Dating Services

Just in time for St. Patrick’s day eHarmony is having a Communicate for Free 5 day promotion. It starts today, March 13th and runs till the end of day on Monday, March 17th.

Free communication on eHarmony allows all members to communicate via messages with each other at no cost. This means that during the next 5 days you virtually get the full eHarmony experience for free as creating a profile and receiving matches have always been part of the basic membership package.

This dating site is ideal for singles looking for a long-term relationship. eHarmony has a research department that’s sole purpose is to develop an algorithm that matches compatible personalities. This is how since 2001 more than 600 thousand married couples found each other on eHarmony. It is also why 69% of men and 71% of women meet their spouse within one year on the service.

eHarmony’s last free communication weekend happened during Valentine's Day. To find out more about this dating site known for its matching system you can check out our eHarmony review. In the United Kingdom eHarmony is slightly different so it has its own review. You can find the eHarmony UK review here.

If anyone knows how to crack the code of online dating it’s Greg Liberman. Liberman has been president and CEO of Spark Networks since 2004, giving him more insight into the industry than almost anyone else in the biz. He spoke with The Forward in early February about the tremendous success of JDate, the Internet’s most popular Jewish dating service.

Liberman chalks the company’s success up to one simple thing: “this company was built out of a need.” And not just any need – one specific person's need. One of the founders had recently been divorced and was looking to expand his social circle of single Jewish women. Out of that quest, JDate grew organically.

Once the site had gotten its start, it set itself apart from the competition by creating a strong culturally focused community. “Religion is obviously at the core,” says Liberman, “but the majority of the members are Conservative and Reform and interested in a more culturally based identity.” The site provided a meeting place for Jewish singles who wanted to continue the traditions they were raised with, but weren't interested in a heavy emphasis on faith.

When asked how things have changed over the course of JDate’s history, Liberman nominates mobile dating as the decade’s biggest innovation. Mobile is becoming an increasingly important part of our lives, and that includes our love lives. “We saw in 2013 a 114% increase in log-ins via mobile,” Liberman says of JDate. “People are connected all the time, and for us it’s really important. I mean, it’s a huge opportunity for us to continue to drive our mission.”

Mobile isn’t the only change in store for JDate. The site announced the launch of a new marketing campaign on Valentine’s Day 2014 that further stresses the “J” half of its name. The rebranding initiative – JDate’s first – is called “Get Chosen.” Liberman hopes that it will help strengthen the Jewish community and ensure that Jewish traditions are passed on for generations to come. He calls it a “fun, living, breathing campaign” designed to “remind Jewish singles of the cultural ties, not just the religious ones, that make dating, and ultimately marrying, someone else who is Jewish so special.”

The multi-platform campaign will begin immediately across various channels, including print, digital and social. In addition to adding the tagline “Get Chosen” to the logo, JDate revealed a new homepage design for the website. The company also plans to run digital billboards in New York’s Times Square and a street sign campaign throughout Chicago. Other creative elements, including television and web videos to support the “Get Chosen” theme, will roll out later this year.

Match.com's Singles in America study, now in its fourth year, examines the attitudes and behaviors of over 5,300 American singles from from all walks of life in order to get a glimpse into how love and relationships are viewed today.

When it comes to modern love, there is no greater expert than Dr. Helen Fisher. Dr. Fisher is a Biological Anthropologist, a Research Professor and member of the Center for Human Evolution Studies in the Department of Anthropology at Rutgers University, and the Chief Scientific Advisor to Chemistry.com (a division of Match.com). She's shared her expertise in five books on the evolution and future of human sex, love, marriage, gender differences in the brain, and the way personality types shape who you are and who you love.

Needless to say, she's a lady who knows what she's talking about. And fortunately, what she sees in the data from the most recent Singles in America study gives her hope for the future of relationships.

In our modern age of hooking up, friends with benefits, cohabitation before marriage, and constant interaction through computers and mobile phones, many Americans believe that we are living in an era of emotional isolation and sexual chaos. But not Dr. Fisher. In fact, she sees many positives about the ways we date now:

• We are less prejudiced than ever before. 75% of singles say they would make a long-term commitment to someone of a different ethnic background. 70% of singles say they would commit to someone of a different faith.
• Despite our increasingly progressive approach to choosing a partner, most singles still want to wed. 79% of men and women in their 20s and 62% of those in their 30s plan for marriage to be a part of their future.
• Not only do most of us still want to marry, we want to do it for the "right" reasons. Only 14% say they plan to marry for financial security. Instead, 86% of single say they want to wed to "have a committed partner to share my life with."
• Even those who say they'd don't want to marry chalk their feelings up to the fact that they "don't think you need a marriage to prove you love someone." So even if the significance of marriage is on the decline, says Dr. Fisher, love most certainly is not.

Unsurprisingly, traditional forms of courtship and partnering are also on their way out. Around 92% of men say they're comfortable being asked out by a woman, and 33% of men say they would make a long-term commitment to a woman who is a decade or more their senior. Moreover, the majority of singles now also approve of same-sex marriage, childfree marriage, and having children out of wedlock.

According to recent research, online dating is now the most popular way to meet prospective romantic partners. If you're considering joining a dating site but aren't sure what to do or what to expect, it's a good idea to proceed with both an open mind for meeting people and a little precaution.

Online dating safety is a concern, and the U.S. Attorney General's office has taken a stand to encourage people to exercise caution when searching for a relationship online because of the recent dating scams, especially when online daters misrepresent themselves in order to extract financial favors.

Zoosk, which markets itself as the number one dating app, has put together a few quick tips for online dating safety, so keep them in mind when you begin your own search:

Create an Alias - Create a new username and use a different email account from your main email when signing up for a dating site to protect your privacy.

Stay Online - Don't give out your personal cell phone number right away, especially if you are feeling pressured. Keep your messages and chats online through the dating site until you meet in-person.

Keep Personal Info Private - Do not share sensitive personal or financial information with someone whom you haven't met. This includes your last name, address, home or work phone numbers in addition to any financial information.

Go Out in Public - Always choose a public venue for your first few in-person dates, such as a restaurant or coffee shop. Never meet for the first time at your/their home, and don't arrange to have your date pick you up. Plan to meet each other at a restaurant or other public location instead.

Tell a Friend - Always let a friend or family member know who, when and where you're meeting for an in-person date with someone you met online.

Here are a few more things to keep in mind when you're online dating:

Meet sooner rather than later. Many problems for daters occur because they form a virtual relationship with their online match and become emotionally invested before they've seen each other face-to-face. Before you get intimate through emails and phone calls, plan to meet each other for coffee in person. Often, a scammer will try to avoid in-person meetings and keep things going online. If your date keeps making excuses for why he can't get together, then move on.

Keep drinking to a minimum. Some people like to have a glass of wine to loosen up on a date. Keep in mind your tolerance levels. If you get tipsy after a drink or two, you might want to consider not drinking at all. Don't make yourself vulnerable to your online dates, especially when you don't know them.

Match.com's Singles in America study, now in its fourth year, examines the attitudes and behaviors of over 5,300 American singles from from all walks of life in order to get a glimpse into how love and relationships are viewed today.

First dates are kind of a big deal, so of course questions about them were front-and-center in the Singles In America study. Based on the data, dating is in a place that few would have believed years ago. 92% of men now say they're perfectly comfortable with a woman asking them out (yay!), and only 25% of men say they want to plan the first date themselves. Ladies: time to step up your game.

Oh, and it's also time to step up your online stalking game. 47% of singles research their dates on Facebook before meeting (which could explain why 32% of singles ask for the first and last name when asking someone out). Women are the bigger offenders, with 53% percent conducting a bit of pre-date online research compared to 38% of men.

During the date, men and women take different approaches to attraction. Men are more likely to believe in love at first sight (43% of men vs 32% of women), while women are more likely to later fall in love with someone they didn't initially feel a spark with (53% of women vs 40% of men).

Here are a few important things to keep in mind while you're on that first date:

• Don't talk about exes. 72% of singles say it's the #1 conversational offense on a date, followed by politics (62%) and religion (54%).
• 92% of singles drink on a first date, so don't be afraid to imbibe...but don't go overboard.
• 60% check their phones at least once, even though both men and women consider it rude.
• 35% of men and 27% of women believe that the man should pay for the first date, regardless of who asked for the date in the first place.
• Women are more likely to judge a man by his attire than his car.
• Men are more likely to judge a woman by her tattoos than her shoes.
• A first date can be judged by how long it lasts. 52% of singles think a good first date should be between 2-4 hours.

And what happens after that first date?

• Single men are 5x more likely to hope it ends in sex.
• 51% of singles are already imagining their future together.
• 46% of men and 35% of women follow-up the next day (ideally by phone, though text is a close second). Only 6% of men abide by the "Three Day Rule."

For more on the dating site which conducted this survey you can read our Match.com review.

While POF has garnered a lot of attention over the years for its free online dating service and hook-up potential, its founder wants to get back to basics and is focused on the goal – finding people matches for the long-term.

POF does have an advantage over other dating sites: namely, its user base. With 70 million registered users all over the world, it can rightly call itself the largest online dating site. Three and a half million people log on to the site every day to look for matches and communicate with others. The company also estimates that over one million relationships a year begin on its website.

What does this mean for daters? For one thing, the sheer numbers POF draws from memberships means the company can determine how people date from country to country, including their cultural preferences and overall approach to dating. They’ve found that while daters in the U.K. largely embrace online dating, the rest of Europe is a bit behind. They can focus on areas of growth and potential.

POF began in Canada, but the U.S. is by far its biggest market, followed by the United Kingdom, Canada, Brazil and Australia.

“People in the United Kingdom will wear turtlenecks in the photos they send,” POF founder Markus Frind told The Provence, commenting on the cultural differences of dating he’s witnessed through the POF user base. “Women are way more aggressive in Brazil. They initiate as much as men.”

POF was started in 2003 when Frind was working for another technology company, and created the dating site in his spare time. He ran the company out of his apartment for five years until it reached ten million in annual revenue. Today he employs about 75 people in a large office space in Vancouver, and since POF remains a free service for daters, most of the revenue generated is from advertising.

Though Frind won’t disclose how much revenue his private company makes, he has put aside $30 million for acquisitions and intends to keep growing. In September of last year, he bought speed dating company Fast Life, hoping to add value to his online dating service by getting into singles events.

And as for success stories? Frind met his own partner through work, not over an online dating site. But he has gathered some success stories resulting from POF matches, including a young married couple who met each other five years ago on the site.

With its popularity unwavering, POF is focusing its efforts on technology and growth. The goal according to Frind is still to help people find long-term relationships.