After remaining free since it’s inception, PlentyofFish has officially launched the Serious Member feature. I was able to add my badge, which you can see in the screenshot below. It’s gigantic, like the sun.
I don’t hold open doors for women, I kick puppies and regularly taunt old ladies, but I’m a serious member now. How will this affect my interaction with women on PlentyofFish?
Here’s the pitch page, which can be difficult to locate.
Stand out in searches and when you send emails.
If you want others to know you are serious and you’ve put real effort into finding someone then you should get your serious member profile upgrade. Take a look at some of the screen shots below. Think about it, do you take people more seriously if they have paid for something? If you got 50 emails from random people and 2 of them were from serious members, which ones would you be more excited about? If you look at 20 people coming up in a search result and one of the profiles is in gold which profile would you look at first? This upgrade is about signaling intent and giving you the ability to stand out from 10′s of millions of other users. If you are serious about finding someone you can Become a Serious Member!
Men can expect women making first contact 9x more than before! (This one is shocking)
Women can expect a 40% increase in first contacts.
Most importantly people who message you, know that you are serious. You’ll get far higher quality emails.
Markus is coming around to what I’ve said all along. People who pay for online dating are generally considered more serious. This is not to say that trust and reputation tools can’t be integrated with free dating sites and social networks to create an authentic sense of “seriousness”, but it’s been the prevailing logic of paid dating for years. That and being able to offer real customer service.
Pricing:
1 year @ $5.95/month ($71.40)
6 months @ $7.80/month ($46.80)
3 months @ $9.80/month ($29.40)
$10/month seems too high, this will hurt adoption rates. It will be interesting to see which option most people purchase. Kudos to Markus for not doing auto re-billing, I didn’t expect that.
Here’s a thought, PlentyofFish wants to sell. Valuation on a free dating site is much more subjective than a paid dating site. PlentyofFish will have billing information on all serious members. This could drive up the valuation of the site.
Previously I wrote PlentyOfFish Starts Charging Premium Membership Fees. Paying for a badge next to your photo is not exactly a premium membership fee, consider it a sign of things to come.
Full details at the PlentyofFish Serious Member page.
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PlentyOfFish site still says it’s 100% free still on the site. Shoudl this be considered false advertising since there is an upgrade option?
This latest attempt Markus is even worse than the overpriced orchids! He doesn’t really seem to have the business mind to move into a paid model. His talent is with free and he should run with that. There are a number of additional “free” opportunities right in front of him that he would succeed and profit from.
This is a classic business school scenario. Entrepreneur starts successful business, which grows tot he point where his impact diminishes over time as issues such as growth strategy and revenue generation become more of an albatross around the neck.
See Crossing the Chasm and all the other books/buzzwords for the phenomenon POF is currently experiencing.
If I were Markus I would put together a top-notch advisory board asap and bring in some people who are versed in the ways of extracting revenue from free communities.
This is like Facebook when they decided to open to the the masses. A huge inflection point where the business can basically stay the same, or take it to the next level.
You can’t bring a business to the next level working 15 minutes a day and it’s best to get out of the echo chamber and start evaluating opportunities with a group of trusted people who know more than you do.
Again, business school 101, which we all learn at some point or another, some faster than others. Sometimes I feel like I’m in my second semester, and I’m 40.
PlentyofFish wants to create a “paid site” inside a “free site”, but I seriously doubt it will work.
If you are serious about finding someone you should use serious all_paid_members sites or even better OffLine Chains.
You can not be “serious” in a site like PlentyofFish, OKCupid or similar, where the most expensive cost you pay, it is your precious time.!
Regards,
Fernando Ardenghi.
Buenos Aires.
Argentina.
ardenghifer@gmail.com
To be fair Markus is testing this out, as he does with all his new features. If it under performs he might remove the feature, although in this case I’m not sure if that would be a good idea. I don’t think anyone cried when he removed virtual gifts (they were terrible to begin with), but once you pay for something, taking it off is much harder and the repercussions will be extremely negative.
Fernando, you are FLAT OUT WRONG about not being able to be serious on a free site. Stop focusing on the now and open your mind for a minute and think about companies like Zoosk and SNAP who are bringing dating to social networks. It’s early days but you think they don’t at least have a strategy for accommodating serious daters?
It’s fine if you haven’t really thought that through but your repetitive shouting about the same free sites is tiring.
You can think you had bought a virtual gift for yourself, a virtual gold medal saying “Serious Member”, and that’s all.
The virtual gold medal saying “Serious Member” in your profile is only a virtual gift.
Regards,
Fernando Ardenghi.
Buenos Aires.
Argentina.
ardenghifer@gmail.com
Slap a cheap sticker on a service that’s still useless. Use a golden seal. Way to go Markus! Can you smell my sarcasm? It’s still favorable to your rancid fish. Toss this one out boys. Looks like a last ditch effort to bite some worms before his free model sinks belly up.
Plentyoffish is a very silly site. Utterly useless for attractive, gainfully employed, sane members of society. For the rest of society, it’s great. Let the degenerates mingle among themselves. From disgruntled single mothers with a bone to pick, to unemployed, unattractive and/or overweight women that think society owes them. There are also those that have the princess syndrome or are clearly there for gaining self-confidence via the forums or how large their inbox gets.
Simply put, it’s not worth my time/effort. Quality is to be found elsewhere.
I dont agree with you, ive been on this site for some time and i have found that the customer service is horrible and that there it too much spam……
Pof should be free to everyone, if it’s not, what the point to use it? I don’t want to be at the end of the list because I’m not a “serious member”…. I would rather join a truly free dating site like livedatelove.com
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