If you watch TV for more than fifteen minutes there is a good chance you will see a commercial for a dating site.
Online dating is the way that people are meeting nowadays. According to recent studies 1/3 of all marriages in 2013 were a result of two people who met online.
Sites like Match.com and eHarmony have been very aggressive with their advertising campaigns and have done an excellent job building their brands into household names. Match.com has the deepest pool of singles to choose from and has been around since 1995.
The Guinness Book of World Records even recognized Match.com as the largest online dating site in the world. EHarmony emphasizes compatibility over everything else and requires members to answer an extensive questionnaire about themselves upon signing up. The site touts that they are the “#1 Trusted Online Dating Site for Singles”.
If you don’t want to use a mainstream site, other sites like FarmersOnly.com and Christian Mingle have seen an increase in their popularity over the years due to their niche markets. FarmersOnly.com started out a few years ago but with a quirky ad campaign the site has exploded in the past year and does a good job of drawing singles from rural areas. Christian Mingle has become very popular with religious singles who want to date other singles serious about their beliefs.
The latest trend in niche dating websites is local sites. Larger cities like Houston and Chicago have sites specifically geared towards their single residents. SingleHouston.com and SingleChicago.com limit their users to a 70 mile radius within the city. With this built in safeguard members in Chicago won’t get messages from people in New Mexico or Florida that they will never meet.
Sites like Match.com don’t limit members on messaging and often women find their inbox overflowing with men from all over the country, most of whom are nowhere near them.
When you can only receive messages from singles that live fairly close to you it makes meeting up much easier than other mainstream sites.
Members of Single Houston and Single Chicago also have access to personality tests and star sign compatibility reports to help them select potential matches. Another added benefit of these specific sites is that they are offering free upgraded memberships to new users until Sept. 21 to allow people to check out the site at no expense.
If you are just looking to hookup there are sites for that too. OKCupid and POF (Plenty Of Fish) are free sites that attract a lot of users. But like any free site, you get what you pay for and have to filter through less desirable people with lots of baggage. Whether you live on a farm, go to church, or live in a big city there are options to help you find the man or woman of your dreams online.
Just remember that you should be as selective about the dating site you choose as the singles you meet on them. Do your research and pick the site that best fits your needs.
This post is sponsored by SingleChicago.com