Telling the difference between a free dating site and paid dating site can be a tricky task. If you're just starting your search for the right free dating site you've probably noticed that most supposedly free dating sites really aren't free. The founders of these online dating sites found that the best way to market their site is to mislead people into thinking the website is free in an attempt to get them to join. What they normally give out that's free is a basic membership with limited features. This membership ususally limits you from contacting other members which is probably the most important part of being a member of a dating site.

A lot of dating websites that are completely free will use terms such as 100% free, completely free, totally free, or absolutely free all over their website. The last thing they would want to do is hide the fact that their dating site is free because potential members probably wouldn't join. When it does state that the dating site is free, make sure they're not referring to memberships of women who join because many dating sites give a completely free membership to women but have paid memberships for men. One thing to look for in their completely free membership offer is the term "everyone". If it says that they give completely free memberships to "everyone" you probably have a winner on your hands.

One thing that greatly distinguishes free dating sites from paid dating sites is affiliate programs. Free dating sites that have affiliate programs usually only pay around $.50 or $1.00 for each new member that joins since they aren't making a lot of money from each member. Paid dating sites on the other hand will often pay more generous commissions of $10.00 and up since they're making more money through membership fees. Finding out whether a dating site has an affiliate program is actually quite easy since the "affiliates" or "earn money" link is usually on the bottom navigation. While you're looking for their affiliate link you should also keep an eye out for a "membership fees" link as well. If you find a page with their membership fees you know for sure that you're not dealing with a dating site that's completely free.

In some ocassions you won't be able to tell whether the dating site is free or not because the webmaster hides all signs of the website not being free. This is mainly because the owner of the site wants to lure you in as a registered member until they finally reveal that you'll have to pay to contact other members. By this point you've probably already found somebody that you're truly interested in and may be willing to pay the money they're asking for. While some people may consider this smart marketing, I would consider this to be a "scam" since they should be completely honest with you from the very start. To prevent yourself from getting in this situation you should always contact the webmaster of the dating site to verify that all their memberships are completely free. Most dating site owners will give you an honest response since you took the time to contact them prior to joining.