General News

I have been going over the reviews of late and updating them with any new features and pricing information we have found. Since last year, Spark Networks have updated most of their "General MArkets" and "Other Affinity Networks" dating sites (which use to be Mingle Match) to include two new features. There are also now, two paid membership levels. A Standard Membership, which includes all the usually features like Instant Messaging and the ability to send and receive emails. A Premium Membership includes all the features of a Standard Membership plus the new Spotlight and Stand-Out features.

The Spotlight feature allows you to become a featured member on the homepage of the dating site and more importantly makes you a featured profile in the search results of members who match your specific search criteria which you setup before hand. The Stand-Out feature is similar to the highlight feature found on other dating sites. Your profile summary receives a special background color and larger area in search results to help make it more noticeable.

On average a Premium Membership costs about $5 USD more per month than a standard Membership. This new membership can be found on the following dating sites:

AmericanSingles.com - Read Review (New Features called Member Spotlight and Highlighted Profile)
Asian Singles Connection - Read Review
BBW Personals Plus - Read Review
Canadian Personals - Read Review
Catholic Mingle - Read Review
Christian Mingle - Read Review
Date.ca - Read Review (New Features called Member Spotlight and Highlighted Profile)
Prime Singles - Read Review
Single Parents Mingle - Read Review
UK Singles Connection - Read Review

The popular UK dating site, DatingDirect, has recently launch a service called DatingDirect Affinity. It is a separate dating site but it is easily accessed through the DatingDirect membership area. DatingDirect Affinity provides a service based on a unique psychometric test. The test is designed to bring together compatible members and to build strong and lasting relationships. It has almost 100 questions that touch on 71 different psychological criteria. The Affinity test will explore your fundamental values, interests and gather information on your views of love, life and family. The test was designed by a group of psychologists who are specialised in psychometrics and dynamics of human relationships. The test is based on the highest standards of analysis as defined by the American Psychological Association and the Educational Testing Service.

Once you have completed the test, you can view your confidential personality report as well as see a detailed breakdown of your compatibility with other members who meet your search criteria. The compatibility is defined by an affinity score, which each member who has taken the test will have. Your personality report is made up of three groups of criteria. These are:

Christian Mingle has recently added keyword searching to their dating site. They have also enabled automatic keyword searching when you are viewing a members profile. How it works is, In essay questions like My Introduction, certain keywords used in their answers, when clicked return other profiles that have used the word as well. This makes it a few steps easier to find matches that relate to each other.

For more information on this religious dating service, read our Christian Mingle review.

We have found a few articles lately which looked at what most people like to call Sugar Daddy dating sites. These sites for the most part offer a place for wealthy men to find attractive woman who are looking for the finer things in life (to put it politely). Similar sites also use the terms Wealthy, Millionaire, Sugar Baby and Gold Diggers. An article from ABC news recently asked the question if these type of sites promote a form of prostitution (see Story). This time, the New York Times is taking a look at the topic.

In an article called Keeping Up With Being Kept, the New York Times calls Sugar Daddy dating sites a down-and-dirty marketplace. The article is seven pages and goes into detail on several peoples experiences at the website called SeekingArrangement.com. Founder Brandon Wade says the site creates relationships that are mutually beneficial. With more than 300,000 registered members, nearly half the sugar daddies on Seeking Arrangement are married.

We had last checked Yahoo Personals US pricing in June of 2008. Since then they have raised the cost of a membership on all 3 terms. A 1 month membership went up the most, from $25.99 to $29.99, which is around 15%. The 3 month and 6 month membership both went up $2 per month. This means, for a 3 month membership it now costs $19.99 per month, which is $59.97 in total. For a 6 month membership it is $15.99 per month, which makes it $95.94 in total. This represents just over a 10 percent increase.

I believe both Match.com and eHarmony had increases as well this year, while other sites who are not fairing as well have decreased their membership prices.

For more information on this dating site, read our Yahoo Personals review.

I just noticed on the Indian dating service, Shaadi.com Matrimonial, that they now offer a 100% money back guarantee. They are confident to offer this guarantee because of their successful track record of matching singles. Shaadi calls the guarantee an Unconditional Guarantee - 100% money back, but there is a few conditions.

The first condition is, If you do not have at least 1 accepted member in the first month, Shaadi.com will refund your entire Premium Membership fee, with no questions asked. A accepted member is considered to be either a member who expressed interest in you and you responded positively OR a member who responded positively to your interest expressed.

You are also expected to fill in all details of your profile, create a partner profile, upload your photo and actively communicate with members.

For more information on this online dating site, read our Shaadi.com review.