Let's examine the numbers for a moment. According to match, it has 20 million members worldwide. But, according to the annual report of it's parent comany, IAC, it has just 1.3 million paying customers. Which means that roughly 6.5% of the profiles that you see are paying members. Now, I realize that therer are many members who disable their accounts when they quit, but that may be offset by the rumors of accounts being reactivated by match in order to boost the presence of profiles available.

So, let's give a bit of a benefit of the doubt and say that even 10% of the profiles that you see are paying customers, and have the ability to respond to that email that you are about to send. Now, most people aren't going to send an email to a profile that is "active over three weeks", so it is possible that you have a possibility of 20% of that email arriving in an active member's inbox.

Now, let's add one more possible variable to the number. I think we all agree that the number of women's profiles that are unpaid is greater (on a percentage basis) than those of men's. So, then it is safe to assume that the number is skewed lower for guys trying to reach real and active paying women.

Obviously, I have no idea what that number is. But, it could be less than 10%. So, for every 100 emails (which is a heck of a lot of work) that any guy sends, perhaps only 10 or so are arriving at an active paying woman's inbox. And, that woman is probably being innundated with emails, and has the ability to be very choosy. So, what do you think the odds are for any of your 100 emails being responded to? Two, three, five? Maybe. Clearly the frustrations of the guys who are reviewing match.com have merit. And, it is all in the numbers.