The Phenomenon Of Online Dating - The Truth!

As CEO of a company which operates some of the most popular dating sites on the

net, I'm uniquely positioned to provide some clear and concise facts about the

global phenomenon of online dating. In six bite-sized chunks I'm going to give you

the whole truth about a past-time that has become part of the fabric of the lives of

single people everywhere where a computer screen is affordable by or accessible to

the masses.

1. Two out of every five single people aged 24 - 50 currently use, or have used an

online dating service. Yes, you read that correctly - it's 40%! Now think of all the

single friends you have; how many of them have actually told you that they've

signed-up to a site in order to kick start their love lives? Not many I would wager.

That's because in spite of the popularity of the medium, there is a still a social

stigma attached to dating sites; when people meet a partner this way, they generally

pretend to their friends that they've met in a bar or at some kind of party or work

related function. One of the fastest growing activities in the world is still something

most people wont admit to doing.

2. Only about 5% of people who join dating sites actually end up in a relationship

with someone they first make contact with at their chosen site. Let's equate this to

the 'real' world; you walk into a room full of one hundred strangers and how many

of them would you be attracted to? Probably no more than ten. And that's if you're

lucky. It's the same in cyberspace - how many total strangers will there be on any

site that really press all the right buttons for you? So when you register with a site,

don't expect miracles because your love life in cyberspace is no different to the

reality of everyday life.

3. Only 10% of people who join dating sites get any messages at all from other

members. There's a reason for this - the other 90% don't deserve any success.

People who refuse to upload photos of themselves or post profiles which look like

they can't really be bothered to say anything about themselves will just be ignored.

The 10% who get noticed create upbeat, confident, humorous profiles, don't have

any qualms about posting a picture of themselves and are proactive about

contacting other members. If your site doesn't work you, you shouldn't blame the

site just as a bad workman shouldn't blame his tools.

4. Popular dating sites are popular for one reason and one reason only. They work.

In every territory, you'll find a handful of sites that outstrip all the others in terms of

the volume of their registrations and their reputations in general. You'll also find

that none of these sites are free. The sites which look the best, have the best

features and offer good customer service are expensive to run and maintain. You

get what you pay for on line as well as in all walks of life; if the owners of a dating

site don't have the confidence in their product to actually charge for it, you have to

ask yourself why that is. Relatively speaking, joining a dating site is very inexpensive

compared to, say, going out for a nice meal or taking a trip to the theatre and the

potential of finding a great new relationship makes the risk/reward ratio a no-

brainer.

5. Global sites which can boast hundreds of thousands of members from all four

corners of the globe are a waste of time unless you're looking for a pen-pal. These

sites might sound rather impressive - "We have 5,000,000 members worldwide!!" -

but so what? What you should be concerned with when you're choosing a site is how

many members they have in your city, your town or your village. So if you're serious

about find a partner, stick to city or country specific sites and take the 'global' hype

with a pinch of salt.

6. The percentage of men on dating sites is disproportionate to that of women.

Most services comprise about 60% men and 40% women so as far as the on line

arena is concerned, it's the girls who are calling the shots. They have more choice

and can therefore be more discerning about who they contact or write back to. So

guys, if you want to stand out from the crowd, check out paragraph 3 above; write a

great profile and post a flattering pic and you'll be just fine.

So there you have it; to make a success of online dating, all you have to do is pick

the right site and post an eye-catching profile and photo and if it works for

you...don't keep it a big secret - tell your single friends all about it so they can get a

piece of the action too!

Jonathan White is the CEO of http://www.cupidnights.com the most popular geo-targeted site in Europe