Closed

Perfectmatch.com recently started offering a new membership plan which is a step higher than their Premium membership, called Platinum. What is the difference?

• Preferred Search Results - Your profile will appear higher in the search results than other members.
• Highlighted Featured Platinum Profile on your profile and in search results.
• Members with approved profiles can initiate communication with you and respond to your emails.

I have been after dating sites for a while now to allow free members to communicate with paid members and I am glad to see Perfectmatch.com has come around. On a per month basis the Platinum membership is actually cheaper than the Premium membership (around $33). What Perfectmatch.com did is offer Premium memberships for 1, 2, and 3 month terms. Platinum memberships are only available for 4 and 6 month terms.

If this membership name sounds familiar to you, Match.com also has a Platinum membership (see Story).

To find out more about this dating site, read our review of Perfectmatch.com.

I received an email from Perfectmatch.com advertising a free search and communication weekend starting Friday, February 19th, 2010 to Monday, February 22nd, 2010. Looking on the dating sites homepage though, there is no mention of this promotion. This is a little strange but, I did log into Perfectmatch with my old account and was greeted with a banner advertising the free weekend on the member's homepage. I was also able to communicate with members.

So it looks like that this promotion is only available to existing members. Too bad new members couldn't have a go at it. eHarmony was the first dating site to offer this type of free weekend promotion a couple of years ago and just last year Chemistry followed suit. This is the first time I have heard of PerfectMatch doing this.

If you are interested in this dating site, you can read our Perfectmatch.com review for more information.

The 2009 Editor's Top Pick - Senior Award goes to SeniorPeopleMeet.com. This up and coming dating service has become quite popular with senior singles. SeniorPeopleMeet.com receives over half a million unique visitors in a month and over 1000 new members' sign up every day. Plus, 66 percent of all members are 50 years and older. No other dating site dedicated to senior singles even comes close to these impressive statistics.

SeniorPeopleMeet.com is a dating service which is easy to use for internet savvy singles as well as those who are new to the online dating world. Their free profile signup process takes under 2 minutes and once you have logged into the dating site, it doesn't take long to become familiar with how the dating site works. All the dating tools you will need to search and communicate with potential matches are available on the left column of the website, including your inbox, searching and community tools. Once you have logged on, click on "Search Profiles" and perform a search of singles in your Zip Code. The result will be a long list of high quality profiles made by real members.

With over 1300 submitted success stories of happy senior couples who met on SeniorPeopleMeet.com, this dating site is an ideal spot for any person 50 years or older to find like minded singles to date.

Read our review of SeniorPeopleMeet.com for more information about this dating service or visit SeniorPeopleMeet.com directly.

This Year's Runner Ups for this award include (in no particular order): Lavalife Prime and Senior FriendFinder.

Good job Mate1 and a great idea for other companies.

Mate1 plans to match their employee donations to Haiti, dollar for dollar. All employees have to do is make a donation to any reputable charity like the Red Cross and then send a copy of their receipt to the accounting department.

If every company did this, or offered to at least match a percentage of their employee donations it would go a long way to help the suffering.

For further details on this dating site, read our review of Mate1.

It sounds like you're looking for an online dating site that does some of the matchmaking legwork for you. That's probably why you're looking into eHarmony, Chemistry and Perfect Match! Well, before you delve into any of these sites, we took some time to build a comparison for you. After all, many of the writers on this site are in the online dating world as well. Let us do the digging so you can find someone you dig.

eHarmony.com

Cost: $60/month (estimated)
Accepts non-traditional clients (gay, lesbian, etc.): no
Compatibility test completion time: 1 to 2 hours
Allows users to search profiles: no
Rejects potential members? yes
Accepts "currently separated" members: no

eHarmony is the oldest of the "matchmaker" type online dating sites. They do all of the legwork for you. Once you complete their compatibility test, you wait for them to match you with potential dates. You're only eligible to receive a certain number of matches per week, so if you close-out all of your options early, you'll be waiting another week to see who else is in store for you. They only accept heterosexual couples and do not allow those who are not legally single (i.e. divorced, widowed or single) to become members. They are famous for their guided communication process, designed to let you get to know someone through their internal messaging system with a series of mutually answered questions.

To find out more about this dating site, read our review of eHarmony.

Chemistry.com

Cost: $50/month (estimated)
Accepts non-traditional clients (gay, lesbian, etc.):
Allows users to search profiles: no
Rejects potential members? no
Accepts "currently separated" members: yes

Chemistry.com is owned and operated by Match.com and there are a number of profiles that are on both sites. Touted as "more fun" than eHarmony, the site accepts members of all sexual orientations and also permits those who are "currently separated" to join the site.

To find out more about this dating site, read our review of Chemistry.

PerfectMatch.com

Cost: $60/month (estimated)
Accepts non-traditional clients (gay, lesbian, etc.): yes
Compatibility test completion time: 1 to 2 hours
Allows users to search profiles: yes
Rejects potential members? no
Accepts "currently separated" members: no

PerfectMatch.com has perhaps the greatest functionality of the three matchmaker-type sites that use compatibility profiles. They allow users to search by compatibility features, keywords and many other criteria that can be customized. They also deliver matches to your inbox as well. An ideal balance if you're looking for some help but prefer the functionality of a user-powered site where you call the shots.

To find out more about this dating site, read our review of Perfect Match.

I visited Date.com this morning and notice one major change right away. They now allow you to login to their dating site using one of 12 different 3rd party accounts you may have. This means it will be easier for new members to create a profile, as information may get pulled from these 3rd party accounts. Some of the accounts you can now associate with your Date.com account includes Google, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, AOL, OpenID and Windows Live ID.

What I was hoping to see, but I didn't, was more integration with some of the Social Networks. It would be nice to see the friends of some of these Date.com members on Social Networks, endorse their single friend.

I also came across Date.com's parent companies (Avalanche, LCC) website, I hadn't found it before this, since no direct link was available on their dating sites. You can find Avalanche's website here.

The only dating sites that I can think of right now that allows members to log into of their dating site with a 3rd party account, is Match.com and Zoosk. Though, Match.com only allows Windows Live ID accounts.

To find out more about this dating site, read our review of Date.com.