When you are trying to choose an online dating site for the first time, one thing you should pay close attention to is whether or not the site displays the “last login” for each profile.

While this may seem an insignificant stat to look at, let me spell out the reason I find it to be important.

On almost all major dating sites, profiles are sorted according to their last login. What I mean by that is that when you pull up your desired search preferences, the site will return the results in the order of their most recent log in. What this does is it filters the active accounts from the inactive ones.

Here’s a quick exercise you can use if you’re trying to figure out whether or not to get involved with online dating. Each of us has different ideas on what is important, but it sometimes helps to write things down on paper.

Here’s a quick list that applies to me.

Pros:

• If you’re shy, online dating is a lot easier than walking up to a complete stranger.

• The pool available online is pretty large. I’m able to chat with a lot of quality females from the privacy of my living room.

I was just browsing around the web and I bumped into a great article. It has to do with a new law that passed in New Jersey which will require online dating sites to disclose all of their security screening measures regarding their members.

This includes whether or not the sites provide background checks on their members. Although many users believe that the dating sites provide these security members, most in fact, do not.

Google “online dating service” and you’ll see that there are over 8 MILLION pages promoting various sites.  As you can see, the possibilities are endless and the task of picking the right site is overwhelming.

Here are 6 tips to use:

1.  What are you hoping to find?

There are thousands of sites, many of which cater to very specific singles.

• Are you looking for friendship, a serious relationship, or are you just looking for a good time?
• Heterosexual or homosexual site?