I live next door to a federal judge and she gave me her business card recently, saying I looked like the kind of guy who might need a get out of jail free card someday. I love her. Where was she when I was in my 20′s?
I just got off the phone with Wendy Freedman, founder of the Dolce Network. Wendy unwrapped the first site in the network, Lawdate, this morning. Despite the name, Lawdate has a social component, targeting non-lawyers as well.
Wendy identified a trend towards smaller social dating sites and how people are looking to refine their online searching to lifecycle niches. The Dolce Network is the result. What’s interesting is that Dolce will grow into a network of professional services sites. The next site to launch will focus on the medical profession, TheDrDate.com, followed by CapitolHillDate.com and EntertainmentIndustryDate.com. Think of it as Spark Networks for busy professionals.
Years ago I worked with the now defunct Lawyers in Love. I’ve always wondered when someone would develop a new network like this. Glad to see someone taking on the challenge. Note, the religious and sexual-orientation niche market is over-saturated, best to look elsewhere when thinking about creating networks of related sites.
I asked Wendy about lawyers personality traits and she told me that in general, practice specialties (IP, criminal, etc.) reflect personalities. This will be reflected in how the matching system on the site operates.
Monthly face to face meetups will begin in major metros in the near future. All she really has to do it get publicity in the major legal newsletters and magazines and digital forums, marketing costs are going to be negligible as opposed to a general-purpose dating site.
For now, the site design is pretty basic, like a default Boonex Dolphin or SkaDate install. The site is built on open source software modified to serve this particular group. That seems ok, I don’t think lawyers are screaming for lots of bells and whistles.
Creating a profile is free, but doing just about anything on the site requires a subscription. Subscriptions are offered in durations of varying length between one and six months. One month is offered free with the purchase of three and six month subscriptions. Subscriptions begin at $19.99 for the first month.
I’m BostonLegal on the site, if you like large yellow legal pads, look me up.
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hope they can get the affiliate program going, i just tried to apply. this one will be easy to market. fish in a barrel.
Looks like they chose an abandoned software platform for their sites – a common problem in open source. Not a good move if you ask me.
Also, with SkaDate it’s only the default template that is made basic on purpose. You get an overwhelming number of templates ready within the package.
Dear Dave,
LawyersinLove.com is NOT defunct, but is still fully operational!!! I hope you will correct your post as it is giving people the wrong impression! We are celebrating our 5 year anniversary on February 14th. Unlike other online dating sites that claim to be for lawyers, LawyersinLove.com uses a practicing attorney to read every profile. Any profile that is obviously fraudulent is deleted. We also use public online services to discreetly confirm claims made in profiles as to attorney or law student status. Anyone who has been determined to have misrepresented his or her status is immediately deleted. As a result, our site is a true niche site and our membership is composed of actual lawyers and law students. I hope you will correct your post! Thanks!