Many of us who enjoy eHarmonyBlog are familiar with the great work of E. Foley, who has written articles about eHarmony in the past. I enjoy her writing style very much, because she sticks to the facts. So, when I saw her recent article about a matchmaking site I had never heard of before, it really caught my attention. The site is called RewardingLove.com and I was very impressed with what I learned about it in the article. So, naturally, I wanted to check it out to see how it might compare to our favorite site, eHarmony. Since we’re all rather familiar with the eHarmony process, here is some of what I’ve learned about RewardingLove.
The Science
It seems the science behind the site’s matching system is based on the work of psychologist/psychoanalyst/author Dr. Robert M. Gordon. I did a little investigating of Dr. Robert M. Gordon’s credentials, and found that he has over 35 years of expertise and is clearly a leading authority on the science of love relationships. You can read about his credentials on the site. The site states that he and his wife, Dr. Alla Gordon, interact with members beyond the matching phase by answering member-submitted questions each month.
Unified Model of Love: Questionnaire
As stated on the site, the matching methodology is based on Dr. Robert M. Gordon’s Unified Model of Love Relations. His concepts sounded intriguing and refreshing to me in the article, so I decided to take a look… I visited the site, which looked great, and took the Unified Model of Love© questionnaire, which was divided into four sections. It started out similar to other questionnaires, but then got really interesting, especially in the fourth section. It took me about 30 minutes to complete it.
After completing it, I was prompted to verify my email address…simple enough, and definitely important. I feel that eHarmony should implement email address verification… it’s simple to do and would stop people from being able to sign up using other people’s email addresses… Pretty basic, don’t you agree?
Matching
We are all familiar with the eHarmony method of matching. Subscribers and free members are often matched together, with no way for us to know whether a match is a subscriber who can communicate if interested, or a free member who cannot. This has obviously caused much frustration to countless of us over the years. A person’s time is very valuable, and basic information provided upfront would help us all to make the best use of our time. Many of us have been requesting that eHarmony provide this basic information when sending matches, yet eHarmony still keeps members in the dark regarding various important details about their matches.
The RewardingLove matching system seems to avoid this type of frustration. Now here’s the big news: The site states that only subscribers who have logged in to the RewardingLove.com web site within the previous 7 days are included in the current day’s matching pool. This is obviously a huge improvement over the eHarmony method. Also, RewardingLove lets members know if a match has logged on to the site within the previous 14 days, by displaying the text ‘Active Member’ on their profile. If a member has not logged on to the site within the previous 14 days, the date of their last log in is displayed. Well, imagine that… some integrity and transparency in a matchmaking site. Such integrity is to be loudly applauded and certainly appreciated. It seems they have been doing their homework and understanding that people’s time is valuable. This certainly makes efficient use of a member’s time. I don’t know about you, but I’m very excited about this… RewardingLove also offers some type of incentive for reviewing your matches in a timely manner. I’m still not sure how this works, but it sounds useful.
Becoming a Member
Becoming a member of eHarmony is quite a different process than becoming a member of RewardingLove.
One glaring difference is that RewardingLove profiles require some text and at least one photo, and also go through an approval process.
Below is the basic process for each, from registration to receiving your first matches, plus some important notes:
For eHarmony (as we all know):
- Register at eHarmony.com
- Take the eHarmony questionnaire
- Receive a free ‘personality profile’
- Begin receiving your matches immediately – no searching
Member profiles don’t seem to be initially subjected to approval process.
Matches can be either free members or subscribers.
No way of knowing if a match is a subscriber or free member
Not told the last time your matches actually logged in to eHarmony.com
For RewardingLove
- Register at RewardingLove.com
- Take the Unified Model of Love© Questionnaire
- Validate your email address
- Complete your RewardingLove Profile sections (required)
- Upload at least one photo (required)
- RewardingLove Profile is sent to Customer Care for approval (within 24 hours)
- Approved profile enters their matching database and is included in that day’s matching pool
- Begin receiving your matches after approval – no searching
Every match has logged in to RewardingLove.com within 7 days prior to the matched date.
Every match can connect and communicate with you if the interest is mutual
Every match has at least one approved photo, available to view.
Every match has text sections completed and approved, available to read.
Incentive system for reviewing matches in a timely manner
Currently, receive a Free 100 match subscription with no time limit
I believe, on average, I receive six or seven matches per day from eHarmony. This number typically drops once you become a subscriber, but let’s say that in an average 30 day month, I can expect approximately 200 matches to be sent to me. Now, let’s take into consideration the fact that eHarmony’s subscriber to free member ratio is about 20 to 1, and divide 200 by 20. That leaves me with an average of only 10 matches received in a month which are likely to be subscribers. Not to mention the frustration that comes from contacting so many free members and never getting a reply, for various reasons we’re all familiar with. So, I’m basically looking for a needle in a haystack, which is quite frustrating. RewardingLove matches, though likely fewer, are all approved subscribers. So, there won’t be all of that frustrating wasted time. It’s nice that the there’s no time limit to the subscription, because it will likely take a while to be matched with 100 highly compatible approved subscribers. E. Foley’s article and the RewardingLove.com web site both state that RewardingLove subscriptions are currently being offered free.
Free Promotions
All of us who have tried eHarmony have appreciated their “free communication weekends” but also realized its limitations.
In contrast, as of the date of this article, RewardingLove is offering 100 free matches, with no time limit. I’m not using exclamation marks here because I’d have to use them everywhere. It is simply amazing that a site is offering such a unique and free subscription, without placing ads on their web pages. Obviously, I signed up and I’m currently waiting for my profile and photo to be approved.
Advertising
We have seen advertisement space on eHarmony continually increase over time. It seems eHarmony thinks members are being desensitized to it. Just to let you know, eHarmony, I speak for countless members when I say that I despise being subjected to so much advertising, particularly on a rather expensive paid site. Amazingly, I couldn’t find a shred of advertising on the entire RewardingLove.com site. It was such a joy to not be distracted by ads.
Membership Base
We know that eHarmony has many millions of members. However, what really matters is the number of subscribers who we can actually communicate with. Having millions of unsubscribed members, any number of which may eventually be delivered to sincere subscribers as matches each day, is not necessarily a positive thing. I have not found any information about RewardingLove.com’s membership numbers. I am assuming it can’t be a large number as of yet. However, I’m certain people will appreciate knowing that all of their matches will be current and able to communicate. Will eHarmony step up to the plate and provide us with this same level of confidence? Only time will tell.
Pricing and billing practices
Yet another major difference between eHarmony and RewardingLove is their respective billing practices.
As we all know, eHarmony offers 1, 3, 6 or 12 month subscriptions, and uses recurring billing. Recurring billing, also known as “auto renewal”, has caused many people a lot of frustration. I would wager that most of us would prefer to pay for a service when we want it, without have to worry about turning things on or off to guard against being automatically rebilled.
While reviewing RewardingLove I noticed that they don’t use recurring billing. There is no “auto renewal” to worry about, which is really comforting. Actually, RewardingLove seems to be using an entirely different approach to billing. Instead of monthly billing, they charge by the number of matches you would like to receive. I found this to be quite interesting. A RewardingLove subscription entitles the subscriber to receive a predetermined number of matches, no matter the time it takes to receive them. These matches are created based on the subscriber’s questionnaire responses. The subscription lasts until a member receives the total number of matches to which they are entitled, plus an additional 10 free days for communicating with matches before their subscription expires. They state that you can purchase more matches anytime. As noted above, what is really different and good about this is that they only match current subscribers. Although it seems a bit strict, this is probably necessary to justify their “pay for a specific number of matches” concept.
The Verdict
It’s still too early to tell, but it seems that RewardingLove has been listening to what people really want in a serious matchmaking site. Their methods seem to solve a number of issues in useful ways, while those same issues have been generally ignored for so long by eHarmony. Maybe some healthy competition is what eHarmony needs in order to give members more of what we’ve been requesting. If not, other options such as RewardingLove will become increasingly enticing to unsatisfied eHarmony members.
RewardingLove.com is clearly a very serious relationship site. It seems to have everything it takes to be very successful. The best way for you to render your own judgment on eHarmony vs. RewardingLove is to try it out while it’s free and compare!
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