Great, according to the Hollywood Reporter the TV show from last summer, "Dating in the Dark", is getting another kick at the can. ABC has ordered 6 episodes for a second season which will probably air this June. Last year the show aired after the Bachelorette on Monday's with decent numbers.
Neu.de, one of Germany's largest dating sites has recently partnered with Match.com. On February 9, 2010 Match.com in Germany (de.match.com) will have their database of members merged with Neu.de. Match.com will also then start returning matches from both dating sites to their members. Neu.de customer service will also be taking on the role of customer support for Match.com in Germany.
Need to know more about Match.com in Germany? According to their homepage 80 percent of their members are looking for a long-term relationship. 45 percent of members are women and 70 percent have never been married. 56 percent of all members are also over the age of 30.
Most of this information was Google translated from OpenPr.
Compatible Partners is having a free communication weekend (FCW) this Valentine's Day which we almost missed. It starts today, Thursday February 11, 2010 and runs to Monday February 15, 2010. This full 5 day promotion allows new and existing members to try out Compatible Partners to see if this online dating site is the right fit for you, and all without a Credit Card. You will be able to review your same-sex matches as well as communicate for them at no cost. The only things for which we are aware of that are not included, is the ability to FastTrack the communication process and viewing members photos.
This is the second FCW we have tracked for Compatible Partners with the last one starting at the end of December (see Story).
For more information on this matchmaking service for gay singles, please read our Compatible Partners review.
Kelli Grant, a consumer reporter and the author of an online dating article that appeared on SmartMoney.com (part of the Wall Street Journal) took a look at a couple of strategies which could help online daters. She also appeared on CBS News summarizing the information she found about dating online, which you can watch below.
Kelli's straight forward approach to how to succeed with online dating is refreshing but I do have to question her on a few of her facts. One of the things she mentions in the video and the article is to check the dating sites traffic (unique visitors per month). This is a good approach but probably something most users will not know how to do. If you are new to online dating (and are not really sure about finding traffic stats) I always suggest checking out the following 3 popular dating sites eHarmony, Match.com and PlentyofFish.com. All of these dating sites receive well over a couple of million unique visitors each every month. Keli Grant also mentions that a dating site with less than 10,000 unique visitors a month is probably not worth getting a paid subscription for. I agree with her on this but I do think she vastly under estimated this number. I would say any dating site that doesn't have at least 50,000 unique visitors per month is not worth joining. This is true, unless the dating site is a real small niche or is specifically for your home city. With a dating site that has 10,000 visitors a month, the chances of finding someone close to you to date is relatively small.
One of the other things she suggests is to read site reviews. This is important as well but her suggestion of using Yelp.com to find dating site reviews is not very good. I like Yelp.com but they concentrate more on reviews for restaurants, shopping, and other locations in the real world. I also have to ask, where is the mention of DatingSitesReviews.com? 😉
She also suggests looking up the dating site in the Better Business Bureau (BBB). This is a good point as well but people need to know how the BBB works. First of all it can be hard to find businesses on the BBB website, I know I did a article on dating sites and the BBB (see Story). Plus, a lot of dating sites do not belong to the BBB, take for example, the mostly free dating site Plenty Of Fish. They are not in the BBB but this doesn't mean they are a bad dating service. The second thing is the Better Business Bureau is for customers who wish to make complaints and to show if and how these complaints were handled by the company. You will not find much positive information on a BBB report since that is not its purpose. The other thing you need to know about a BBB report is a company with few complaints doesn't necessarily mean it is a good company. You need to look at how the complaints were handled plus how large the company is. For example, Microsoft and Apple have many more complaints than the leading dating services Match.com and eHarmony. Does this mean Apple and Microsoft have bad products and poor customer service? Not really. They just have a much larger customer base, so naturally they will receive more complaints.
Just in time for Valentine's Day, eHarmony here in the United States and Canada is planning to have their 23rd free communication weekend (FCW) starting Thursday February 11th, 2010 to Monday February 15th, 2010.
During this 5 day eHarmony free communication weekend, all members will be able to review matches and to communicate with these matches for no cost. The month of February and especially around Valentine's Day is when dating sites are the busiest. This means if you haven't tried eHarmony yet, this is your best chance to see how it works and what type of matches they have in your area. As with previous FCWs, members will not be able to FastTrack the guided communication process. Member's photos also are also not viewable for this promotion.
The last eHarmony free communication event occurred during New Years Eve (see Story).
Check out our review of eHarmony for more information on the dating site.
Singles interested in the United Kingdom Free Communication Weekend, read this News Story.
Update: I see that the Australian eHarmony dating site is having a FCW as well but it runs from Friday Feb.12th to Feb. 15th.
We would like to welcome Moxie as a new contributor here at DatingSitesReviews.com. She has been writing her own online dating and sex advice column called "And That's Why You're Single" for over 5 years now and has shown she has valuable insight on relationships and what makes men and women tick. You can now expect to find Moxie offering the same valuable advice and tips here, which can be used to help you with dating, both online and off.
To find out more about our fourth writer, Moxie, visit her Bio page. You may also use this form to contact her, if you wish to ask her questions or to suggest a topic for her next article.
Singles interested in the United Kingdom Free Communication Weekend, read this 
Australian eHarmony dating site is having a FCW as well but it runs from Friday Feb.12th to Feb. 15th.
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