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On the heels of the confusingly-named MindFindBind featuring Dr. Phil, Match.com is offering the Match Starter Kit, free, for a limited time only.

First up is a marketing pitch featuring a perky, doe-eyed “relationship expert” going over all the features of the site. The Cleavage meter was pegged at 11, very distracting.

Next up, a John, Stewart look-alike talking about writing a power profile, followed by photo advice, complete with terrible audio quality. Then comes a segment on how to search. Then back to the perky expert talking about managing your dating life.

The majority of the content is so obvious it made me cringe. Where are the hints, tips and tricks to get the most out of your dating experience? The stuff specific to Match that you don’t learn in books or from dating experts?

Most useful was the art of emailing section. Email Etiquette is the number one, and first, faux pas most people commit on dating sites. The Taking It Offline portion was very good, surprisingly, says this jaded expert.

A surprising amount of the copy was a bit too close to the ProfileDoctor Personal Ad MakeOver copy, but that’s what happens when we began offering the precursor to the starter kit three years ago, albeit without the video and Flash.

Overall, Match did a great job with the starter kit. There is no way they can start charging for this though, unless they continue to add content, which is doubtful when they have to focus all their energy on Happen Magazine.

If I could just hire someone to go out on dates for me, now that I would pay for.

Press Release.

Technorati Tags: match.com, profile+writing

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