Dating sites launch all the time. I receive a constant stream from startups claiming to be the next big Match.com or Plentyoffish killer, the majority of which leave me nonplussed and end up in the circular filing cabinet. This is a big week for dating site launches and Herway, the latest dating site from Mobeze, founders of OnlineBootyCall, is a worthy of a closer look.
Herway is not a re-skinned OBC, which is what I initially expected.
HerWay.com is the first online dating site that recognizes men and women approach dating differently.Research has demonstrated that when women initiate communication, the success rate for both parties is greatly increased.
HerWay integrates this principle into its groundbreaking approach to online dating by making sure women control all of the searching on the site. This revolutionary new concept ensures women have unprecedented privacy, discretion, and safety as they search for Mr. Right.
Game changer #1: Herway doesn’t let men search for women. When I clicked the search button, I was greeted with:
Sorry Dave, your search for the right woman is over — why? Here, she finds you. That’s right. At HerWay the ladies do the searching.
The first time men experience this is a bit disconcerting. We’re not in control, hrrumph! We can’t spam women with lame cut-and-paste emails or send dirty photos right off the back. We can’t pester women about why they aren’t writing us back. What has the world come to? Empowering women on dating sites, what a crazy idea. Except its not, it’s brilliant (although I would like to review the research that says female-originated communication is more successful.
This is another one of those ideas I have wanted to see a site implement, and here Herway has gone and done it. Very nicely done.
Mobeze was smart. Start yet another adult dating site thats different enough from the rest to get serious media attention, rake in the dough and take some of the money to build a legitimate dating site that turns the traditional online dating model on its head. Talk about diversification.
Women can say goodbye to getting deluged with 100 emails in 36 hours after joining a dating site (even without a photo!). At Herway, women are in firmly control. Nobody knows if this is going to work, it’s a calculated risk that women are going to feel empowered and enjoy that they control the situation. The bottom line is, will women like it enough to subscribe?
After filling out my profile, there’s really nothing left for me to do but sit back and wait. I want to click around, search, see people and flirt, but I can’t, and it’s freaking me out. It’s like the early days of eHarmony, sitting back and waiting for the system to send out a match. Everyone who used eHarmony early on know that that drove you crazy at some point. Except this time it’s women, not algorithms, who control the Send button.
It’s certainly a tremendous marketing opportunity. The value proposition is such that it makes the traditional online dating model (search-browse-contact) feel old-fashioned.
I hope Herway doesn’t set up the paywall so that men can create a profile for free, and then receive those fake-seeming emails stating “Miranda wants to talk to you now, sign up to read her email.” Not exactly sure how this is going to unfold, will be watching with eagle eyes for sure. Herway is in beta, features are just about fully complete but the site is not 100% ready for prime time yet.
Game changer #2) Herway has taken the concept of online advertising measurement and applied it to online dating. Impressions are the number of times your profile appeared in a search result. Your Click-Through-Rate (CTR) indicates the percentage of people who saw your profile in the search results (an impression) and then clicked to learn more about you. After a woman sees your impression in search results and clicks-through to view your profile, she decides whether to initiate contact with you (a conversion).
I am a big fan of transparency into member activity. These stats are viewable only to me, and give me a good idea of how efficiently I’m using the site. I have been talking about these sort of feedback loops for years and I’m excited to see Herway take the lead in helping singles make the most out of their online dating experience.
“HerWay’s Profile Performance helps you discover what works best for you. Try uploading different pictures, then see how they affect your Click-Through-Rate. Work on your About Me and Whom I’d like to Meet and see how that changes your conversion rate.
Herway says: A good tip: complete profiles with well-written descriptions have the most success. Don’t just take our word for it, measure it yourself by comparing against the “Average Joe” numbers. The “Average Joe” represents the average performance of all the men on HerWay.”
That is so cool. Granted I’m a sucker for a nice chart or graph, but showing, instead of just telling, is a powerful tool to get men to change their behavior.
This week I sent my dating profile out to three men and three women friends and asked them to critique it. I received invaluable feedback (admittedly some of it stung, I sound like that?) I hope Herway includes a similar feedback loop.
I’m not sure how people will respond to phrases like impressions, CTR and conversion rates, Herway should probably think about making them a bit more consumer-friendly. Other than that, I like the site a lot.
Game Changer #3) HonestyOnline credentials are offered as part of the profile creation process. I already have one, and Herway is working on enabling existing users to display their HO credential. Is it just me or are you excited to see another site that understands the importance of authenticity and how it can be used as a positive, both in marketing and on-site behavior. Honesty Online is on a tear lately, announcing partnerships with Datingheadshots (get your ID credential and a verified photo at the same time) Mate1 and eLove.
What’s missing from Herway? Multiple simultaneous photo uploads, for one. Linkage to Facebook photos would be nice as well. There seems to be a maximum size for photos, but the upload process simply stops and doesn’t display an alert to let you know your 10MB photo is not appreciated.
Profiles edits are reviewed by Herway, I wasn’t expecting that. Not sure if they are using internal staff, Crowdflower or some other solution.
You know the drill, go sign up to HerWay, take it for a spin and leave a comment and tell us what you think.
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{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
I had to check this one out. I noticed that signing up as a woman, the process didn’t have me do anything with honesty verification. I know women have been complaining for years about the lack of quality character in men – but in recent years with my own dating experiences, I’ve met and spoken with quite a few men who have the same experiences with women. The only way for transparency to really work in a successful relationship is to have it from both ends.
Besides that, the only other thing I have to say is I wish I would have thought of this first! I hope it works well for them. It truly does provide a sense of empowerment for women, and I would imagine that even though the man can’t do the searching, he will be forced to show a bit of himself and why he is such a good catch and then sit and wait. I think it adds a bit of mystery, excitement, strategy and challenge to the online dating arena. These are all areas that have severely lacked.
By the way, great blog! I’ve been reading for a couple of weeks now and enjoy it.
Sounds like a great site which will make no money.
I think a lot of dating sites have adapted and women can block incoming e-mails, and keep their profiles private. This site can work if it partners with women’s magazines, but it might also have trouble actually recruiting men to join, because for a guy, it seems like set it and forget about it so how will the word spread among men.
Most men, especially the ones who make decent money, won’t be willing to be lab rats, they’ll want to take charge and select a women for their lifestyles as well.
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