Dating Services

With OKCupid's recent media buzz over their statistic filled blog posts, it seems to have garnered them some more attention and not all of it is good. One college aged woman wrote about her experience on OKCupid and said:

Stupid, stupid Cupid. This addictive, pixelated piece of crap has robbed too much of my time; time spent reading incoherent, innuendo-ridden messages ...

She wrapped up her post by stating "Don't join OKCupid.com". Her main complaint seems to be that all the guys on the dating site just want to have sex.

Was she being fair to OKCupid? I don't think so. For one thing, I think her expectations were off, especially because of the signals she was sending out. For example, after joining OKCupid and creating a profile she states:

Then, we moved on to uploading pictures. These pictures had to be HOT. We’re talking steamy.

Just like at a club or bar if you dress hot and steamy you're going to attract a certain type of guy, online dating is no different. I'm not saying your profile photo shouldn't be attractive or even a little sexy; it's just if you dial it up too much you should realize the type of guys you are going to attract, the ones looking for a one night stand and not necessary a relationship.

To find out further details about this dating site, read our review of OKCupid.

After careful review, we have determined that Plentyoffish.com is the winner of the Editor's Top Pick - Free Award. This service is by far the largest of the free dating sites on the internet. While PlentyofFish.com (POF) does offer a paid component now, most features of the dating site continue to be free, including all communication between members.

So why did we decide on POF? The answer is easy, members! This dating site has many active users; no other free dating site even comes close. Part of the reason why PlentyofFish.com is so popular is they offer all the tools needed for online dating. When user's signup you get to fill out a typical profile for yourself that contains most attributes people consider when dating someone. When searching for singles comes into play you will have a number of options available to you, from the basic search which is quick and easy, to the advance search which allows you to search on any attribute in a profile. With members you like, communication is a breeze with the built in and easy to use private messaging system. Privacy and safety is also important on POF, for example you can specify the types of members you do not want contacting you.

PlentyofFish.com also has a few other free relationship services for members. You can take the Relationship Chemistry Predictor which contains 48 questions about yourself and your personality. Once completed POF will then match you with other members based on the answers you have given. There is also a Relationship Needs Assessment which better helps you understand what you require in a relationship. Once you have taken the assessment you are given an action plan to help you discover if your potential partners will meet your needs.

If you are looking for a dating site which is free to use then PlentyofFish.com should be the first service on your list. Chances are they will have plenty of members actively seeking a relationship living in your area.

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

This Year's Runner Up for this award is: OkCupid.com.

I found a news item on the eHarmony blog that was interesting. Researchers at UC Berkeley teamed up with a dating site to find out how important the photo headshot is for a dating profile. For both genders, researchers found that a photo in a profile was necessary for a member to be deemed attractive. Researchers also found that participants of the study said that the actual content of the profile was then used to determine if the member in the profile was a possible match and deserved to be contacted. The photo is the hook, but it is the content in the profile and how the person portrayed themselves that is the deciding factor for communication.

Finally, once the two online daters met face to face, looks became the least important predictor of a long term relationship. The overall attraction and the "connection" were deemed most important.

Find out more on the eHarmony Blog. For further info about this matchmaking service, read our eHarmony review.

Since Zoosk received $30 million in funding in December (see Story), their dating site traffic has increased by 3 times according to Compete's estimate. In the graph below it shows that in August of 2009 unique visitors had just crossed the 500,000 mark for Zoosk. In January of this year they had reached 2.7 million unique visitors.

It looks like Zoosk is spending at least some of the money they raised on advertising to increase traffic to their dating site. In an interview with Online Personals Watch, Alex Mehr, CEO Of Zoosk also mentions that their dating site has just reached 50 million members. Just 5 months ago Zoosk members numbered around 40 million. That is a lot of growth, which goes to show how using Facebook and its users to spread information about the dating site has really worked for them.

For more information on this dating site, read our Zoosk review.

I was surprised when I learned that 80 percent of members at the dating site Mate1.com have never been married and have remained single. On the flip side this means on average at Mate1, 19% of men and 21% of women have been divorced. When you look at the data by country Ireland comes out on top at 94 percent for men and 91 percent for women who have never been married. Let's look at the data for other Countries:

• United States - 76% of men and women have never been married.
• Canada - 86% of men and 79% of women have never tied the knot.
• United Kingdom - 88% of men and 80% of women.

One other thing that I did find interesting was for all countries, there was always a higher percentage of men who were never married than women. Also, since Mate1 has such a high percentage of members who have never been married this seems to suggest that Mate1 members are more likely to be in their twenties and thirties.

For more on the story (including data for other countries) read Date Daily and to find further details about this dating site, read our review of Mate1.com.

Christiancafe.com is a Canadian success story. Eleven years ago today (February 26, 1999) they officially launched. Since then the dating service has successfully matched Christian singles in the United States, Canada and around the world.

One of the best things about this Christian owned and operated dating site is, it offers singles a ten day free trial which gives you almost full access to the service. You can search, view profiles and pictures, and email other members. You can do this all without giving your credit card. Most dating sites offer a free trial but put limits on the trial (like no emailing) which can make the free membership almost useless.

For more information about this dating service, check out our review of Christiancafe.com.

Happy Birthday ChristianCafe.com!