Evil Woobie

In my quest to find advertisers who can offer my readers a completely Free Dating Service, I found Meeta.com. Interaction and community building are free. While connecting online is free, they do offer other things, and these include opportunities for members to attend events in real life settings. That they don’t allow certain countries to participate in their community is understandable, as they want to target people who live near their existing members, for eyeball (EB)-related reasons.

EyeBall (EB) is a term coined to describe two or more people meeting offline for the first time, following a period of chatting online. The mere mention of this word takes me back to the time when I attended several EBs in a week. In fact, some of the best dating memories I will keep with me forever are from EBs.

While it is the prerogative of any chatting couple or groups to have their EB any time, a Grand EB is a completely different thing. It’s a massive event that needs proper planning, a lot of sponsors and several weeks of preparation.

Here’s a simple guide I prepared to help you organize your own Grand EB with minimum hassle.

Finding sponsors. The key to choosing who to approach to fund your event is knowing the demographics of your online community members, i.e. common factors such as age, ethnicity, interests and hobbies etc. The questions to ask yourself before writing a sponsorship request, include:

• Does this company offer a product that my members will like?
• Will this company benefit in the long run after this initial introduction to my group?
• Does this company NEED more publicity? Do they have a new product that they are launching soon?
• Does this company have a history of event sponsorship? Are they open to partnership requests?

Let me illustrate the next steps with an example.

• I am throwing a party for my community in a particular dating site. I know that my members have established certain relationships with each other, and are looking to explore new levels of connection e.g. real dates. The venue will be a spacious function room in a cozy hotel where singles can either dance or simply sit around to talk. To be partly sponsored by the hotel itself (one that could offer accommodations at a discount to my members).

• I will then look for a good artist who will provide romantic ambiance through music. My choice is a violinist (like my friend Diwa) because of the soulful sound of any music created using a violin. He can meet potential clients within my group, couples who may get married someday, or men who may need music to properly propose to a girl they met in the party.

• Food will be sponsored in part by an independent caterer who specializes in date food, innovative finger food, like hors d’oeuvres, that doesn’t take much effort to eat while talking to another person.

• And, because I know that some members have already broken the friendship barrier and are already dating online, it is highly advisable that I partner with a company specializing in safe sex products like condoms. This is particularly applicable in Sex EB’s (to be discussed in another post, so you’d better subscribe *wink*)

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