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2008 was a good year, now #13 in the US.

plentyoffish.wordpress.com

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Re: 2008 was a good year, now #13 in the US.

#11

Post by rms »

wyclif wrote: post #4
mixmax wrote: post #2

I've always been intrigued as to how plentyoffish has done so well. It's one person with a (in my opinion) suboptimal site that doesn't offer anything special. There are plenty of free dating sites, and yet this one seems to have disproportionate success. Why? Anybody know?

Because it's free as in beer, and it's not intimidating or filled with Flash like some of the others (the "good enough" design derided by web design snobs). But it's still a dating site, and even the best, most functional dating sites aren't very good. A friend of mine signed up at plentyoffish, he lives in an urban area and is reasonably attractive. What he found was a lot of women who like to chat and email, but do…

There is a certain socioeconomic scale to the people that populate certain sites and plentyoffish is not at the top of that scale.

Tell your friend to try OKCupid, Craigslist, or one of those sites that cost actual money. He can probably afford the $20/month. It's cheaper than hip-hop dance class.

Re: 2008 was a good year, now #13 in the US.

#14

Post by visdo »

mixmax wrote: post #2

I've always been intrigued as to how plentyoffish has done so well. It's one person with a (in my opinion) suboptimal site that doesn't offer anything special. There are plenty of free dating sites, and yet this one seems to have disproportionate success. Why? Anybody know?

IMO Plentyoffish is very good design site, it's simple and direct. And the best thing is I always look better in the real world than my photo at the Plentyoffish:)

Re: 2008 was a good year, now #13 in the US.

#15

Post by ig1 »

mixmax wrote: post #2

I've always been intrigued as to how plentyoffish has done so well. It's one person with a (in my opinion) suboptimal site that doesn't offer anything special. There are plenty of free dating sites, and yet this one seems to have disproportionate success. Why? Anybody know?

Because most of the free dating sites are worse. They came in early, have a low barrier to entry (signup is trivial) and benefit from network effect.

Re: 2008 was a good year, now #13 in the US.

#16

Post by samson »

dcurtis wrote: post #13
tlrobinson wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

MySpace being #1 is worse.

MySpace isn't nearly as bad.

You need to get over whatever that emotion you want to call it that is causing you to react like this, and come to the realization that regardless of what you think of the design or even genre as a whole it is one person operation doing what he's doing.

Re: 2008 was a good year, now #13 in the US.

#17

Post by Hexstream »

axod wrote: post #5
mixmax wrote: post #2

I've always been intrigued as to how plentyoffish has done so well. It's one person with a (in my opinion) suboptimal site that doesn't offer anything special. There are plenty of free dating sites, and yet this one seems to have disproportionate success. Why? Anybody know?

Don't underestimate the power of one person with a passion and determination. I think plentyoffish got some good press early on and that got it the momentum. Plentyoffish is the only free dating site I've heard of, so there's a big reason to go there instead of other free dating sites. The site design is actually pretty good IMHO, and sort of suggests that you're going to quickly get what you want to see and not a to…

IIRC the two things that the plentyoffish story lacks is passion and determination.

edit: Or was it HotOrNot? I might have got my stories mixed up.

Re: 2008 was a good year, now #13 in the US.

#18

Post by dhimes »

wyclif wrote: post #4
mixmax wrote: post #2

I've always been intrigued as to how plentyoffish has done so well. It's one person with a (in my opinion) suboptimal site that doesn't offer anything special. There are plenty of free dating sites, and yet this one seems to have disproportionate success. Why? Anybody know?

Because it's free as in beer, and it's not intimidating or filled with Flash like some of the others (the "good enough" design derided by web design snobs). But it's still a dating site, and even the best, most functional dating sites aren't very good. A friend of mine signed up at plentyoffish, he lives in an urban area and is reasonably attractive. What he found was a lot of women who like to chat and email, but do…

Ouch. Those who can, do. Those who understand, teach.

Re: 2008 was a good year, now #13 in the US.

#19

Post by mtw »

vlad wrote: post #9

To people who wonder how a company like this might happen, here's my take. A developer constantly talks about his company (that also happens to cater to software developers/hackers) under the pretenses of how well a small software company is growing, which attracts software developers/hackers to read about it from blogs and hear speeches mentioning it at startup conferences, causing them to join the site to see how t…

interesting but this didn't apply to plentyoffish, which didn't come up with new technology or new marketing hacks.

it was just the only free dating website at the time, and also with the right design (read=no design) to be trusted by its users

Re: 2008 was a good year, now #13 in the US.

#20

Post by yummyfajitas »

rms wrote: post #11
wyclif wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because it's free as in beer, and it's not intimidating or filled with Flash like some of the others (the "good enough" design derided by web design snobs). But it's still a dating site, and even the best, most functional dating sites aren't very good. A friend of mine signed up at plentyoffish, he lives in an urban area and is reasonably attractive. What he found was a lot of women who like to chat and email, but do…

There is a certain socioeconomic scale to the people that populate certain sites and plentyoffish is not at the top of that scale. Tell your friend to try OKCupid, Craigslist, or one of those sites that cost actual money. He can probably afford the $20/month. It's cheaper than hip-hop dance class.

But the hip hop class is more fun, and eventually you've gained a new skill. Also, this never happens on the internet:

"Tough west African refugee with poor english and a great smile seeks geeky physics student. Lets go for a bike ride, listen to metallica and teach each other new recipes."

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