Review of Match.com
Match.com is the largest pay-for-membership online dating service (if you want to contact someone via IM or email). I have been a member for quite a few years and have seen it grow and evolve … hmm … I am not sure what that says about me or the service.
You will have to create a profile to be able to other member profiles. But, if you are not ready to show your profile you can hide it until you feel you are ready. To get best results, I would suggest spending 20 – 30 minutes filling out the questionnaires, coming up with good original text and also uploading a few good photos.
Some of the services that Match.com offers are winks (even for free memberships), IM, various searches including “Reverse Matches” and “Mutual Matches” searches. Like some of the other online dating services out there, Match.com will allow you to see who has checked out your profile – this is how I have made a few connections.
To contact other members you will have to be a paying member and these memberships are around $25 a month. Match.com also has several international websites but to use those you will have to create a separate profile and also pay a separate fee (Canada is lumped in with the USA but Mexico is a separate membership).
Match.com’s size gives it international appeal which means that you not only get a chance to meet a lot of locals – you also are sometimes contacted by members from outside the USA (even without a foreign Match.com membership). I am contacted on a regular basis by members outside of the USA by foreign women interested in meeting American men. Granted, some of these are interested in Americans as a way to make their way to America (surprisingly, quite a few contacts have come from Europe – mostly from Germany).
My experience with Match.com
Unfortunately, some of the contacts from outside the USA have been from scammers. But, if you have been on these sites long enough or have any common sense you should be able to figure out which are scammers. If you don’t have much experience with online dating, watch out for the beautiful orphan models that are supposed to be white Americans but with horrible English or ghetto English that are doing humanitarian work in Africa. These were rampant about a year ago but I think Match.com is now onto them and I am not seeing them as much.
There are many other online dating websites out there but I do think Match.com has the greatest number of hotties. Of course, this also means you will have more competition. Some of the Match.com women I have gone out with tell me that they have received hundreds of emails. You will have to be creative and focused (or have good photos on your profile) to get a response.
I can’t say that I have had any serious relationships via Match.com – I have gone out on a regular basis with a few members, kind of keeping each other company until something better came along but that is about it. I have also had a lot of first dates via Match.com: either they were not what I was expecting when we met in person or we simply had no chemistry. But, for the most part, I have had good experiences.
I can only think of one person I met on Match.com turning out to be a whacko (I even had to call 911 to get her out of my home but that is another story … watch for it).
Would I recommend Match.com? Definitely! Give it a shot. Plus, Match.com has some great features and plenty of members to get your interest. Plus, Match.com gives you a six month guarantee that you will find someone special. So, what do you have to lose?
