Ever see an ad for a dating site? They’re all pretty much the same, right? They tell you they have a great track record, they tell you their members are better than all the rest, and they promise you all the success in the world. One other thing they promote is that they offer you something for free. Yup, free.
Now, there are free dating sites out there, more than you could imagine actually, and they survive with advertisements, affiliate programs and possibly stimulus money. Free dating sites are great, and a lot of them have taken off to massive heights and have even made themselves a place in the everyday lexicon of the 21st century single. That said, not all free dating sites are free.
Here’s where the word free gets annoying. Sites that actually charge money use that word to get you hooked. They lure you to their domain under the guise of a free service all in the hopes of getting you sucked in far enough that you’ll be willing to pay their monthly fee. Not once, mind you, no. They want you, ideally, to pay for a year, y’know, so you can get the discount.
A year? How much confidence do they have in their service or their members if they believe that strongly that you’ll be single for a whole year after joining? Anyway, that’s a totally different frustration, and I digress. Let’s get back to the “free” thing.
When was the last time you followed one of those alluring free dating site ads only to realize what free really meant? “Make a free profile”, or “Join now and browse our member’s profiles for free.” Sweet. I’m sure there are people out there—and yes, I’m one of them—who have, at least once in the past, gone through the trouble of creating a profile, uploading pictures, searching through members and then trying to send out a message only to find out you’re at the end of the rope of free?
Who’s got their hand up? A lot of you I’m sure. The only thing worse than that little getup is knowing that a lot of you—okay, and me—have actually given in at that point and paid the money. Well, no more. Free online dating, really and truly free online dating, does exist. It’s out there, it’s popular, and many of the free sites boast a member database larger than any of the rest. If only out of spite due to those misleading ads, I for one am sticking with those sites.
