Testing Your Profile

July 8th, 2009

Does your profile attract the wrong kind of people? Looking for a relationship, and only getting requests for one-night-stands? Looking for a one-night-stand and only getting marriage proposals? It could be that you’re not addressing the right people, or giving off the wrong idea in your profile.

It’s possible to test your profile before you post it on the dating site that you’re registered with, to avoid wasting time filtering through unwanted requests. One of the best places to do this is on craigslist, because of the anonymity that the website provides.

The first step is to create a dating profile. Fill out everything you would for your dating site, including hobbies, likes, dislikes, interests and other interesting information. Then, upload it to the personals section, be it “women seeking women”, “women seeking men”, “men seeking men” or “men seeking women”. If you find that you are getting the wrong kind of responses, tweak your old post and create a new one. It’s probably best to post your second or third tries on a craigslist site for another city nearby, so that the webmaster doesn’t think you’re spamming.

The advantage to testing your profile on craigslist is that it gives you instant feedback. You don’t have to wait for approval, the way you would for many other personal ad websites. As well, it’s free! Who knows? You may even make a love connection this way.

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Economic Downturn Spawns Dating Upturn

July 6th, 2009

The old adage “misery loves company” is truer than ever. As our withering economy spawns feelings of hopelessness, more and more people are trying to find love. In a world where everything — wealth, employment, success – seems temporary, people are beginning to see that the prospect of finding a long-term commitment is important. This is the reason behind eHarmony’s recent 20% increase in user registration and OkCupid’s similar 50% spike.

Online dating services are a great money-saver. Rather than going out and spending a good hundred dollars on drinks for someone that may not even end up taking home, you spend up to $60 a month, to interact with millions of singles.

Certain dating websites, such as E-Harmony, strive to appeal to singles looking for more long-term commitments, which is what more and more people are trying to obtain. While serial-dating and short-term commitments mean shelling out a lot of dough to impress your date, long-term relationships are less superficial and require far less money to maintain. While you could spend hundreds of dollars on a night on the town with a new date every week, you could alternately spend half that with a stay-at-home movie night with your long-term squeeze.

Finally, people are opening themselves up to dating prospects they would have never otherwise considered. Many singles are dating people who live further away or who are not they’re “usual type”, allowing them to look for love in places they wouldn’t normally be searching. Internet dating services allow you to make this switch, by simply changing your preferences in your profile, rather than going to a singles bar that’s part of different scene or out of town, potentially creating an uncomfortable situation.

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Friends First

July 3rd, 2009

Not everyone online is looking for love. Although online dating has become less of a niche endevour, with millions of people worldwide registered with online dating services, there are a lot of singles who are hesitant. While using online dating services makes the singles experience much easier, it can still be intimidating approaching a person you’ve never met with the sole intention of dating them.

So, many singles are logging on to the internet to find friends before lovers. Looking for friends first can help ease the pressure, so you don’t feel like you have to jump right into a relationship or a romantic situation. Many people want their relationships to start naturally, to be born out of a friendship that turned into something romantic rather than starting a relationship from the get-go. There are now many dating service catering to those who feel this way, allowing singles to search for friends rather than romantic prospects.

FriendsorMates.com, UKFriendsDating.co.uk are just two of the online dating websites that offer services for friend-searching. These friendship-dating websites are a cross between Facebook and Match.Com, allowing you to take your time and search for love at your own pace. Sites like these act almost as social networking sites, where users can browse others’ profiles without having to make matches but form friendships. There is less risk of rejection, because everyone knows that everyone else is just looking for a friend, not a one-night stand or a serious relationship. Many of these friend dating sites are free, so try it out!

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Borders UK Launches Online Dating Site

June 29th, 2009

A wise man once said “Tell me what you read, and I’ll tell you who you are”. Well, Borders UK is putting that old adage to the test. The popular bookseller has recently launched Happily Ever After, a new online dating service meant to pair up couples who share a love of reading.

Books are always a sure-fire conversation starter, and with Happily Ever After, you’ll never be at a loss for words. Borders UK’s goal is to bring together people with similar interests to take the difficulty of breaking the ice. Borders UK also makes use of its vast dating and self-help resources, promoting the latest and most popular books to hit shelves and help users in their search for love.

This is the latest development in a recent trend that sees more and more booksellers launching dating sites. Last year, Penguin joined with Match.com to create Penguin Dating, a free online dating service that also strives to pair singles based on their literary interests.

In upcoming weeks, users can sign up to Happily Ever After for only £1 a month. The low price will let people browse the site and check out all of the online dating features that Happily Ever After has to offer. After the initial test period, however, the monthly subscription price increases to £9.99. So, take advantage of the offer while its available for your chance to live Happily Ever After.

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Missed Connections Become Love Connections

June 26th, 2009

It’s a common situation: the missed connection. It could be a lost phone number or an exchange of glances across a room. Whatever kind of connection you’ve missed, they always end up with you wondering “what if…”.

You’re standing on the corner, getting ready to cross the street when, all the way across the 6-lane highway, you make eye contact with the most gorgeous guy you’ve ever set eyes on standing at the bus stop. He smiles, inviting you to come over and say “hello”, and you wait impatiently for the light to change. But, as the WALK sign counts down from 5, his bus arrives, and you wish you had just J-walked.

Or, you could be dancing the night away at your favourite bar. Your dream girl approaches and tells you that she’s had her eye on you all night. She scribbles her number down on the palm of your hand, and you tell her you’ll call her in the morning. Its 10am and you decide you’re going to make the big call but as you open your palm to retrieve the number, all you find is a sweaty mess of ink that smudged while you were sleeping.

Chances are slim that you’d ever run into these people ever again, and it can feel like you’ve missed out on an excellent opportunity to meet someone new. But, thanks to “Missed Connections” on Craigslist, your odds are increased. Right now, the popular Craigslist board is only a niche community in the online dating world, but traffic has been increasing as the word spreads. Simply check out your local Craigslist website and click on Missed Connections. Write to that hottie you saw on the bus, or see if someone’s been checking you out!

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Identity Theft on Internet Dating Sites

June 24th, 2009

A new threat has presented itself to the world of online dating. “Sweetheart Scammers” are on the prowl, looking for potential victims on popular internet dating websites.

The FBI has coined the term to describe identity thefts who lure their victims through dating websites and chatrooms. Once they’ve found the right person, they court them with gifts bought with stolen credit cards. Finally, the theft will send his new squeeze a fake money order which will ultimately result in money being drained from rather than deposited into their account. Identity thefts also use personal information found on dating sites to track credit card numbers, social security and social insurance numbers and other important information.

To avoid falling victim to this crime, here are a few preventative measures you can take:
Do not use your real name or personal information when using internet dating websites. Create a separate e-mail account when communicating with contacts you’ve met online.

Do not use your regular or work e-mail address as your username on any dating site. There are even some websites that use “double-blind” e-mail method, that restricts each party access to the other’s real identity.

When you’ve decided to continue communication offline, ensure that you are able to block your caller ID and don’t give out your work or home number. Both of these can be used to track your home address and other types of crucial personal information.

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Online Dating for the Novice

June 23rd, 2009

It seems that everything on the web is created for the super tech savvy today. These days many programs, applications and software in general is geared to those that already have quite a background using the internet, computers and other technological programs. Well there has been an overwhelming response to those that aren’t as computer savvy as others to simplify and explain certain things.

Online dating websites are picking up on these vibes and certainly trying to make themselves more user friendly to those that may need a little more assistance than others. It’s not to say that creating an online dating profile is difficult. But if you are not familiar with features such as cut and paste or perhaps something like the refresh button then you may need a little tutorial.

There are different demographics of people that sign up to participate in online dating. Those of the slightly older demographic are the ones that tend to experience a little more difficulty using the software that is required to create a profile and communicate with other online dating candidates.

There are many sites that are now offering 24/7 assistance to help those that are looking to go online with their love life and make the process more seamless and very simple for those that don’t currently find it so.

So remember if you were hesitating going online due to computer inhibitions then not to fear as there will now be a better way for you to use the system and always a little help guiding you through the process.

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The Difference between Real Life and the Movies

June 17th, 2009

There are many people that have a slightly skewed view on romance. Of course you want to fall in love and have the happily ever after that you so often see in a Hollywood romance film. Unfortunately that is sometimes not the case in all situations and it is important to set your expectations accordingly.

The problem is there are often young singles out there searching for true romance and while there is nothing wrong with that, the truth is there are many movies that lead you to believe that romance is actually something out of the norm and that for a true connection one must have roses, lavish hotel rooms and spur of the moment trips to Paris.

While many do have experience with relationships and do know that that once in lifetime is a very special feeling, others believe that this will happen to them with the next person that they meet.

Online dating has opened many doors to those seeking to meet the perfect match. If a motion picture romance is what you are looking for you can very well specify this in your profile and hope that either your princess or your prince are the next reader, but don’t hold your breath because that guy (or gal) next door just might make you way happier in the long run!

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5 Million Online Dating Court Case

June 15th, 2009

There will always be that one person that aims to take an industry by storm or perhaps make his fortune on something totally ridiculous. Well its not to say that something like this hasn’t been done before but this will definitely be the first for this type of situation.

A man is suing Match.com for falsely representing potential partners. The man claims that Match.com is falsely representing that they have those people that he would be able to create a life with but in reality they are actually profiles of members that are no longer active on the website.

The man claims that he has suffered immense emotional trauma because of hope that these people that he contacts will write him back but they simply do not use the Match.com program any longer so they are not contacting him back.

There is a slight flaw to all this madness. Firstly, shouldn’t there only be one person that takes the man’s heart? And secondly is this really a joke? The internet aside, no one files million dollar claims for a little rejection, in the real world if you have 5 million dollars for every time a relationship didn’t work out you would be filthy rich and so would everyone else that has ever had their heart broken.

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New Player in Online Dating Market

June 10th, 2009

As the online dating market gets more and more brands for people to choose from, there are also more and more twist to the type of online dating that the new services offer. The latest that we have come across is the VirtualDatingAssistants.com.

This websites was definitely designed with the busy rich guy in mind. The virtual dating assistant is almost exactly as what it sounds to be. It is an automated system that works for the business professional males that simply have no time to do the internet dating part of the relationship. This site will go through profile after profile of female candidates and promises to arrange 2 dates a minimum per month for the male member.

The online tool is preset with everything that the male requires and is very intelligent in figuring out matches that “guarantee” to meet the interests of the men behind the profile that have very little time but all the money to spend.

A membership to this “oh so helpful” site is a not so shabby $480 USD per month. The site guarantees 40 hours of time spent going through newly added female profiles not to miss a potential match.

Online dating has become very popular and many websites are coming up with new ideas and twists on online dating to satisfy the ever growing demand for a service that does it all and meets the expectations of many clients that are out prowling the web simply looking for the one thing everyone wants: true love

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