Online Dating

According to Hitwise, there are currently around 1,400 dating sites in North America. This gives singles a lot of choice and many of them join multiple dating services at the same time. Mark Brooks of Online Personals Watch refers to this as serial online dating and compares it to bar and nightclub hopping. Some people see it as a simple math equation. The more dating sites you join the more chances you have of finding Mr. or Mrs. Right. Of course the problem you run into when you do this is, you end up not spending quality time on any one of the dating sites. You end up not thinking through the messages you are sending to singles and end up doing a cookie cutter operation by cutting and pasting the same email message to multiple people. This makes you look less interested in the person you are sending the message too. It is fairly easy to see when a message or a reply sent to you on a dating site has not been tailored to your previous message or the information in your profile. That is not a very good first impression!

Initially I think you should signup to multiple site, but there is a reason for this. You should sign up to 2 or 3 dating sites using their free trials to see the type of members they have to offer and if they live an acceptable distance away. If there is no one in your area then try another site. Once you find one with what you think is a good selection of members that meet your location requirements then that is the one site you need to upgrade your membership for.

I got an email from someone tonight complaining about how Be2.com makes you jump through hoops to cancel a membership. Apparently you need to request cancellation of their services via fax. And the fax must contain the following information:

• full name
• address
• email-address
• username
• date of purchase of Premium Membership
• total sum
• reason for cancellation

An article at the Globe & Mail looks at the increased popularity of online dating since the downturn in the economy which started in the fall. They include a couple of reasons for this. The main point mentioned is, people rather use online dating first to filter out the duds (their word) before spending good money on an expensive dinner.

It's a pretty good deal at $25 a month to go out and meet people online, versus going out and spending 50 to 100 bucks per night and possibly not meeting anyone.

The other reason they suggest is bad times makes people re-prioritize what is important in life. I agree with both of these points, plus I think online dating is also a good distraction from bad times. Nothing legal gives you a better high than when you find someone that gives you that butterfly feeling in your stomach.

The article also gave us a few more statistics of some of our reviewed dating sites. Lavalife member registrations are up 11 percent from November with Toronto leading the charge with a 20 percent increase (Lavalife is based in Toronto). Messaging among members on Lavalife is also at a 6 month high. At the same time Plenty of Fish has had a banner year with a 77 percent increase from December 2007 until December 2008. Apparently about 900,000 people log in every day. A poll at Date.com also discovered that almost 50 percent of members are now spending more time on their dating site making sure they have found Mr or Miss Right before they go out on a date.

We just got the official word that eHarmony is planning for a Free Communication Weekend from February 13th to February 16th 2009. eHarmony is taking advantage of the large number of singles that will be using dating sites on Valentine's Day and during February (the busiest month for online dating). eHarmony wants to show how well their matching system works and, what better way to do this than to give all members (not just new ones) full access to the site. This allows you to review your matches and communicate for free.

This is Free Communication Weekend number 15 for eHarmony. They also had one last year at the same time. If eHarmony's promotion pattern continues you can expect to see more free weekends on or near every major US and Canadian holiday.

Read our eHarmony review for more information on this popular and award winning dating service.

BusinessWeek did a rather week comparison of Free VS Paid dating in North America. Mainly, they listed all the benefits of free dating but none of the problems. They backed their arguments up with quotes from free dating site owners but none from the paid ones. Of course the quotes from owners are mainly plugs for their services. There was also a heading in the article called Free Is the Right Price in a Recession which discussed how free dating sites experienced traffic growth during the economic downturn but, nothing was mentioned of traffic to paid dating sites. You don't have to look far on the internet to see paid services are experiencing growth as well (See Story).

To find out more advantages and disadvantages, see our new dating reviews category called Free Dating Sites & Apps.

In late January, True.con announced that they have added video chatting to their dating service with 26 different chat rooms.

At a given time, a member may find over 1,000 people chatting, flirting and having fun. The feature not only allows chatters to view up to 10 webcam broadcasts simultaneously, but also allows any two people into a private chat together.

True.com's new group video chat room allows members to enjoy a party like atmosphere since you can view and talk with up to 10 people at once, while the private one on one chat allows for subscribers to go on virtual dates. Online dates allows singles to see how they interact with each other in real time before they commit to taking their relationship off line.

For the full story read True.com's press release.