Having someone with Ali’s critical eye review your site (pre re-design) is tremendously helpful, especially for those of us that are too close to our product and who have developed a jaded eye looking at our site(s) day in and day out. We’ll be launching a redesign of our dating sites in the coming months; safe to say that it will definitely include a dose of input from Ali.

As for JDate, a Spark executive once told me that they prefer the platform inherited from MingleMatch, but due to fear of customer backlash, they’ve been coy vis-a-vis redesigns to their bread winner. Suffice it to say, Spark has had little appetite for messing with JDate; until now that is. Curious to see the redesign and how bold it will be.

Local radio is huge for reaching African-American consumers and attracts some $805 million/year from marketers. According to ROI Media Soultions/Arbitron (2007), radio leads African Americans’ daily time spent with media.

Here’s how Radio Date™ works:

1. Sign Up
Create a Free Profile on BlackPeopleMeet.com to receive a username to be eligible or Login if you are currently a member.

2. Participate
Click Participate in Radio Date and complete the signup form.

3. Listen
We will choose one female member and three male members to participate in an on-air interview on a Wednesday morning with Steve Harvey and the Morning Show crew. The woman will ask the questions and the guys will respond. The woman gets to choose the guy she wants to go out with, and the couple will go on their very own Radio Date™ that weekend. On the following Wednesday, they will call in to the show and let us all know how it went. The following week, we will pick another woman and three other guys and start another Radio Date™.

4. Vote
Everyone can vote and let the woman know who they think she should pick. You don’t need to be a member to vote, so check back each week and vote for the next Radio Date™.

About Seesmic (from CrunchBase): Users can upload video directly from their webcam and post it to a personal page like with Twitter. They can also grab content from other sites such as YouTube by copying a video’s url and placing it in their stream. Additionally, videos that users create can be automatically linked to in twitter (potentially other platforms) and uploaded to YouTube.

I love the dynamic nature of videos. The life, energy, conversation and stickiness it can inject into a site is super exciting. Video, is generally speaking, underutilized on dating sites. Video emails, video blogs, video comments on blogs and message boards, video profiles and status updates are just some of the areas where video can play a more prominent role. Integration/promotion for how these products can be used by members and the context in which they’re used is important for achieving successful adoption.

With faster Internet speeds, more webcams and an increasing comfort by people to share more about themselves, I definitely see video playing a more useful role on dating sites in the year(s) to come.

That’s all well and good but who is going to find her site? Well, according to BlackWeb20.com she’s off to a fast start in spreading the word. Neenah has landed herself interviews with FOX and Good Morning America. She’s also recently been featured in Essence magazine and the Tom Joyner Morning Show. For a full review of her site click here.

Relating this back to online dating, I look forward to the day that singles can truly have their own fully customizable dating web page. Dating profiles are stale and outdated; especially when comparing them to all the amazing tools and features that socially driven sites offer. Allow users to select or customize their template, offer the option for them forward the site to their own unique url, offer widgets as promotional tools (for friends or yourself), include social tools like blogs, diaries, photo galleries, videos, seo tools, messaging system, community tools that get your friends involved, comments section, privacy options, etc. Most of the aforementioned, if done right, can breed enthusiasm and fun into dating. By doing so, people are less likely to feel ashamed/self conscious of their dating profile and more likely to share wit others and enlist their friends to help.

As a means to drive traffic/bring attention to ones web page, offer the option to be listed in a main directory that can be searched by anyone (think Ning). Make it free for anyone to create a profile and send messages. Up sell them with various offerings that increase exposure, fun and the chances for attracting matches (the more expensive the plan, the more robust tools/features). Think MyWedding.com or Ning for singles.

The interview was definitely a good exercise for remembering how the business got started, the journey of it all and how far we have come. I sometimes forget to what extent EligibleGreeks.com has become an awesome/recognizable brand among Greeks worldwide. Often caught up in the hustle and bustle of an entrepreneur’s daily grind to keep the business moving forward, you fail to take a deep breath and acknowledge all the good you have created for yourself and others. And with that thought, I think I’m gonna go ahead and take another deep breath.

Life is good.