
The True Story Behind PlentyOfFish.com -- Straight From The Horse's Mouth - staunch
http://plentyoffish.wordpress.com/2006/06/14/how-i-started-an-empire/
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timg
"""I once again complained in my thread about my sites lack of SEO results it
was September of 2003, I had 10k signups now and only a ~100 visitors a day
from google and other 2,000 unique visitors a day from who knows where."""

So you guys were flat out wrong in the other thread when you said this guy got
all of his traffic from SEO.

~~~
staunch
I said what I said in that thread having already read this post and many
others of his. His story is an SEO success story more than anything else. He
has, I believe, largely transitioned from that being his primary source of
traffic. His site is a social site, so of course at some point it becomes
self-sustaining.

He's also not the most forthright guy, so he's not going to say "I'm an black-
hat SEO guy who made millions". It doesn't sound as impressive. The MySpace
guys were _spammers_. No one remembers or really cares how you get started,
but it's important to know the truth if you want to accurately evaluate
startup strategies.

~~~
timg
K, I was just confused about the story. I think I even recall the POF guy
saying that SEO is totally useless for dating sites. Who knows.

~~~
staunch
Reading his blog for a long time I've learned he's extremely paranoid and
highly competitive. So I listen very intently but always question his motives.
On the one hand he wants to brag, but he also doesn't want to help the
competition. It makes for interesting reading.

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lkozma
I think what most people tend to overlook is how great the name of the site
is. It's funny, it's cynical, it's patronizing, but it sticks in the head. I
just heared that name once maybe a year ago, and I might have heared of
thousands of other sites, but I'm sure if I had to name one dating site, I
would have remembered only this one.

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byrneseyeview
"Just goes to show you anyone can do anything."

Not to paint with too broad a brush or anything...

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budu3
You can see how absolutely horrible the site looked here.

Umm. The site still looks horrible.

