Man's Take Magazine

Best Dating Sites – Internet Dating Site Review

Guide to Top Online Dating Web Sites & Services

Online dating sites can become a huge investment of time and energy, only to get your hopes up about a girl who never responds.  In today’s internet dating service market, there are dozens and dozens of sites, with new ones frequently popping up. This guide was designed to help you pick out the best dating sites available so you can save money and time by using only the most effective internet dating services.

Skip to our Pick for #1 Dating Site

Let’s face it- getting denied at the local bar trying to pick up a girl is less than ideal. It may be a very common and very manly event over which your friends can laugh at how pathetic you are, but it really is nicer to scroll through a list of girls online on the couch in your boxers. Then you can get rejected in comfort.

There rarely is outright rejection in the online dating world. It’s all subtle. The girls simply stop responding and fade away into the aether. While this may be less hazardous for your ego, it can make it difficult to accurately assess the quality of the dating site itself.

The larger sites that can afford vast advertising campaigns clearly have the most members to choose from. But, you should keep in mind that men are generally more attracted to online dating than women, and so the more popular a site is to men, the greater your competition will be and thus the more you’ll pour your heart into a message only to be ignored. When a woman gets dozens or even hundreds of unsolicited messages, yours really needs to stand out to have a chance.

This process can turn men off from internet dating because it becomes a vicious cycle that continues to get worse. Our bachelor spends a long time composing emails only to have them ignored. After that he spends far less time on each email which makes them easier for the girl to ignore. And so perpetuates a process that ends when the guy decides internet dating sucks.

The Best Types of Internet Dating Websites

There is also a debate between free sites and paid sites. The free sites tend to invite more “browsers” among both women and men, while the paid sites differentiate those who are serious about interacting and meeting someone through the dating website. Clearly we all would prefer to get our internet dating for free, but it may well be worth the price for the time and hassle saved simply by weeding out a large segment of the audience.

Those with strong ethnic or religious views might be best searching one of the sites catering more specifically to their desires. Likewise those with alternative sexual preferences or seeking “discrete” affairs or sugar-daddy style relationships are usually best using sites designed for those specific purposes.

Call me shallow, but as a guy I feel like I’m missing half the fun if I can’t scroll through photos of girls. However, there is something to be said for personality-based matching. I’m not a fan of eHarmony®, but I do like all the fun tools for building to a real live date on Chemistry.com. I really prefer to just save time and do less work, but the real reason I like it is because women like it.

Chicks often want a guy who can take control, and it can be a challenge to take control and yet not sound like a control freak when all you have is email. To do this well requires humor and humor works best based on how you say things. Many girls will leave it up to the computer to pick matches and they seem to trust some of the computer picks better than they’d trust their own judgement. It sounds silly, but it does work. Just go with it. However, if you want to scroll through pictures, which is time consuming but drives that hunter instinct, then you should check out a normal site like Match.com

Below is a list of the current Man’s Take favorite dating sites. This list does change from time to time as the sites grow in popularity, change policies/prices, and so forth.

In addition to this Online Dating Site Review Guide currently working on a very involved and far more scientific approach to evaluating current dating sites. Our research will give more of a baseline for site performance, though it will vary greatly based on geographic area and the demographic you’re after. Check back soon for more information on the Man’s Take Online Dating Experiment Series.

Before we can really determine the best site for you to start out on, we need to collect some basic information about you and your goals. These are the three primary characteristics to consider when looking for a site:

Relationship Sought: long-term, testing the market/short term, just a date, friends only, no strings attached, discrete affair

Timeframe: tomorrow, next week, no time constraints – just let it develop naturally

Vital Characteristics: religion, race, orientation, age, body type

Once you’ve answered those questions we can start to get on the path toward the best dating sites for your specific needs.

Long Term: committed relationship, marriage

Short Term: rebound, testing the market, short term, playing the field

Friends Only: seeking casual, non-intimate relationships

Just a Date: quick meeting, unsure

NSA/Discrete Affair: free or influenced/compensated (mail order or sugar daddy style)

The timeframe plays into this somewhat, but it has to match up with your relationship goal. If you’re looking for a long-term relationship headed toward marriage and a family, then your timeframe should be “as long as it takes.” You need to invest some serious time to meet your soul mate.

If your timeframe is long-term, you can afford to play the field on larger sites or better yet start out on some of the free sites and see what happens. If your timeframe is short, you’re probably best going for smaller member (paid) sites where the response rates to your messages is typically higher. If you’re not sure, then you are probably best taking the middle ground.

Finally we need to look at special considerations, as if you’re looking for a partner of shared minority race, religion, age, body type, or orientation, you may be best trying a site devoted specifically to that characteristic. 

Racial or Religious Requirements: Black, Interracial, Catholic, Jewish

Body Type: Plus size/BBW

Age: Seniors

Other: Single Parents, Sexual Orientation

If you’re looking in one of these specialty categories, check out the list at the very bottom of this page for the most relevant sites to your search and try those first, as they tend to attract people most serious to that particular demographic.

Man’s Take Recommendations – Top Dating Sites

Newest Top Dating Site: Chemistry.com

Man’s Take newest number one recommendation for the top spot among dating websites is now Chemistry.com. This is one of the newest, fastest growing, and most fun online dating sites there is. There’s all sorts of new ways to flirt and get to know the girl before you spend money on her dinner and drinks. Check it out today and get seven days free.

Get 7 Days Free at our Top Pick – Chemistry.com

You want the widest selection and a 6-month guarantee, then you should go right for Match. They’ve got mass market appeal and lots of subscribers. But… you need to realize that you’re playing in a giant pool here and you must work very hard to set yourself apart. I strongly recommend that if you’re going to play here, you get some help in writing the best profiles and communicating in a memorable way to stand out from the rest of the crowd.

Try Match.com Free for Seven Days.

LavaLife

LavaLife is probably the oldest player on this list in the dating field. They started doing telephone personals before the web existed. Today they have a lot of good communication tools and a steady user base. They are much smaller than match.com, which is actually a good thing for most people. While it limits your selection somewhat, it also dramatically limits your competition.

LavaLife Seven Day Free Trial

FriendFinder

FriendFinder is another big site, but with a far more casual feel to it than many other dating sites. It feels safer to women because the name implies friendship first. You’re going to have a lot of competition here, though not as much as Match. Try to use the casual, friendly approach here and set yourself apart (i.e. don’t act like a typical male pig).

Try FriendFinder for Free

Free Sites

These sites are an outstanding place to start because they’re totally free. Beware that most sites say you can join for free, but they neglect to mention that you have to pay if you want to read your messages or respond.

Top Free Dating Site: MetroDate

Next Free Dating Site: Mingles

The Next Step

While it’s quite important to find the right site so you don’t waste time, it’s also important that you construct a high-quality profile that will attract women and that you use the right kind of communication tactics that will set you above the competition and get her warmed up enough to meet you. Once you get there, you’ll need to brush up on your smooth operator skills.

I want to suggest a couple of quick resources here. First, I suggest you immediately pick up a copy of Double Your Dating to really learn how to maximize the response you get from women in general. This will help you especially offline.

The following are some of the sites we reviewed for this guide to the best online dating websites.

Friendship/Relationship Dating Sites

Chemistry.com (7 Days Free)
Date (Casual Dating – Get 3 Days Free)
EasyFlirt (webcam chat)
FastCupid
FriendFinder
LavaLife
Match (7-Day Free Trial)
MatchMaker
Metrodate (free)
Mingles (free)
PassionSearch
PerfectMatch (Buy 1 month, get 1 month free)
Spark
Zoosk

Senior Dating

LaveLife Prime (Singles 45+)
PrimeSingles
SingleSeniorsMeet
SeniorFriendFinder

Race/Language Oriented Dating Sites

Amigos (Spanish singles)
Amor (latin singles)
AsiaFriendFinder
BlackSingles
GermanFriendFinder
Interracial Singles

Religious Dating

BigChurch (Christian singles)
CatholicMingle
ChristianMingle
JDate
JewishFriendFinder

Other Specialty Dating Sites

BBWPersonalsPlus (MoreToLove)
SingleParentsMingle
WealthyMen

Gay/Lesbian Dating

GayDating: (lesbian) (gay)

GayFriendFinder

Intimate/Discrete

Gleeden (extramarital/international – guaranteed no fake profiles)
Mate1 (intimate dating)

International/Mail Order Brides

AmoLatina (International)
AnastasiaDate (Russian brides)
AsianBeauties (Asian brides)

More to Come…

Related posts:

1. Smooth Operator – Part 3 – The Soul of a Lady’s Man
2. Crazy Dating Stories
3. Internet Marketing Exposed – Is The Web Really your Ticket to Instant Wealth?
4. Rules for Dating your Friend’s Ex-Girlfriend
5. Issue #4 – Cover

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2 Responses to “Best Dating Sites – Internet Dating Site Review”

1. mark says:

   September 17, 2010 at 7:35 PM

   great article, I’m in the process of convincing my friend of all that
2. davenycity says:

   September 15, 2010 at 7:32 AM

   great blog thank you