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Website links lovelorn farmers, rural dwellers
By TIM ALEXANDER
Illinois Correspondent
 
  BEACHWOOD, Ohio — His website has been referred to as the “eHarmony of Agriculture,” and he’s been called the “Country Cupid” and the “Country Dating Doctor.”

The site– FarmersOnly.com – has been profiled in USA Today, Newsweek, the Chicago Tribune and many other high-profile publications. Its purpose is to link lovelorn farmers, ranchers and other rural dwellers with like-minded individuals seeking friendship or romance with kindred souls.

“There are a lot of lonely people out there who are married to their farm,” said Jerry Miller, a partner in an advertising company in Beachwood, Ohio. He created FarmersOnly.com a few years ago to try to help his single clients working in ag-related businesses such as farming find mates.

“Farmers don’t the have time and aren’t interested in going into the big city to the bars and singles clubs looking for love, and that’s where FarmersOnly.com comes in.”

Miller, 54, married for 31 years and the father of three, has seen his website become something of a rural phenomenon in the last few years. To date, the site boasts more than 90,000 members from all 50 states (along with a small percentage from Canada) and has been responsible for at least 65 marriages.

“It took a little while, but then the website just took off,” Miller said. “We hosted a booth at the (2008) National Farm Machinery Show, where seven couples told us they had met through the website and are now married.”

Though tens of thousands have come to rely on Miller’s innovative website, its seed sprang from the experiences of one of Miller’s rural female business clients who had gone through a divorce.
“She told me how she doubted she’d ever be able to meet anyone new,” Miller recounted.

“She asked me, ‘How do you meet anyone, working on a farm all day?’

She decided to try some traditional online dating services, and a month later she told me, “Jerry, the city guys just don’t get it.’”
The statement, adapted to read “city folks just don’t get it,” became the mantra of FarmersOnly.com and is posted prominently on the main web page.

After hearing his female client’s story, Miller embarked on a research mission and found no websites catering to lonely farmers and rural folks.

“I conducted research with all types of farmers from all over the country and heard the same story – there is a very small dating pool from which to find someone, and farmers are working all day and night with little opportunity to socialize,” he said.

Though its moniker may suggest otherwise, Miller’s site is not restricted to farmers and ranchers, or even rural dwellers.
“You don’t have to be a farmer, but you do have to have good, old-fashioned, down-to-earth values,” Miller stated. “We’ve had farmers who have married schoolteachers from nearby small towns and farmers who have met and married others not into farming as a way of life.”

He initially thought the site would attract a disproportionate ratio of men compared to women, but to his surprise the opposite occurred: Approximately 60 percent of the membership is female. Many members have never tried using traditional online social networking sites, and a large percentage are restricted to dial-up Internet access because of rural locations.

“We try to keep it very simple because a lot of our members are on phone modems. The site is set up to be very user-friendly, with lower-speed connections in mind. Most sites are only worried about city people,” said Miller.

“Since most of our members are not sitting around laptops all day, we offer a lot of technical support. You can mail us your picture and we’ll scan and post it for you and coach you on how to use the website.”

He said he encountered a few quizzical reactions when he announced his intentions to start an online “lonely hearts club” for farmers.

“Everybody thought I was crazy when I started it,” he recalled, with a chuckle. “When the site really took off, I was working over 100 hours a week on it. At one point, my wife told me if I didn’t come up for dinner tonight, I would be looking for someone on FarmersOnly.com myself soon.”

Though there is a charge to join the site after a free trial period, the only other reward Miller seeks for his efforts in helping establish some 65 new farm families through his website is a nice e-mail of thanks every now and then.

“Everyone who does meet someone on the site is always so thankful,” he said. “It’s just a very rewarding experience to me.”

This farm news was published in the April 9, 2008 issue of the Farm World, serving Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan and Tennessee.
4/9/2008