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You may think that the only advantage for free internet dating over the paid variety of dating web site is that of cost. In fact, if you look at the similarities and differences between the two types of dating site, you may be surprised at how many advantages there are to using a free site over one where you pay a yearly or monthly subscription ranging from a few dollars to a few hundred dollars. In fact the free sites may actually result in savings to you indirectly, since you can spend the money you would have spent on subscriptions or membership fees toward the cost of the dating activity you select.
The cost of the membership
A membership fee for free internet dating is zero. No cost for the membership, no cost for the set up fee, no cost for evaluation, and no cost for a listing fee. Any or all of those costs can be attached to a paid site and you may be required to submit credit card information or checking account information so that the site can continue you tap into your checking account or make charges against your credit card. Anyone who has experienced the nightmare of identity theft or collections activities against you can appreciate that you never are placed in this situation with a free dating site.
The quality of the database
No matter how much the paid sites would like you to believe that money paid on a subscription equals quality in the person doing the posting, it just isn't the case. You can't improve the good personality and positive attributes of a person just because they have enough money to lay down a subscription or membership fee on a web site. Nor is the reverse true. Having spending money doesn't mean the person is a poor dating prospect. It is only when the site is presented as having a better quality of dates because they have paid a fee that the assertions of the paid sites begin to break down. The people posting on the free internet dating sites also have a lot to offer.
The size of the database
Free internet dating sites are free and that factor alone is enough to attract many people to the site in order to check out the profiles of other members. The more people who are attracted to a site and agree to sign up on members, the more advertisers are attracted to the site where there is constant action amongst the members. Because a large and active membership list means more search engine attention, the free site just keeps getting better and better. More members browsing the site come from other links or from the search engine results pages.
When you visit free internet dating sites, you will find the links to other locations of interest. This may be for products of interest to you or perhaps you are not at all interested in the ads. Since the costs of the free site are borne by paid advertising, your only option is to hope that they are placed in such a way as to leave the web site functional and attractive.
The advertisements for the paid internet dating sites would love to have you believe that every person who chooses the paid site will find a love match within the web page portals. The same promotional hype is found at the free internet dating sites that you will find online. In order to determine how successful the dating sites are, a survey of members and ex members for the various sites would be required. Not only is that information unlikely to be available, it may still be inaccurate or skewed because of the information gathering methods. Here are some of the ways to determine whether or not free internet dating web sites can be considered successful or not.
What constitutes success?
The first step in determining whether a particular web site devoted to free internet dating is successful or not is to define what is meant by success. Is the success of a web site measured by how many marriages are contracted amongst the web site users. Perhaps it should be considered successful if there is a face to face first date between a couple. Anecdotal evidence and testimonials obtained from members may hold the determination of what is considered a successful web site. Is the site only successful if there is one on one interaction between two people.
Are success results skewed?
There are several reasons why negative responses to the success questions about free internet dating sites may occur. The respondent may be ashamed to admit that there were not favorable responses to their profile or pictures. The person may have unrealistic expectations about success or failure definitions. For example, if a person feels the site has been a failure because there are no people responding to his or her profile, it may be because their statement of necessary qualifications was so stringent that no one could meet the high standards. So, both the positive responses and the negative responses may be ignoring reality.
Scientific methods
Since the successful matching up of couples is becoming more and more often done by a computer generated personality or attributes test, the use of validated testing methods for matching sites is more critical than it was ten years ago. Free internet dating matches are usually done by a computer match-up of various evaluation questions in some type of ranking or priority order. There is even a patent application dealing with matching for dating sites. Even though personality matching tests and questionnaires are important, there is still no way to predict a positive chemistry between two individuals.
Anecdotal evidence
A lot of people on singles forums state that they know someone who met their mate at a free internet dating site. Some even quote the length of time the internet based couple have been together. Others are very dubious about the possibilities of stumbling across just the right person at the right time on the forum with something that catches the attention of the looker. If it happens to someone else, it may happen in the same way to you--or not. So either way, whether the internet site is successful in general for others or totally unsuccessful doesn't mean that the same thing will be true of you when you find it.