With so many sites out there, it can be difficult figuring out where to begin.

Are you looking for someone to fool around with or someone to spend the rest of your life with?

It sounds like a simple solution, but if you are looking for a long term companion, you should look into the better matchmaking sites.  If you have your mind set on an intimate relationship with no strings attached, then there are sites catered just for that.

Are you looking for someone who shares the same religious values as you?

As and example, if you are looking to find a Jewish single, it would make sense to join a Jewish dating site.

Does the site you have in mind have a large local presence?

I think this is one of the most important factors to look at when choosing a service. It’s much easier to meet someone who lives within 40 minutes of your house over a cup of coffee or a quick lunch then someone who lives 2 hours away.

Can you get a free trial membership?

All reputable sites will offer you a free trial membership. Trial memberships are often limited which means you may not have the full access that paying customers get. The main drawback to the trial memberships is you are limited in how you can get in touch with other profiles.

How much is the monthly fee?

As much as we don’t like to admit it, money is always a factor. To find a quality single, you are going to have to whip out your credit card and pay for a membership. When people pay for a site, it shows that they are dedicated to finding someone else.

How does the site let members interact with one another?

Online dating has come a long way over the past few years, and there are countless tools you can use to communicate with other suitors. Check to see what tools a site uses to promote this communication.

What precautions does the dating site take to protect your privacy?

Make sure that the service you are planning to use protects all of your personal information. A common practice is providing members with a masked email that hides the users actual email. This is great because your personal email is never disclosed. I think it is important to be able to block members from seeing your profile as needed. This is great to get rid of people that are not interested in.

Once you have figured all of this out, turn your energy to setting up the best user profile possible. After that’s completed, sit back and enjoy meeting all of the quality singles these sites have to offer.

One industry that’s seen a boom over the past few weeks has been online dating sites.  If you haven’t seen the news, Great Britain was slammed with snow and icy weather last week which has made it difficult for many Brits to get back and forth to work.  For many of those single Brits, their time spent housebound has led to a huge increase in online dating.

According to a BBC article, UK singles are hitting two large British dating sites in record numbers.  Without wanting to plagiarize, I want to quote directly from that article:

“Mysinglefriend.com says visitors to its website soared by 55% on Tuesday alone, with its busiest time coming at 1500 rather than the traditional 2200.

Meanwhile rival site Singles365.com says its visitor numbers grew 27% across Tuesday and Wednesday compared with a year ago.”

Great news for these two sites, with heavy traffic coming in the middle of the afternoon (1500) as opposed to the traditional surge that’s seen late in the evening (2200). The only downside to this surge is of these UK Singles are stuck inside their own homes, so it could be awhile before they get to meet up on that first date with their desired match.

That’s it for today, stay warm,

Mac

Online dating site Skout conducted a survey of their existing members to see how accepting their members would be in meeting up with people they found through their mobile application, which runs as an application off of the iPhone.  They surveyed 1000 members between the ages of 20-30 and the results were quite eye-opening.

51 percent of the consumers surveyed have met another single person in the Real World that they initiated contact with on their iPhone.  Also, almost 70 percent of the respondents indicated that they felt comfortable meeting up with someone they found using their smart phone at some point in the future.

With all the concerns about the safety factors involved in meeting other singles online, these Skout members seem almost cavalier in their approach to meeting other singles.

One point that can’t be ignored from this article is the growing dependence we continue to place on our mobile phone, especially in the under 30 crowd.  It’s used for everything, and many sites are going to need to find a way to cater to this growing segment of the dating community.

Would you be interested in meeting someone you found using a mobile application that alerts you to possible matches in your area , or would you still feel more comfortable relying on the “traditional” method of going online and doing a little more research?

I’m curious to know your thoughts on this one?

Mac