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Which dating site? With thousands of dating sites all over the
web and more popping up everyday, finding the best dating site
for you can be overwhelming. This article will give you some
tips on how to test the sites and find the good ones.
Side bar: This article is not about touting certain
websites. It is about helping make your search easier by letting
you know what to look for, and narrowing the field down to one
or two good sites.
There are two common ways to select a dating site. One is to
follow the advice of a friend or family member. Not a bad way,
but also error-prone. Remember we are talking about the best
dating site for you.
The second, and recommended, option is to do some good old
fact-finding through research. Don't panic, this article is
about making it easier on you.
What Is the Best Dating Site?
The best dating site is not the biggest, nor the most
features-laden. The best dating site is the one that best fits
who you are or matches your personality/need(s).
Types of Dating Sites
There are, basically, three types of dating sites:
1. Popular or General
2. Specialty or Niche
3. Community or Special Interest
Now let's now briefly describe each for a better understanding:
1. Popular or general dating sites: These Cater to the general
public and all ages, ethnic groups, religions, sexual
orientations etc. Usually they will have huge databases, often
running to the tens of millions of members.
2. Specialty or niche dating sites: These cater to specific
interests such as religion, ethnicity, age groups etc. Their
members have something in common.
3. Community or special interest dating sites: These are similar
to specialty or niche sites (#2 above), but cater to even
narrower interests. Examples; Catholic (not "Christian"),
swingers (not "adult"), Filipino (not "Asian")... you get the
picture.
So, which way to go? The first step towards success in finding
the best dating site is to be clear on what you are looking for.
You do know yourself, don't you?
If you have some online dating experience, consider specialty or
community sites. But if just starting out, your best bet is to
go with popular/general dating sites. Why?
Because popular dating sites serve most interests and you'll get
faster results. This will give you some experience as well as a
feel of the features. Subsequently, this helps build your
confidence while also learning online dating "lingo" and
sub-culture.
What to Look For In a Dating Site
The top ten things to consider when selecting a dating site are:
1. The number of profiles: Online dating is a numbers game. The
larger the database the better your chance of meeting the right
person.
2. Features: These include search and safety.
3. You should be able to search by age and gender as well as
height, hair color, vocation etc. if this is important to you.
4. Privacy: Most high-popularity dating sites provide you with
an email address specifically for online dating.
5. Availability of chat rooms and private chat rooms so you may
talk with your prospect(s) once a contact has been initiated.
Web video would be an additional benefit.
6. Some top-rated dating sites will alert you when someone has
responded to your email or expressed interest in contacting you.
Not the most important feature but nice to have all the same.
7. Relationship intentions: The site should cater to the kind of
relationship you seek.
8. Location: The site should have a sufficient number of members
in your geographical area, especially if you are not for long
distance relationships.
9. Detailed profiles: If a site allows members to skimp on
details about themselves, chances are they are doing it. This
makes it a mere photo contest.
10. Cost: Don't just go for the cheapest or free sites (there's
a price to pay for that), but if they are way above average they
should give a very good for this.
Signing Up for a Free Trial
Having narrowed your search to one or two dating sites using the
above guidelines, it is not time to commit yet. It is time to
sign up for a trial run, which most highly popular dating sites
offer. Make sure it is a real trial run and not just a tour.
What's the difference?
A tour is just that, a tour. You get to browse pictures of
seemingly (may I add unrealistic) happy couples who have "found"
happiness using that particular dating site. Don't buy into
this. It is crap and a complete waste of time.
A trial run lets you enjoy most of the site's features without
paying, for a period of time. But note that the trial is geared
towards getting you to become a paid member; therefore you'll
get a teaser here and there. Just stick to the trial till it's
over.
Take full advantage of the trial run. This means initiating as
many contacts as you possibly can. And post your photo
immediately on sign-up. The point is to find out if the dating
site is a good fit for your personality.
When the trial period ends, be ready to sign up for full
membership or opt out. If you opt out, take heart that at least
you didn't waste your money or time. And you now have some
experience. Find another site and do another test. The best
dating site for you is out there waiting to be discovered.
About the author:
David Kamau owns http://e-datecentral.com. Visit his site now
and check out top online dating picks. To receive updates, hot
dating articles and tips as well as free dating and romance
ebooks go to: http://e-datecentral.com/subscribe.htm
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