Group therapy in a blog.
JDate News Central…
[slightly updated]
Two JDate related news items this week…firstly, if you’ve been to Times Square recently, you might have noticed JDate’s ginormous ad next to the W Hotel, featuring a smiling, embracing (or, has it already led to dancing?) brown-haired couple and reading “Experience Israel.”
The ad is what I believe is the first ever Times Square billboard to advertise a trip to Israel, in this case, JDate’s trip (don’t call it a mission) to the Holy Land in May (presumably, information will eventually appear on this page on the JDate website). Although it’s not clear how much holiness will actually be involved, since, as the ad says, “all the fun starts in Tel Aviv.” It may be less about holiness and more about horniness. (Oh, I got one more: less Zionism, more “zayin”ism. Oh, you Hebrew-speaking people know what I’m talking about…)
Packages begin at $2600, which is only about 74 months worth of JDate membership, for anyone who counts their money in those kinds of units…
Plus, for all of you JDaters who don’t have your own blogs and your own sites dedicated to how much you love online dating or being single in the modern Jewish world, JDate has launched or is launching JMag, its own online dating magazine. And they’re looking for writers, in case you’re interested in some purportedly unpaid, but heavily exposed work. No word on whether the articles you write will be hyperlinked to your JDate profiles. (But they probably should be, unless you’re ashamed of either your profile or what you’ve written…which you may be.)
Hopefully, the Israel trip will be a great opportunity for Jews who don’t fit the requirements for birthright or who would rather pay for their chance to visit the homeland. And hopefully, the articles in JMag will be better spell-checked than the profiles on JDate. But who knows? Time will tell.
[MAD PROPS TO TALTMAN FOR THE HAT TIP…]
It is criminal that JMag will not pay its writers, and yet JDate charges so much for its service. (This adds insult to injury, considering the service doesn’t deliver what it promises.)
Mad props go out to taltman for telling Esther about JMag.
JDate provides the inspiration for the writers. What writer would want money instead of inspiration?
I’m glad I’m not the only one out there who thinks JDate is a total ripoff, but yet I still can’t get away from it somehow.
Keep up the goodwork, I’ll bookmark the blog.
H
Anon, we could play some JDate mad libs, if you like. “It’s criminal that JDate will ___________, and yet charges so much for its service.”
Taltman, sorry for no hat tip. Will rectify that later tonight.
Chutzpah, you know how I feel about that.
Hans, thanks for visiting and bookmarking…tell Franz I say hi. But seriously, how’d you find me? I’m always curious about the strange ways of the internet…
mmmm… Actually Jdate is paying. A friend of mine writes for them and keeps suggesting that I write for them.
Or maybe it was the LA Jewish Journal that paid her…
Somebody pays for Jews who write about dating… someone.
How could one miss the news about this one of a kind first ever trip? The story appeared on the first page of the Jerusalem Post, complete with a full color shot of the Times Square Billboard. Not too well fact checked though – seems both Oranim and IsraelExperts in conjunction wth JMatch have run multiple Jewish singles trips to Israel in the past. But saying that this trip was inspired by competitors doesn’t make for as compelling a story. So why did the Jerusalem Post give this non-story such attention? It might have something to do with the exclusive deal the JPost has with JDate to promote their site. The monthly dollar amount paid by JDate to JPost for this unsavory arrangement (which serves only to squeeze out competitors and prevent you from choosing anyone BUT JDate) is enough to pay a year’s salary for a JPost employee, hence there’s your motivation – to hell with journalistic integrity.
You’ll notice that JPost never ran a story critical of JDate’s flawed IPO last year (unlike Haaretz who while benefiting from a similar deal with JDate, at least has some integrity). The real story here? JDate takes yet another good idea from a competitor, and copies it (hello video/chat interface?).
It’s no wonder they don’t pay their writers.