When online matchmaking websites allow people to establish an account by filling out a profile with personal information, most users would assume that they would be allowed to access other people's profiles and begin the matchmaking process. The challenges that they will face will make dating through the website difficult, because there are certain restrictions to information unless the person has agreed to payment for a specific type of membership.

Interested parties who are members of the online dating site can select any profile on the site and make contact in several ways. The person can leave an email for a username in their mailbox on the site, or they can make direct contact with them through paging screens if they see that the person is online. The person that is not a member of the dating website cannot initiate any type of contact, but they can leave a discreet alert that tells the member or a non-member that they are interested in hearing from them.

There are some challenges that online daters look forward to. They will be able to respond to any contact initiated by a member, but they must be composed when answering because the first contact a member makes is the most important. If they decide to respond at a later date, the opportunity to date the person might pass because when the member is not online to make the first move they will have no other choice but to wait until the next chance comes around.

A new user has to withstand many obstacles when they first join a dating site. They might have many emails in the inbox that show interest is there, but they cannot write an email on their own until they have agreed to become part of the online dating website family. They do have some recourse at their disposal though, because they can return a similar interest message that tells the interested dater that they are not a member of the site but that they are interested in them too.

The challenges for online dating can be experienced for any length of time. A person can choose to play cat and mouse with another user, knowing full well that they cannot respond back because they are not a full member of the dating site. Many women will sign up for only one month of membership and see how the online dating scene really works. Then they will have challenging decisions to make on whether or not they are willing to ever meet the individual who is interested in person.

Most online daters feel challenged when they read the information about the person that they provided in their profile. Some paragraphs contain information that is just too good to believe. Some women have a hard time believing that a man that has such a successful career and an air of honesty about themselves could have to resort to the online dating scene to find a suitable mate. If the roles were reversed, some women wonder if what they wrote on their profiles would be believable and many change what they wrote to what they think a potential mate would want and not what they will see when they finally do meet in person one day.