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Markus Frind and Plenty of Fish - A Case Study in Effective Sales and Marketing Strategy

Written by: Bill Tamminga

Article Overview: A couple weeks ago, I read one of the most compelling articles on a growing business that I have read in years. In his article entitled, "And the Money Comes Rolling In", Inc. Magazine writer Max Chafkin talks about Markus Frind's strategies for growing his personal dating website, Plenty Of Fish. Frind's idea was to build a basic user-content-driven website and pay for it with ads. He started from scratch and built out a minimalist site by anyone's standards (look at it now and there still isn't anything too impressive - distorted personal pictures and a heart favicon). But the idea resonated with thousands of people who were paying for a dating service and looking for a free alternative. He is now clearing $5 million a year after taxes. He has a handful of staff members and a nice, but mostly unfurnished, office in Vancouver.

Markus Frind and Plenty of Fish - A Case Study in Effective Sales and Marketing Strategy

A couple weeks ago, I read one of the most compelling articles on a growing business that I have read in years. In his article entitled, "And the Money Comes Rolling In", Inc. Magazine writer Max Chafkin talks about Markus Frind's strategies for growing his personal dating website, Plenty Of Fish. Frind's idea was to build a basic user-content-driven website and pay for it with ads. He started from scratch and built out a minimalist site by anyone's standards (look at it now and there still isn't anything too impressive - distorted personal pictures and a heart favicon). But the idea resonated with thousands of people who were paying for a dating service and looking for a free alternative. He is now clearing $5 million a year after taxes. He has a handful of staff members and a nice, but mostly unfurnished, office in Vancouver.

It's a great story that forced me to think of more ways to serve more people. It also forced me to rethink the way I market and sell my services. Here are a few takeaways from the article.

So many successful businesses start small with little or no cash invested. The founders pour their time into creating something useful and work diligently until the foundation of their service is laid. The interesting thing about Frind is that starting Plenty of Fish was relatively easy because of the amount of time he spent working with code earlier in his career.

Once the foundation is laid, businesses flourish because of a systematic approach to marketing and sales. Frind found his revenue stream through online ads and worked his system hard. In six months he went from making $5 a month in ad sales to making more than $3,300 a month.

Keeping it simple and low-cost is a sure way to increase margins. As businesses grow it is tempting to hire more staff, increase investments in IT, and spend on frivolous toys. Frind has added very little to his company since the start and his margins continue to increase. Sure, it's fun to impress your friends, but sometimes you need to pass on the jets and bling.

Take a look at the article, check out Plenty of Fish, and see if it inspires you to think a little differently about why you are in business and how to make your systems work for you.

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Article Tags: 5 million, amount of time, couple weeks, dating service, favicon, founders, handful, magazine writer, margins, markus frind, max chafkin, plenty of fish, revenue stream, scratch, six months, staff increase, staff members, systematic approach, takeaways, vancouver



Related Forum Posts
Re: Keep your image or avatar distorted for more click-throughs - [quote="Kevin":1rxz4jk2]Keep your images or avatars distorted on your social networking site or forum for more click-throughs? Apparently this strategy actually works. In Jan/Feb 2009's issue of "Inc." magazine, writer Max Chafkin says "Fixing the wonky images, for instance (on PlentyOfFish.com), might actually hurt Plenty of Fish. Right now, users are compelled to click on people's profiles in order to get to the next screen and view proper headshots. That causes people to view more profiles and allows Frind, who gets paid by the page view, to serve more ads" (pg 68).[/quote:1rxz4jk2] I don't think what Plenty of Fish is doing is good. People had been compelled to click which is what google will tell you not to do when you are applying for adsense for your website
Keep your image or avatar distorted for more click-throughs - Keep your images or avatars distorted on your social networking site or forum for more click-throughs? Apparently this strategy actually works. In Jan/Feb 2009's issue of "Inc." magazine, writer Max Chafkin says "Fixing the wonky images, for instance (on PlentyOfFish.com), might actually hurt Plenty of Fish. Right now, users are compelled to click on people's profiles in order to get to the next screen and view proper headshots. That causes people to view more profiles and allows Frind, who gets paid by the page view, to serve more ads" (pg 68).
Re: How to make $10 million from home in 4 easy steps - Hey Yinka, Good post! For some reason I don't think it was a spark of genius that did it for Markus Frind. What I want to know is his thought process on arriving at a revenue model as he undercut these online dating giants. Did he really think he was going to make it this big by being free?????
Online Sales and Marketing vs Traditional - Hi Evan, I am noticing that many of the posts in the Sales/Marketing section deal with online marketing, SEM and and SEO and Affiliates. I was wondering if it might be a good idea to separate that section into two; 1) Online Sales and Marketing; 2) Traditional Sales and Marketing
Re: Online Sales and Marketing vs Traditional - [quote="ltrahan":31w9r2iz]Hi Evan, I am noticing that many of the posts in the Sales/Marketing section deal with online marketing, SEM and and SEO and Affiliates. I was wondering if it might be a good idea to separate that section into two; 1) Online Sales and Marketing; 2) Traditional Sales and Marketing[/quote:31w9r2iz] I second the request...


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