Seniors

The American Association of Retired Persons or AARP, is the largest organization for people 50 years and older in the United States. AARP recently announced that they have a new love and relationships expert, Dr. Pepper Schwartz, who is a Professor of Sociology at the University of Washington and has more than 35 years of experience in researching love and relationships. Dr Schwartz is also Perfectmatch.com's relationship expert and helped oversee the design of their automated matching system.

As part of her new duties at AARP, Dr. Schwartz will be writing a weekly online column called "The Naked Truth" at the AARP website which will cover a number of topics related to relationships, love and sexuality. She will also contribute to other online resources with videos, online chatting and blogs. This content will be both for educational and instructional purposes.

To find out about the dating site Dr. Pepper Schwartz is associated with, read our review of Perfectmatch.com.

From a Australia point of view, online dating for singles 50 years or older, is seeing a huge increase in popularity. The premier Australian dating site, RSVP has seen a 30 percent increase of these members each year, for the last 5 years. Currently 13 percent of all members are over the age of 50 at RSVP.

RSVP is not alone in their findings. Other Australian dating sites are reporting the same trend. Match.com Australian dating site has seen similar numbers. 12 percent of Match.com.au members are over 50 and this age groups saw an increase of 23 percent in 2008.

For a bit more on this story, see Stuff. To find out more about the most popular dating site in Australia, read our RSVP review.

When you're a dating senior, it's likely that the kids are grown and have moved away from home. However, that doesn't mean the kids won't be curious when it comes to who that "special someone" is in your life! Deciding the right time to introduce your partner to your family is definitely worth some thought, as these are all people in your life who are important to you. You don't want to hurt anyone's feelings but you need to make decisions you feel are right for you, your family and your new partner. Here are some tips to help guide you through the introduction of "new friends" to your family.

Make it a Joint Decision. If you and your new partner both have families, try to make introductions a bi-lateral decision. While this can be hard when kids are grown with families of their own and possibly living in different states, a joint decision can sometimes take the pressure off one party. This also serves as a good "status check." If one of you is ready to introduce families and the other isn't, then take some time to explore where your relationship it at. After all, you spent a lifetime raising your family - sharing them is a big decision!

Family Introductions Should be Fun! Your family is a great source of pride and you have a lifetime together of quirks, memories, laughter and love. Why not make the day they meet your new partner just as fun? Whether it's a backyard barbeque for the Fourth of July or a group dinner at your favorite restaurant, try to take some of the pressure off by actually enjoying yourself! You love your family. You love your partner. Help them get to know one another and develop their relationship by adding a little levity to the situation.

Have a Family "Cram Session." Just like you did before math test, why not set some time for you and your partner to sit down and do some studying of your own? Grab a bottle of wine or pack a picnic basket and make a date of going through family photo albums. Share your favorite memories of your kids so neither of you will go in blind. This will help establish a sense of familiarity before the big "meet my partner/meet my family" day and show your partner a side of you he or she has never seen before.

You’ve got something that those young whippersnappers don’t: a lifetime of experience and common sense. But how can you play this to your advantage when it comes to getting back into the dating scene?

Dating has changed since we first ventured out there. While the ideas of courtship aren’t completely dead, the lines of propriety have been blurred. You should never have to worry about your personal safety when it comes to dating, however. By using that lifetime of common sense you’ve accumulated along with a few tips, you’ll be in the mix of things and enjoying the process of getting to know new people. Now, that’s better than worrying, isn’t it? Here’s a list to get you started with safe dating (and while these tips aren’t just for seniors, we won’t tell anyone!) :

Seniors are not the typical demographic for most of the online dating services. However, you just don’t want to go sit in front of someone and have them videotape you, either. Dating is a very personal decision, especially when you’re past the point of starting a family and your children are already grown. So how do you get back into the dating game when you’re over 50?

It’s simple: think like you’re thirty-something! When you were in your thirties, that was the time of your life where you probably realized what you really liked. Your hobbies, your passions, places you like to travel. So take all of those experiences and add them to the others you’ve earned along the way and let them be a guide for writing an online dating profile that will be your ticket to time well-spent. Here are some tips to get you started in the world of online dating for seniors, so put that thirty-something hat on, grab your life experiences and away we go!

Family Considerations: It wasn’t something you took likely when you were younger, so why make light of it now? It’s not uncommon to find men in their 50s who would like to have another child or women in their 60s who would prefer to not be involved with men who have teenage children. In your online dating profile, be sure to highlight the details of your family and whether you’re open to raising a new family or would prefer to leave those child-rearing days behind you.

Work Status: Are you working full-time? Part-time? Blissfully retired? Let your prospective matches know how you spend your time. After all, if you’re planning on working for another five years and you start dating someone who is fully retired with a desire to travel, you may find that your priorities don’t align and you’re headed for conflict.

Short and Long-Term Goals: Maybe there’s a trek across Nepal in your future. Perhaps it’s an Alaskan cruise. You want to spend more time volunteering with your favorite charity. State your passions and help your potential matches understand what’s important to you. You’ve had a beautiful life filled with varied experiences so far, but you’re certainly not done yet. Travel, charitable work, time with family or grandchildren, contributions to your church – they all bear mentioning when you’re writing your online dating profile. Show them who you are and what you’re made of – you can never go wrong with passion.

Lavalife Prime was launched in June 2007 and had an advertising budget of less than $1 million. It started as a free service where singles of the age 45 and older could come to meet other singles online. Agneta Owen, a marketing consultant for Lavalife Corp. expected it to attract 25,000 members by June 2008. They almost doubled their goal. This means Lavalife had planned to spend $40 per member ($1,000,000 / 25,000 expected members) and ended up spending only $20 per member in advertising dollars. Recently Lavalife Prime started to charge it's members (see Story) so it will be interesting to see where membership levels drop too. On average paid dating sites can expect 10 to 20 percent of its free members convert to the paid service.

The over 50 crowd is a valuable market. This age group are usually at the height of their income level and make up roughly a third of the population in North America. Does Lavalife Prime offer what older singles are looking for? We will have to wait and see. This segment of the market already has a number of successful dedicated sites. Lavalife Prime would have to compete with these as well as the established dating services like Match.com and eHarmony. Prime hopes with their spin on the dating service experience and their sprinkling of social networking features, that they will come out on top. The relative unique feature of Lavalife Prime seems to be the section "My Life Experiences" in the profile. It contains the members pictures and videos of different memories or experiences they may of had through out their life. This is then presented in a picture time line.

We expect to do a full review soon of Lavalife Prime.

Update: Check out the new Lavalife Prime Review.