(Disclaimer: Scott Grey is the founder of a blog and forum offering tips to people who are using eHarmony. These ventures earn less than $100 per year. In order to stop the flood of emails requesting personal help, he does offer personal eHarmony advice services – but charges extraordinary fees, primarily to get these folks off of his back. Because of his exorbitant fees, he almost never has customers, and he’s happy about that.)
For a long time, I’ve observed the evolution of eHarmony’s marketing approach.
At one time, eHarmony advertised that, because of their relationship questionnaire, it’s unnecessary to agnoize over what to say in a profile. And my forum was one of the few places that people could turn to for realistic help.
Now, just a few short years later… eHarmony is offering to help you with your profile. That is, if you’re willing to pay them $99.00.
And they’re not the only company willing to help people with their profiles.
Personally, I haven’t tried any profile-writing services, so I can’t recommend which ones are worthwhile. But, I can suggest some questions to ask, in order to evaluate if your profile editor might be worth the money.
1. What do you think about eHarmony?
There are a lot of successful profile-editing companies that, when given a reasonable chance, will try to discourage it’s customers from using eHarmony.
And, if you listen, they’ll try to tell you that their customers never do well on eHarmony.
The question you should ask is, “Why?”
I can speak from the experience of myself, and of many friends that I’ve made online – it’s possible to do very well with this service. It’s also possible to teach others how to do well.
And if the company that’s editing your profile says otherwise – it’s not because eHarmony can’t work. It’s because they can’t help you.
2. Have you used eHarmony? How well do you do? If you don’t, how do you know that your advice works?
These days, it seems like everyone has “pet theories” about what makes people attractive to members of the opposite sex. And most people can put a cogent pseudo-scientific theory together, if given half a chance.
The trouble is, theories often don’t work.
And if they can’t back their theory up with real-life evidence that their advice is helpful, there’s no reason to listen to them.
If they’ve used eHarmony? Then it’s simple – they (and the people that they’ve taught) should have so many members of the opposite sex responding that they can’t respond to them all. And they choose the “cream of the crop” to pursue.
And, after all, that’s what you’re shooting for, right?
And if they’re at all defensive about their results? Don’t waste your time with them.
3. Can I see a sample of your work?
No, you’re probably not going to be able to tell what the quality of their work really is, without testing it yourself. In fact, successful profiles can often seem quite ordinary. This is a trick question.
This is because a few companies have found one or two profiles that seem to work.
And they try to make the same profile work for all of their customers. Whether or not that profile reflects who you are.
So, if they only really have one or two profiles – they’re not going to give one away.
But good companies aren’t afraid of this. They know that some desperate chumps will try to copy someone else’s profile. They may get a good response. But, when profiles and the people behind them don’t match – things get ugly.
And, hopefully, they’ll learn (the hard way) that they need personalized advice.
4. What will you do if I follow your advice and it doesn’t work?
Even the most confident companies recognize that, sometimes, they may not get things “right” the first time.
Bottom line? If you don’t improve, the company should stand behind you.
If their advice doesn’t help – they should work with you until it starts to.
And if you’d prefer your money back? That shouldn’t be a problem.
You’re paying for advice that leads to results. Demand nothing less.
5. … But, remember, the internet IS your friend.
Finally, there are going to be a few people who can talk a better game than they can actually carry out.
So, check them out. If a profile editor has been in business for awhile, they should have some independent folks talking about them.
So, have you talked to a professional profile editor? Did you like (or dislike) their results? If so, leave a comment!
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