Latin Times Magazine Vol 15 No 4 | Page 26

has programmers all over the world whose business is to construct complex sites. The overall project was two years before our “soft launch” a few months ago. One on One with the Founder and Creator of America's most popular new relationship website - for Latinos and Latinos all over the world! Latin Times Media: How and why decided to create LatinConexiones.com Hig Rodriguez-Dillinger: The need was actually defined by the communities that LatinConexiones is designed to serve. I have traveled extensively throughout the United States, Caribbean and Central & South America. So, I have had great opportunity to test many of the ideas that form the mission of CEBCOR Corporation to serve the Latin, Hispanic and Caribbean communities. During the many conversations I heard so many comments that there really isn’t a relationship site that serves those communities properly. There have been some sites available but the focus of those sites is almost strictly on the physical attributes, sexiness or weekend adventures. As a result most people have been completely turned off by anything that resembles a dating site. Among my observations during my travels were the very apparent traditional values, cultural pride, strength of heritage, devotion to family, respect of relationships, the role of religion and the personal core values. It is a given that the communities in our marketplaces produce handsome men and beautiful women that trigger the attraction to one another. But it is the core values and qualities that sustain a friendship or deeper relationship. I already had a website designer under contract who built the site for many other businesses including my contracting business so we huddled and discussed the design of www.cebcor.com and the construction of www.latinconexiones.com. I provided the general sense of how the site should appear and function and she Latin Times Magazine I believe that a very fair characterization is that the site has been created by, and for, Hispanics, Latinos and Caribbean’s. Latin Times Media: What makes LatinConexiones.com different than other dating or relationship sites? Hig Rodriguez-Dillinger: One of the most gratifying reactions I have experienced is the volume of complements that I have received from all over the world about the appearance, presentation and feel of the site. Those who visit are immediately impressed that it is a site that is devoted to developing friendships and relationships. It also shows some of what love looks like as it is expressed between two people. It is very apparent that it is not a “hook-up” site and it does not attempt to orchestrate who meets whom. We feel that we should leave the many, many personality questions to the members to find the answers they seek about one another. How people ask and answer questions of each other is a very exciting part of forming a new relationship. We allow unlimited photos and we have included an article on both of our websites about the type and quality of photos to add. We are all very unique and we are all multi-faceted and the photos are a very important opportunity for members to show themselves in the many different settings that are their life. We offer support to our members that goes beyond what most sites offer. Relationship experts report that one of the most difficult challenges that people have enrolling on a site is writing their profile. We all have difficulty being completely objective about ourselves so LatinConexiones offers assistance in this area. To facilitate that assistance we are training people in their home countries to help new members create an accurate description to attract other members. Latin Times Media: What type of members do you want to attract to the website? Hig Rodriguez-Dillinger: We feel that we will attract new members who value true friendships and true relationships and sincerely believe that love grows from those two flower beds. We all have friends that we love dearly and we treasure those friendships. We all have relationships that we respect and admire and we treasure them dearly. Not all of us have the love of a lifelong partner. Yet! But most of us know, or have seen, true love and how beautiful a place it can be. I believe that most of us believe that the