Hard to tell whether this really makes a difference in how many people contact you.

From my amateur observation, these are the things that seem to increase inquiries from other daters:

1) A new profile — the new profiles generate tons of activity (Tip: Never waste your initial profile by filling it with “I’ll fill this out later”)

2) New lead photo

3) New first paragraph text (match.com)

4) Time of the month – once per month Match seems to rotate your profile to the “top of the heap” where more people see (and hopefully contact) you.

5) Active within … – the more recently active you are the more people who will contact you

6) Viewing another profile — jumping around and peeking at profiles will prompt some members to contact you since they will infer you are interested.

Idea was taken from FriendFinder, who has been offering prioritization services for years.

On a side note, the subscription page has a banner at the top that says “Subscribe to Match” at the top, how redundant.

I also see that Match has added AskJeeves to their home page. Why in the world would you want to lead people off site to a search engine, even if parent company IAC owns AskJeeves.

When oh when will we be able to see something interesting from Match?

Match is also now including with their subscriptions a one-year subscription to a popular men’s or women’s magazine of your choice. (PC Magazine, Elle, FHM, Latina, Maxim, Men’s Journal, Premiere, Razor or Sync)

http://match.com/subscribe/subscribeaddons.aspx?lid=0

New members who come on board seem to often do the 30 day “trial” membership and often disappear – so I’ve seen the membership levels fluctuate quite a bit though these are the months that seem to be the busiest.

It does seem like the “good old days” are past and new membership to match.com in my area is very stagnant. We’re all browsing profiles and looking at each other again and again.

Plus how does engage overcome the reluctance of some to admit that they are online dating. In order for the model to work it seems that people have to enlist a third party to assist — which some may be reluctant to do.

The Engage concept of rating profiles is good, the concept of profile feedback is good, the questions and profile details stink.

Unless there is something that I’ve missed on this site — I just don’t get it. I was contacted by one person trying to setup her sister. The contact has no photo (cardinal sin #1 of online dating) and tried way to hard to sell this person (cardinal sin #2).

I wonder by the new connections tab whether Match might not be getting ready to display whether someone else has placed YOU on their favorites list?

Match is also sorely missing a more detailed profile/compatibility screen. I have to believe that is coming soon. I like the detail that perfectmatch gives — though I hate that you must go through what appears (but isn’t) a mandatory registration on perfectmatch.

Yahoo is great for chat – since non-payers can receive incoming chats. Problem is that many female members have had negative experience with chat (guys who want to do nothing but talk). Unfortunately Yahoo has a significant spam problem with about 1/3 of my traffic coming from overseas “love you long time” profiles.

I’m completely in agreement that this is the doldrums of August. For the last year it seems as if new membership signup has been stagnant. For me the problem with new members is several: They tend to be either separated or recently divorced (read drama), have EXTREMELY unrealistic expectations about online dating, and make all the classic rooky mistakes (watch any episode of “Hooking Up” to see what I mean).

What’s working online is constantly keeping my profile updated, new pictures and funny text. Now if I could just work through the profiles who contact me with “make me laugh” in the text — I swear that is secret code for “I am a sourpuss with no personality”….