Top 3 Dating Sites

Online dating has come a long way in the past couple of years. There's no longer any shame anymore when you tell someone that you found your girlfriend or wife from an online dating site. It's now a common thing, and it's a way millions of couples meet these days. With so many online dating sites out there though, it's hard to separate the good ones from the bad. So instead of wasting your time trying them all, here is my own list of the top 3 dating sites.

1. OkCupid - OkCupid has everything you want from an online dating site. It's free, fun to use, and it's a great place to find a date. It has a nice looking interface, especially compared to a site like Plenty of Fish. It has compatibility tests that you find at more expensive sites like eHarmony.com and Chemistry.com. Plus, it has tons of active members so it's very easy to meet someone. Just be sure to answer as many match questions as you can, so OkCupid can pick some great matches for you.



2. Match.com - As the biggest dating site on the internet, Match.com really does have a lot to offer. With the most members, you won't have a problem finding singles in your area. It has some nice search options, and some good matching capabilities. The demographic of Match.com does skew younger though, so keep that in mind. As a paid site, Match.com's pricing is quite reasonable. Plus, if you sign up for their 6 month plans, you are backed by the Match.com guarantee. So if you can't find someone in 6 months, you get an additional six months free.



3. eHarmony - If you are looking more a lasting, long term relationship, then eHarmony is probably the way to go. It has a proven compatibility matching system, which picks your matches based on a lengthy questionnaire that you have to fill out. As long as you fill it out honestly, I think you will experience some good results with eHarmony. Just keep in mind, that there is very little in the way of free features with the site. If you want to find a match, you do have to pay up. eHarmony also is one of the more expensive dating sites on the net. But isn't it worth it if you find your soul mate?



If you try one of these dating sites, I am confident that you can easily find a date. If you don't have money to spend, and are just looking for a free online dating site, then OkCupid is definitely the way to go. It works just as well as other paid sites, and you will get results too. Match.com is great because of the sheer number of singles that are on the site. And if you're looking for a long term, lasting relationship, then look no farther than eHarmony. All in all, these are the top 3 dating sites I've used.

Social Dating With Zoosk

Social networking is becoming bigger and bigger with the explosion of Facebook, Twitter and other big social services. This has led to the development of Zoosk, which is now the largest social dating community on the net. The site was founded in 2007 and millions of singles have joined to site and it's a great way to find an online date.

What makes Zoosk unique from other dating sites, is that it can be accessed in many different ways. You can go through the Zoosk website itself, or through Facebook, on your mobile phone, or even with the Zoosk downloadable desktop application. The site now boasts of more than 50 million singles, from more than 60 different countries.

Creating your Zoosk Profile

Once you create your Zoosk account, you will have to fill out your profile. There's the Basic information which is common to most dating sites which includes your Zoosk name, birthday, height, ethnicity, etc. The About section gives you an area to tell Your Story, Your Perfect Match and your Ideal Date. By writing something substantial here, you have a chance to make a strong impression on people looking at your profile.

Next, there's a section for Your Likes. This is where you can put in the Music, Movies, Books, and TV shows that you like.

Testimonials are a unique feature of Zoosk, and shows off the social aspects of the site. Basically, you can invite your friends to write testimonials on your behalf, that will appear on your profile. If you have a few great testimonials from friends, this can go a long way in influences prospective daters whether they should message you or not.

Finally, there's also an Icebreakers section of the profile. These are a series of questions, that will appear on your profile that potential matches can answer. Some example icebreakers include "What is the first thing you do in the morning?" and "Describe your most embarrassing moment". This is a good way to start communicating with potential matches and gives you guys something to talk about.

Another unique aspect of the site are the Zoosk coins that you can earn. With Zoosk coins, you can purchase gifts to send to other singles that you are interested in. By sending a gift, you increase the odds of getting a response. Zoosk coins can also be used to send special delivery emails. These special emails are uniquely marked so they attract extra attention in a users inbox. Again, a little extra something to increase your response rate. Finally, you can also use these coins on a feature called Boost View. This allows you to make your online profile standout to others when they are searching for potential matches.

Finding Matches on Zoosk

Searching for Matches on Zoosk is quite easy. The default basic search just returns matches within your local area. However, there is an advanced search function that allows you to filter results by all the available attributes that Zoosk offers. So if you can search for matches by characteristics like Ethnicity, Education, Smoking, and more.



The Zoosk profile is pretty standard, and gives you a good overview of the person you're looking at. As you can see it is quite easy to send people messages, directly from their profile. You can also add people as a friend, and chat with them using the Zoosk messenger application which is essentially an IM application for Zoosk users.

Conclusion

Zoosk is a colorful, friendly site with a large user base. It's less serious then a site like eHarmony, but offers a lot more free features too. If you are into social sites like Facebook, then you probably will enjoy what the site has to offer.

Is eHarmony Worth Joining?

eHarmony is one of the better known online dating brands on the net. Like Match.com, you often see eHarmony ads on TV, billboards and elsewhere. The whole premise behind eHarmony is that it matches single men and women looking for long-term relationships, using a comprehensive compatibility test.

eHarmony was started by Neil Clark Warren, and author of many relationship advice books. Having worked as a clinical psychologist and marriage counselor for more than 35 years, he came up with the idea that certain characteristics in people could predict compatibility with one another. He worked on this idea for over three years, and developed the compatibility matching system that is the basis of how eHarmony matches people today.

eHarmony Relationship Questionnaire

After entering in your basic information like email and date of birth, you will be asked to fill out the eHarmony Relationship Questionnaire. This is basis of the entire site and the resulting profile will give you insights about yourself and allows the system to find highly compatible matches for you. The Relationship Questionnaire is quite long, so you don't actually have to fill in everything in one setting, as you can save your place as you go.

There are a total of 13 sections to the questionnaire and completing it takes about 30 minutes going at a good pace. Most of the questions asks you to rate various things on a 7 point scale, although there are the occasional true/false and short answer questions as well.




One interesting thing about the eHarmony relationship questionnaire is that you can't go back and change your answers. Why? The idea is that answers are most accurate when you move through the questionnaire at a medium pace and answer the first question that comes to your mind.

After you have finished with all the questions, you will be asked to submit a photo. You can also go into your account and complete your profile. Completing your profile requires you to answer several essay type questions.

Finding Matches on eHarmony

Once you have completed everything, the eHarmony system will go out an find a handful of matches for you. All these can be seen under the Matches tab. To entice you into becoming a paid member, you can't see photos of any of your matches until you subscribe.



One interesting aspect of eHarmony is their guided communication system. Instead of emailing a person directly, you can send 5 questions to a person to get an insight in how they think. Questions like "if you were taken by your date to a party where you knew no one, how would you respond?" or "How important is chemistry to you?" You can also communicate via standard email if you choose. Unfortunately, you also can't send messages to your matches until you subscribe either.

Subscribing to eHarmony

eHarmony offers two types of plans. The Basic plan and the Total Connect plan. The Basic plan lets you view photos and communicate with your matches. TotalConnect gives you access to the Premium Personality profile, RelyID and SecureCall + all the normal Basic plan features. Plans start off at $44.95 a month if you signup for 3 months. If you sign up for 12 months, then the cost goes down to $23.95 a month.

Conclusion

As you might be able to tell, eHarmony is mainly for serious daters only. There's really not much point in going through the entire process, unless you want to signup as a premium member. However, if you do match this criteria, then eHarmony does offer a unique way of finding compatible matches for you.

if you are still undecided, I would also read this eHarmony vs Match.com review as well.

Why Is Match.com So Popular?

Match.com is probably the most recognized name in the online dating space. If you asked people on the street about online dating, the first site that probably comes to their mind is Match.com. You see their ads on TV and their ads on the internet. They're brand is all over the place, and for good reason. As far as paid dating sites go, they are one of the best. They have the most paid members of any premium dating site, and they have a lot of fun features to boot. All this leads to a good online dating experience for anyone looking to meet someone online.

Signing Up To Match

Signing up to Match.com is very simple. There's no lengthy profile to fill out to create an account. Just enter in some basic info like your DOB, username and password and you're good to go.

Keep in mind though, if you don't fill out your profile eventually, nobody will be able to find you. You will also be quite limited to what you can do on the site until you complete your profile. So take 20 minutes or so, and fill out your Match.com profile carefully. The more honest you are when answering the questions, the better the matches you will get. That's the theory at least!

Once you have completed the profile, it actually needs to be approved by the Match.com Customer Care team. This process takes 24 hours and they will send you an email when your profile is live on the site.

Finding Your Match

Match.com has some powerful options for searching for a potential date. The basic search allows you to search by age, distance and keyword. But if you go to the custom search, you can basically search by every attribute on the Match.com profile. This is very powerful, and you can basically find a person that meets your exact criteria.



The Daily 5 is a cool concept from Match. Basically it returns you 5 people every day who might be matches for you based on your profile. It's a cool, fun timesaver, that lets you meet interesting people without having to search for them.

One nice thing when browsing the profiles is that it shows you all the ways that you match with another person. So you can compare you profiles side by side and see if you guys have potential chemistry with each other.




When you actually meet someone you're interested in, you can either Email the, Wink at them or Get Her Number. Winking is free, so anyone can do it. Emailing though, requires a paid plan.

Match.com plans

If you want to sign up as a premium member, and you probably do if you actually want to date someone on the site, then Match offers you plenty of options. The best value plan, is 6 months at $19.99 a month. Or you can try 3 months at $23.99 a month if you don't want to make a big commitment.

What's nice about the 6 month plan is that you get the Match.com guarantee. So if you don't find anyone on the site within 6 months, then you get your next 6 months free. Pretty cool right?

Conclusion

All in all, Match.com is an excellent site if you are looking to find an online date. Since it's the probably the biggest paid site on the web, you will not have a problem finding matches in your area. Plus, the site is easy to search and navigate, so you will definitely meet some interesting people on there.

A Look At OkCupid

If you are looking for a hidden gem in the online dating world, OkCupid might be the one. It's a popular dating site that's completely free, and offers some really great social features. It's a mix between social fun and online dating, and everyone who I've asked about it really loves the site. And it gets results too. I've been on several online dates via OkCupid and it does a really good job of matching you with people you would want to date.

Signing Up To OkCupid

OkCupid has a relatively straightforward and quick signup process. Unlike other dating sites, like Plenty of Fish for example, you don't have to go through a lengthy form to create an account. All you need to enter is some basic information like your birthdate, gender, location, username and password and you're good to go.

Completing Your Profile

Once signed in, you can complete the rest of your profile. The first thing you will want to do is upload a photo of yourself. Choose a decent one so your potential dates can see what you look like. Your photo is probably the most important thing to get prospective daters to take a look at your profile more closely.

You should then fill out your actual profile in more detail. OkCupid has several different free-form sections to fill out like, "Self-Summary", "What I'm doing with my life", "I'm really good at...", and "The six things I could never do without". The more detailed you are here, the better chance there is of someone looking at your profile and sparking their interest. I know a lot of people are too lazy to fill out these things. But it's definitely worth doing! The more interesting things you share, the more people are going to contact you.



As you fill out each of these individual fields, OkCupid keeps track of the % of your profile filled out. Try to reach a 100% for optimal results!

Finding Matches on OkCupid

As you browse around OkCupid, you'll notice various match questions you can answer. There's usually 3 parts to these match questions. First, you need to give your own answer. Then you'll need to give the answer you want to see from your ideal match. Third you need to say how important you think that question is to. This lets OkCupid better match you to users it thinks you'll like. The more questions you answer, the better results you will get. Even better you can also create your own Match questions as well.



OkCupid has a very good search capability. There are lots of different targeting options so you can drill down and find potential matches. Next to each match, you'll see a Match % to see how closely a member matches up to you. There's also a friend and enemy % displayed next to each, although I'm unclear how they are calculated.

QuickMatch is a cool OkCupid feature for finding matches. You'll be shown a profile that OkCupid thinks will match with you and you can rate their profile to find out their username. It's a really quick way to browse through profiles to find potential matches.

Conclusion

All in all, I think OkCupid is one of my top dating sites. It has tons of great, fun features and it's totally free. If you take the time on the site to fill out your profile and answer as many Match questions as you can, I think you can really find your match on the site. So definitely check it out and create an account.

http://okcupid.com

Finding a Date On Plenty Of Fish

Did you want to start online dating again, but don't feel like spending money on an expensive dating site? Well, there are also plenty of free dating sites on the net today that can help you find your special someone too. One of the most well known, is called Plenty Of Fish. With over 145 million visitors a month, you will have plenty of prospective daters in your area to pick from.

Plenty of Fish also offers some nice features that other sites can't offer. For example, use the Relationship needs feature to find out exactly what you need in your next relationship, and how not to make the same mistakes that you made in your last failed relationships.

You will also find Plenty Of Fish's own compatibility chemistry test. This is similar to the compatibility tests found on sites like eHarmony.com, Chemistry.com, OkCupid and many others. By taking this test, you will often be able to find more deeper, long term relationships with your matches.

Signing Up To Plenty Of Fish

Signing up to the site is very simple. Just head on over to http://plentyoffish.com and create an account. You'll first need to pick a username, password, and then enter in personal information like Gender, Birthday, Country, Ethnicity and your email.

On the next page, you then need to fill out your profile information. Stuff like who you're seeking, what you are looking for, what's your marital status, and whether or not you smoke. The profile is quite detailed, and you should fill it out to the best of your abilities if you want to find some good matches. It's especially important to create a detailed About You section. Along with your picture, people will look at this first.

Finally, once you fill in your information, it is mandatory that you add your picture to the site. Choose a good one, because that's the first thing people look at and is your first impression to others. Plenty of Fish includes a really nice image cropping tool so you can crop your uploaded pictures exactly how you like them.



Once you're done, you can now browse around for prospective dates. Click on the profiles that you are interested in, and browse through them. Most Plenty Of Fish profiles are pretty simple. Lots of people have multiple pictures so you can see how they look like. Read their profile carefully and see if it matches what you are looking for. If it is, contact them through the site.



Unlike other online dating sites, Plenty of Fish allows you to contact other members for free. No surprises to make you pay for contacting a potential match. So take advantage of this feature and contact as many people as you can. The more chances you take, but the better odds of finding a prospective date.

The easiest way to find matches is to click on My Matches. When you first click there, you will see thumbnails of many potential matches that Plenty of Fish has attempted to match you with. To further refine your search though, you should use some of the filter options. Options include age, and how close a match is to your location. This is a good way to drill down and not be overwhelmed by so many potential choices.

If you don't like the matches that Plenty of Fish picks for you, make sure to take the Chemistry Test. It's a really comprehensive chemistry predictor test that will hopefully find you better matches. It's 48 questions long, so take the time to fill it out properly. The more honest you are with your answers, the better chance you have of finding the perfect person for you.



Overall, Plenty of Fish is a good online dating site for people looking for a free online dating site. It offers most of the features found in other dating sites, yet at no cost to you. The interface of the site is quite ugly, and not as polished as others. But if you can get past that, the site is pretty functional. Plus, since it's such an extremely popular site, you are sure to find some good opportunities to go on dates with people. Just make sure you fill out your profile properly.