Online Dating

I found another expensive matchmaker. The first one I talked about 10 days ago was named Janis Spindel (see Story). She charges clients upwards of $50,000 for her services. This new matchmaker named Samantha Daniels runs a matchmaking service called Samantha's Table whose clients are mainly financial whizzes and bankers from Wall Street in New York. She charges clients close to $25,000 a year for her matchmaking skills.

Daniels clients have shifted somewhat from the big banks and hedge funds. With the recession in the past year her clients now deal more with asset management, private equity, and venture capital. A lot of her current clients are from companies in the Goldman Sachs Fortune 500.

Samantha's Table revenue so far this year has climbed 30 percent. Daniels attributes this increase to people wanting a stable personal life in the midst of the crisis of the economy.

For the full article on Wall Street's matchmaker Samantha Daniels, read CNNMoney and for another traditional matchmaker, who is much cheaper, read our review of It's Just Lunch.

If your faith is important to you, then you want to date people who share in it. You want someone you can take with you to church or to temple, someone to celebrate the holy days with, someone who you can pray with daily. It can sometimes seem difficult on the mainstream dating sites to tell whether or not someone selects "Christian" or "Jewish" because they are practicing or just because they grew up in that faith.

On Mainstream Sites

On mainstream sites like Match.com, it's hard to tell sometimes how serious someone is about their religion. (At least with OkCupid.com, they can select "and serious about it" after their religion choice!) This leaves you in the position of having to tell from their profile text if they are as serious about their faith as you are. Some people make this very easy! I see profiles every day where people say, "God is the most important thing in my life" or "My match should share my faith."

But what if you don't see anything like that? Then, you'll have to send them an email. Don't word it like an interrogation about their religious practices - that will put anyone on the defensive! - but add the question on the end of your email:

From a Australia point of view, online dating for singles 50 years or older, is seeing a huge increase in popularity. The premier Australian dating site, RSVP has seen a 30 percent increase of these members each year, for the last 5 years. Currently 13 percent of all members are over the age of 50 at RSVP.

RSVP is not alone in their findings. Other Australian dating sites are reporting the same trend. Match.com Australian dating site has seen similar numbers. 12 percent of Match.com.au members are over 50 and this age groups saw an increase of 23 percent in 2008.

For a bit more on this story, see Stuff. To find out more about the most popular dating site in Australia, read our RSVP review.

OkTrends first online dating advice post was about the number of responses members of OkCupid see from first contact messages of different lengths (see Story). Their second advice article takes a look at what members should say in these messages to increase the likelihood of a response. OkCupid based it's data on over 500,000 first contact messages from their dating site. Here are a list of recommendations. Any statistic information given is based on the average reply rate of all messages of 32 percent.

1. Be Literate - Bad spelling, grammar and netspeak makes a terrible first impression. For example the average of messages who used words like "ya" only saw a reply rate of 7 percent. There are a few exceptions to the netspeak rule, most deal with showing emotion like "haha" or "lol".
2. Avoid Physical Compliments - This is the same for both genders. General comments like "cool" and "awesome" (38% reply rate) work well but physical comments will see a huge drop in replies. The average message with the word "beautiful" in it saw a drop in the rate of replies of 10%. The word "sexy" was even worse and saw a drop of 14% to only 18% of initial contact messages to ever see a reply.
3. Use an Unusual Greeting - A message with no traditional salutation saw a reply rate of 27%. Messages with the 3 top salutations of "hi", "hey" and "hello" all performed below average with "hi" doing the worse at 24%. The best response rate was with the salutation of "how's it going" with 54%.
4. Don’t try to take it Outside - Asking for email addresses, cell phone numbers or other off site communication in the first contact message saw all reply rates drop to almost 10%.
5. Bring up Specific Interests - Mentioning your specific interests or better yet, those of the person you are contacting, increases the chance of response to almost 50% in some cases.
6. If you’re a Guy, be Self-Effacing - Male message reply rates increased if they appeared unsure of themselves and used words like "sorry", "apologize", "awkward" and "probably". This is not true for women.
7. Consider Becoming an Atheist - Mentioning any religion helps increase the average response rate, but mentioning the fact that you are a "atheist" increased the response rate twice as much over the increase the leading religion of "Christian" saw. With the word "atheist" in your message, members saw a 42% response rate, "christian" saw a 36% response rate.

For more on this dating site, read our OkCupid reviews.

When you're a dating senior, it's likely that the kids are grown and have moved away from home. However, that doesn't mean the kids won't be curious when it comes to who that "special someone" is in your life! Deciding the right time to introduce your partner to your family is definitely worth some thought, as these are all people in your life who are important to you. You don't want to hurt anyone's feelings but you need to make decisions you feel are right for you, your family and your new partner. Here are some tips to help guide you through the introduction of "new friends" to your family.

Make it a Joint Decision. If you and your new partner both have families, try to make introductions a bi-lateral decision. While this can be hard when kids are grown with families of their own and possibly living in different states, a joint decision can sometimes take the pressure off one party. This also serves as a good "status check." If one of you is ready to introduce families and the other isn't, then take some time to explore where your relationship it at. After all, you spent a lifetime raising your family - sharing them is a big decision!

Family Introductions Should be Fun! Your family is a great source of pride and you have a lifetime together of quirks, memories, laughter and love. Why not make the day they meet your new partner just as fun? Whether it's a backyard barbeque for the Fourth of July or a group dinner at your favorite restaurant, try to take some of the pressure off by actually enjoying yourself! You love your family. You love your partner. Help them get to know one another and develop their relationship by adding a little levity to the situation.

Have a Family "Cram Session." Just like you did before math test, why not set some time for you and your partner to sit down and do some studying of your own? Grab a bottle of wine or pack a picnic basket and make a date of going through family photo albums. Share your favorite memories of your kids so neither of you will go in blind. This will help establish a sense of familiarity before the big "meet my partner/meet my family" day and show your partner a side of you he or she has never seen before.

You’ve got something that those young whippersnappers don’t: a lifetime of experience and common sense. But how can you play this to your advantage when it comes to getting back into the dating scene?

Dating has changed since we first ventured out there. While the ideas of courtship aren’t completely dead, the lines of propriety have been blurred. You should never have to worry about your personal safety when it comes to dating, however. By using that lifetime of common sense you’ve accumulated along with a few tips, you’ll be in the mix of things and enjoying the process of getting to know new people. Now, that’s better than worrying, isn’t it? Here’s a list to get you started with safe dating (and while these tips aren’t just for seniors, we won’t tell anyone!) :