“We have them answer a knee-deep questionnaire and I stalk them on Facebook because I want to get a vibe for who they are, so I can write something that feels authentic to them,” she says. “I want the people they are matching with to get an authentic person.”
Yet the irony, of course, is that those who use such services aren’t truly authentic – they are hiring ghostwriters to sound like them. Likewise, if everyone began to use such services, wouldn’t we all be speaking to other ghostwriters, none of us authentic at all?
“We don’t misrepresent someone or make them into someone they’re not,” Joshua Pompey, who owns online dating profile consulting company Next Evolution Matchmaking, told Salon. “If somebody is not [s]illy, we aren’t going to make their profile silly. We take all the best aspects of who they are we highlight their best self based on that.”
Pompey started his profile-writing company in 2009. Since then, he says that he and staff have written over 20,000 profiles. Pompey says he has 15 writers who work for him, all who must be “hand-trained” by him, have a background in writing, and possess a Master’s degree. Customers pay $199 to get a written online dating profile that can be customized for any desktop website like Match or OKCupid, with unlimited revisions for up to 10 days, and a lifetime photo gallery review. Similar to Pimp My Profile, Pompey’s company has its clients fill out a questionnaire.
Customers who use a swipe dating app, like Tinder or Bumble 
, can receive a three-sentence add-on for $
Pompey said the quality of the writing matters, and there is an art to it when it comes to trying to attract a mate.
“I’ll give you an example – there is a big difference between saying ‘I want and hope to meet a man who is kind and intelligent,’ and, ‘The perfect guy for me is kind and intelligent,’” he said. “The latter sounds more confident.”
Eric Resnick has been in the business of writing online dating profiles since 2004, when he worked at Match back when they had writers on staff to pen profiles. “I was their highest rated writer,” he told Salon. Once the feature was no longer offered to users, he started his own business called Profile Helper in 2005. Resnick has made his living off of that ever since. Resnick’s company offers three different packages that range from $ to $. The highest tier includes an hour one-on-one consultation with Resnick, which he says is the most popular package. His workload ranges from having one to 15 clients a day.
Unintentionally or not, many of these online dating profile-writers toe the line between profile consultant and dating coach
Resnick says his average client is at least 40 years old, and that they are often looking for a serious relationship, yet struggle to find dates online.
“I get calls all the time from people who are spending four to five hours a day and they are wondering what is wrong with them,” he said. “I tell them they are giving it too much power and they are on too many sites, they are letting the sites run them, and this is an important thing because dating sites don’t necessarily have the same goal as the people on them.”
Tinder, which is owned by the Match Group, had at least 4.1 million paying users in 2018. Resnick added that including photo selection as part of his company’s package is crucial, as photos matter just as much as the actual text of one’s profile.