Happy With Your Profile Picture? If You Don't Like It, Imagine What A Potential Mate Thinks!

Is the photo that you've been posting in your online profiles hot? Well, if it isn't, you may unwittingly be ruining any chance of being contacted by your perfect match.

If your profile picture isn't working for you, you might want to stop by LookBetterOnline.com, a service which offers, "Great photos for online dating."

Here's a snippet from a recent press release:

"Ever since Ellen Fein and Sherrie Schneider wrote The Rules, all single women looking for love needed to do was obey the law and they’d win a husband. But while thousands of women have seen the wisdom in Fein and Schneider's dating laws -- rules such as not sleeping with a man before the fourth date and giving a man a two-year deadline to propose -- when it comes to looking for love online the most basic rule seems be more broken than obeyed: that to land a man you need a great photo! That's why the women who wrote The Rules have now partnered with LookBetterOnline.com to help online daters get the look they need to find love.

'In our book The Rules For Online Dating, we point out that a photo is not just part of the ad, it's everything,' says Ellen Fein. 'But look through any dating site, and you’ll find that most women’s photos are likely to get very few responses.'

It was to solve that problem of blurry dating pictures, plunging cleavages and bad snaps that LookBetterOnline.com created a network of talented photographers across the USA and Canada with experience of producing outstanding portraits. The company has already helped thousands of women -- and men -- to post beautiful pictures on their profiles and land the dates they truly deserve.

The partnership between The Rules writers and the online date-helpers should now lead to greater success and many more happy marriages for women who know that it takes looks to attract a man... and The Rules to keep him.

'You have to be in the game if you want to follow The Rules,' explains Merav Knafo, co-founder of LookBetterOnline.com. 'Post a bad photo on your dating site profile and you don't stand a chance. With a beautiful picture, Rules-followers will be able to both play... and win a wedding!'"

--> www.FedPrimeRate.com Privacy Policy <-- >  SITEMAP  <

Funny Business @ Two of The Internet's Most Popular Online Dating Sites?

Match.com hiring employees to go out on dates with unsuspecting single men? Yahoo! Personals stuffing their online database of singles with fake profiles? These are the allegations (in 2 separate law suits) made by a group of folks who used these online dating services, and both Yahoo! and Match.com will be defending themselves in court. Match.com is denying all charges, while Yahoo! is still not commenting about the allegations. More details below in the snippet from a press release issued today:

"Wilsonville, Oregon (PRWEB) November 23, 2005 -- Two of the largest online dating services, Match.com and Yahoo! Personals, are facing major lawsuits from daters who allege fraudulent behavior.

The first lawsuit, brought against Yahoo! Personals, alleges that the service has been padding its membership base with fake profiles. The second lawsuit, brought against Match.com, alleges that the online dating service hires employees to go out on dates with men.

'These are huge lawsuits seeking class action status,' says Joe Tracy, publisher of Online Dating Magazine (http://www.onlinedatingmagazine.com/). 'The lawsuits could be the first of many from daters who feel that their love life and wallets are being tampered with. However, it's vitally important to remember that these are alleged and not proven fact.'

Tracy states that online dating services are courting trouble by allowing their own employees to use their online dating service. 'Online dating services should ban their employees from being able to participate,' Tracy said on CNBC's On The Money program last Friday. 'That's a conflict of interest. It's not right.'

According to Kim Lance, associate publisher of Online Dating Magazine, online dating services that allow their employees to also use their service are setting themselves up for skepticism and causing a loss of trust among their members.

'In regards to these lawsuits, it's important that users give Match.com and Yahoo! Personals the benefit of the doubt until something is actually proven,' says Lance. 'But at the same time, these services could avoid potential lawsuits through honesty and integrity in how they conduct themselves. You give a perception of wrongdoing when you allow your own employees to use your service.'

Match.com is strongly denying the allegations against them, stating that it does not pay employees to date members and it will vigorously defend the lawsuit. Yahoo! Personals has yet to issue a statement in regards to the lawsuit it faces."

--> www.FedPrimeRate.com Privacy Policy <-- >  SITEMAP  <

A New Use for Your iPod: Finding The Love of Your Life!

It would seem that entrepreneurs haven't run out of new ideas for capturing a piece of the profitable online dating market. I thought that "Team Dating" sounded kinda' weird, then I found out about online dating via your cell phone. Now, nothing shocks me, so when I read about online dating using the immensely popular iPod media player today, I just smiled and shook my head.

Yes, that's right folks: you can now search for the perfect mate using your iPod.

Here's a snippet from a press release that was issued today:

"Let's face it. The dating scene is never easy and sometimes trying to find that 'special someone' or even just a date doesn't exactly come easy, especially if you spend most of your time on the go. For this reason, online Internet database dating services have become increasingly popular for young professionals who are looking to find attractive potential dates instantly from the comfort of their own home or office. According to Jupiter Research, more than 17 million people viewed online personals last year and 2.5 million people have paid for online personals.

But even taking the time to read online profiles can be a bit time consuming and they don't always capture the true personality of the potential date like the prehistoric video dating once did. That's where PodDater.com (http://www.poddater.com) takes dating on-the-go one step further.

The venture, started by David Hunegnaw and Roopan Dey, brings the success of Internet Dating to any video MP3 player, including the new iPod with video. PodDater.com allows members to find love (or friendship) by downloading potential matches to their portable player and check them out on the go.

With over 21 million iPods sold, the iPod is easily the world's most popular digital music player and now the newest editions with video--the possibilities of adding a new avenue to dating in the city are endless.

'Several months ago we identified an opportunity to bring Internet dating to portable devices like the iPod,' says Hunegnaw. 'With the introduction of the iPod with video, we naturally jumped on the opportunity to leverage the technology and take dating on-the-go to a whole new extreme.'

PodDater, the first video dating service of its kind, allows members to see a person's true personality rather than guessing from just an instant message or e-mail. 'While Internet dating allows you to chat with people and 'get to know' them, seeing how someone comes across on video is another way to find people who you feel fit the criteria you are looking for without sitting in front of a computer screen,' adds Dey.

Imagine sitting on the train, bus or waiting in line for your morning coffee and having the ability to search for that evening's date or your future soul mate. It's possible with PodDater.com.

About PodDater


PodDater is the world's first dating/social networking site that brings together the growing popularity of the online dating space and the enormous success of the iPod. Visitors to PodDater can come to our community, become a member, identify potential matches and then download them to their iPods via the iTunes music service. Additionally, PodDaters can more quickly establish contact with like-minded people through the site's use of tags. Tags are freely chosen keywords that are hyperlinked and used to identify potential matches. All for free.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, PodDater will leave you speechless.

PodDater.com launches on Wednesday, November 16, 2005."

--> www.FedPrimeRate.com Privacy Policy <-- >  SITEMAP  <

True.com Sues Convicted Sex Offender

The folks who own the popular online dating website www.True.com are suing convicted sex offender Dr. Robert Wells of Walnut Creek, California, for trying to conceal his criminal past at the True.com website. Below is part of a press release issued today:

"Earlier today, the leading online relationship service TRUE® filed a lawsuit in United States District Court against convicted sex offender Dr. Robert Wells of Walnut Creek, California. Dr. Wells was convicted in 2001 of attempted lewd and lascivious acts with a child under 14 years, a felony Contemporaneous press reports indicate that Dr. Wells allegedly planned to 'abduct and rape' his underage victim.

Upon becoming a member of TRUE, Dr. Wells claimed he was not a felon. TRUE believes this false representation violated both federal and state law. Upon discovering Dr. Wells' felony history, TRUE took immediate action to increase the safety of its membership base, reporting Dr. Wells to appropriate authorities and taking the unprecedented step of filing suit against Dr. Wells. TRUE is seeking a permanent injunction preventing Dr. Wells from accessing the TRUE.com website and contacting its members. In addition, TRUE believes that Dr. Wells violated federal wire fraud laws when he falsely represented himself to TRUE and its members as a non-felon. This charge could subject Dr. Wells to additional fines, penalties and jail time.

' When I founded this company, I made a commitment to our members that we would do our best to create a wholesome environment for courtship -- one that includes a safer dating experience,' said Herb Vest, founder and CEO of TRUE. 'As part of that commitment, we continue to lead the industry by implementing criminal background and marital screening to help weed out potentially dangerous individuals. According to the Department of Justice's Criminal Offender Statistics, approximately 67.5 percent of convicted criminals released from prison are rearrested for a felony or serious crime making criminal background screening a must for the online dating industry. Our criminal background screening covers approximately 94% of all U.S. felonies and over 170 million criminal records, but it cannot catch every criminal. This is why background screening is simply the first step toward increasing the safety of our members. Our member safety program also relies heavily on feedback from our members, who we encourage to directly report suspicious persons or activity on our website.'

Some United States jurisdictions restrict access to criminal conviction data, which prevents many companies from locating complete criminal history information when they choose to run a background screening. For example, the California statewide sex offender registry is not available to businesses such as True.com. This lack of access to complete records made it more difficult to discover that Dr. Wells was a felony sex offender, since his crime occurred in a jurisdiction that does not allow companies to access his conviction information.

'It is sad the State of California maintains laws that actually protect the privacy of criminals,' Vest said. 'I would like to see convicted felony records opened to the public in all jurisdictions to better protect our consumers and our children.'

TRUE became aware of Dr. Wells' sex offender status when a TRUE.com member directly contacted the company. 'When I saw Dr. Wells on TRUE.com, I contacted the company immediately. TRUE's employees took my concern seriously, promptly investigated my claim and quickly removed Dr. Wells' profile from the website,' said TRUE.com member Brooke Benson [The name Brooke Benson is a pseudonym.] 'Even more disturbing, I previously found Dr. Wells on several other major online dating sites, including eHarmony. In fact, I contacted eHarmony and their reaction was so non-aggressive that I continue to fear for the safety of eHarmony's members. I believe Dr. Wells' profile is still available on these other dating websites, allowing him to potentially prey on their members. I applaud TRUE for taking my complaint
seriously and working to better protect the safety of its members,' added Ms. Benson.

'We prominently warn consumers that if they misrepresent their criminal history or marital status for the purpose of gaining access to communication privileges with our subscribers, they could be subject to civil and criminal penalties under federal and state law,' said Vest. 'There is a new sheriff in town, and we mean what we say in our warnings. I challenge the rest of the online relationship and dating industry to follow our lead and show a similar concern for their members' safety.'

TRUE, which since its inception has been a strong advocate of safer online dating, is a member of the Safer Online Dating Alliance (SODA) and continues to lead the industry in pursuing issues to further increase online dating safety. TRUE works with legislators, victim advocacy groups, law enforcement officials and other parties
concerned about safety issues to raise awareness of the need for greater consumer protection and public safety in the world of online dating."

--> www.FedPrimeRate.com Privacy Policy <-- >  SITEMAP  <

New Australian Dating Site Offers Lots of Value for Members and Is Completely Free

Australia's newest online dating site offers premium features like video conferencing and a full scale forum to its members free of charge. Here's a snippet from a press release issued today:

Having opened their door for business only a few short weeks, Tease.com.au has already become something of a talking point in the Australian online dating industry.

Feature-wise, they bring a collection of tools and communication mediums unparalleled amongst the dating services in Australia. According to Simon Shackleton, Managing Director of Tease.com.au, 'While we’re currently leading the way in terms of the features we offer our clients, we’re not going to stop there. We’re currently working on implementing several new features, including a full-scale forum and real time video conferencing. Remember, all of this is completely free of charge!.

In just three short weeks, they already have well over 500 members on the site, and the trend is continuing.

'People really seem to like our site,' says Cameron Germein, CTO of Tease.com.au, 'we’re sitting in the chat rooms with these guys, and they’re telling us they love it.'

The Tease.com.au staff are building a new style of online dating site. Rather than what they call the 'faceless, corporate monoliths that currently litter the landscape', they are aiming for a true community feel, one where the people who run the site are in there, day after day, communicating, participating and being actively involved in things.

'We’re not interested in offering a service where people are doing the electronic equivalent of walking directly up to someone at a party and asking them for sex', says Cameron Germein. 'We want to offer a wholesome and friendly community, where people actually TALK and work out how they feel about each other before any of that sort of thing happens'.

Tease chief Simon Shackleton invites would-be daters and industry boffins to log on to www.tease.com.au and see what everyone is talking about."

--> www.FedPrimeRate.com Privacy Policy <-- >  SITEMAP  <