Online The Dating Box

By Kevin Kelly - Last updated: Friday, June 12, 2009

Making contact online, you first have to find people that interest you by searching the dating website’s membership. Online the dating box is literal, as you have to fill in web forms to find potential dates. Most dating sites give you two ways to search – quick or advanced. Quick searches are just that – they’re small web forms that let you search based on just a few criteria, like location or age. Advanced searches are larger web forms that let you search using lots of more specific criteria, like hair color, eye color, education, body type and more.

Just remember that the more criteria that you use for your searches, the fewer results you’ll get. Searches are unforgiving – they’ll return exactly what you ask for. We call them “harsh numbers”. When you choose an age range of, let’s say, 30-39, the person who just turned 40 will not show up in the search results. If you want to find someone with light brown hair, those great dark brown haired people…like me…will be cast aside. Also, many sites let you use keywords as part of the search criteria. This allows a search for words in a member’s profile that match your areas of interest. You can search specifically for words like “tennis”, “skiing”, or something else. This lets you be super-specific if you wish.

Although you want to find someone that attracts you and that you share things in common, don’t limit yourself to what you think is “your type”. After all, the “type” that you have gone for in the past might have not worked out. Think “outside your box”. What we often think is “our type” is the same person we have been chasing unsuccessfully, through one bad relationship after another, our whole life. Even if your type was a successful relationship in the past, you cannot repeat a relationship you once had with someone new. Unless you date outside your box you will never know if maybe someone different just might be your “type.”

When going over your wants, there is the numbers trap that we need to watch out for as well. Offline we often use the expression, “numbers don’t lie.” However the new culture of online dating, numbers often do lie. For instance the harsh numbers of weight, height and age when in black and white may make a person appear unattractive to you online, who you would find very attractive offline.

If you’re not finding people that fit, try expanding your horizons. You are not making any long-term commitment when meeting people, so be open and meet more people and who you fall for might surprise you. So get out of your dating box and don’t restrict yourself. Allow the incredible opportunity of online dating to work for you. Contact and meet a lot of people and leave yourself open to the possibilities.

You Can Join The Free Dating Website

By Kevin - Last updated: Friday, May 22, 2009

If you have never used a free dating website before, you may be wondering what you will find at the site. Different people have different expectations about the characteristics of a dating site, but there are some common components that are fairly typical when you look at this type of web site as a group. In addition to the usual web site factors, you will often find the added touches that will make a particular web site unique and different. Of course the components are displayed in such a way as to appeal to the largest number of potential clients

Database

The database itself is what makes people come to the free dating website in most cases. These are the singles who have placed their profile and/or pictures on the web site in order to indicate that they are looking for the opportunity to meet online and potentially to meet in person for the purpose of dating. A large and varied database means that there is more likely to be postings present that will resonate with you. You may even find in reading through profiles that there are some aspects of several listings that appeal to you. You can often take that as an opportunity to expand your circle of friends. Maybe something about a profile is unexplored territory for you, but you would like to know more about it.

Articles

Often, a free dating website will have interesting and informational articles written by visitors to the web site or perhaps by paid contracts with writers. The articles will cover a wide range of topics and are worth reading, just for the information or entertainment that is available within the articles. You can find information about all aspects of relationships and dating, as well as other aspects of the singles lifestyle. Sometimes the articles serve as a discussion starter with other people visiting the web site.

Advertisements

Advertisements are a fact of life for a free dating website. It costs money to establish and maintain a large and active web site, and paid advertisements are a way to recoup that cost. It is true that the more people who visit a site, the more the advertisers are interested, simply because their product information gets out to more people. It’s important to purchase from the advertisers who sponsors free web sites so that they recognize that the web site advertisements are paying off in increased sales dollars. If you don’t use the products advertised normally, perhaps they are things that you can recommend to friends or you may want to expand your purchasing horizons a little.

Links

Often, a free dating website will contain links to other web pages where you will be able to find additional information, or where you can get to advertiser’s web pages. These links may be of no interest to you personally, but they also help to sponsor free web sites so that they can continue without charging visitors to the site. The fact that the site is free means that revenue to operate must come from other than subscription fees.