<p class="source"><span>VGstockstudio/Shutterstock</span></p><ul class="summary-list"><li>A Kansas City man is offering $25,000 to the person who can find him a girlfriend, <a href="https://www.kctv5.com/meet-the-kc-man-who-will-pay-you-if-you/video_d2843692-f6f0-5d61-b85e-52dc4c4c71d4.html">KCTV5</a> first reported.</li><li>Jeff Gebhart, a 47-year-old entrepreneur, was tired of using dating apps, so he launched <a href="https://datejeffg.com">DateJeffG.com</a> with the hopes of finding a loving relationship.</li><li>According to the website, he will also donate <a href="https://datejeffg.com/">$25,000 to a no-kill dog shelter/charity</a>.</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/?hprecirc-bullet">Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories</a>.</li></ul><p>Jeff Gebhart from Kansas City describes himself as a <a href="https://datejeffg.com">positive person who loves trying new things</a>.</p><p>And while the 47-year-old entrepreneur enjoys his life, he admits there is something missing from it: a girlfriend.</p><p>Tired of <a href="https://datejeffg.com/">online dating apps</a>, Gebhart is taking a less traditional route to find the love of his life and is offering $25,000 to whoever can land him a girlfriend. This <a href="https://nypost.com/2020/02/12/this-man-will-pay-you-25k-if-you-find-him-a-girlfriend/">past weekend</a>, Gebhart launched <a href="https://datejeffg.com/">DateJeffG.com</a>. According to <a href="https://www.kctv5.com/news/local_news/kansas-city-man-will-pay-you-to-find-him-a/article_f4d444e4-4d1a-11ea-b303-ebfc1b022f57.html">KCTV5</a>, the website is a project he's been working on for the past six months.</p><p>"I'd like to find someone who is fun, easy to spend time with, someone who is confident, driven, shares the same interests as I and has a zest for life," he wrote on the ad-like website.</p><p>In the welcome video at the top of the site, Gebhart explains the thought process behind the $25,000 sum: It represents the amount of money he'd be spending dating each month plus the amount of months it would take for him to find a significant other through what he described as "the current means."</p><p>"I'd rather that money go to someone who's interested in helping me along in this quest rather than all the businesses that are associated with dating," he says in the video.</p><p>The website gives interested parties a look at who Gebhart is, what he does, and his hobbies. There are even testimonials from people in Gebhart's life at the bottom. According to the website, Gebhart has established, built, and sold several companies throughout his life. He enjoys flipping houses and "creating one-of-a-kind occasions that gather friends together in a fun atmosphere."</p><p>In addition to the $25,000 he's willing to give away to his real-life cupid, he's also going to <a href="https://datejeffg.com/">donate $25,000 to a no-kill dog shelter/charity</a>. In fact, being a dog person is one of the questions on the survey for interested women linked at the bottom of the website.</p><p>There is also an option at the bottom of the <a href="https://datejeffg.com/i-know-a-girl/">website</a> for those who know someone who could be a good match for Gebhart. All they have to do is fill out their name, email, friend's name, and explain why they think their friend would be a good match for Gebhart.</p><p>Gebhart isn't the only person willing to shell out some serious money to find love. Millionaire matchmakers, like Amy Andersen - also known as "the cupid of Silicon Valley" - have built businesses off that very quest. As Business Insider's Hillary Hoffower <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/silicon-valley-millionaires-dating-mistakes-matchmaker-2019-7">reported</a>, Andersen charges her clients anywhere from $35,000 for a basic membership to $500,000 for global searches. Then there's Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa who, as Business Insider's Isobel Asher Hamilton <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/japanese-billionaire-moon-spacex-female-partner-how-to-apply-2020-1">reported</a>, is holding a reality TV competition to find a "female partner" to fly around the moon with him in 2023.</p><p>Business Insider reached out to Gebhart for comment but did not immediately hear back.</p>            <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-billie-eilish-harnesses-the-power-of-asmr-2019-10">How Grammy award winner, Billie Eilish, harnesses the power of ASMR in her music</a></h3>

A Kansas City man is offering $25,000 to the person who can find him a girlfriend, and he says he arrived at the total based on how much he would have spent on dating

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="http://www.singleswithfoodallergies.com/">singleswithfoodallergies.com</a></span></p></div><p></p></div></div>Finding a soulmate has never been easier.</p><p>Thanks to highly-tailored matchmaking sites, singles can now find exactly what they're looking for, even if it's culturally taboo. Some users dabble, others manhunt, but online dating sites result in a whole lotta love and sex.</p><p>These are 11 bizzare matchmaking services out there.</p>

11 dating websites that prove anyone can find love in the digital age

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Samantha Lee/Business Insider</span></p><p class="caption">Pictured from left to right: Dating coaches Samantha Burns, Damona Hoffman, Evan Marc Katz, and Andrea Syrtash.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul class="summary-list"><li><strong><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/dating">Dating</a> coaches in cities across the US are helping successful women find fulfilling relationships.</strong></li><li><strong>While the coaches work with both men and women, the genders' motivations for seeking help seem to be different. </strong></li><li><strong>Male clients tend not to have developed<span> the skills to approach or flirt with women</span>, while the women, who are typically in their 30s and older, have already established themselves professionally and, facing pressure to start a family, are ready to tackle their next challenge.</strong></li><li><strong>Both coaches and clients say the goal isn't to find the perfect person right away, but to learn the skills to find and maintain a healthy partnership.</strong></li><li><strong>These coaches charge anywhere from $1,800 to $18,000 for different types of services.</strong></li></ul><p>On New Year's Eve 2017, Judith made a resolution she'd never made before: She wanted to be in a meaningful relationship.</p><p>She was 32 years old and frustrated with her experiences dating men in New York City, where she works as a hospital administrator.</p><p>Judith, who asked not to share her last name to protect her privacy, remembers thinking to herself that the way she was approaching dating wasn't working out. She paraphrased a common piece of wisdom: "Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results is just a form of insanity." And, she added, "I literally was going insane with the dating world."</p><p>She considered recruiting professional help. But when she asked her friends whether they thought it was worth paying thousands of dollars for a dating coach, all of them said no. Plus, she knew that "on the internet, you can find anything." If you want to know how to, say, attract more men on a dating site, you can simply Google it.</p><p>By the end of January 2018, Judith had made a decision: She'd hired Damona Hoffman, a certified dating coach and host of the <a href="https://damonahoffman.com/dates-mates-radio/">Dates and Mates podcast</a> in Los Angeles. They worked together for three months, checking in biweekly over the phone (Judith could also email or call whenever she needed immediate advice), for which Judith paid just under $3,000.</p><p>Today, Judith is still single and dating, turning regularly to the notes from Hoffman. "I don't regret the decision [to see a dating coach] whatsoever," she told me. "I had the means to do it," and "I needed a girlfriend that had the degree and experience to back up all of the advice they would give me." The Internet, she said, can't provide that.</p><h2>'Oh my gosh, you're 40. You need to settle down and have a baby': Coaching clients are often feeling pressured to find love</h2><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Evan Marc Katz</span></p><p class="caption">Evan Marc Katz.</p></div><p></p></div></div>In cities across the US, a growing number of successful women are hiring dating coaches to help them find long-term relationships. Typically, these women are in their 30s and older; they've established themselves professionally and are comfortable financially, but for whatever reason, finding love has proved more challenging.</p><p>This phenomenon fits with the broader trend of Americans <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/29/well/mind/millennials-love-marriage-sex-relationships-dating.html">marrying later</a>, and viewing marriage as what one sociologist calls a "capstone" rather than a "cornerstone" of their adult life. That is to say, many people are tying the knot only after they've achieved professional and financial success; in the past, people generally tended to their love life before hitting these milestones.</p><p>To be sure, men seek dating coaching as well. As for Hoffman, about 70% of her clients are women; she said they're typically high earners, accomplished and career-focused, and "feeling the pressure of society telling them that, 'Oh my gosh, you're 40 or almost 40. You need to settle down and have a baby.'" By contrast, she said, the men she sees tend to be less career-focused and haven't developed the skills to approach or flirt with women. They may also feel less urgency around settling down and starting a family.</p><p><em><strong>Read more:</strong> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bad-relationship-advice-make-your-spouse-happy-2018-9">Relationship experts say one of the most dangerous beliefs about marriage is that you're supposed to make your spouse happy</a></em></p><p>Hoffman also mentioned that her business tends to grow through word of mouth - and because men are less inclined to talk to their friends about working with a dating coach, she naturally wound up with more women clients.</p><p>"We all think by the time we're 30, we're going to have certain things figured out," said Samantha, a 30-year-old project coordinator in Cambridge, Massachusetts, who started working with a dating coach about four months ago. She preferred not to share her last name to protect her privacy. "For me, I thought definitely I'd be married and have kids, probably, by the time I was 30. And so for it to not be like that, and for me to be coming up on my 30th, I was just a little freaked out."</p><p>Some coaching clients perceive their commitment to their career as having been in direct conflict with their love life. Nadine, 64, sought out dating coaching recently, after she'd semi-retired from running a law firm in New Jersey. "I've been very successful in my career," she told me, "and I'm not worried about a guy getting in the way," as she might have been when she was younger. Nadine, who preferred not to share her last name for privacy reasons, has never been married, but she's open to the possibility now.</p><p>Nadine paid $14,000 to work with <a href="https://www.evanmarckatz.com/">Evan Marc Katz</a>, one of the first dating coaches to market himself as such (he started coaching in 2004). Katz, who works exclusively with women, said those who reach out to him are typically at a breaking point. They write him saying they don't know what's wrong with them and they're afraid of being alone forever, Katz told me.</p><p><a href="http://www.lovesuccessfully.com/">Samantha Burns</a>, a dating coach and relationship counselor in Boston, has heard the same: "People call me; they're crying on the phone; they're so unhappy," she said. "They desperately want love and acceptance and commitment from a partner. They're in pain."</p><h2>'Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime': Dating coaches say they teach clients the skills to find a healthy relationship</h2><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Samantha Burns</span></p><p class="caption">Samantha Burns.</p></div><p></p></div></div>While matchmakers have existed for millennia, dating coaches are a more modern phenomenon. Though their work is similar, dating coaches will tell you that, unlike matchmakers, their job isn't to find you the perfect person. Instead, they're more about instilling in you the skills to find that match yourself - and to maintain a healthy relationship with them. Multiple dating coaches shared with me the same proverb: "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime."</p><p>The term "dating coach" is somewhat nebulous. Hoffman said she was certified by the International Dating Coach Association in 2013, but the organization appears to no longer be active. When she first started working as a dating coach, about 13 years ago, Hoffman said, an official organization didn't exist, and so she became certified as a life coach instead. She'd go to conferences on online dating and matchmaking, "and people were like, 'You do what?'"</p><p>Other dating coaches, like Burns, have backgrounds in marriage and family counseling. When Burns starts working with clients, she immediately assesses their "attachment style," a psychological term for the way we form bonds with other people.</p><p><em><strong>Read more: </strong> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/important-questions-to-ask-your-partner-before-getting-serious-2017-12">7 unavoidable questions to ask your partner before it's too late</a></em></p><p>The dating coaches I spoke to charge between $1,800 and $18,000 for different private-coaching packages. (One former dating coach, <a href="http://www.andreasyrtash.com/">Andrea Syrtash</a>, was an exception; she said she charged between $50 and $150 per session because she wanted to make coaching accessible.)</p><p>To some women, the price tag on private dating coaching can be jarring. Samantha worked with Burns, who typically charges $3,300 for three months, to come up with a payment plan that she could afford.</p><p>Another, 50-something coaching client who declined to share her name because she'd told very few people about dating coaching, paid $9,000 to work with Katz. She  said she had "a ton of reservations" and didn't even share the total figure with her best friends. She made the decision, she said in an email, by asking herself, "What if someone told me that after this six-month process of changing the way I see dating (and interacting with men) that I meet 'the one' ... would the money be worth it?" She sold some stocks and placed a call to Katz. "Best decision ever," she wrote.</p><p>Other women say signing up for coaching was a no-brainer. "It's a matter of priorities," Nadine wrote in an email. "I could pay that for a car or an upgrade on a house, a coat, or a variety of possessions, but at this point in my life, I value [Katz's] deep knowledge of the dating process and his world of experience, which will save me years of unnecessary mistakes and learning the hard way."</p><h2>'There's a really pragmatic aspect to love': Coaching is a combination of concrete exercises and therapy</h2><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>James Starkman</span></p><p class="caption">Andrea Syrtash.</p></div><p></p></div></div>The coaches I spoke to approach dating logically and systematically: There are goals, and lists, and rules to follow. As Burns put it, "A lot of people feel like, 'Oh, love is just a feeling." In fact, she said, too much chemistry at the beginning of a relationship can be a "red flag." She teaches them that "there's a really pragmatic aspect to love, and to cultivating it and sustaining it." Even if you don't see "fireworks" at first, you can build up to that over time.</p><p>Each dating coach has their own roster of probing questions to ask and introspective exercises to have clients complete. Hoffman said she tells her clients to consider the skills that have made them successful in other areas of their life - like their career - and then apply those skills to dating. Syrtash, who has since moved on from coaching to writing books and leading workshops, guides clients in writing lists of dealmakers and deal breakers. There are five items on each side, and Syrtash reminds them, "Someone can be great on paper and a terrible partner!"</p><p>Katz teaches every client the "2-2-2" rule: Exchange two messages on the dating site, exchange two emails, and then have two phone calls before a first date. "It specifically teaches people to avoid becoming part of some guy's texting harem," he said.</p><p><em><strong>Read more:</strong> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/couples-therapy-sign-warning-2018-8">The biggest sign you need to be in couples therapy, according to a marriage therapist</a></em></p><p>Still, dating coaching is in some ways similar to traditional psychotherapy, in that the coach is there simply to listen to the client and validate their experiences. Of the coaching clients I spoke to, several mentioned that they were learning how to love themselves before they could find someone to love, acknowledging as they said so that these ideas could sound cliche. Samantha said Burns helped her learn to recognize her own role in the unfulfilling relationships she kept winding up in.</p><p>"I realized I was dating the same guy almost over and over again," Samantha said. "They'd start out great and then, all of a sudden, it blows up in your face and you're like, 'Well, I don't get it. What's going on? Going to Samantha [Burns] made me realize I keep choosing the same type of person because what I'm putting out is what I'm getting back." The most rewarding part of coaching, Samantha said, is that "it's not just about looking for that right person. It's also fixing yourself and making yourself better."</p><p>Dana, 48, who declined to share her last name for privacy reasons, worked with Syrtash about eight years ago (she's since become a life coach herself), and said she became more realistic about love and dating. Instead of sticking to a "script" - i.e. a fantasy of what a boyfriend and a relationship should be like - Dana looked at the person in front of her, how their relationship was unfolding, and how she really felt about it.</p><h2>'I had to be sure that I was 100% committed to not only giving my all to work but also to my personal life': Commitment is a key part of dating coaching</h2><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Damona Hoffman</span></p><p class="caption">Damona Hoffman.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>The most obvious sacrifice that coaching clients make is money. But both the coaches and clients I spoke with say it also requires a considerable investment of time and energy, as well as a reshuffling of priorities.</p><p>"What I have to do is to really carve out the time and the commitment in their schedule to invest in dating and to make that the primary focus of their life," Hoffman said of her clients. "I don't ask for them to focus on it forever." For the three to six months that they work with her, Hoffman said, she asks that dating "be the No. 1 focus in their life."</p><p>For clients who have high-octane careers, that can be difficult - even if they elected to sign up for coaching in the first place. "I had a job that was very stressful and very demanding," Judith said, "and I had to be sure that I was 100% committed to not only giving my all to work but also to my personal life."</p><p>Just two of the coaching clients I spoke to were in a relationship - but all said they'd seen significant improvements in their dating lives and in their overall approach to finding love. The coaches insisted that starting a relationship was neither the goal of coaching nor the ultimate sign of success. "Success didn't just look like landing X number of dates," Syrtash wrote in an email. "Success occurred when people gained confidence."</p><p><em>Read more: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/marriage-divorce-successful-relationship-2018-6">Divorce isn't a failure, therapists say. In fact, it could mean the marriage was a success.</a></em></p><p>Katz said he had a client who dated a man for two months before realizing, "This guy isn't as great as I thought he was." So she dumped him, took a weeklong hiatus from online dating, and then got back to it. "Is she a failure or is she a success?" Katz said. "I say she's a success. She found a boyfriend; she attracted a guy; discovered it wasn't the right guy; had the courage to get rid of him and start all over. That is a huge success in my book."</p><p>To be sure, that's a convenient thing for a coach to say, since it leaves them wholly unaccountable for whether their process "works." But coaching clients seemed to echo the same sentiment.</p><p>Judith recently went on a date with a man and realized she felt "a little uncomfortable around him." At first, she brushed her feelings aside, thinking she'd give him a chance at a second date. "I was so happy I had Damona [Hoffman] in my ear saying, 'Well, let's think about that. Yes, you want to be in a relationship, but you have to be comfortable with the person.'" Judith told the dating coach in her head, "You're absolutely right. Let's not waste my time with this guy."</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/science-dating-best-friend-positive-results-2017-3">Science-backed reasons for why dating your best friend is a good idea</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div>

After building their careers, successful women across the US are spending thousands on coaches to help them conquer the next challenge: dating

In 2015 online dating made many great strides. Memberships continued to grow at a staggering pace, vast amounts of new sites emerged, existing ones made significant improvements for their user-base, and relationships were formed in record numbers. The exponential rise in registered users on these apps is testimony to the fact that this new platform is very well here to stay! Moreover, unlike elsewhere, this new space meant to connect strangers seeking partners is in fact doing much more than it is intended to. While introducing new features to make user experience fun, it is also changing the Indian mindset and the stigma associated with online dating in our country.<br />
<br /> Dating is not considered a bad thing anymore because we’re going on more and more dates, extending our networks outside our immediate circles in our search for love, and embracing this evolving dating culture. And, this journey has resulted in several interesting trends. For example, 1 in 3 matches start with an interesting question, says <keyword id="37089" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="woo">Woo</keyword>, leading dating app in India which presently boasts of 2 million registered users.<br />
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The company has, therefore, been quick to sneak in ‘QuestionCast’, an alternate method of discovering people on its app through interesting Q&amp;A rather than just photos. That means, it becomes a match when two people posed with the same questions end up giving the same response! “There’s also TagSearch which turns the entire user base into the Internet of People, which can be browsed as simply as how we use hyperlinks to browse the Internet. Smarter discovery means more matches, more matches mean more people who actually find love through Woo’’ says Sumesh Menon, Co-Founder and CEO, Woo.<br />
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Such and more innovations are on the way, however, as this space continues to evolve, here’s Woo giving out trends you should watch out for to get the dating basics right, so that these matchmaking apps do not end up being a minefield of regret and missed opportunities for you in 2016.<br />
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<strong>1) Love food? Say it!</strong>: If you’ve always harboured a secret love for food, show off your gourmand side – a shared love for food, cooking or unusual cuisines are great ways to form connection.<br />
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<strong>2) Playful profiles</strong>: Add character to your profile with interesting photos and things you enjoy, but keep it original and avoid cliche. Don’t be the guy/girl who ‘lives life to the fullest’.<br />
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<strong>3) To start with</strong>: Start the conversation with an interesting question – it immediately dispels the awkwardness of the small talk routine.4)<br />
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<strong>4) Play it cool:</strong> Let people gradually reveal their personality through conversation – don’t start a conversation with a set agenda<br />
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<strong>5) Don't procrastinate: </strong>Messages sent within the first 24 hours are twice as likely to receive a response. So don’t just collect matches – initiate a conversation.<br />
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<strong>6) Be genuine: </strong>Look at the person's profile and write to them about something specific, so they know that you're not just randomly throwing out opening lines to every single person that is on the app. Spend time in reading their profile and ask questions which are relevant.<br />
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<strong>7) Do not use too many</strong> <strong>Emojis</strong> <strong>: </strong>Emojis are fun but not everybody appreciates that, so try to be real and kick-start your conversation with real words.<br />
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<strong>8) Momentum is important: </strong>Momentum is the key for every conversation to keep the interest going. Be responsive and involved and when the timing is right, make plans to connect on the phone or in person.<br />

7 basic dating tips that will help you get a match for sure

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"></div></div></div></p><p>Grant Langston has learned a lot over his 16-year tenure at eHarmony, the popular dating site launched in 2000.</p><p>But only in his six months as the company's new CEO has an important lesson become clear: Love conquers all - except when other dating apps are much easier to use.</p><p>"Whatever the onboarding time is for us," Langston recently told Business Insider, raising a flattened hand to about eye-level, "Tinder is here," he said, lowering his hand about two feet. "We've got to get in the universe of ease of use, so that the person who wants a relationship can see a way to use us."</p><p>Historically, eHarmony has not thought of swipe-based apps as competitors, since they tend to cater to more casual daters. But there are plenty of people who now use those apps to look for long-term partners - on Tinder it's 80% of users. Langston sees that shift as his best chance to entice marriage-seekers and, in the process, revive a dying brand.</p><h2>'That's our failure'</h2><p>Langston is the first to admit eHarmony needs help. Though the company essentially pioneered online dating a decade and a half ago, it has since fallen far behind the pack.</p><p>Dating apps like Tinder, Bumble, <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/janetwburns/2016/09/29/hinge-dumps-free-dating-to-get-serious-with-paid-users/#6967b76e58b4">Hinge</a>, and many others offer addicting swipe-based interfaces and seamless design that keep younger customers coming back. eHarmony users, on the other hand, fill out detailed questionnaires in the hopes of finding secure, long-term partners - a far cry from mindless thumb swipes.</p><p>Langston blames eHarmony's continued focus on marketing over user experience for its current challenges. While other apps are free and simple to use, eHarmony's users complain about high costs and poor functionality. The app has a one-star rating in the App Store.</p><p>By last count, eHarmony has about 750,000 paid subscribers and 10 million active users, which is about the same number it's had since 2012, Langston says. Tinder, meanwhile, has roughly <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/r-match-group-revenue-beats-as-tinder-attracts-more-paid-users-2016-5">1 million premium users</a> and 50 million people using the app. Two-year-old Bumble is also quickly gaining steam, having already accrued 3.5 million active users.</p><p>But as millennials creep into marriage age, the new CEO hopes sleeker pages, faster load times, and promising matchmaking algorithms can lure those with "swipe fatigue" away from the hookup apps of their youth.</p><p>"When I see people who use Tinder and they say in their headline they're not looking to hook up and want a real relationship, I'm like, that's our failure," Langston says. "That person should be on eHarmony."</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_left"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Shutterstock</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><h2>Laughing their way to the top</h2><p>Langston isn't hoping sleeker product design will get him a bigger userbase - at least not yet. He says business is still strong, even if it's not growing. His primary goal for 2017 is to increase user satisfaction. In an industry such as his, where customers may be quick to blame a poor experience on the service rather than their own shortcomings, that can be tough.</p><p>"How can we improve this business so that people who come to us and don't find the person of their dreams are still satisfied with the experience?" he says.</p><p>Part of eHarmony's answer to that question has been refining the site's matching algorithm.</p><p>In the beginning, about 16% of users who completed the questionnaire would receive a notification telling them the site couldn't make any matches for them. It was a disappointing dilemma: They'd either have to adjust their preferences or find a new dating site. Langston says only about 4% of people now get that notice, and most of them are already married, which the site frowns upon.</p><p>The company is also currently conducting <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/eharmony-ceo-different-senses-of-humor-2017-2">extensive research into people's senses of humor</a> with the intent to incorporate that information into its matching algorithm.</p><p>eHarmony built a portal where users can watch dozens of 30-second videos - from improv comedy to movie clips to viral prank videos - to determine their "humor profile." Do they prefer fart jokes or would they rather watch "The Daily Show"? The new feature will then categorize their sense of humor based on nine different types.</p><p><span>"At this point, it seems very likely that it will be an important way to match people," Langston says of using humor to pair daters, but he adds that isn't the final step. "You have to ask yourself, Does it correlate to better relationships?" That answer will come with further testing over the next several months.</span></p><p>The company is also making other small fixes attempt to help the app feel fresher. Due to decreasing numbers of older users, eHarmony dropped its Guided Communication feature, which offered prompts to help users start chatting. And now when people get a match, they see an entire dashboard about their compatibility, not just the notification that a match has been made.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="http://www.apimages.com/secured_user/Download.aspx?st=dl&amp;attemptedDL=1&amp;errors=&amp;impid=&amp;hash=f2f77qtJn09vsk%252f1FCAsq%252fm0Wf08hU39Xjh3rXzQy8fFfcpZrIgdI2Yql1kYb4D7oLEERSsIVzy%252bxfNe64XK7g%253d%253d">Associated Press</a></span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><h2>A future of inclusivity</h2><p>Product issues notwithstanding, the service is still wrestling with some philosophical challenges in its quest to capture younger users.</p><p>For instance, only after eHarmony settled a 2005 discrimination suit in 2009 did it start a site for same-sex daters. That site, Compatible Partners, is successful on its own, Langston says, but he acknowledges that it would probably do better if it lived under eHarmony's roof.</p><p>"In the long term, it has to be there," he says. "It has to be joined together because eventually it just looks weirder and weirder for it to be separate."</p><p>Then there's the issue of cost, a common gripe among the one-star reviewers. Set against a backdrop of freemium dating apps, eHarmony's model may seem overly demanding. You can fill out the questionnaire and get matches for free, but you have to subscribe to see their photos or talk to them. A monthly subscription costs $59.95 per month, while a six-month subscription amounts to $15.95 per month. People who pay for Tinder's premium service, Tinder Plus, are charged no more than $19.99 per month. For people under 30 years old, it's $9.99.</p><p>Langston says eHarmony has built up a loyal subscriber base over the years - generally people who have drifted in and out of the dating pool. Capturing new ones will mean confronting the fact that millennials have grown accustomed to paying nothing for dating apps.</p><p>Despite those challenges, Langston still believes that the right design tweaks, in combination with 16 years of algorithm research, will allow eHarmony to prevail over newer, more self-guided services in helping people find love.</p><p><span>"People who have a great time on Tinder, maybe they find someone," he says. "Good for them." As for the people that don't, "they'll come our way."</span></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/why-dating-your-type-mistake-2017-1">A dating expert reveals an interesting trick for more successful relationships</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="Nha3JwODE6yg4CW5SMcLQTw8Ifs394Ab" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

eHarmony is gearing up for a battle to win back millennials from Tinder and Bumble

<p dir="ltr"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>"I've tried online sites and am tired of looking at profiles with guys wearing hats and sunglasses. Are they in the witness protection program?"</p><p dir="ltr">That's Ellen. She's, by her own definition, a DWJF - divorced, white, Jewish female - and she's looking for romance.</p><p dir="ltr">The 61-year-old Manhattanite recently posted a personal ad to Craigslist in an attempt to get one step closer to a "warm male mensch."</p><p dir="ltr">You may be wondering, why Craigslist? So was I. After a cursory Google search, it's clear there are plenty of dating sites tailor-made for the over-50 crowd, not to mention the dozens created for the twenty-and-thirty-somethings.</p><p dir="ltr">So why, Ellen, would you take your quest to the land of apartment scams and $10 Ikea dressers? Surprisingly, she says, people are more honest there.</p><p dir="ltr">But let's start at the beginning. Ellen has dabbled in online dating for almost two decades.</p><p dir="ltr">"I started online dating shortly after I got divorced in 1998," Ellen, a psychiatrist, told me when I contacted her - through Craigslist, of course - to inquire about her ad. "I tried it all - JDate, Match, eHarmony…" Her voice trails off, as if she's thinking hard. She comes back. "eHarmony was the complicated one. So many questions. And for a few years, I had profiles on Match and J-Date up at the same time."</p><p dir="ltr"><span>Ellen's voice is warm and inviting. A stand-up comedian by night, she has a great sense of humor. And, like the rest of the millions of people registered on dating sites and apps across the internet, she finds dating exciting, if not simultaneously exhausting.</span></p><p dir="ltr">So after a grueling 17 years in the online dating world, Ellen decided to get back to basics. No, not by speed dating or being set up by friends or meeting a real-life matchmaker, but through Craigslist - the online classified section whose layout and functionality have been largely the same since its debut in 1995.</p><p dir="ltr">Here's her ad:</p><p dir="ltr"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div></p><p dir="ltr">The full text reads:</p><p style="padding-left: 30px;" dir="ltr">The dating world has changed a lot since I got divorced. Hook-ups? Friend With Benefits? Is that health and dental benefits? I'm kind of old fashioned so if you are genuinely single and want to meet someone educated and reasonable, please get in touch. I'm not a Victoria's Secret model but I am told I'm cute/pretty and have a sense of humor and am slim. I'd like to meet someone wonderful. I've tried online sites and am tired of looking at profiles with guys wearing hats and sunglasses. Are they in the witness protection program?</p><p style="padding-left: 30px;" dir="ltr">Seeking single/divorced/widowed professional funny, friendly male mensch for friendship/companionship and eventual romance in Manhattan. I love stand-up comedy, film, TV, theater, music, cruises, coffee, museums. I met a guy who didn't own a TV. I love TV! I enjoy reading and writing and am working on a book. I work part-time in Brooklyn, 3 days a week. Are you single and a fan of the arts? Do you have some free time on weekends for conversation and companionship? Seeking someone drug-free and truthful and reliable.</p><p style="padding-left: 30px;" dir="ltr">Please don't respond if you are alcoholic or smoke pot/use any drugs, or are married/involved with someone else, or are under 45. Pets and kids are fine. Non smoking and health-conscious. 5'5" 128 lbs., brunette.</p><p dir="ltr"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Nothing on Ellen's list strikes me as far-fetched. If anything, it's a little cliche. Who's looking for a mean-spirited liar? But as anyone who has spent more than five minutes in the dating scene knows, finding a true partner can be like searching for Waldo (as in "Where's?").</span></p><p dir="ltr">And Waldo, Ellen says, was not on any of the dating sites she signed up for.</p><p dir="ltr">"I learned to ask a lot of questions," she told me when I asked what she had learned from her experiences. "When I go on dates now I say, you know, 'are you completely, verifiably divorced,' you know, 'are you completely single?' Because I learned separated really means married."</p><p dir="ltr">According to a Pew Research study from April, 6% of singles ages 55-64 are online dating, a far cry from the overwhelming 22% of 25-to-34-year-old singles signed up to find love. And Ellen's age group is what Pew calls a thinning market; <span>they have "a relatively limited number of available partners within their immediate social circles." </span></p><p dir="ltr"><span>Ellen, who has been riding the dating train since she was 44, has also seen the stigma of online dating disappear. "It used to be a thing no one understood or wanted to talk about," she recalls. "Like something was wrong with you if you had to take that path to get a date."</span></p><p dir="ltr">But along with the advent of online dating, and the dozens and dozens of sites created to make finding companionship easy, she figured out the cold, hard, truth: any site can promise to make you a match, but paying $19.99 a month to find love doesn't necessarily mean love will find you.</p><p dir="ltr"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div></p><p dir="ltr">She told me a handful of tales as old as time about her dating horror stories. Exhaustive stories with similar endings: dishonest people always get caught being dishonest. If you're invested, the result of that betrayal can be heartbreaking. It's a risk you take when you decide to get romantically involved with someone, she understands, but if that's what you're going to end up with, why would you willingly pay a monthly fee to get it?</p><p dir="ltr"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">And that's, Ellen says, what led her back to the personal ads on Craigslist.</span></p><p class="p1"><span class="s1">She has actually been a fan of Craigslist for years. The comic spends plenty of time on the pages for TV and film gigs - back in 2005, she and her kids starred in an award-winning documentary called "Vegucated," where they went vegan for six weeks. The movie is currently on Netflix.</span></p><p class="p1"><span class="s1">Ellen might not have found her Craigslist Prince Charming yet, but she does have three dates lined up at the moment - dates she's already spoken to on the phone and will meet for the first in a public place during the day to ensure safety.  </span></p><p class="p1"><span class="s1">And she also shared some surprising news: dating through the personal section isn't all that bad.</span></p><p dir="ltr">"I found Craigslist no worse than J-Date or Match.com and I've been on those for years. You find weird and creepy people wherever you go! Anyone can lie on any of these sites," she's laughing now. "You save money if you go on Craigslist. People are more transparent there."</p><p dir="ltr">One site she hasn't tried is Tinder.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div></p><p class="p1"><span class="s1">"My daughter is 20 and she met someone on Tinder," she tells me. "We're bonding over the same stuff and we're a generation apart."</span></p><p dir="ltr">You have to have a good attitude, and you have to learn to laugh at everything, Ellen informs me, recalling a lewd email she received in response to her G-rated ad.</p><p dir="ltr">"Are you good at BJ's!" she squeals into the phone, reading the email. "That's his opening gamut! I'm a doctor! I just delete it. It's clear what this guy's about and I delete it."</p><p dir="ltr">She calls the entire experience of Craigslist dating "low stakes," informing me that the <a href="http://www.craigslist.org/about/best/all/">"best of Craigslist" section</a> is prime material for acting teachers who need to gather unique monologues for their classes.</p><p dir="ltr">Her dating advice for others is simple: "If you listen, he'll tell you who he really is. You dont want to make the mistake where you get involved with someone. Take your time and it will pay off."</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/tinder-plus-premium-version-over-30-pay-2015-3">If you're over 30, you're going to have to pay more for Tinder's new sub service</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="ZkNTVxczoQpFEGc5kOsjWDiSnbGH-v7a" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

I answered a 61-year-old woman's personal ad to find out why she's looking for love on Craigslist

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right click-to-enlarge"><div><div class="image on-image"><a title_source="Screenshot/Instagram" title_caption="" class="zoomin" href="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/5277e48e6bb3f75f2a022cdb-960/love-on-instagram-proposal.png"><span class="click-to-enlarge-icon" title="Click to enlarge"></span></a><p class="source">Screenshot/Instagram</p></div><p></p></div></div>People find love online all of the time, and the stigma of e-dating has diminished over the years. But n<span style="line-height: 1.5em;">ow people are going outside <keyword id="6367193" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Dating">dating</keyword> sites and finding their matches on networks not meant for matchmaking.</span></p>
<p>Take Denis Lafargue, of Mandeville, La., and Elizabeth Wisdom, of Mineola, Texas, for example.</p>
<p>They fell in love on Instagram.</p>
<p>It all started when Wisdom, 21, posted a photo of Crater Lake, Ore., on her Instagram feed in 2012, and Lafargue, a stranger, commented. <span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Lafargue, also 21, had been to Crater Lake earlier that year with his family.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">This is the photo:</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> <div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table click-to-enlarge"><div><div class="image on-image"><a title_source="Screenshot/Instagram" title_caption="" class="zoomin" href="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/5277e31aeab8eae57062459c-960/screen shot 2013-11-04 at 1.08.57 pm.png"><span class="click-to-enlarge-icon" title="Click to enlarge"></span></a><p class="source">Screenshot/Instagram</p></div><p></p></div></div></span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span>"He kept commenting on my photos and so I finally decided to check out his profile. I started looking forward to comments I'd get from him."</span></span></p>
<p><a href="http://gma.yahoo.com/blogs/abc-blogs/picture-perfect-couple-finds-love-gets-engaged-instagram-160726256--abc-news-lifestyle.html?vp=1">"Over time, the plausible next step for the two 21-year-olds, who "liked" each other in more ways than one, was to meet in person,"</a> GMA reported this morning.</p>
<p>They did, and immediately fell in love.</p>
<p>"Attention," Lafargue posted as a caption on one of his photos, shortly after meeting Wisdom for the first time, "I have met my instalady!"</p>
<p>A little over a year later,<span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> Lafargue decided to propose. Instagram was very much a part of the grand gesture; Lafargue </span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">gathered 30 Instagram photos chronicling their relationship and </span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">strategically placed them along a route leading Wisdom to a barn on her grandmother's property, the place where she had always wanted to be married.</span></p>
<p id="yui_3_9_1_20_1383586609345_180">Then he popped the question.</p>
<p>The answer was yes.</p>
<p><a href="http://gma.yahoo.com/blogs/abc-blogs/picture-perfect-couple-finds-love-gets-engaged-instagram-160726256--abc-news-lifestyle.html?vp=1">You can watch the GMA clip of the couple here.</a></p>

This Couple Fell In Love On Instagram And Now They're Engaged

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>Dating is not what it used to be, and with the annual day of love just around the corner many young singles are turning to professional matchmaking services to find their Valentine.</p>
<p>While dating sites are a popular choice among people aged 35 and over, Ideal Introductions Director and expert match-maker Linda Prescott says many young professionals are time poor and want quality over quantity when looking for "the one".</p>
<p>"People are now abandoning social media and opting for traditional face-to-face encounters," she says.</p>
<p>"They need help filtering out those who are not genuine and want to avoid wasting time sifting through online dating profiles."</p>
<p>So according to Prescott, "[If you] have been out of the dating game for a while or… have just been unlucky in love, the key to success is being proactive, not sitting at home alone and wondering why that special someone isn't knocking down your door."</p>
<p>She says, "Just be yourself and don't play games". "Being open and approachable" will help anyone who doesn't know where to start.</p>
<p>So to make sure you feel the love this V-Day, here's her key pieces of advice for finding love.</p>
<h2>Be proactive</h2>
<p>"Don't be afraid to put yourself out there. You never know when cupids arrow will hit," says Prescott.</p>
<p>"If this is another year that you find yourself dateless on Valentines, it's time to do something different. Grab your single friends and go to an organised singles event, a great restaurant or your favourite bar."</p>
<p>She also suggests blind dating.</p>
<p>According to her own research, based on 26 single men and 39 single women, Prescott said nearly half agree that some of their best dates have been blind dates and that over 40% of respondents would give blind dates a go.</p>
<h2>Make sure the time is right</h2>
<p>"Before you start dating again, make sure you are emotionally available," said Prescott.</p>
<p>"Ask yourself these questions: Have you let go of the past and have you learnt from your mistakes? Remember what you want in a partner can be different to what you actually need. Do you know what you need?"</p>
<p>She also said that people need to be aware love isn't going to happen overnight.</p>
<p>In fact she found that 32% of people wish they had more time to meet new people.</p>
<p>"Meeting the 'right' person and finding a compatible love interest can be complicated," she said.</p>
<p>"Make sure to stay open-hearted, you may not find 'the one' straight away, but with outsourcing your love life, you are on the way there.</p>
<p>"[And] it takes more than one date to determine if there is chemistry and a romantic connection between two people. The magic number is around three dates."</p>
<h2>Know how to date</h2>
<p>According to Prescott there are two main reasons people are single: "Men are bad daters and women have incredibly high standards."</p>
<p>"I work with my clients in both these areas to find the happy medium," she said.</p>
<p>"The longer you are single and the more heartbreak you have endured, the easier it is to get set in your ways and draw up an impossibly demanding wish list." She says most successful couples are those that give their date a chance to begin with.</p>
<p>Here are 10 secrets to the perfect date.</p>
<ol>
<li><strong>Do pay attention to presentation.</strong> Make a good impression.</li>
<li><strong>Do be polite.</strong> It sounds simple but paying a compliment can make a big difference.</li>
<li><strong>Do be on time.</strong> When either of my daters was late I knew any romance was doomed.</li>
<li><strong>Don't drink too much.</strong> A drink or two can oil the wheels, a bottle or two can have you revealing too much too soon.</li>
<li><strong>Don't just bang on about your own interests,</strong> be interested in your date.</li>
<li><strong>Do show you want a relationship.</strong> It's great to make your life seem interesting, but not so full that you have no time for love.</li>
<li><strong>Don't be bossy.</strong> The date where the man insisted on ordering all the woman's food for her didn't end well.</li>
<li><strong>Do be open to new experiences.</strong> Love blossomed for one couple as they got battered and bruised trying their hand at indoor surfing. But the man whose fear of heights stopped him going on the London Eye kissed goodbye to any chance of romance.</li>
<li><strong>Do bring gifts.</strong> You can wow your date with a beautifully wrapped bottle of a wine or a small posy of flowers.</li>
<li><strong>Do give your date a chance.</strong> Rather than send our couples on a single blind date, they went on three, and I cannot count the number of times our daters said it gave them the chance to find out how they really felt about each other. Snap judgements are at the root of many a ruined relationship.</li>
</ol>

10 tips for the perfect Valentine's Day date

<p class="p1"><span class="s1"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>"Destiny" is not the same game that was released nine months ago.</span></p><p class="p1"><span class="s1">From the makers of "Halo," one of the biggest gaming franchises of all time, "Destiny" lets players create their own space warriors, called Guardians, to fight all the minions of the Darkness that inhabit the Earth, the Moon, Venus, and Mars. </span></p><p class="p1"><span class="s1">"Destiny" didn't receive the same critical praise "Halo" did when it first released back in 2001. But now that Bungie released the second major expansion for "Destiny" last week, the game feels more complete than it's ever felt. With all the additions and tweaks, "Destiny" feels like a much more balanced and ultimately more satisfying experience.</span></p><h2 class="p1"><span class="s1"><strong>The good</strong></span></h2><p class="p1"><span class="s1">There are a <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/destiny-house-of-wolves-features-new-weapons-armor-rewards-2015-5">ton of new things</a> to discover in "Destiny," now that the second expansion, "The House Of Wolves," is available. Here's all the positive takeaways:</span></p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul><li><strong style="line-height: 1.5em;">The new social space.</strong><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> There's a new area called the Vestian Outpost, which serves as your main site for getting new bounties, weapons, and other missions specific to the House of Wolves storyline. This area is relatively small but gorgeous, especially as the nearby asteroid belt bathes the area in a warm purple glow. There are new non-playable characters (NPCs) to interact with at this Outpost, which all have funny things to say if you listen closely, and Bungie even added new music for this particular area, which sounds both haunting and epic. That said, there are a ton of doors in this new area, and you can open only a few of them. Hopefully we see new areas open up over time.</span></li><li><strong style="line-height: 1.5em;">New story missions.</strong><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> In this expansion, the Queen calls upon all Guardians to hunt down the House of Wolves, a group of aliens called Fallen that were once loyal to the Queen before they decided to rebel. The story missions weren't a highlight in the original game or the first "Destiny" expansion, but they shine in "House of Wolves": The voiceovers are colorful and engaging, and they give you a sense of purpose as you move forward in the story. There are also a few welcome surprises and epic boss fights, all of which are highly memorable.</span></li><li><strong style="line-height: 1.5em;">The new strike.</strong><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> "The Shadow Thief" won't be a long adventure for your three-man team, but boy is it fun. You and your teammates must hunt down Tanniks the Scarred, a Fallen warrior - you chase him across through the moon's caverns, and eventually follow him into his spaceship, inflicting damage along the way. Finally you'll square off against him in a giant arena-like room. It's a heart-pounding ride with excellent pacing.</span></li></ul><p class="p3"><span class="s1"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><br /></span></p><ul><li><strong style="line-height: 1.5em;">The new content. </strong><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Weapons, armor, enemies, bosses, gear, and more - there is a ton of new stuff to discover in "Destiny." And it's all designed to fit certain themes, like the Queen, the House of Wolves, and some of the other challenges you'll find along the way.  </span></li><li><strong style="line-height: 1.5em;">The "new" Crucible.</strong><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> If you want to fight against other Guardians, you play the Crucible - but after last week's update, you'll now get double rewards for everything you do, and you'll be rewarded based on your performance, not just at random. Bungie added a few new maps, too, which are all beautiful and fun to play. </span></li><li><strong style="line-height: 1.5em;">The Trials of Osiris.</strong><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> This is the ultimate test for fans of the Crucible: It's a weekly event that runs every Friday through Monday, where teams of three square off in elimination-style rounds: Win five rounds and you've won the match, and you need either nine wins, or three losses, to complete the Trials. <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/destiny-trials-of-osiris-flawless-rewards-2015-5">As incredible rewards await those Guardians that complete the Trials of Osiris flawlessly</a> (nine wins and zero losses), you won't find a more thrilling experience in Destiny, especially as you start to rack up the wins - since you won't know which teams you're playing ahead of time, your winning streak is always at risk.</span></li></ul><h2 class="p3"><span class="s1">The not-so-good</span></h2><p class="p3"><span class="s1">"Destiny" has never been a perfect game, so even though "The House of Wolves" introduces a ton of positive changes, there are still a few gripes we have:</span></p><ul><li><strong style="line-height: 1.5em;">The new social space is a bit limited.</strong><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> One of the first things I noticed while perusing the Vestian Outpost is how many locked doors I encountered. Hopefully we see some new areas open up in this social space over time.</span></li><li><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><strong>One's storage vault isn't nearly as big as it needs to be.</strong> If you need more room to store all the weapons, armor, and materials you've collected from the game, you simply drop them in your vault, which you <span>can even access over mobile in case you want to quickly switch items between characters. Unfortunately, the size of the vault can't possibly contain all the new goodies you'll come across in "House of Wolves," meaning you'll need to find ways to clear up space - namely, deleting old items you've picked up. This is unfortunate: I want to keep all the goods I've collected since September, but there's no way I can do that right now.</span></span></li><li><strong style="line-height: 1.5em;"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><strong style="line-height: 1.5em;">Matchmaking is still an issue.</strong></strong><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> Many of the best experiences in "Destiny" require three or six other players - but if you don't have many friends that play the game, you'll be forced to look for pick-up groups online, or you're out of luck. Two of the new endgame activities, "Prison of Elders" and "Trials of Osiris," both fall under this category, where you'll be forced to look for "Destiny" players online if you want to play the game. Bungie acknowledges that everyone plays "Destiny" differently, and even offers matchmaking for certain aspects of the game, but it would be nice to see more matchmaking for other parts of the game.</span></li><li><strong style="line-height: 1.5em;">Many "new" locations aren't actually new at all.</strong><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> New Crucible maps aside, "The House of Wolves" doesn't offer many new sights. You'll be running through the same spots on the same planets as before, but you'll see them in new ways - for example, you revisit one of the first areas you play when you start a new game, but you play through that level backwards. And aside from the Prison of Elders and the new planet that emerges if you score a perfect 9-0 in Trials of Osiris, you'll be treated to many of the same old maps. That's a bit disappointing considering how much else in this expansion is "new." </span></li></ul><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><br /></span></p><ul><li><strong style="line-height: 1.5em;">"The Prison of Elders" is flawed and repetitive.</strong><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> In lieu of a traditional "raid," where six players are sent to a giant area and forced to use teamwork to solve puzzles and defeat enemies, The House of Wolves comes with an "arena" mode called "Prison of Elders," where you'll fight wave after wave of enemies. If you beat all five rounds in the prison, you'll be treated to the Queen's treasures. But despite the great rewards in the Prison of Elders, the journey to get there is tired and unremarkable. </span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">You'll fight the same enemies over and over - albeit with different "modifiers" that change aspects of gameplay, like making certain weapons do more damage or the ability to deal out more damage while airborne. But the modifiers don't help much; Prison of Elders feels like a grind. There's no real story in this game mode, it's all about killing off enemies and completing mini-missions that will kill you and your entire team if you don't complete them in a certain time frame. Some people will love having what essentially boils down to a shooting gallery, but personally, I was disappointed at the tedium of this new mode. I prefer Trials of Osiris for getting the new endgame gear, even though that mode's restricted to weekends only.</span></li></ul><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><br /></span></p><p class="p3"><span class="s1">I have other small nitpicks - the inability to re-join a fire team can be particularly frustrating for players that were accidentally booted due to a bad internet connection - but by and large, much of "Destiny" will continue to change (and hopefully improve) over time. Since its September launch, Bungie has proven it's constantly listening to fans and shaping the game based off that feedback to create the best, frictionless experience possible. Many of the improvements and additions in "House of Wolves" were originally suggested by the "Destiny" community.</span></p><p class="p3"><span class="s1">In all, "Destiny" feels like a more complete game thanks to the "House of Wolves" expansion. There's heaps of new armor and weapons to discover, countless weekly challenges that offer equally great challenges and rewards, and the best multiplayer experience I've ever had thanks to "Trials of Osiris." If you haven't played "Destiny" - ever, or in the last week especially - now's a great time. But what's most exciting is the fact that "Destiny" isn't done growing: This is only the first year of Bungie's 10-year plan for the franchise. And so far, it's off to a great start.</span></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/kate-upton-game-of-war-not-really-free-mobile-2015-5">How you could end up spending thousands on Kate Upton's 'Game of War'</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="11N3Q3dTojPopxm1b3cw_DloOLbJL3cO" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

'Destiny' is so much better than it was nine months ago

<p class="source">
				Wyldfire</p>
			<p class="caption">
				Wyldfire tries to keep out the creepers.</p>
		
		
	

Dating apps can be a little sketchy. Since most of them don't have actual human matchmakers monitoring the action, things can get a little out of hand, especially when anyone can message strangers anything they want.

<p>
	Yes, there may be success stories, but there are also creepers. And these creepers can totally ruin the experience.</p>
<p>
	That's where <a href="http://www.wyldfireapp.com/#intro" target="_blank">Wyldfire</a> thinks they have the solution: Let women screen male users before they are able to join the dating platform. On Wyldfire, women can sign up freely, but men need to be invited by a female friend in order to join. This gendered splitdown is meant to reassure women that any man on the app has been approved by some other woman out there, hopefully signaling that he is not a creeper.</p>
<p>
	The idea came about when founders Brian Freeman and Andrew White had just gotten out of long-term relationships and decided to enter the online dating scene. They felt like most women wouldn't even give them a chance because they were just waiting for them to say something creepy.</p>
<p>
	"They're anticipating that we're going to send a creepy message and then we have to work backwards from that," Freeman told Business Insider. "And we could do better by starting from zero rather than negative."</p>
<p>
	Freeman and White started talking to their female friends who told them that dating apps made them feel like "a piece of meat" and that all the guys they met were "a** holes."</p>
<p>
	"What's to prevent a guy in prison to join a dating site?" Freeman said.</p>
<p>
	So he and White got working on the app and decided to create a different sign-up process for women and men. In order for a woman to join Wyldfire she has to send a "feather" to a male friend (aka a text message), inviting him to join the app. A man who wants to join the app either has to receive a feather or ask a female friend to send him a feather.</p>
<p>
	Beyond the initial screening, Wyldfire takes any reports from users very seriously. If a user flags another user, the account will immediately be shut down and the Wyldfire team will assess their messages to determine the problem and decide if the account should be shut down permanently. This monitoring will be especially important as Wyldfire plans to introduce photo messaging to the app in the near-future.</p>
<p>
	In a way, Wyldfire kind of applies the science behind Lulu, an app that lets women rate men, to dating app Tinder. While <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/lulu-app-for-iphone-2014-3" target="_blank">men haven't been too thrilled about Lulu</a> and may not love the idea of Wyldfire taking this to another level, the fact that women may be more willing to use Wyldfire could turn into a plus for men. And let's face it, if a man doesn't have one good female friend to invite him to Wyldfire, maybe he should do some soul-searching.</p>
<p>
	Wyldfire is still in beta, so you'll have to <a href="http://wyldfireapp.us3.list-manage1.com/subscribe?u=8d5bb456966b6314c15dce726&amp;id=44c563cfb8" target="_blank">register for a spot</a> for now. They're starting out with a push in San Francisco over the next ten days, and then they plan to pick the next locations based on how many registrations they get.</p>
<p>
	It remains to be seen w<span>hether or not Wyldfire will actually take off once it goes public, but the promise of fewer sleazeballs and a better screening process sounds encouraging. Tinder beware.</span></p>
<h2>
	<span>Here's a screenshot of Wyldfire:</span></h2>


	
		
		<p class="source">
			Wyldfire</p>
	
	

<br />

<h2>
	Check out Wyldfire's promotional video:</h2>
<p>
	</p>

A New Dating App Won't Let Men Join Unless Women Approve Them First

Ever since companies such as eBay and Google were founded, consumers have been experiencing the contribution of Internet in their daily lives.<br />
<br /> Internet has touched almost all the industries and has transformed the world of scarcity to the world of abundance by organising the unorganised resources, delivering them at the right time and at the right price to consumers in need. Hypergrowth and appreciation in valuation of several <keyword id="476126" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="internet-companies">Internet companies</keyword> have made people curious to understand what is so special about these companies.<br />
<br />
Like nervous system is the control and communication system of a human body and has two main organs- brain and spinal cord, likewise, , the fastest growing Internet companies also have a nervous system with two main concepts --Multisided Platform and Crowdsourcing.<br />
<br />
<strong>Multisided Platforms:</strong> Platform is an intermediary that facilitates exchange of products and services between two (or more) user groups. User groups form sides of multisided platform and are attracted to the platform due to network effects.  A network effect is a phenomenon that makes a platform more valuable when more people use it.<br />
<br />
When members in user group on one side get attracted towards members of user group on the other side, the network effect is called cross-sided network effect. For instance, patients (user group on one side) would prefer to go to a hospital (platform) that has more numbers of reputed doctors (user group on other side). When more members join a user group on one side and make that specific side stronger, then the network effect is called same-side network effect. In this case, hospital that has good doctors would be able to attract more good doctors and when more good doctors join a hospital, strength of hospital as a platform increases.<br />
<br />
Below is the list of a few traditional platforms that we have been using for decades, much before the age of Internet:<br />
<table align="center" border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<td>
				<strong>Platform</strong></td>
			<td>
				<strong>Side 1</strong></td>
			<td>
				<strong>Side 2</strong></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>
				Vegetable Markets</td>
			<td>
				Vegetable Hawkers</td>
			<td>
				Vegetable Buyers</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>
				Consulting Firms</td>
			<td>
				Consultants</td>
			<td>
				Clients</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>
				Hospitals</td>
			<td>
				Doctors</td>
			<td>
				Patients</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>
				Publishers</td>
			<td>
				Writers</td>
			<td>
				Readers</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>
				Taxi Stand, Bus Stand, Railway Platforms, Airports</td>
			<td>
				Transportation Mediums</td>
			<td>
				Travellers</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>
				Matchmakers, Singles Clubs</td>
			<td>
				Boys</td>
			<td>
				Girls</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>
				Shopping Malls</td>
			<td>
				Retailers</td>
			<td>
				Shoppers</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>
				News Papers</td>
			<td>
				Advertisers</td>
			<td>
				Readers</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>
				Conferences</td>
			<td>
				Speakers</td>
			<td>
				Audience</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>
				Stock Exchanges</td>
			<td>
				Companies that need to raise capital</td>
			<td>
				Investors</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>
				Real Estate Brokers</td>
			<td>
				Builders</td>
			<td>
				Buyers</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>
<br /><br />
 <br />
<strong>Crowdsourcing:</strong> Crowdsourcing can also be seen as outsourcing to crowd. It is a process of getting ideas and work done through a crowd of people instead of full time resources hired for that particular work. For instance,  in the famous quiz show, Kaun Banega Crorepati, contestants used to get few lifelines including audience poll. In this lifeline, participants outsource question to audience (crowd) and get their opinions on answers. Similarly, contests such as case study competitions and programming contests organised by corporates in business schools and engineering schools etc. are also the examples of crowdsourcing as students (external crowd) put in efforts to come up with multiple solutions for a given problem. <br />
<br />
When businesses add power of Internet with the concepts of multisided platform and crowdsourcing, they are able to scale up very fast, to aggregate supply from various sources, remove bottlenecks between demand and supply, provide transparency through reviews &amp; ratings and are able to provide niche products that not available locally. Now, let’s have a look at examples of Internet based platforms that are powered by crowdsourcing.<br />
<br />
<strong><keyword id="1042120" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Uber">Uber</keyword>:</strong> Uber is mobile Internet app that connects commuters with taxi drivers. Uber doesn’t own any taxi, crowd of taxi drivers register with Uber and Uber outsources the commuter’s requirement to one of the registered drivers. In this kind of model, both demand and supply side gets benefited by addition of more people in the respective groups.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<strong><keyword id="6354576" type="CITY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Facebook">Facebook</keyword>:</strong> Facebook is an Internet based social networking site. Crowd of users joins Facebook to network with other users and get to know happenings in the life of people in their network. Users keep on generating content in the form of news, videos, pictures etc. that keeps other users engaged. As Facebook has over 1 billion users, it is a great platform for advertisers and developers to reach out to their targeted audience.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Below is the list of a few Internet companies that are based on concept of multisided platform and crowdsourcing. <br />
<table align="center" border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<td>
				<strong>Company</strong></td>
			<td>
				<strong>Platform Utility</strong></td>
			<td>
				<strong>Sides</strong></td>
			<td>
				<strong>Crowd</strong></td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>
				Google</td>
			<td>
				Information Search</td>
			<td>
				·         Advertisers<br />
				·         Content Owners<br />
				·         Web Searchers</td>
			<td>
				Websites: Google’s PageRank works by counting the number and quality of links to a page from other websites.<br />
				 </td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>
				Facebook</td>
			<td>
				Social Networking</td>
			<td>
				·         Advertisers<br />
				·         Application Developers<br />
				·         Users who want to connect with friends</td>
			<td>
				Users: Content on Facebook is generated by registered users.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>
				Alibaba, eBay, &amp; Snapdeal</td>
			<td>
				Online Shopping</td>
			<td>
				·         Sellers<br />
				·         Buyers</td>
			<td>
				Sellers:  Provide products.<br />
				Customers:  Provide sellers’ reviews.<br />
				 </td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>
				Uber &amp; Ola</td>
			<td>
				Local Transport</td>
			<td>
				·         Taxi Drivers<br />
				·         Commuters</td>
			<td>
				Taxi Drivers: Provide Taxis.<br />
				Customers: Provide drivers’ reviews.<br />
				 </td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>
				Airbnb</td>
			<td>
				Accommodation</td>
			<td>
				·         Accommodation Providers (Hosts)<br />
				·         Travellers (Guests)</td>
			<td>
				Hosts : Provide Accommodation &amp; Reviews<br />
				Travellers: Provide Reviews.<br />
				 </td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>
				OLX &amp; Quikr</td>
			<td>
				Used Goods Exchange</td>
			<td>
				·         Used Goods Sellers<br />
				·         Used Goods Buyers</td>
			<td>
				Sellers: Provide products for sale.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>
				Freecharge</td>
			<td>
				Online Recharge</td>
			<td>
				·         Telecom &amp; DTH Operators<br />
				·         Retailers (shopping coupon providers)<br />
				·         Users looking for mobile phone, DTH, &amp; Data card recharge</td>
			<td>
				Telecom &amp; DTH operators: Provide recharge options.<br />
				Retailers: Provide shopping coupons.<br />
				 </td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>
				Naukri</td>
			<td>
				Job Search</td>
			<td>
				·         Recruiters<br />
				·         Job Seekers</td>
			<td>
				Recruiters: Provide job requirements.<br />
				Job Seekers: Provide Resumes.<br />
				 </td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>
				Zomato</td>
			<td>
				Restaurant Search</td>
			<td>
				·         Restaurant Owners<br />
				·         Customers</td>
			<td>
				Restaurant owners: Provide information on menu, location etc.<br />
				Customers: Provide reviews.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>
				JustDial</td>
			<td>
				 Local Service/Products Providers Search</td>
			<td>
				·         Service Providers<br />
				·         Prospective Customers</td>
			<td>
				Local service &amp; product providers.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>
				YouTube</td>
			<td>
				Video Sharing</td>
			<td>
				·         Video Uploaders<br />
				·         Video Watchers<br />
				·         Advertisers</td>
			<td>
				Video Uploaders</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>
				LinkedIn</td>
			<td>
				Professional Networking</td>
			<td>
				·         Advertisers<br />
				·         Recruiters<br />
				·         Professional Networkers<br />
				·         Developers</td>
			<td>
				Users : Create profiles, write articles, share information etc.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>
				Apple App Store</td>
			<td>
				Mobile Apps Distribution</td>
			<td>
				·         App Developers<br />
				·         Mobile Device Users</td>
			<td>
				App Developers: Provide Apps for downloading.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>
				Shaadi</td>
			<td>
				Matrimony</td>
			<td>
				·         Prospective Grooms<br />
				·         Prospective Brides</td>
			<td>
				Users: Profiles on matrimony site are created by registered users.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>
				Coursera</td>
			<td>
				Education</td>
			<td>
				·         Universities<br />
				·         Course Students</td>
			<td>
				Universities: They create content &amp; provide courses.</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>
<br /><br />
Note: Based on interpretation and evolution of business model, a few of the above platforms may have more crowd sources &amp; sides.<br />
<br />
In these kinds of businesses, best performers or leaders capture huge market share and make it difficult for competitors to grow. But, to remain the market leader, companies have to put in a lot of efforts to gain credibility for their platforms and make users and crowd experience pleasant so that they don’t switch to competitor’s platforms.<br />
Orkut, the social networking platform owned by Google was very popular, but Facebook gained more credibility and eventually people switched from Orkut to Facebook. By providing proper user experience, Facebook has been able to retain its users and has been giving tough competition to Google+. Similarly, Google was not the first search engine in the market, but by providing better search results, it became the market leader and with time its competitors moved out of market. By maintaining its credibility and popularity, Google has been able to create barriers for new competitors. <br />
<br />
(Image: Indiatimes)<br />

Decoding nervous system of fastest growing internet companies

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Reuters</span></p><p class="caption">Jeffrey Epstein appears in a photo taken for the NY Division of Criminal Justice Services' sex offender registry</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul class="summary-list"><li style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>An anonymous woman has sued the estate of <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/jeffrey-epstein">Jeffrey Epstein</a>, claiming that Epstein forced her into a fraudulent marriage in order to keep a foreign girlfriend in the country.</strong></li><li style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Business Insider has identified at least one other, previously unreported, marriage between two women in Epstein's entourage.</strong></li><li style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>One is a U.S. citizen, the other is from Eastern Europe. They have since divorced.</strong></li><li style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>A source tells Business Insider that the couple married at Epstein's direction, and that there have been a total of three such marriages.</strong></li><li><strong><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/">Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories</a>.</strong><span style="font-weight: 400;"></span></li></ul><p>Early Tuesday morning, three women <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/new-epstein-accusers-suit-ghislaine-maxwell-massage-book-coach-girls-2019-8">filed separate lawsuits</a> against the estate of <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/jeffrey-epstein">Jeffrey Epstein</a>, whom federal prosecutors charged with sex trafficking just weeks before his apparent suicide on August 10. Their allegations, which include sexual assault and coercion, closely mirror those lodged by prior accusers.</p><p>But one plaintiff, who remains anonymous, leveled a novel accusation: That the wealthy financier, with the help of an unnamed attorney, forced her to enter a fraudulent marriage with another woman in his orbit.</p><p>The plaintiff, identified in legal filings as "Katlyn Doe," described the second woman as a "a non-United States citizen and recruiter of females for Jeffrey Epstein," and said their marriage was designed to ensure the woman would continue to work for Epstein in the U.S. as part of "a complex system of individuals ... for the purpose of harming teenage girls through sexual exploitation, abuse and trafficking." </p><p>But these aren't the only allegations of a fraudulent marriage induced by Epstein: Business Insider has learned that at least two other women in Epstein's entourage were married to each other, and a source familiar with the situation says they were directed to get married by the sex offender. As with Katlyn Doe's accusations, one of these women was a non-citizen that Epstein may have wanted to maintain access to. The marriage has not been previously reported. The source said that Epstein orchestrated at least three such marriages.</p><h2>Allegations that could change the trajectory of the investigation</h2><p>The allegations could alter the trajectory of <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/barr-says-doj-will-pursue-epstein-conspirators-despite-suicide-2019-8">the Epstein investigation</a>. Doe's claims suggest, after all, that Epstein and his associates conducted an international human trafficking operation as recently as 2014 - six years after he pleaded guilty to state charges of solicitation of a minor, and more than a decade after the alleged crimes on which his federal charges were based. </p><p>The marriage identified by Business Insider took place in 2013. One woman was a U.S. citizen, the other was from Eastern Europe. While it's<span style="font-weight: 400;"> unclear why exactly Epstein directed them to wed, a source with direct knowledge of the arrangement said both women were</span><span style="font-weight: 400;"> romantically involved with the multi-millionaire sex offender.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">There are similarities between their marriage and the one described in Doe's complaint. Beyond their participants' connection to Epstein, both took place in 2013 and involved a citizen and a non-citizen. But other details, such as the age of the brides and the dates of their respective divorces, clearly show there were two different marriages, between two different pairs of women. What they all had in common was Epstein.</span></p><h2><strong>Both women have been photographed with Epstein or leaving his home</strong></h2><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Business Insider is not naming the women because Epstein was accused of sex trafficking, and they may be victims. We are withholding significant details from this story in order to protect their identities. Both women are adults.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Both women, who have since divorced, have public links to Epstein, including published photographs of them either together with the secretive financier or entering or leaving his five-story mansion on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. </span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Multiple sources who knew them and a review of public records show that they did not present themselves outwardly as spouses. </span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Both were members of a coterie of attractive young women - many of them from Russia and Eastern Europe - who frequently accompanied Epstein and his friends to events and travelled widely on his fleet of private jets, according to a source familiar with the arrangement. </span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">One of the women, an American, has introduced herself to people as a member Epstein's household staff but was in fact a girlfriend, according to the source. A different source recalled that Epstein once purchased this woman a car valued at more than $50,000. She has been captured by a tabloid photographer while entering and exiting Epstein's mansion.</span></p><h2><strong>Both women lived in a building owned by Epstein's brother</strong></h2><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">According to public records, the American has lived in a 16-story condominium on East 66th St. in Manhattan since the mid-2000s. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/the-nyc-building-at-the-center-of-jeffrey-epsteins-web-2019-8">The same address turns up repeatedly in records concerning Epstein and his circle of associates</a>, including his attorney and the co-conspirators named in the infamous non-prosecution agreement that allowed Epstein to escape federal prosecution in 2008.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Epstein's brother, Mark Epstein, owns most of the units in the building through his real estate company. The building has been </span><a href="https://www.palmbeachdailynews.com/article/20120401/NEWS/304017745"><span style="font-weight: 400;">described in court records</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> and </span><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/jan/07/jeffrey-epstein-former-accomplices-property-prince-andrew"><span style="font-weight: 400;">published reports</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> as a location where Jeffrey Epstein housed young women. (Mark Epstein has denied any knowledge of his brother's activities.)</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">According to New York City marriage records, the American was granted a marriage license in October 2013 to another woman in Epstein's orbit from Eastern Europe.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Like her ex-wife, the Eastern European has been photographed leaving and entering Epstein's mansion by tabloid <keyword id="6355005" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="news">news</keyword>papers. A separate set of paparazzi photos taken by a news agency in New York shows her and Epstein walking down the street together.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">She has a professional degree from a U.S. university and a professional license. The address on her license is the same address used by one of Epstein's companies.</span></p><h2><strong>An intensely private Eastern European</strong></h2><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In conversations with Business Insider, her professional school classmates described her as an intensely private woman who rarely discussed her personal life with others. At the same time, her manner and appearance made her stand out in certain ways. </span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Three classmates described her as "Eastern European." According to the professional school's yearbook, she previously attended a college in Eastern Europe.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">One former peer said she often wore expensive, branded clothing that many graduate students would struggle to afford. In colder months, she donned a white, fur-trimmed jacket that retails for around $900. One day, the same classmate said, she mentioned traveling back from Miami, without explaining why she was there or who she was with.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">None of the classmates Business Insider contacted recalled any indication that she was married to a woman. However, most of them remembered hearing, through the campus grapevine, about her relationship with an older and much wealthier man. Three had hazy memories of seeing and discussing photos of her with the same man in a newspaper or web site. Shown a photo of Epstein, one said it was the same man they had seen photographed with the classmate.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">It's unclear what came first: The rumors about her relationship with Epstein, or the photos her classmates saw in a newspaper or online. In any case, their recollections, combined with the photos, suggest that she was involved with Epstein when she attended and graduated from the professional school.</span></p><h2><strong>The women divorced just two months ago</strong></h2><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The source familiar with the arrangement told Business Insider that the Eastern European is not a U.S. citizen, and that she came to the U.S. originally on a student visa. Business Insider was not able to independently verify her citizenship status. But according to public records, she was first issued a Social Security number sometime between 2009 and 2011, when she would have been in her late teens and early 20s. Most U.S. natural-born citizens are issued Social Security numbers at birth. As a full-time student from a foreign country, she would have been required to obtain a Social Security number if she wanted to earn income.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Court records show that the women were granted an uncontested petition for dissolution of marriage in June 2019, seven months after the Miami Herald published its </span><a href="https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/article220097825.html"><span style="font-weight: 400;">blockbuster investigation into Epstein's crimes</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> and weeks before his </span><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jeffrey-epstein-arrested-sex-trafficking-minors-charges-2019-7"><span style="font-weight: 400;">arrest by FBI agents in July</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">.</span></p><h2><strong>"These were victims, too. They were psychologically manipulated."</strong></h2><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Two sources who knew the American woman socially during the time public records indicate that she was married told Business Insider that she gave no outward indication of being in a committed relationship with a woman, and that she dated men at the time. There is no public evidence that the women ever lived together; though public records databases show that both are associated with the E. 66th St. building, they are linked to different units. Aside from their relationships to Jeffrey Epstein, the only public link between the two is a photo of the pair that the Eastern European posted to her Facebook account in 2015. The account has since been removed.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Neither woman responded to repeated phone calls, emails, and text messages seeking comment. An associate of one of the women agreed to pass a message to her; the associate declined to comment other than to say Epstein exercised some measure of control over the women.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"These were victims, too," the associate said before hanging up the phone. "They were psychologically manipulated."</span></p><h2><strong>The FBI is seeking to interview the women</strong></h2><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The source familiar with the arrangement said that FBI agents investigating Epstein are aware of the marriage, and are seeking to interview the two women.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Epstein had a long history of associating with young girls from Eastern Europe. He described his former girlfriend Nadia Marcinkova, who was accused by several of Epstein's underage victims of participating in three-way sex acts with them, as a "</span><a href="https://www.wired.com/story/global-girl-jeffrey-epstein-and-the-lolita-express/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Yugoslavian sex slave</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">" that he had "purchased from her family" as a teenager, according to a </span><a href="https://www.muckrock.com/foi/palm-beach-10288/epstein-child-sex-records-palm-beach-pd-25844/#file-93357"><span style="font-weight: 400;">2006 police report</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">. A former bookkeeper for MC2, the modeling agency in which Epstein was an investor, </span><a href="https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/article219494920.html"><span style="font-weight: 400;">said in a 2010 deposition</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> that Marcinkova was one of many young girls that MC2 brought to the United States on model visas - paid for by Epstein - and housed in apartments on E. 66th St. Jean-Luc Brunel, MC2's founder and a former friend of Epstein's, has lived in an apartment in the building.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">More recently, the New York Post </span><a href="https://pagesix.com/2016/03/08/jeffrey-epsteins-east-side-mansion-houses-russian-playmates/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">quoted a visitor to Epstein's mansion in 2016</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> saying that the home was filled with young women and that "half of them are from the former Soviet Union." The newspaper linked Epstein to a Russian "procurer" named </span><a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/peter-listerman-the-sleazeball-peddling-russian-girls-to-billionaires"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Peter Listerman</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, who has described himself as a "matchmaker" between wealthy clients and "gentle, romantic" women. Svetlana Pozhidaeva, a Russian former MC2 model </span><a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/billionaire-pedophile-jeffrey-epstein-funded-womens-empowerment-entrepreneur-lana-pozhidaeva"><span style="font-weight: 400;">whose women's empowerment nonprofit was funded by Epstein</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">, has also been photographed leaving his mansion and is linked to the E. 66th St. apartment building.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">When New York Times reporter James Stewart <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/12/business/jeffrey-epstein-interview.html">visitied Epstein's home in August 2018</a>, he was greeted by "a young woman, her blond hair pulled back in a chignon, who greeted [him] with what sounded like an Eastern European accent."</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Entering into a marriage for the purposes of evading immigration laws is a crime - one that is commonly enforced in the context of sex trafficking investigations. Last year, prosecutors in Minnesota convicted five people - and secured guilty pleas from 31 more - in a </span><a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/thirty-six-defendants-guilty-their-roles-international-thai-sex-trafficking-organization"><span style="font-weight: 400;">wide-ranging probe of a Thai sex-trafficking network</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> that forced victims to enter into fraudulent marriages in order to gain residency. In May, the Anti-Trafficking Coordination Team - an interagency task force with members of the Departments of Justice, Homeland Security, and Labor - convicted a </span><a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-nj/pr/hudson-county-woman-convicted-trial-enslaving-sri-lankan-woman-over-nine-years"><span style="font-weight: 400;">New Jersey woman on charges of forced labor and marriage fraud</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> over her enslavement of a Sri Lankan woman. In 2012, prosecutors </span><a href="https://www.justice.gov/archive/usao/vae/news/2012/06/20120604lyapinnr.html"><span style="font-weight: 400;">convicted three Belarusian nationals</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> of conspiracy to commit marriage fraud. It is punishable by up to five years in prison.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Epstein's attorney Reid Weingarten did not return an email, sent prior to his client's suicide, seeking comment. A message left with the FBI's New York press office was not returned.</span></p><p><em><strong>Do you have a story to share about Epstein? </strong>Contact this reporter via encrypted messaging app Signal at +1 (773) 919-3832 using a non-work phone, email at jjcook@businessinsider.com, or Twitter DM at @johnjcook.</em></p><p><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">With reporting by Gabrielle Bluestone and Angela Wang.</span></em></p><ul class="read-more-links"><li>Read more about Jeffrey Epstein:</li><li><a href="https://www.insider.com/apnewsbreak-us-prisons-chief-removed-after-epsteins-death-2019-8" data-read-more-link="" data-e2e-name="read-more-link">William Barr has removed the US prisons chief from his position more than a week after Jeffrey Epstein died by suicide while in federal custody</a></li><li><a href="https://www.insider.com/jeffrey-epstein-jail-guards-chronic-staff-issues-2019-8" data-read-more-link="" data-e2e-name="read-more-link">Just 18 workers were guarding 750 jail inmates on the night Jeffrey Epstein died by suicide</a></li><li><a href="https://www.insider.com/jeffrey-epstein-womens-panties-palm-beach-jail-commissary-2019-8" data-read-more-link="" data-e2e-name="read-more-link">Jeffrey Epstein reportedly purchased 2 small pairs of women's panties from the Palm Beach jail's commissary</a></li><li><a href="https://www.insider.com/jeffrey-epstein-nyc-mansion-decorations-interior-photos-2019-8" data-read-more-link="" data-e2e-name="read-more-link">10 of the most bizarre details people have reported finding in Jeffrey Epstein's NYC mansion, from a painting of Bill Clinton in a dress to prosthetic breasts mounted on a bathroom wall</a></li><li><a href="https://www.insider.com/ghislaine-maxwell-criminal-charges-jeffrey-epstein-sex-trafficking-conspiracy-2019-8" data-read-more-link="" data-e2e-name="read-more-link">After Jeffrey Epstein's suicide, Ghislaine Maxwell may have taken his place as the 'kingpin' prosecutors are looking to take down. But experts say don't expect criminal charges anytime soon.</a></li><li><a href="https://www.insider.com/recordings-from-2003-jeffrey-epstein-interview-released-2019-8" data-read-more-link="" data-e2e-name="read-more-link">In an unearthed 2003 interview, Jeffrey Epstein praised his private island retreat as a place where he could 'think the thoughts I want to think' and be 'free to explore as I see fit'</a></li></ul>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/violent-video-games-ban-mass-shooting-shootings-2018-3">Violent video games are played all over the world, but mass shootings are a uniquely American problem</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div>

Source: Jeffrey Epstein ordered three couples in his entourage to get married

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table click-to-enlarge"><div><div class="image on-image"><a title_source="Aaron Taube/Business Insider" title_caption="A new crop of mobile-first tech companies are trying to transform the job hunt." class="zoomin" href="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/542d47beeab8ea0738c5ed7a-960/bigger-new-job-search.jpg"><span class="sprites click-to-enlarge-icon" title="Click to enlarge"></span></a><p class="source"><span>Aaron Taube/Business Insider</span></p><p class="caption">A new crop of mobile-first tech companies are trying to transform the job hunt.</p></div><p></p></div></div>In the past several years, mobile technology has simplified a wide range of the cumbersome, time-consuming, and unpleasant chores required of the professional class.</p>
<p>There'<span style="background-color: #ffffff;">s Homejoy to clean your apartment, Uber and Lyft to hail a cab, and more food delivery apps than you can count. </span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em; background-color: #ffffff;">But for all of the solutions created to improve the lifestyles of affluent urbanites, finding a job - the initial step that makes such a lifestyle possible - remains a lengthy and universally miserable process.</span></p>
<p>Sure, massive job boards like Monster and CareerBuilder alert us to an unprecedented number of potential openings - but who wants to give up hours of their precious leisure time crafting the perfect cover letter, only to submit the application into the internet equivalent of a black hole?</p>
<p><span style="background-color: #ffffff;">And while LinkedIn makes countless </span><span style="background-color: #ffffff;">powerful people available for networking, the site is not perfect, especially for those who don't have the time or the moxie to take advantage of it.<span style="color: #ff0000;"> </span></span></p>
<p>The result is that many would-be job seekers, lots of them talented and capable, choose not to bother until their current jobs become too bleak to bear.</p>
<p>Or at least that is what they have done until now.</p>
<p>In the past year, a new crop of apps has sprung up with the goal of hacking the job search for a new generation of professionals - one that is constantly on the lookout for the next opportunity and never very far from a mobile phone.</p>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container float_left click-to-enlarge"><div class="image on-image"><a title_source="Aaron Taube/Business Insider" title_caption="A job listing for Yahoo! on Switch." class="zoomin" href="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/542db61aeab8ea8b18d373c7-960/photo1%20(1)-2.jpg"><span class="sprites click-to-enlarge-icon" title="Click to enlarge"></span></a><p class="source"><span>Aaron Taube/Business Insider</span></p><p class="caption">A job listing for Yahoo! on Switch.</p></div><p></p></div>"We're trying to liberate passive job seekers," says Yarden Tadmor, founder and CEO of the New York City job-hunting app <a href="http://www.switchapp.com/">Switch</a>. "Eventually, what we're trying to create is an environment that connects people with companies and hiring managers."</p>
<p>Switch, which went live this past summer, was inspired by Tadmor's experience hiring for teams at several media technology companies, including the content recommendation engine Taboola. </p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">In those roles, he became frustrated by the average $25,000 placement fee recruiters claimed every time they helped him make a hire and the problems that came from working with multiple headhunters at the same time.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Switch cuts out the middle-man by asking New York City-based media and tech companies to post jobs directly for job seekers.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">The app is described as a sort of "Tinder for jobs" because users, who appear anonymous to companies, are able to swipe left or right to indicate whether they are interested in the jobs Switch recommends to them.</span></p>
<p>If the company is interested in the applicant based on the LinkedIn profile he or she has uploaded to Switch, the two parties can begin a text conversation.</p>
<p>As it turns out, Tinder's location-based, double opt-in technology, in which both parties must approve of the other before contact is initiated, has been almost as revolutionary in the jobs space as it has been in the dating realm. </p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Switch shares its "Tinder for jobs" distinction with several other apps, including <a href="http://blonk.co/">Blonk</a> and <a href="http://www.jobrapp.com/">Jobr</a>, and there are also several "Tinder for networking" ap<span style="background-color: #ffffff;">ps, like <a href="http://weave.in/"><span style="background-color: #ffffff;">Weave</span></a> and <a href="http://coffeetheapp.com/"><span style="background-color: #ffffff;">Coffee</span></a>.</span></span></p>
<p>"Tinder and Uber have show<span style="background-color: #ffffff;">n that location is</span> important, and that being able to match-make with people near you is a solvable problem," explains Weave founder Brian Ma. "Taking it to the <keyword id="6354910" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="Careers">careers</keyword> space is a logical next step."</p>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table click-to-enlarge"><div><div class="image on-image"><a title_source="Poacht" title_caption="The team behind stealth job-search app Poacht. From left: intern Peter Devine, cofounder and CEO Maisie Devine, and cofounder and CTO Isaac Rothenbaum." class="zoomin" href="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/542db6e36bb3f7b8052c06ec-960/poacht-team.jpg"><span class="sprites click-to-enlarge-icon" title="Click to enlarge"></span></a><p class="source"><span>Poacht</span></p><p class="caption">The team behind stealth job-search app Poacht. From left: intern Peter Devine, cofounder and CEO Maisie Devine, and cofounder and CTO Isaac Rothenbaum.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p>
<p>Like all of the new wave of job-hunting apps, Weave makes use of the résumé information people have put on their LinkedIn profile, and yet its existence is premised on the idea that <span style="background-color: #ffffff;">the careers networking giant is at this point fundamentally flawed.</span></p>
<p><span style="background-color: #ffffff;">To be clear, LinkedIn is the biggest player in the space, a 300 million-user behemoth that isn't going away any time soon. </span></p>
<p><span style="background-color: #ffffff;">But the effort it takes to identify and message influential people leaves </span>an opening for Weave and Coffee - a similar app aimed at young people looking for entry-level or freelance gigs - to be us<span style="background-color: #ffffff;">ed by job hunters in a complementary fashion.</span></p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em; background-color: #ffffff;">A bigger problem with LinkedIn might be the one facing companies looking to hire highly-skilled talent. It's these entities that will ultimately be asked to pay for services like Weave and Switch, and LinkedIn has become a difficult place for them to reach the people they want to contact.</span></p>
<p>Maisie Devine, cofounder of the app <a href="http://www.poachtapp.com/">Poacht</a>, explains that her cofounder Isaac Rothenbaum was so overwhelmed by recruiters seeking his software development skills that he began to tune them out entirely.</p>
<p>On their app, companies pay for the opportunity to connect with anonymous candidates who are passively looking for a new gig.</p>
<p>"I think 7 or 8 years ago, LinkedIn was probably akin to Poacht, but now it's just a cesspool of salespeople, recruiters, and people you don't even know reaching out to you for who knows what reason," Devine says. "What we're doing at Poacht is getting rid of all that noise."</p>
<p><span style="text-decoration: line-through;"><div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right click-to-enlarge"><div class="image on-image"><a title_source="Aaron Taube/Business Insider" title_caption="The author's profile on Coffee." class="zoomin" href="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/542d46de69bedd515ae84a64-960/photo3-12.jpg"><span class="sprites click-to-enlarge-icon" title="Click to enlarge"></span></a><p class="source"><span>Aaron Taube/Business Insider</span></p><p class="caption">The author's profile on Coffee.</p></div><p></p></div></span></p>
<p><span style="background-color: #ffffff;">Yet it remains to be seen whether Poacht, or any</span> of these apps, will make it in the long run.</p>
<p>At present, none of them have built any sort of major scale. With more than 75,000 users, Jobr is several times bigger than any of the other swipe-for-jobs apps.</p>
<p>And though all of the apps are ostensibly for people in any industry, when we tried them out, most were overwhelmingly populated with jobs and connections in the startup technology space.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, the opportunity  to make money is certainly there.</p>
<p>It's estimated that American companies <a href="http://www.bersin.com/News/Content.aspx?id=14998">spend more than </a><a href="http://www.bersin.com/News/Content.aspx?id=14998">$120 billion every year</a> on hiring and recruiting services, a fact that was no doubt on the minds of investors <span style="background-color: #ffffff;">when the o</span>nline job posting and applicant tracking company ZipRecruiter raised a whopping $63 million in August.</p>
<p>Eric Liaw of Institutional Venture Partners, the venture capital firm that led ZipRecruiter's funding round, says that companies in the jobs space would be stupid to ignore mobile use<span style="background-color: #ffffff;">rs, but he r</span>emains skeptical as to whether job-hunting will shift to phones and tablets as quickly as online dating did.</p>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container float_left click-to-enlarge"><div class="image on-image"><a title_source="Aaron Taube/Business Insider" title_caption="A job at Facebook listed on Jobr." class="zoomin" href="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/542d4869ecad042a789a74f7-960/photo1-23.jpg"><span class="sprites click-to-enlarge-icon" title="Click to enlarge"></span></a><p class="source"><span>Aaron Taube/Business Insider</span></p><p class="caption">A job at Facebook listed on Jobr.</p></div><p></p></div></p>
<p>He points out that where Tinder is an almost entirely visual process, hiring requires more text, which doesn't always look great on a phone. <span style="background-color: #ffffff;">For instance, </span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span>he says it's un</span>likely that many people will update their résumés or LinkedIn profiles from their mobile devices.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">The swipe-for-jobs apps also face a hurdle in getting employers to consistently use their platform. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">While most have a special feature for hiring managers to let them use the app from desktop computers, they still face stiff competition from the many other channels companies are using to find talent.</span></p>
<p>Several weeks ago, Tinder-for-jobs aspirant Emjoyment announced it would be taking a new direction because it couldn't engage enough businesses on its platform.</p>
<p>Still, buoyed by the success stories of their early users, the founders we spoke with were confident that seekers and hiring mangers alike would take to their apps.</p>
<p>If nothing else, it won't hurt job seekers to have another place to look.</p>
<p>"There are so many antiquated processes associated with changing jobs, and we should be able to use technology to tighten that up," says Devine, Poacht's cofounder.</p>

You Know LinkedIn - Meet The Next Wave Of Startups Trying To Hack Your Job Search

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<em>Freelancing opportunities are growing rapidly across industries. Find out how to make the most of this trend.</em><br />
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When Sahil Manekia<em> (see details below) </em>returned to India after a 4-year stint in the US, he was expecting to land a good job with a leading organisation. However, the <keyword id="282190" type="POSITION" weightage="40" keywordseo="data-analyst">data analyst</keyword> who specialises in assessing the impact of non-profit ventures, drew a blank.<br />
<br /> “I wanted to focus on non-profit projects, but the <keyword id="11018" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Jobs">jobs</keyword> on offer did not match my skill set,” says the 29-year-old Mumbai resident. Manekia now works <keyword id="278613" type="COMPANY" weightage="40" keywordseo="Freelance">freelance</keyword> for companies to assess the impact of their corporate social responsibility initiatives.<br />
<br /> In another part of India’s financial capital, corporate trainer Maneesh Konkar is preparing a PowerPoint presentation for a workshop later during the month. A freelancer, 43-year-old Konkar conducts workshops for the sales teams of companies. Till now, he has trained employees of <keyword id="34523" type="CITY" weightage="40" keywordseo="fmcg">FMCG</keyword> companies, consumer electronics manufacturers, auto companies and even IT firms.<br />
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“They may be from different sectors but the fundamentals of effective sales are the same across industries,” he says. Freelancing, once seen as the preserve of writers and photographers, is increasingly attracting professionals from other streams. The Internet has spawned opportunities for teachers, data analysts, IT professionals and corporate trainers like Konkar.<br />
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You can grab freelancing assignments not only in your city or in India but literally in any corner of the world. According to one estimate, every third user of Freelancer.com is from India.<br />
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The US-based website helps freelancers get assignments and takes a cut when the deal is done . It’s a trend that is slowly catching on. A growing number of professionals is junking regular employment to try their hands at freelancing. They are driven by the dream to be independent and work on their own terms without the straitjacket of a 9-to-5 job. To be fair, freelancing does unshackle the individual from the tyranny of corporate hierarchy.<br />
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You are your own boss and get to draw your own schedule. However, it is not a cakewalk. “While being on your own offers you the flexibility of working in your own fashion, it is certainly not a bed of roses. One has to work very hard to establish oneself and, subsequently, get a regular income to be successful,” says Aditya Narayan Mishra, president (staffing), of head-hunting firm, Randstad India.<br />
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The jobs are everywhere. What you need to do is find the niche that matches your expertise. “Don’t go by just the current demand, but also assess how it will shape up in the coming years,” says Sangeeta Lala, senior vice-president, Teamlease, an HR consultancy firm. It pays to keep yourself abreast of the latest developments in your chosen field.<br />
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When the Companies Bill was passed, Manekia immediately sensed an opportunity in the clause that requires companies of a certain size to spend 2% of their threeyear average annual profit on CSR initiatives.<br />
<br /> “An in-depth research in your field goes a long way in finding your way in the market,” he says. Similarly, Mumbai-based <keyword id="237600" type="POSITION" weightage="40" keywordseo="freelance-photographer">freelance photographer</keyword> Kedar Bhat <em>(see details below)</em> saw an opportunity in training amateur photographers. He charges Rs 3,000 per student for a one-day workshop.<br />
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Freelancers don’t have the luxury of a big brand name to back them. It is their work that speaks for them. So, the first step is to build a portfolio of work samples and testimonials from satisfied clients.<br />
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Don’t make it too extensive; just a select representation of what you are capable of. “If you don’t have any past work experience to showcase clients, then create dummy samples. Meeting a prospective client without any work sample is not a very good idea,” says Asif Upadhye, director at an employee engagement firm, Never Grow Up.<br />
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	<strong>Appearances and behaviour count</strong></p>
Being your own boss doesn’t mean you can do things your way all the time. Yes, you are not an employee and there is no dress code for freelancers, but it’s important that your attire and demeanour exude professionalism.<br />
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You might not be taken seriously if you go to a meeting in casual wear. Similarly, you should realise that you are a marketing manager, cost accountant, HR head and CEO all rolled into one. Be polite when you meet your clients.<br />
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Don’t lose patience if they don’t understand your pitch, or look down upon them if they cannot afford your services. Keep one golden rule in mind: the customer is always correct. Listen to him, and then customise your offering to his needs. Don’t try to customise his needs to what you have to offer. Also, never shy away from seeking advice from others who have been in the market for a while.<br />
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<strong>Finding work </strong><br />
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Finding work is perhaps the toughest part for a freelancer. He has to knock on several doors and spend time, money and energy trying to get work. “It can be very demoralising when you don’t get a response or your proposal is rejected,” says Konkar, who approached companies directly when he started freelancing. “The first two companies I approached were auto manufacturers.<br />
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The officials thought I was too young to be a trainer. After struggling for a few months, an IT company accepted my proposal and allowed me to train its employees,” he says. Zeroing in on work has become easier in recent years, with the advent of social media and websites that play matchmaker between clients and freelancers.<br />
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“Networking has significantly improved due to the Internet and social media,” says Mishra of Randstad. There are several sources, both online and offline, that can be tapped. Though freelancing portals take a 10-15% cut from your earnings, it is worth the cost.<br />
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For a freelancer, dealing with an overseas client directly can be very problematic. Even dealing with a domestic entity is fraught with problems. Clients armtwist the freelancer, knowing that he is on his own.<br />
Payments get delayed and work is rejected without assigning any plausible reason. You can jump past these hurdles if you go through a website that ensures timely and full payment once the project is complete. The most popular foreign freelance sites are Elance.com and Freelancer.com. Indian websites, too, are gaining popularity.<br /> However, do conduct a background check before you deal with these websites. Ask other freelancers about their experiences and other details. Social media sites like <keyword id="28120" type="CITY" weightage="40" keywordseo="Linkedin">LinkedIn</keyword> and <keyword id="6354576" type="CITY" weightage="40" keywordseo="Facebook">Facebook</keyword> have changed the definition of networking.<br />
<br /> With a few clicks of the mouse, you can find people who may be interested in your work as well as connect with other freelancers like yourself. While LinkedIn helps connect only with professionals, Facebook, too, can be used to find work. You can upload status messages or create a page that informs <keyword id="343" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="40" keywordseo="Friends">friends</keyword> about your work.<br />
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Your Internet profile can also be used to upload sample work, which may attract clients. However, always ensure that your work is protected from copyright violation. “I usually upload only password-protected Excel sheets so that my work is not copied by someone else,” says Manekia, who actively uses social networking sites to connect with clients.<br />
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<strong>Financial implications</strong><br />
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Given the freedom it offers and the money you can make, a freelancing career appears Utopian. However, there are several pitfalls you can encounter. For starters, there is no stability of income as in a regular job. As they say, you have to dig a well every day to drink water. You can never be sure about the next project. For those saddled with financial responsibilities, it can lead to a sticky situation if there is a long dry spell on the work front. The other problem is that when you start out, you cannot quote very high rates.<br />
<br /> So it is likely that you will earn much less than that you did earlier or could have in a regular job. You will also have to give a miss to employee benefits like the <keyword id="45028" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="40" keywordseo="Provident-Fund">Provident Fund</keyword> or <keyword id="35450" type="COMPANY" weightage="40" keywordseo="insurance">insurance</keyword> that salaried individuals get. For freelancers with lumpy incomes, it is advisable to take a conservative estimate of your salary.<br />
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It helps keep a tighter rein on expenses and gives you a buffer in case of an emergency. In the absence of group insurance and retiral benefits, you need to buy a cover for yourself and your family, as well as save for unforeseen events. Keep in mind that some expenses, such as food, housing, education and medical needs, are nonnegotiable expenses that cannot be cut in any circumstances.<br />
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<strong>Goodbye to leisure</strong><br />
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Apart from the money factor, freelancing takes away a lot of your free time. For clients, a freelancer is a vendor they can call 24x7. Don’t be surprised if you get calls at 8 am or 9 pm from a client. This is especially true if he is based abroad and is on a different time zone. “If you are working on a project with tight deadlines, you may have to forget your weekends,” says Maneesh Konkar.<em> (see details below)</em><br />
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While freelancers do need to put in hard work, experts warn against letting work occupy too much of your life. It is a sureshot recipe for a burnout. The more hours you work at once, the less productive you get. You also need to take a break and attend to other things in life.<br />
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	<strong>Where are the opportunities: There is a lot of demand for freelancers in these areas.</strong></p>
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Besides the erratic schedules a freelancer has to deal with, he must also be able to handle trouble with clients. Many times, a client may back out at the last minute, leaving you in the lurch or he may express dissatisfaction with your work and try to cut your payment.<br />
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“Since freelancing is a one man show, you have to deal with each and every problem yourself, be it an administrative issue or a troublesome client,” says Bhat.<br />
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One way of avoiding money or copyright issues with the client is to have an agreement drafted and signed by the company that clearly spells out your rights.<br />
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“Make sure you go through each and every clause of the agreement to know what your position is. Don’t blindly accept all the terms and conditions that the company sets forth,” says Mishra.<br />
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