General News

A number of Brits have been stuck at home last week due to the cold, and the ice and snow. A unforeseen effect of this is, many UK dating services are reporting a surge in traffic to their sites. Most people who are home alone for more than a day or so get sick of watching the TV and need something else to do, hello the internet.

Singles365.com saw visitors on Tuesday and Wednesday rise by 27 percent when compared to a year ago. Likewise MySingleFriend.com reported that traffic on Tuesday increased by 55 percent with the peak time coming in at 3:00pm and not the usual 11:00pm. Meanwhile the affairs website IllicitEncounters.com acknowledged a record gain of new members on Wednesday with the total for the 6 days up to and including Wednesday to be 2,567 new members. This is 37 percent more than usual. Most of these dating sites also report that the areas hit worse by this extreme weather, like Berkshire and Hampshire, are also seeing the most new members.

In the dating world, January has always been the busiest month, but this surge of traffic to dating sites in the UK shows that environmental conditions does effect business. Let us hope the weather changes soon so all these new visitors to UK dating sites can actually go out and meet the people they have been chatting with online. 😉

For more on this story, read BBC News and to find a list of dating sites in the UK, check out our United Kingdom Dating category.

In response to this Story about BeautifulPeople.com booting 5,000 members off their dating site for gaining weight, Spark.com has decided to offer a free one month subscription to all 5,000 members. Adam Berger, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Spark Networks, said he was disappointed by the public actions BeautifulPeople has taken and decided to make this offer to show that all singles are welcome at Spark.com.

To claim this offer, the rejected BeautifulPeople.com members need to sign up for a free profile at Spark.com. They then need to email their Spark username and the rejection notice they received from BeautifulPeople.com to getignited AT spark DOT com. In 24 hours or less you will then receive a free one month subscription.

To find out more about this dating site, check out our review of Spark.com.

 

The production company behind "Big Brother" created the new ABC TV dating show called "Conveyor Belt of Love" which aired last Monday night. The show gives 30 bachelors 60 seconds each to impress 5 women. Each guy is brought out on a conveyor belt, one at a time to "audition" for the women. The women can ask the man questions and the guy usually has a talent he uses to try to win the women over. Some examples of these talents from the show include joke telling, ballet and magicians. If the women like what they see they can hold up a sign telling the audience she is interested. At this point the guy goes to a platform where he waits and see if he is replaced.

The show is describe by the producers as a Speed Dating on TV and is based on a British Series. ABC currently only has plans for the one show but if ratings indicate that the public liked it, I am sure we will see some new episodes in the future. My take on this? it was entertaining for the first 5 minutes but after that I was just embarrassed for the contestants.

For more on the show, read Reuters.

A big story recently has been about BeautifulPeople.com and when they expelled about 5,000 members for gaining weight over the holidays. According to the founder of the dating site, Robert Hintze, members were getting angry that, other members who are heavier after the holidays, were still on the dating site. They wanted the service to do something about it. BeautifulPeople.com responded by moving these members back to the rating stage where they must re-apply so their profile can be reviewed by existing members again. Of the 5,000 members expelled, only a couple hundred were voted back in. Of the members who were voted off the site, 1,520 were from the United States, 832 were from the United Kingdom and 533 were from Canada.

While not politically correct, BeautifulPeople say they are honest. When new members apply to the dating site, existing members of the opposite sex get to vote for the next 48 hours on, if the person gets accepted into the dating site. This way only the most beautiful people ever get to use the site. If someone doesn't get voted in initially, they can always resubmit at a later date with a better profile picture and updated profile text.

You can find out more about this story at The Daily News.

It sounds like you're looking for an online dating site that does some of the matchmaking legwork for you. That's probably why you're looking into eHarmony, Chemistry and Perfect Match! Well, before you delve into any of these sites, we took some time to build a comparison for you. After all, many of the writers on this site are in the online dating world as well. Let us do the digging so you can find someone you dig.

eHarmony.com

Cost: $60/month (estimated)
Accepts non-traditional clients (gay, lesbian, etc.): no
Compatibility test completion time: 1 to 2 hours
Allows users to search profiles: no
Rejects potential members? yes
Accepts "currently separated" members: no

eHarmony is the oldest of the "matchmaker" type online dating sites. They do all of the legwork for you. Once you complete their compatibility test, you wait for them to match you with potential dates. You're only eligible to receive a certain number of matches per week, so if you close-out all of your options early, you'll be waiting another week to see who else is in store for you. They only accept heterosexual couples and do not allow those who are not legally single (i.e. divorced, widowed or single) to become members. They are famous for their guided communication process, designed to let you get to know someone through their internal messaging system with a series of mutually answered questions.

To find out more about this dating site, read our review of eHarmony.

Chemistry.com

Cost: $50/month (estimated)
Accepts non-traditional clients (gay, lesbian, etc.):
Allows users to search profiles: no
Rejects potential members? no
Accepts "currently separated" members: yes

Chemistry.com is owned and operated by Match.com and there are a number of profiles that are on both sites. Touted as "more fun" than eHarmony, the site accepts members of all sexual orientations and also permits those who are "currently separated" to join the site.

To find out more about this dating site, read our review of Chemistry.

PerfectMatch.com

Cost: $60/month (estimated)
Accepts non-traditional clients (gay, lesbian, etc.): yes
Compatibility test completion time: 1 to 2 hours
Allows users to search profiles: yes
Rejects potential members? no
Accepts "currently separated" members: no

PerfectMatch.com has perhaps the greatest functionality of the three matchmaker-type sites that use compatibility profiles. They allow users to search by compatibility features, keywords and many other criteria that can be customized. They also deliver matches to your inbox as well. An ideal balance if you're looking for some help but prefer the functionality of a user-powered site where you call the shots.

To find out more about this dating site, read our review of Perfect Match.

Back in October Match.com UK selected, the ad agency, Mother, to run their new marketing campaign (see Story). This month Mother unveiled their first commercial for Match.com.

The new ad uses the Jack and Jill icons in a fun felt animation with a female narrator telling the viewers why they should use Match.com. At the end of the ad the new tag line is shown, "Start your love story at Match.com". I thought this is an excellent slogan, much better than Match.com's North American one of "Its Okay to Look". The ad also informed the viewer that a member of Match.com finds there match once every 10 minutes on the dating site.

For further details on the story, read Marketing Magazine and to find out more about this dating site, read our review of Match.com UK.