Online Dating

While I think genetic testing can reveal biological compatibility, I do have problems recommending it as your sole source of information about your matches. Personality and your own likes and dislikes play a major role in matchmaking. Plus, all of the DNA testing dating sites memberships are too small to really be able to generate high quality matches for someone.

It looks like that one of the first dating sites we talked about which does DNA matchmaking, ScientificMatch.com, is planning to phase out the dating part of the site and concentrate on matchmakers and couples. I think that is a good idea for Scientific Match as their price tag of $995 was just too steep for them ever to gain any traction as a dating site. See this Story for more details on ScientificMatch.com.

Another genetic testing dating service we talked about was GenePartner. Back in the beginning of June they had run tests on 500 people, now after 5 months, they have doubled the number to 1000. This is still not a lot of people but it is the only DNA matching company to specify any numbers. Another advantage of GenePartner is they are much cheaper than other similar services. They only charge $99. GenePartner have also recently partnered with a dating site called Sense2Love.com (which is expected to open next month) to offer their service as an add-on to the regular dating site's service. I think partnering with other dating sites like this, is the only way for DNA matchmaking companies to be able to create a member database large enough to generate quality matches for singles. For more on GenePartner and how their service works, read this Story.

The one other thing I have problems with these type of matching sites is I would never really want to give up my DNA to them. You would never know if your DNA could ever fall into the wrong hands (like your insurance company).

Stella Magazine commissioned the research company, YouGov, to survey 2,000 men and women who lived in the United Kingdom and had been on a date in the last year.

What did they find out? Well, if you are 55 or older, you belong to the group who most actively dates online. 62 percent of men and women over 55 have joined a dating site. At the other end of the demographic age range, only 21 percent of 18 to 24 year old British singles had ever joined a dating site.

55 and older singles also went on more dates from online dating than other age groups, an average of 8.2 dates to be exact. They also formed more long term relationships because of these dates with the average 55 plus online dater having 2.1 relationships.

The 45 to 54 age group did find the most sexual partners online at 2.6 partners per person but, 55 year olds and older came in second at 2.4 sexual partners per person.

For more information on this story, visit Telegraph or, you can pick up a copy of Stella Magazine this Sunday.

For UK singles who are interested in finding a dating service to try, take a look at our United Kingdom Dating category and our Dating Over 50 category.

Starting this Friday, November 20th, 2009, eHarmony UK (eHarmony.co.uk) is having a 4 day long free communication weekend. Until Sunday midnight (Nov. 23rd), all members of this dating service can review matches and communicate with all members for free. All that is required from you, is the time you need to try out this matchmaking service.

eHarmony places an emphasis on long term relationships that lead to marriage. If this is something that interests you, give one of the fastest growing dating sites in the UK a try.

The last free communication weekend for eHarmony UK was held at the end of October, just 4 weeks ago (see Story).

Read our review of eHarmony for more details and users opinions on this popular matchmaking service for British singles.

I know, you're excited to start checking people out and sending emails and (oh, please don't!) winks. But hold your horses for just a few minutes and do these things first to set yourself up for success.

Check your profile once it goes live to be sure everything looks good. Tweak if necessary. You may find that your profile looks different when it’s up on the site. There may be a one word line at the end of a paragraph that you could remove with a little careful editing. You may realize that your chosen headline cuts off in the preview mode in an inopportune spot. ("You know you want to see my furry...... *click....loading, please wait* ...new puppy!) These are all things that can be neatened up in a few minutes before you get down to the fun part.

Set up your account preferences. Many sites allow you to customize what members can see you and email you. For example, PlentyOfFish allows you to block members who are only interested in casual encounters. OkCupid allows you to specify exactly what kind of people can send you messages, so you never have to worry about getting emails from people who live across the country, are way too old for your liking, or who don’t match you by at least a certain percentage. Match.com allows you to block certain users, for example, your exes, your coworkers, or anyone else you don’t want messing with you while you’re busy searching for love.

As Thanksgiving moves closer, we knew the next eHarmony Free Communication Weekend would soon be upon us. Starting tomorrow, Thursday, Nov 19 and to Sunday Nov. 22 all members of eHarmony (US and Canada) will be able to communicate and review their matches at no cost. These 4 day events are the best way for singles interested in online dating to give eHarmony a try and to see if this matchmaking service is the one that not only works for them, but fits their needs as well.

The last free communication event was held in late October, just 4 weeks ago (see Story). This is Free Communication Weekend number 21 for eHarmony here in the US.

Check out our review of eHarmony for more information on the dating site. We also currently have 72 user reviews which you can read that are available from our review page.

Craft an online dating profile. Remember, your profile isn’t for you – it’s for your potential dates! Seth Godin, marketing genius, once spoke to the folks at Google about cat food. You see, cat food is not for cats. Sure, it provides nourishment for cats, but cat food is really for people. If cat food were for cats, it would come in Freshly-Dead Mouse flavor. As it stands, cat food comes in flavors like Grilled Salmon. Know any cats who insist their salmon be grilled? I sure don’t!

Think about the things that you’d want a potential mate to appreciate about you and do with you. Write about these things with passion and the most descriptive language you can. Paint a picture of a life that your ideal mate would love to jump right into and experience with you. And remember, marketing isn’t about lying. (It can be, but it’s not in this case.) It’s about putting your best face forward and writing for the audience you hope to attract.

In that same vein, choose recent and appropriate photos. Those shots you took in the dark with your webcam, or that you doctored up with various photo editing programs are not the photos you want to use here. We’re talking high res, good quality photographs. If you can get professional photos taken, awesome. If you can’t, hand a camera to a friend and have them take pictures of you doing what you normally do.