Are Free Online Dating Sites Really Worth Your Time?

Jul 05, 2010 No Comments »

While it is possible to find a decent free online dating service, I still believe it is necessary to weigh your options before you take that final step in becoming a member. The reason for this is not because I believe that all free online dating services are bad. As a matter of fact, some of these services can easily match those of the “paid to use” online dating sites in terms of the full list of bells and whistles that they offer. However, just because a membership site has powerful built-in tools to help you make the right choice when choosing a partner, it is not the only thing you should be relying on in order to be successful in your search.

When making a choice between a “paid to use” and free online dating service, it really depends on what your personal needs are, as well as what you are able to put up with when searching for the perfect partner.

When joining a paid online dating service, you can usually be certain that their package will come with a complete set of tools. You will easily be able to search through a list of ads placed by other members, create your own profile, be able to use their instant chat messenger, and more importantly, be able to do advanced searches in order to narrow down your list of potential partners based on your criteria.

Now while you might think that all these features are very important, they are not the only factor that dictates a good online dating service. As I’ve mentioned before, many free online dating services also offer these powerful tools.

What really differentiates a “pay to use” online dating service from a free one is the type of members you will be interacting with. This is where many free online dating sites have a tendency to fall short.

By offering a service free of charge, any person that wishes to become a member can do so without using a credit card. They simply need to sign up with a username, password, and e-mail. Because of this, it is very easy to attract spammers and members that are under the age of eighteen. These two factors can seriously impact your search in a negative way as you have to surf through a lot of spam messages and replies from people that are way too young to become lifelong partners.

When using a paid service, every member is forced to provide their true identity. This is because in order for your credit card to be valid when payment is made, you need to provide the name of that credit card as well as your full physical address. Because of this, most paid online dating sites find it easier to filter out spammers and miners. In addition, paid users are generally more serious as they are always hoping to get the best service and outcome of that service from their hard-earned money.

“Pay to use” online dating services generally also have stricter rules, and these rules are successfully exercised to ensure the best user experience.

So as you can see, just because a service is provided free, you might find that it turns out more expensive when you consider how much time you have to spend in order to sort through a lot of junk replies so that you can find the right match.

Now I don’t want to scare you away from free online dating sites. What I’m trying to accomplish in this article is to help you steer away from poor quality ones. There are many great quality free services out there that provide a decent moderated environment for their users, and they have done a great job filtering out spammers and minors.

However, in order for you to successfully find a decent free online dating site, it is essential that you do your homework. Before signing up for any membership, whether it is free or paid, do your best to locate as many reviews as you possibly can on those sites. Try to find out what other users are saying by searching the forums. Continue doing this until you have narrowed down your list of online dating sites. Once you achieve this, do a test run on numerous sites at the same time in order to get a feel for how they perform. If at any point you are not happy, leave that site and don’t bother going back. This will save you a lot of frustration, thus allowing you to maintain your enthusiasm while searching for the perfect partner online.

Until Next Time,

Phil
Meet Market Adventures Dating Expert
phil@meetmarketadventures.com

Related posts:

1. Free Online Dating Search
2. Tips On Saving Money With Free Online Dating
3. Free Online Dating Sites – Are They Really Free?
4. How To Find Legitimate Free Online Dating Sites
5. Stay Safe While Using Free Online Dating Sites