Reader Brad bring up a good point.
PlentyOfFish site still says it’s 100% free still on the site. Shoudl this be considered false advertising since there is an upgrade option?
I would think there could be issues if the badge is tied to features only available to paid members. Currently badges show up in the search results but are not sorted. I would think that once they are sorted to show up at the top of search results then the free claim would need to be removed. I am not a lawyer and this is uncharted territory. Someone with more of a clue chime in on this, please.
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I don’t think Markus cares about those kinds of minor legalities until they hit him considering his emails from pof violate the CanSpam act.
I think singlesnet advertising themselves as 100% free (Do any google search to see their ads) along with most of the dating industry have far greater concerns.
Does this mean facebook isn’t free because some of the apps charge? Come on. Plentyoffish is 100% free because we don’t charge for any services.
Markus is right. SinglesNet is not free by any stretch of the imagination. However, we haven’t focused on the fact that browsing for free isn’t free until now. It’s a discussion just coming to light, at least in my mind. SinglesNet is #1 in traffic, thats it. You know how I feel about them.
Let’s not confuse paid tiers of service with what I call profile bling. There is some ambiguity right now and lot of it is nuanced stuff like ordered search, which definitely falls into the paid category, since a member gets promoted over other members.
Then again, one could argue that I’m not going to get as much attention on POF unless I pony up my credit card.
We haven’t even begun to sort this all out. Certainly is going to be interesting to see what happens. Markus, I hope you are as open as possible with the results.
I’m sorry could you point me to where it says SinglesNet is 100% free? Hahaha are you guys just making stuff now to point fingers?
John, AFAIK there used to be ads all over the interweb saying that Singlesnet is free. Now it’s been toned down to free trials. Time to hit the Wayback Machine and see earlier versions of the site. To your point, I just logged into my existing account, I can’t email anyone without paying $24.95.
Type any dating keyword into google and this is what comes up
100% Free Dating Online
Email Local Singles For Free.
No Credit Card Required.
SinglesNet.com
What Markus said.
Perhaps Singlesnet had said they were free and perhaps there are some other sites associating with them being free, but I’m not see evidence on the Singlesnet site now. So it could be they were told to stop.
I’m not a lawyer, but I think one could legitimately take issue with the POF tagline and with Markus’ statement here. If he didn’t offer any service for the money he’s accepting, then he’d just be taking people’s money and that would be fraud. But there is a service, for users to indicate “serious intent”. That’s sounds like a fair, reasonable service to me. So the issue isn’t whether there is a paid service available from POF, the issue is whether the tagline is accurate. Again, I’m not a lawyer, but I don’t think it’s 100% accurate. There is an optional service available only through monetary exchange. So perhaps it’s 95% free :-)
If there are any members of law enforcement on POF and one of them agrees with this reasoning, we are probably going to witness Markus having a change of opinion :-)
POF, Mostly Free
POF, Primarily Free
POF, Free, Kinda
Could have some fun with the new tag line
Markus it sounds like you are splitting hairs as far as if the upgrade is a service or not.
How do you define a service and why is your profile upgrade option not a service POF provides? People who purchase this option are getting an added value of having their profile highlighted, etc.. which in turn makes them be noticed more on your site.
I agree with David, IMO your site is not 100% free anymore as I cannot get my profile highlighted, etc… without paying for it.
I do think you still offer free online dating though, as users can still create a profile, search, view and communicate with anyone for free.
Put away your credit card. If you don’t want to pay, you can get the full functionality of the Plentyoffish.com site without paying. The key distinguishing factor between paid and free sites is that on paid sites, you have to pay to initiate contacts. On free sites you get full access for free. 100% free, no really, put away your credit card, you can search, communicated, IM and internet date without paying for free.
Mark Brooks – Full Disclosure: Plentyoffish.com is a client of my marketing agency CourtlandBrooks.com
Completely free online dating services sounds like the golden ticket you may have been looking for if you’ve considered signing up for an online dating site or Internet dating service. But how do they actually compare to a paid online dating service and can they really help you find romance in your life?
If it’s free how can they earn from it?
Actually POF is NOT free, as one still is required to pay to get absoluetly, 100% full access. Without paying, one has no access to their upgrade, allowing more poeple to see them. Thus, having to pay the site for an upgrade to get more noticed, does NOT count as free.
I think it could be considered false advertising, as they say 100% free, but you still need to pay for the upgrade! Therfor, in reality, it is NOT free.