PR ZOOM - June 8 - Julie Ferman of Cupid's Coach & eLove host a special 3+ hour pre-conference session for Matchmakers at iDate. The session is designed to assist matchmakers in improving their business models. The session will cover:
- The State of the Art of Personal Matchmaking;
- An overview of the various business models currently in operation;
- The challenges present in the matchmaking industry today as well as the opportunities for collaboration and joint-ventures.

See full article at PR Zoom

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eLove Matchmaking Comments On Background Checks & Profile Authentication

NEWSWIRE TODAY - Apr 22 - Recently, Match.com announced they are going to start screening new members against the national sex offender registry in response to a lawsuit brought by a woman who says she was attacked by a man who had been charged with sex crimes. Paul A. Falzone, CEO of eLove Matchmaking, weighs in, “Screening new members against the national sex offender registry may give a false sense of security.” He continued,“Profile authentication is a challenge for internet dating sites as there is no way to confirm that a person is who he/she claims to be and that they do not have a criminal record. The human element is necessary for member authentication.” eLove Matchmaking has been conducting mandatory criminal background checks for over a decade and, because they meet each and every member, require positive identification and get to know their members, they are better able to authenticate member profiles. Those who don't pass the checks aren't granted membership.

See full article at Newswire Today

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Elizabeth Falzone To Lead eLove's East Coast Offices

PRESS RELEASE - Feb 14 - Elizabeth Falzone, professional matchmaker, has recently been appointed as Regional Director of eLove and will oversee the Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut and New Jersey offices. Ms. Falzone will be collaborating with her husband Paul A. Falzone, CEO of eLove, in running matchmaking operations on the East Coast. She will be responsible for hiring, training and motivating the staff as well as ensuring that sales goals are met.

The full article was originally published at DBusiness, but is no longer available.

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Julie Ferman To Oversee eLove's LA And Westlake Village Offices

PRESS RELEASE - Nov 15 - Julie Ferman, a renowned matchmaker who has been in the matchmaking business for 20+ years and the former principal of Cupid's Coach matchmaking company, has been named Executive Director of eLove's LA and Westlake Village offices. eLove, the matchmaking firm, recently acquired Cupid’s Coach, bringing the total number of eLove matchmaking offices to 50 nationwide. FULL ARTICLE @ BIG NEWS

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Brad Megahan & Paul Falzone, President & CEO, eLove.com

OPW INTERVIEW - Nov 1 - eLove was developed by traditional matchmakers, and by the former CEO of LoveAccess.com. I caught up with eLove’s founders, Brad Megahan and Paul Falzone. (Full Disclosure: eLove is a former client of Courtland Brooks) - Mark Brooks

Listen to the interview

You’ve been rather busy over the last year or two. What matchmaking companies have you partnered with in the last year?
We have partnered with Julie Ferman’s Cupid’s Coach, who was voted the #1 matchmaker last year at the iDate Awards. Julie’s presence in the L.A. market, her expertise and coaching, as well as running a lot of symposiums on matchmaking would be advantageous to us to partner with. We have also partnered with Singles Station, Charlee Brotherton’s company, which is now eLove. And there are others that we’re still looking at.

We’ve targeted 10 markets to pursue over the next 6 to 12 months. They are all relatively large markets – Houston, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Atlanta, Seattle, Pittsburg, Portland, Orlando, and Cleveland. And as more of our marketing is starting to take a national nature, we feel the need to have a larger footprint so we’re putting all the people in place to be able to support those additional locations. We have 50 physical offices in 42 cities in the US.

Tell us a bit more about eLove. eLove is really more about matchmaking. How have users benefited from your many years of genuine matchmaking experience on eLove? What is the user experience for them?
We look at eLove as a lifestyle company where our matchmaking is more of our concierge service. We’ve got 5 matchmaking centers across the US and we have a centralized matchmaking center where we are willing to work with people one on one and coach them. So we’re basically a life stage company that is going to encompass everything from coaching to long term relationships.

How is the matchmaking industry doing as distinct from the internet dating industry? How do the two industries compare and contrast in terms of the trajectory of growth?
The matchmaking and the online dating industry need to work in harmony as opposed to bid for the same traffic. We feel that working with matchmaking companies, as well as online companies, which has been a huge growth spurt for us. We do rev shares with these companies and some of these companies are making more money working with us and supplying us leads and getting percentages back from us on a rev share than they’re making doing their own venues.

Conversion rates are similar to the online companies. We’ve got the ability to grab the traffic and generate leads for ourselves. So we’re self sufficient all the way around.

How much do you charge?
We charge $3000 – $7000, depending on the level of service. Our average cash per membership is probably $3,000, but we’re dealing with a little heavier volume because we’re aggressive with our marketing. A lot of these matchmakers that are charging $20,000 to $25,000 plus are dealing with a very limited number of members so they don’t have any real volume to generate revenue. The industry gets black eyes and reputation starts being questioned if sometimes people take other people’s money for the sake of taking their money and not trying to get a good result. You have to have good intentions of what you’re going to do with the member once you bring them in. That is the beginning of your relationship, not the end of it.

Yes, it is so important to set expectations. I have to tell you if I were single I would be using a matchmaker. I would use Julie so I’m so glad she’s on board with you. Julie will go beyond her database. She will actually look beyond her fold of members. That is kind of a limitation with some matchmaking firms.
Julie Ferman is a perfect example of someone who is not in it for the money. Julie will do WIT “Whatever It Takes” to make that person have a relationship. And Julie is smart enough that she will not take business on the terms of: “Hi I got $25,000 and I’ll give it to you, find me a girl that is 17 years younger than me that wants to have babies immediately.” Don’t take that person’s money because the chances of that happening are very slim.

So let’s talk about numbers. Let’s say I’ve got half a million unique a month and I’ve got several thousand paying members and I can quite easily send you 1,000 good leads a month. What is that going to be worth to you? I ideally want to get paid on a per registrant basis within net 30. I send you a lead and I get the money within a month. On that basis what can you pay me?
We can pay you either by the lead, give you a check for $20,000 or give you a rev share at 20% of the value of the memberships that we sold off of that database. We’re converting 7 to 9% of our traffic just like online but at a much higher price point. And we’re getting them that money within 7 to 10 days after that has been executed.

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BBC Interviewed Top Matchmakers At The Matchmaking Conference

BBC.CO.UK - Oct 25 - Professional matchmaking may have gone out of fashion in many countries or has it? James Gordon, BBC New York reporter, has been to the 4th Annual Professional Matchmaking Conference to see if it’s making a comeback.

James: New York City is home to millions of singles who are never really getting together unless they have help of dating sites or matchmaking. One of the organizers of the Professional Matchmaking and Date Coaching Worldwide Conference is Lisa Clampitt. Is it very difficult to meet people these days?

Lisa: The internet utilizes a lot of someone’s time and these people are not getting coached to make better decisions. What a matchmaker does is help them make better decisions for long term compatibility rather than short term chemistry.

James: Paul Falzone, you’ve been running your business for 22 years. Are those people just lazy that hey can’t bother to go out on their own to find people so they are using a service such as yourself?

Paul: It is not a question of being lazy at all. It is a question of doing some self help.

James: Some of these services mentioned prices of $25,000. It is a huge amount of cash to part with.

Paul: We charge anywhere from $2,000 to  $8,000 depending on the package and programs you get.

James: Michelle Jacoby runs DCMatchmaking in Washington and there are so many dating sites out there. Why would someone want to go to a matchmaker when they can just sign up on a dating site?

Michelle: First privacy is very important. Also I have clients who are too busy to be online going through hundreds of profiles.

Listen to the interview here.

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eLove Acquires Los Angeles Matchmaker

PRESS RELEASE - Sep 30 - eLove, the matchmaking company, has acquired Cupid’s Coach. The addition of Cupid Coach’s two locations in LA and Westlake Village brings eLove’s total number of matchmaking offices to 50 nationwide. As the principal of Cupid’s Coach, Julie Ferman has been in the matchmaking business for more than 20 years. The partnership with eLove makes sense for us on many levels,” said Ferman. “We are now the first dating company to offer our clients both traditional matchmaking through eLove’s existing model and mutual selection matchmaking, using detailed personal resumes and professional photos. FULL ARTICLE @ ARTICLE BASE

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How To Protect Your Credit Card While Online Dating

CREDIT CARD - May 3 - A study about online dating and credit habits by ProtectMyID.com, Experian's identity theft protection program, found that 50% of the respondents never verify the authenticity of their chat mates, and ~10% sent them their SS numbers or bank account. According to ConsumerFraudReporting.org, as much as 30% of online personalities are bogus. More, sharing personal details is intrinsic to forming a relationship, but it also can expose you to fraud, says Paul Falzone CEO of eLove. They may ask for your home or work address to send you a gift." Such tidbits are invaluable currency for identity thieves. Of course, online dating companies strive for customer protection. For instance, eHarmony's publishes safety tips on their home page, in "5 Dating Rules You Should Never Break," including "if a potential date's actions or words set off an internal alarm system, you owe it to yourself to pay attention and act accordingly." Falzone, though, recognizes that it can take more than caution to stay safe when conversing over the Internet. Their members all go through criminal background checks, but filtering fraud is not guaranteed. eLove is making an extra effort, however, with a new product called eLove Select. Before getting the company's seal of approval, participating daters must physically go to one of their 50 locations and get checked, screened and cleared. FULL ARTICLE @ CREDIT CARD

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eLove.com Launches eLove Select Member Verification Membership Option

PRESS RELEASE - Apr 26 - eLove, a dating site that offers both online dating and matchmaking services, announced the availability of “eLove Select,” a new level of membership. elove Select membership gives members the distinction of a Platinum Certified seal attached to all their correspondences within the online community. The Platinum Certified seal is indicative of three things that are important to other online daters who are looking to find their perfect match: that a member has been verified by eLove; s/he is motivated and serious about finding a relationship and s/he has completed an identity and background check.

The full article was originally published at PR Inside, but is no longer available.

Mark Brooks: Mark Ezra with Honesty Online provides this service to eLove.

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eLove Named One Of Top 3 U.S. Matchmakers

PRESS RELEASE - Mar 23 - eLove has been named one of the top three U.S. matchmakers at the 7th annual Internet Dating & Matchmaking Conference (iDate) held in Miami, this past January. The 2010 iDate Awards were voted on by industry experts and the general public. eLove provides different levels of dating services, from internet to traditional matchmaking, based on how serious singles are about meeting their soul mate.

The full article was originally published at PR Inside, but is no longer available.

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