@breynolds88I wrote the profile on Frind, and, though I take exception to your comment ("Time to hire some new hands") I appreciate the issues you raise. First off, nowhere in the article do we say he makes $5 million a month. The site, which has about 1.7 billion page views a month, has revenue of approximately $10 million a year with profit margins in excess of 50 percent.As to the metrics: POF leads in terms of page views, not in terms of unique users (the Compete.com data you cite). The problem with measuring unique users for an online dating site is that the paid sites spend millions of dollars a year on advertising, which brings in many one-time users who do not convert into full time members. Also, free web sites get paid by the number of pages they serve. So page views mean more for the bottom line than uniques.Compete doesn't break out page views (on its free site) but it does offer the number of visits:<a class="user" href="http://siteanalytics.compete.com/plentyoffish.com+match.com+eharmony.com/?metric=uv">http://siteanalytics.compete.com/plentyoffish.com+ ...</a>And pages per visit:<a class="user" href="http://siteanalytics.compete.com/plentyoffish.com+match.com+eharmony.com/?metric=uv">http://siteanalytics.compete.com/plentyoffish.com+ ...</a>POF is blowing Match and eHarmony away on both metrics. People have been saying that Frind is a liar since he started talking to the press. But having looked at his raw analytics data, spent some time with him, talked to others in the industry, and looked at his Google adsense check (you can read about that here <a class="user" href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117987775136211487.html),">http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117987775136211487 ...</a> I think the haters are simply hating. As depressing as it may be, the guy is legit.
marcovirtualJan 13, 2009
Awesome story!
stryder101Jan 17, 2009
this is a great read
mchafkinJan 19, 2009
@breynolds88I wrote the profile on Frind, and, though I take exception to your comment ("Time to hire some new hands") I appreciate the issues you raise. First off, nowhere in the article do we say he makes $5 million a month. The site, which has about 1.7 billion page views a month, has revenue of approximately $10 million a year with profit margins in excess of 50 percent.As to the metrics: POF leads in terms of page views, not in terms of unique users (the Compete.com data you cite). The problem with measuring unique users for an online dating site is that the paid sites spend millions of dollars a year on advertising, which brings in many one-time users who do not convert into full time members. Also, free web sites get paid by the number of pages they serve. So page views mean more for the bottom line than uniques.Compete doesn't break out page views (on its free site) but it does offer the number of visits:<a class="user" href="http://siteanalytics.compete.com/plentyoffish.com+match.com+eharmony.com/?metric=uv">http://siteanalytics.compete.com/plentyoffish.com+ ...</a>And pages per visit:<a class="user" href="http://siteanalytics.compete.com/plentyoffish.com+match.com+eharmony.com/?metric=uv">http://siteanalytics.compete.com/plentyoffish.com+ ...</a>POF is blowing Match and eHarmony away on both metrics. People have been saying that Frind is a liar since he started talking to the press. But having looked at his raw analytics data, spent some time with him, talked to others in the industry, and looked at his Google adsense check (you can read about that here <a class="user" href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117987775136211487.html),">http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117987775136211487 ...</a> I think the haters are simply hating. As depressing as it may be, the guy is legit.