Directory List of Online Dating Sites
Singles Dating 4u provides the most comprehensive listings of dating, personals ads and matchmaking sites for singles seeking love and romance.
About Internet Dating
Online dating can be divided up into three main categories. We'll go into a more detailed description later on but suffice to say the main groups are Listing Services, Dating Agencies and Matchmaking Sites. However, within each category there may be several sub-categories which cater for certain niche markets. For example some sites will be firmly in the dating agency category but may specialise in dating for one particular faith. Another sub-category might relate to same gender dating and so on. However, before going into the specifics lets consider the main three types and what they have to offer:
Listing Services
These types of services are the most basic form of online dating. You will usually be required to post a fairly basic profile of your own and then you will be able to view the profiles of other people. There will, typically, be a few options to filter your selections by such as by gender, age and possibly by county or state. You will usually then be presented with a long list of profiles for you to view. It can be very time consuming to go through all of these and many probably won't be remotely like the sort of person you are looking for.
Dating Agencies
This is the next level up from listing services in terms of complexity. Again, you will normally be required to post a profile of yourself before you can view the other profiles. The profile you will able to build will be more detailed and the filtering options given to you will almost always be more extensive. It is highly likely that the site will 'remember' your choices and notify you of when someone new registers that fits your selections. However, it is normal that any matching will be on a one-way basis. This means that you can make your selections about the sort of person you are looking for and these types of people will be presented to you as a match. However, many of these people may not be interested in meeting someone of your description as sites like this haven't matched their requirements with you.
Matchmaking Services
These are the Rolls Royce of online dating sites. They do everything that dating agencies do but add in that all important two-way matching. This should give you the best chance of being presented with a match list of people that would interest you and be interested in you too! For instance, image you are a man in his 50's who has said in his profile that he wishes to meet a woman between 25 and 35 years of age. By using a matchmaking site that matches two-ways you would be presented with a match list of women who are between 25 and 35 years of age and who have expressed an interest in meeting a man in his 50's. This principle can be applied to so many criteria to narrow down your match list so that you should stand a better chance of meeting someone right for you.
Consider:
These three descriptions of online dating sites are used interchangeably within the industry for marketing reasons so make sure the dating site you choose works in the way that you want it to. If you're not sure then find the 'Contact' page and ask! If they don't respond within a couple of days then don't waste your time on them - find another service.
Take advantage of any free trials that are available. Most sites will allow you to register and have a good look around without having to pay. You'll usually only have to pay if you want to get in contact with people so make sure they are the sort of people you would like to contact with before parting with you hard-earned.
Remember that big isn't always best. Having the largest number of users isn't always the way to go. Online dating is big business these days but many of the niche players run extremely high quality services too. Remember that you only need to find the 'one' and not ten 'nearly's'.
Thank you for visiting our directory of singles sites with personal ads, chat, love, romance, relationships and matchmaking. We hope you've found it useful.