Dating Services
Outsourcing: Help for Online Daters
Writing a dating profile should be easy, right? You list some of your many wonderful qualities, describe your ideal mate, slap on a photo you took with your cell phone and voila! Time to start evaluating the many offers that come your way. Except it turns out that it’s not that easy. Consider asking for help. Not everyone is cut out for the soul-searching, profile-trolling and contacting potential lovers endemic to getting the most out of a dating service. The temptation can be just to do a quick bio and start sending "winks," those low-risk contacts that do nothing to impress anybody. Your own profile is key to success, as are the ways you conduct those searches and reach out to try and touch someone.There are numerous ways you can get some discreet help. Start with the LoveHowTo Directory of Services, then read on: This article addresses some of the most helpful services, profile writers and virtual assistants. Virtual assistants based outside the U.S. (and that’s the majority) are better suited to non-writing tasks related to online dating, such as screening prospective dates.
Two companies dedicated to helping with profiles are Dating-profile.com and Profile Helper . Dating-profile.com charges $79 to create a profile from scratch, $59 to create a profile from a questionnaire you fill out, and $39 to review your profile and suggest changes. Profile Helper prices are $69.95 and $149.95 to create a profile from scratch (with or without a personal phone interview), $39.95 to $49.95 for a profile makeover.
For a more expensive approach, there’s e-Cyrano , a reference to the famous large-nosed romantic who ghost-wrote love letters for a less articulate suitor. A line-by-line makeover of your existing ad is $59; a 400-word profile (developed using a phone interview and a detailed questionnaire) costs $149; and a completely original profile written from scratch after a one-hour phone interview, is $199. You can also hire the site’s Evan Marc Katz, bbilled as "America’s leading online dating expert," for some one-on-one consulting at $1,500 a month.
Then there are the Virtual Assistants. Not familiar with the concept? Check out The Four-Hour Work Week or a more in-depth guide, Cloning Yourself. Cloning Yourself was developed by Edward Savio, who runs the Virtual Assistant company Personal Friday, and it offers a great overview of how to utilize VAs to make all aspects of your life easier – not just online dating.
Personal Friday has some experience helping with online dating, in some ways you might not expect. The company, whose VAs are based in the Philippines, received a request from a busy man to help screen profiles of potential dates. The VA talked to him to ascertain what he was looking for. Savio says, “What’s funny is that he told her was she did a better job of picking out women for him than he would have for himself, because she knew more about him than his profile, and because she was a woman looking for someone she grew to consider a buddy of hers, so she wanted him to have someone who was a certain type.”
The Virtual Assistant suggested some. He selected a few and requested, "find me 10 like that."
So far Personal Friday’s online dating work of this type has been exclusively for men, although Savio notes, "We’ve had female clients request for us to find the best dating service for their particular geographical area or needs."
The company doesn’t generally do projects, charging $599 a month for 40 hours or 359 for 20 hours.
Remote Personal Assistant is run by Carlana Charles, the Texas-based assistant who does all the work herself – no offshoring here! She says, "I love matching up friends and giving relationship advice, solicited and unsolicited, so this is right up my alley!" Here hourly rates start at $27, and she also offers monthly and retainer packages.
Other Virtual Assistant companies you might consider are Longer Days and Ask Sunday.
By Laura
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