Money Matters - Cheap Cupid: Online Valentines
BOSTON (CBS) - This is big business. Billions are spent looking for a date or a mate. There are over 40 million singles looking for each other.
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In doing some research I found several websites that rank the dating sites so I didn't have to. First one; the top 10 dating sites. The second site; the top 5 dating sites for 2011.
And the top four on both sites were the same, Match.com with 29 million users costing about $26 a month, Chemistry.com with 15 million users with a price tag of $50 a month, Perfectmatch.com with over 7 million costing $60 and fourth place was eHarmony with over 7 million singles costing about $60. All become cheaper the longer your membership goes on.
Match.com is the most popular site for dating and the largest. My son met his wife using this site, as did several of his friends. So I guess I have them to thank for my granddaughter! They claim to have members in 37 countries and offer six months of free membership if you do not hook up in the first 6 months.
Chemistry.com is not one I had heard of until I started this research. It is an offshoot of match.com and much like eHarmony in that you take a test to see whom you would have chemistry with. They claim to be a safe site with no one getting access to the site unless they are a member.
Perfectmatch.com also uses a profile compatibility test to find your soul mate. But when I tried to maneuver within their site, I had problems. They would not let me log off and I had to turn off the computer to get out of the site.
Coming in fourth was eHarmony. They claim to be responsible for 2% of all weddings that take place in the US. You will need to fill out a lengthy questionnaire and I do believe if everyone was honest in filling out the questionnaire there would be even more marriages. But people tend to embellish when writing about themselves.
If those don't work there are many more to choose from. Some of them are scary like Meet an Inmate or Sugar Daddie.com.
There is the Spark Networks which really is a network of targeted sites for singles. I said this was big business, 5 years ago on Valentine's Day this company went public with the symbol LOV.
They offer a dating site for Jewish singles, American singles, Silver singles, Black singles, Latter Day Saint singles, Military singles, Single Parent singles, Catholic singles, College singles, More to Love singles, Single Parents Mingle, Single Seniors Meet, Christian singles.
Try 100 best dating sites. Most are free. There are definitely some very strange criteria for love these days!
Then I found www.overweightdate.com for "large lovers and the men and women who love them". Here at least people can be honest about what they look like and who they are.
I found Datemypet.com where you post a picture of yourself and one of your pet. Maybe you will both find true love or at last someone to take long walks on the beach with.
If your type is Abby or McGee on NCIS then I found the place for you also. It's Geek 2 geek.
I also discovered www.farmersonly.com; you guessed it for farmers only. Not many listings for New England! First month is free and they have over 100,000 farmers or wannabe farmers listed!
If you want to check someone out before dating begins you can go to mymatchchecker.com, which will pre-screens users.
