Personal Ads and Profiles

Personal ads and ‘dating’ sites are the granddaddy of Internet


dating. If you are serious about meeting someone on the Internet

for whatever reason, then this is the ultimate way to do it. Some

are called ‘personals’ sites, ‘dating’ sites, ‘matchmaking’ sites, etc.,

but they are all basically the same. I will refer to them throughout

this book as simply ‘sites’.

They are generally commercial websites that are specifically

designed for meeting people with similar interests, much like

traditional dating agencies. In fact, a lot of them are traditional

commercial dating agencies that have realised the Internet is the

only way to stay in business. The market for dating agencies has

taken a hammering since the Internet dating boom, and most have

had to expand or move completely to the Internet in order to

compete.

The idea behind these sites is that they have a personal ‘profile’

of information on each person in a database that you can search in

a multitude of different ways. Many ways you can search are by:

Gender, age, location, height, weight, body type, eye colour, hair

colour, occupation, religion, sexual orientation, education, star sign,

music and book interests.

Many sites go a lot further and try and ‘match’ you up with all

sorts of compatibility tests, but they are generally unreliable and

really only useful for their amusement value.

The great thing about these sites is that you can do a search on

any combination of criteria and you will be a presented with a list

of people that match. You can then check out each profile in detail,

get their contact details, and make contact with them if you so desire.

The efficiency of this just has to be seen to be believed. For

example, in Australia with a population of around 20 million

people, one Australian site claims to have 100,000+ members,

almost all of them from Australia and single. This is an incredible

0.5% of the population, searchable in an instant!