Online Dating

Unusual, Strange, weird and wacky dating sites have been making headlines lately. Here is our top ten (or so) list:

Date Someone from Jail

You got a couple of choices here. There is Women Behind Bars for all of you single law abiding men out there. Not to be out done, there is also Meet-an-Inmate which has personal ads for both men and women who are incarcerated.

Science

If you think your DNA can be your matchmaker, try Scientific Match.

Adult Fetish Anyone?

While I will not link to these sites directly, a Google search should find them for you easily enough. We have three for you. There is Daily Diapers and Diaper Mates which attempts to match up people interested in acting like babies, and Pounced, which is a personals site for people who like to wear furry costumes.

Health

On one end of the spectrum you have EcoDater which is for singles who are vegetarians and all around environmentally friendly. At the other end you have 420 Dating for those people who like to smoke. You then also have Gothic Match which is designed for Goth and Vampires (which is not too healthy as far as their victims are concerned 😉).

Your Job and Hobby

Finally, you have those dating sites for people who share a profession or hobby. Farmers Only is probably the most funny one out there, and then there is Date Craft which is dating for gamers (think Warcraft).

The Wrap Up

While it is fun to look for weird and wacky dating sites, I am not sure how popular any of these services really are. While researching a few of them on the internet I can't imagine any of them having more than a few hundred active members who are currently using the site in any one month.

Entrepreneur Magazine has released their Annual 100 Brilliant Ideas list. For the Seniors category, Florence Hendersons FloH Club received a nod for offering telephone based tech-support service designed for seniors. A dating site called "Dating for Seniors" (DatingForSeniors.com), was one of 9 other ideas put on the watch list for this category. This was the only dating site mentioned on the entire list.

I can understand why a dating site for seniors was put on the list since this online dating niche is a growing market (thought not a new idea). What I am not sure on is why this particular seniors dating site was picked. There are other much more popular senior dating services like SeniorPeopleMeet.com and Lavalife Prime.

For more information on this story, visit Entrepreneur Magazines 100 Brilliant Ideas list. The senior category is on page 4. For other dating sites which are designed for single seniors, check out our list of Dating Sites for Seniors.

More people are online dating than ever before, and new dating websites are on the rise along with them. With all the choice out there, how do you know which site is right for you?

There are basic categories of sites, so depending on what type of relationship you're looking for, here are some suggestions:

If you are just getting started, you might want to try a site that gives you the flexibility to search as well as find matches for you, preferably a reputable site with a lot of members. These sites include Match.com (read review), LavaLife (read review), and Nerve.com. If you prefer to try online dating without the financial investment, sites like OkCupid and PlentyofFish offer free memberships, but these sites can also attract less serious daters.

If you are looking for a long-term or serious relationship, sites like eHarmony (read review) and Chemistry.com (read review) promise better matches with more serious daters. These sites do the matching for you based on extensive questionnaires and personality profiling.

Sites like Thread.com (which connects members through Facebook networks) and Friendster offer dating through social networking. If you prefer to meet potential dates by building virtual friendships first, these sites might work well for you.

If you prefer to date people who have the same passions or interests as you, there are a variety of niche dating sites. VeggieDate.org connects vegetarians, Democratic Singles connects those of the same political persuasion, and there are countless religious-based dating sites, such as JDate.com (read review) for Jewish singles. There are even sites for the technology-driven dater, like Cupidtino.com which bring together lovers of Apple products.

There are also sites that involve more real-time interaction online, such as virtual dating sites and online speed dating. Smingle.com allows members to create avatars and go on "virtual dates" with each other. WinkVid.com and SpeedDate.com are sites that offer online speed dating via webcam chats with several people over the course of an hour.

No matter what your dating preferences are, chances are there's a site out there for you.

The other eHarmony dating sites had their free weekend at the end of May. eHarmony Australia is celebrating theirs this weekend. Starting today, Friday June 11th and until Monday June 14th, 2010 eHarmony Australia (eHarmony.com.au) is having their free communication weekend. During this time all members of eHarmony Australia will be able to communicate with each other at no cost (with no credit card required). This 4 day event is happening during the Queen’s Birthday holiday which makes it ideal for singles to try out the dating site as it will be extra busy this weekend. Fasttracking the guided communication process and profile photo's are not included in this promotion.

The last free weekend at eHarmony Australia was 4 months ago on Valentine's Day. Check out our eHarmony review for more information on this popular Australian dating service.

The Australian website Smart Company did an interview with the vice president of international marketing at eHarmony, Sean Cornwell. In the interview he was asked several questions which resulted in him giving us some new information and statistics about eHarmony in Australia.

eHarmony.com.au was launched in November 2007. In those 2 years, the matchmaking site has had over 650,000 single residents of Australia register. In the first quarter of this year (2010) they saw 123,000 additional people create profiles on eHarmony Australia. Part of the huge growth this year is due to a bigger marketing budget. By late 2009, eHarmony felt they had enough Australian members in which they could properly promote their service through the media.

eHarmony offers singles a chance to receive high quality matches. Singles who sign up to eHarmony will receive between

five and a maximum of seven compatible matches every day.

These matches offer the best chance for a relationship to develop, but it is still up to members through communication to see if there is any sparks or chemistry between them. eHarmony believes it is more important to receive quality matches than to receive a large number of matches that have little chance of creating a successful relationship.

For more information about this dating site, read our review of eHarmony.

Glamour Magazine has partnered with the online dating site Match.com. This is a good move for both companies. Of the roughly 3 million women who visit Glamour.com, 70 percent are single or divorced. This is obviously an ideal market for Match.com to offer their service too. Plus a large percentage of Glamour readers are between the ages of 20 and 50. This age range is the prime users of online dating sites. From this 2 year deal Glamour will receive a percentage of the revenue from people who sign up for this Match.com extended dating service called Glamour Matchmaker.

When singles log into Glamour Matchmaker they will find specially chosen profiles which are organized by personality types. These personality types will be created by the staff at Glamour and will include names like "Adventure Seeker" and "Foxy Bohemian".

Glamour Matchmaker is expected to go online sometime this month.

For more on the story, read The Wall Street Journal. To find out more about the dating site which partnered with Glamour, check out our Match.com review.