RapiDating OnLine Dating

SeniorFriendFinder.com is proof positive that the online scene is catching up with the times. Just about everyone is getting wired these days. With the first of the baby boomers approaching their elder adult years and representing a significant portion of the population, companies are getting smart and offering seniors a chance to find love and friendship, safely and easily on a site that creates a virtual community for those more who are more experienced at the art of living.

Straight off, just by filling out a free profile you can cruise through the ads without even paying. You’ll find that some of them are accessible to close up viewing but the vast majority you won’t be able to see more than a brief description and a thumbnail picture. Even if you can’t enlarge someone’s description, you can still show them that you’d like to know more by sending him/her a friendly wink. If they happen to be a paid member, they may write you back and you can reply to them for free, which is a fantastic feature. If you add a profile to your hotlist, an e-mail will be dispatched to your fellow user so he/she knows you been checking the ad out. Also, seeing as some people just have star quality, this site rewards popular listings with special access privileges. However, you need to have paid for a standard membership to qualify. And just because you have paid for a standard membership doesn’t mean you have full run of the site. You are limited int eh number of profiles you can view per day and the number of emails you can send. Only by taking a gold level membership will you finally be able to view the site without any difficulties.

“Senior Friend Finder goes the distance by providing a lot more than just your typical dating site.”

There are many different ways you can interact with the online community at SeniorFriendFinder.com. An online community like Senior Friend Finder let’s your voice be heard — or at least your words to be read. You’ve got lots of secure options here. From message boards in the groups section, to live chat and a subscriber submitted online magazine. I don’t think it’s fair to assume that just because there’s some snow on the roof there’s not still a fire burning down below. I was relieved to find the sexier side of being a senior was certainly addressed by more than one posting I read. Keeping everyone up with the times, this site also includes blogs. Blogs are short for web logs, which are online digital diaries. Feel free to start your own or just read what other users are posting. Overall, Senior Friend Finder goes the distance by providing a lot more than just your typical dating site.

Now trying to keep track of everyone can be hard and it has nothing to do with getting older. It has to do with how many more people you can meet online an the ‘network’ section is your place to keep track of everybody new with whom you want to keep in contact with. It lets you share picture albums or send bulletins to your whole group of friends. Your best buds can also write little blurbs about how great you are right in your profile. It is social networking features like this that set Senior Friend Finder apart from the pack.

Silver and Gold level subscriptions offer several advantages: full contact with all site visitors, special search options and daily receipt of an e-mail letting you know what new members might interest you. Both types of paid service are given top priority on search results and when queued up for profile/photo approvals or customer support. As mentioned before, standard members find that their daily use of the site has limitations when it comes to the number of profiles and emails that are sent per day, but you pay a reasonable $22.94 for your first month. Gold level memberships, besides avoiding these limitations, also go further when it comes to speedy delivery of services and storage limits. Gold also gives you a unique keyword search engine. However, at $34.94 for your first month, it’s quite expensive considering what other sites charge. Whichever option you choose you’ll enjoy the greater freedom and premium enjoyment, it will bring.

Senior Friend Finder gives users more than most sites when it comes to an online community, but less when it comes to being able to make an informed decision on whether or not there are enough members in your area to make the site worthwhile. It clearly has a large and loyal following but you’ll have your work cut out for you as you attempt to find out how many are online regularly in your area. However, if you don’t mind rolling the dice a bit, the standard membership price tag is reasonable and you just may find that special person to share many memories to come.

My mother is a widow often tells me that she would consider going back on the market, if she could just find the right environment. You know—safe, secure and not treating her as if she’s 100 years old, just because she’s over 60. On the surface, Senior Match might seem such a place as its slick homepage is strewn with links specifically tailored to those over 50. I like that it seemed right from the start to cater to mature daters as inexperienced in life, rather than old.

The SeniorMatch signup process was rather standard, as far as mandatory information asked, except on two counts. First, although sometimes a complete physical description is obligatory when signing up to a site, in this case, I only was required to provide my height and no other appearance details. I know traditionally women prefer to date someone several inches taller, but still, that requirement seemed somewhat arbitrary.

“…it is free to read the community forums and blogs, or to reply to email and instant messages.”

Another, atypical mention is that when I agreed to the terms of service after filling out the first few pieces of information, I was required to verify that I was at least 30 years of age. I didn’t have to stretch the truth on that one. I thought it showed some effort to make sure that even if some folks might be looking for a May-December romance that the younger participant was still in the realm of full-bloom, not still wet round the ears from an April shower, or the melting snow of early March.

Otherwise, SeniorMatch.com was par for the course, as far as its services resembling those of most other online dating sites. I discovered it is free to read the community forums and blogs, or to reply to email and instant messages. However, to initiate instant messaging, or compose emails, as well as read some of the advice and general news items geared towards people 50 plus, I would have needed to upgrade to a paid membership.

Unfortunately, SeniorMatch hasn’t done well on attracting visitors to the site. I found it difficult to determine, whether my local area was doing better than the overall traffic numbers might suggest, as free searches only get within 100 miles of home and the last login info is only viewable upon upgrading. That seriously hindered my ability to see how many others nearby were using the site.

The site might attract more members through better promotion and repositioning its name to an audience young-at-heart. Not everyone of a certain age wants to be called a senior, or would even consider him, or herself one. Senior Match needs to work on grabbing hold of more of the vital baby boom generation. In the meantime, it may be a site to keep your eye on.

AdultFriendFinder.com is for those who wish to find some pals with whom to “play” and for those who choose to share tales of their adult exploits with appreciative new amigos. It’s kind of like joining an x-rated country club. As the name claims, you’re finding friends not just partners for intimate encounters. You’re going to be able to create a “My Friend Network” letting you keep in touch with a whole group of online buddies by sending special bulletins to your exclusive list of cohorts and sharing with them exclusive private online albums too. Your selected connections can also boast about your host of great qualities from whichever perspective they share by adding a personal testimonial right onto your profile.

Immediately on this site you’ll be struck by how much access you get just for filling out a free profile. Granted some services like accessing full member details are somewhat restricted, but nevertheless you’ll get a complete look at some of the subscribers listed in the summary glimpses returned from your searches. Unlike on “standard” personals, some of the thumbnails are pretty racy, so it might not be long before you find yourself motivated to upgrade to a premium membership to see more than just a peak. In the meantime, a wink to show interest costs nothing to send. Put a profile onto your Hotlist and the system will dispatch posthaste an e-mail letting that other person know he/she has scored well on your sexiness meter. It always worth at least trying to enlarge each profile since the popularity of a profile sometimes lets even standard members view it and paid subscribers can optionally pay a bit extra to allow free access to every membership level.

You can join in discussions on message boards under Groups. Some people use them as forums for organizing adult get-togethers in their local areas. There are loads of spicy stories told by all levels of members posted on the boards and in the online Magazine area in its subscriber-submitted articles. Topics are not always completely “adult”, more mundane ramblings and free advice also abound. That being said, generally the issues addressed are not for the shy or modest type of reader. For regular updates on your favourite members, the service now freely provides the newly popular “blogs” to peruse or post yourself.

The chat rooms are publicly available but paid members are granted special advantages like hotlinks to each chatting comrade’s profile to see his/her details, as well as being able to open private chat rooms to take conversations to the next level. If you’re a bit of an exhibitionist or merely yearn to demonstrate your star quality, you can broadcast your webcam to the entire chat room group. Instant messaging programs in Web-based and downloadable versions are another no charge option for going one-on-one with that special someone you meet.

Silver and Gold memberships add several advantages to your dating experience by making all profiles completely accessible and contactable, enabling detailed search options, sending personalized matches by e-mail, granting access to thousands of member videos and posting your profile at the top of search results. Both options come with faster profile/photo approvals and customer support, although Gold obviously always takes the priority over Silver. Gold also grants extra storage space and saved message time, as well as exclusively offering searches of full member profiles based upon keywords. Monthly access costs around $30 US but your enjoyment of the site will increase exponentially.

Visit Adult Friend Finder if you seek both casual acquaintances and more intimate friendships.

If Fling has one thing going for it beyond the super catchy name, I’d have to say that it has to be its popularity beyond all else. I’m not sure why it’s quite so popular since despite being attractively designed and having a ton of apparent members, it offers much less than some other sites do until you upgrade your account. Nevertheless, it calls itself the “World’s Best Adult Personals” - so what is it all about?

Fling isn’t coy about the goals of its sex dating site. It currently offers a guarantee when you upgrade your account that if can’t hookup by the end of your first three months, it will give you another three months free. That is something I haven’t seen on even traditional dating sites. However, I suppose promising at least one fling isn’t the same as trying to say you’ll find true love.

“If you want to see anything truly adult, you need to pay a per-minute rate”
You don’t have to include many details when creating a profile. In fact, what I would consider a useful option considering the adult nature of Fling is that you can choose to have a “discreet” profile that blurs you photo. It also prevents anyone who hasn’t been added to your black book of prospective connections from reading the written details.

Overall, plenty of Fling profiles included photos, which is great since you have limited access to profiles before upgrading. You can search profiles for free but the results cannot be enlarged beyond a preview pane. Moreover, what is strange to me is there is absolutely no way to show interest in someone’s description until you pay.

After upgrading you can add folks to your infamous black book, invite that someone to be a friend on a personalized network of contacts. You can use instant messaging, both prewritten and freeform. Nevertheless, unless the individual to whom you write is also a paid member or you choose to join up to the more expensive gold level of membership, he or she won’t be able to reply to you.

Obviously, in order to better your chances of making connections you need to pay that little bit extra. However, the less expensive silver membership is competitive with most other sites, whereas the more expensive premium subscription is definitely high-end. Both levels include video chat, the black book access, as well as sending and receiving messages.

An extra feature included for anyone at any membership status who visits the site is a live cam service link. However, although labeled with the Fling brand, it’s really just like any other webcam service. There’s free chat with the models that tease you a bit but if you want to see anything truly adult, you need to pay a per-minute rate. However, this service will do little in the way of finding you a fling, unless taking your wallet out for a spin is what you had in mind.

Alt.com is not for the faint of heart, it is truly for those into alternative sexuality. Some sites come on strong but then have members that are mostly curious or coy. Not the case here, so if you’re kind of shy or reserved then probably this isn’t the place for you to make your connections. This sex dating service caters towards true connoisseurs of fetish encounters, people with some experience experimenting in BDSM (bondage, domination, sadomasochism). If you’re just sort of goofing around, then don’t be surprised if someone calls you on it, these people seem to mean business and take their special interests seriously. The only limit here is the imagination of the site’s members and regardless of gender or orientation; it’s a non-discriminating adventure into the stranger side of sex. Without paying for a membership, access is limited but you should still be able to get a glimpse at what you’re in for before deciding whether this one’s for you.

Alt.com has plenty of profiles to check out and the basic search engine still let’s you narrow down the results to the specific kind of thing you’re into finding. Being able to return tailored results is very important on this kind of alternative site, since most people, no matter how open-minded won’t appreciate everything it has to offer just as a matter of personal taste. You can’t enlarge all the profiles without becoming a premium member, but you can still see a few up close. Some free member’s profiles become fully accessible based upon popularity while other times paid members have subscribed to an additional fee to allow all levels of site visitor to view their complete descriptions. If you like what or whom you see then you can send a wink or simply add the member to your Hotlist. Being added to someone’s Hotlist sends the selected subscriber an e-mail notification of having been added.

Quick contact is paramount on Alt.com and you have several options including chats and instant messaging, which anyone can use. For the voyeurs and exhibitionists in life, the chat rooms allow members to broadcast their webcams live to the entire group. There are message boards where groups can post stories and try to organize alternative get-togethers. Subscriber-submitted articles are posted in the online magazine. Rounding out the information and daily tales of living life alternatively are the newly-created blogs section.

Premium members gain access to all member descriptions, pictures, subscriber videos, faster support and they will appear at the top of any search results. If you choose to go for the Gold level rather than Silver besides beating everyone out on speediness of service and superior position in profile lists, you also matches sent to you by e-mail and an exclusive search option using keywords to guarantee the narrowest, precise field of search results.

Visit Alt.com if you feel you’re really ready for something different from the ordinary dating or even sex personals sites.

SexSearch.com leaves me feeling more than a little skeptical when it comes to the realness of some of its purported members, at least those appearing on the homepage and in some of the featured ads. Maybe I’m just a guy from ugly town, but some of these folks just seemed pretty unbelievable. That being said when I did take the time to search for people closer to home locally, I was pleased to discover that although some of the profile teasers might be slightly enhanced, there appears to be genuine members in my city looking to get laid.

I am pretty much up for anything when it comes to sex and I expect my sex dating site to provide me with opportunities for all sorts of sex, not just the usual “intimate encounter” option that you can find even on a standard personals site. Sex Search lets you explore all the sex vagaries you want. If you’re looking for a threesome with a woman and two bi men, for example, then least of all you can search for it here, even if you might not find it in your area. If you don’t instantly find what you want then you fill out a list of desired match criteria and an e-mail will be dispatched to your offsite address the moment someone signs up that is looking for the same thing you are.

There are no quick contact features on the site at this point, so unfortunately you’re going to need to depend on e-mail and “showing interest” to initiate that hot contact you crave. It’s a real disappointment to me, but Sex Search gets a failing grade on the quick contact criteria. Like so many sex dating sites these days, instead of putting the emphasis on members meeting actual members for sex, this one has chosen to follow the trend of offering premium porn content as an enticement to sign up. In fact, they make a point in their FAQs of mentioning that $20,000 is spent each month on their “Gold Room” with its exclusively dirty pictures and videos for its highest level of membership. Sorry Sex Search, but I feel you’re missing the point of a sex personals site. If I want porn and not live people, there are a multitude of web sites that will give me just that.

There are two levels of membership, Silver and Gold. Silver will give you full access to the personals side of things but you won’t have access to the infamous “Gold Room.” Gold membership only costs $5 more so naturally you might as well take advantage of the exclusive porn it offers for only a few bucks more. There’s not much to do without upgrading your membership since you can’t even enlarge the profile details or photos, nor can you reply/send e-mail. For a site with limited contact options, I would expect to see more before being required to commit to a paid subscription. But I don’t make the sites, I just report on them. Probably some marketing genius somewhere figures having a VIP room that no one can preview should get enough people to sign up out of mere curiosity without fully seeing the profiles of actual members.

Visit Sex Search if you want a sex meeting site with backroom back-up for those nights you can’t score the real thing.

AdultLocals.com is a little bit of a disappointment. It joins the multitude of online sex dating sites that promise to deliver real life encounters with people in your area. Unfortunately, if your idea is not particularly original, you have to produce something better — or at least equally as well as the competition. Otherwise, you’ll never emerge from the crowd as a true contender. This site just doesn’t have the numbers required to convincingly guarantee paid subscribers that they are going to get any real bang for their buck.

So what’s a little site supposed to do? We all know that “little guys” normally try to compensate in other ways, be it fast cars or diamond rings. If companies make a big deal out of nothing, they normally do it with a lot of flash and panache. Adult Locals seems to be in denial since instead of using features to dazzle and distract us from the limited membership, the few options that are available only further draw attention to the low membership numbers. For example, the search fields include the gender that you are seeking and whether you are “a man looking for a woman” or “a man looking for a lesbian woman” or “a man looking for a bisexual woman”. Great idea, except that no matter what you put, you get the same results returned all three times. Excuse me, but we’re not amused or confused into thinking there are multiple listings here.

What I found even more annoying was that there was no way to actually narrow down my search to my true local area. I could select state and city but with no zip/postal code “distance from” feature. I ended up with people who were a good 60 miles away. When you put “local” right into your site name, it kind of goes without saying that you should be helping your members target right down to the neighbour next door — not someone two hours away by car on any given day, and then only if the traffic’s good.

The only reason why I would sign up for Adult Locals is if I saw someone with whom I was almost certain something could happen. Strangely enough, you can’t send a “flirt” for free but you can send e-mail. The other member can’t read the message without paying for a subscription though. There is no chat or instant messaging on the site either, so forget about any direct contact — whether you’ve already paid or not. This earned the site a zero on quick contact. Being sure in advance of someone’s genuine intentions would be mostly a risky guess, so if you have nothing to lose and you live somewhere where the member numbers are healthier, you could always take a chance. At almost $25 a month, it seems to offer a less-than-average service for a same-as-average price.

Visit Adult Locals but check out the profiles for free before spending your money.

Single Parent Love Life is one of the slickest ventures into the market for single parent online dating you’ve ever seen. It almost makes being a single parenting seem as glamorous as it is hard work. However, I wouldn’t fault its approach even if it might seem glossy and superficial at first blush. I appreciate any dating site, regardless of its market, that promotes feeling good since no matter what your situation is with dating, online or otherwise, it is best with a positive attitude.

SingleParentLoveLife.com has substance as well a great look. For example, its prewritten descriptions of what you’re looking for are well thought out. You can say that you prefer to concentrate first on meeting someone for yourself before addressing parental issues. You can state you’re looking to create a blended family. You can be blunt about screening any prospective partner before introducing the family. It is also okay to be a single without children on this site, too, but the main focus here is clearly single parents.

“…it’s well designed, appealing and very competitively priced.”

You can skip many of the usual steps in signing up. You will need to provide a decent free-form essay describing yourself and your ideal potential date. You can upload a photo, of course. Any newsletter or other site notices can be deselected if you don’t want to receive offsite mail and you can set the frequency of receiving info about folks who have sent you a smile or added you to their hot list, too.

Making contact on SingleParentLoveLife is straightforward. Other than sending free smiles or adding to your hot list, you’ll need to pay for emails or instant messaging. Unlike some sites, the need to upgrade runs both ways. Both the sender and the recipient need to be premium subscribers to send or receive messages. In its defense for applying this restriction, its monthly fee is considerably less than many other sites. It’s not such a big commitment at currently $10 a month.

The advanced search options are all available even before upgrading. You have results sorted to show only profiles of members that have logged in during the last week. You can also look only for those subscribers that have posted a picture with their descriptions. There is a local search option based on your postal or zip code. Finally, perhaps the most radical for a free access search engine, there are keyword searches offered without paying for an upgrade.

The biggest downside to this site is that it doesn’t have a large database of members that other sites have. This is to be expected from a site that only launched in November of 2006. However, with such a great portal for single parents, we expect this dating site will begin to gain a large and loyal following in the near future.

Finally, any special community based web personals site wouldn’t be complete without a section of articles and subscriber-submitted stories. Single Parent Love Life also includes a special SPLL TV and a SPLL Radio feature for great streaming content tailored to learning to love again as a single parent.

Overall, it’s well designed, appealing and very competitively priced. It’s certainly worth a look if you’re a single parent.

Wealthy Men promotes itself as web personals designed as a place for people of a higher caliber to meet. I’ll say straightaway that I had to lie in my profile since the lowest income range starts at over $100,000. That’s a little more than I can boast that my reviewer’s post pays. All is fair in love and war, I suppose.

I’ve often heard that the hallmark of truly refined taste is its simplicity. Simple is exactly how I would define the interface of WealthyMen. You provide few physical details beyond height and body type. You do include your profession and salary, of course. Then you describe yourself and potential date, in essay form. Whether you’re male or female, the same process applies.

“Not seeing profile details before upgrading makes one hesitant to join WealthyMen.”

WealthyMen.com has a few extra features related to verifying the info you provide. You need to send in a letter from your accountant or even an old income tax form to prove your wealth. You can verify your employment or your photo through other processes as well. That’s as fancy as the site gets, since otherwise it offers little else as far as advanced features go.

Browsing is limited to US zip codes, Canadian postal codes (enter it without spaces where it states US zips only and it does work) or a few major American cities. Outside the United States or Canada, one is out of luck as you are stuck browsing entire countries. I thought that WealthyMen should be more sensitive to the needs of the globetrotting elite that are supposedly its niche.

Moreover, until you upgrade, you can’t see anything but a few basic profile details. You can’t tell whether a member has recently visited the site even. However, what is perhaps odder is that even as a premium subscriber, there doesn’t appear to be any advanced search options. There is no online chat or even instant messaging, just email.

Silver membership allows you to see detailed profiles and to use email. Gold level subscriptions, besides being listed first on browsing results, allow correspondence with non-paying site members. Overall, in comparison to most online dating sites, Wealthy Men seems overly simplistic. Its most redeeming quality is providing verified details regarding what might otherwise be exaggerated claims made by members.

I may not be well off, but I do know that generally rich folks enjoy free samples before deciding to shell out any cash. Not seeing profile details before upgrading makes one hesitant to join WealthyMen. Having to decide whether it’s worth its monthly fee based solely on verified income status and a picture doesn’t seem to scream a higher-class of dating.

Singles Greeks seeking connections may want to check out Eligible Greeks. The site runs smooth under your fingertips so you can get down to the business of finding connections. One of the strongest features of Eligible Greeks is the way they have set their profiles up. Many sites will allow you to enter a name, title and a handful of other basic details and you’re in and online in seconds. Here, they make you think about the process beforehand.

EligibleGreeks.com asks a number of questions designed to help fill out your profile with enough info, so other members have a well-rounded understanding of you as a person. Sure, questions can be answered randomly, but since they have to be answered one way or another, most profiles will have more accurate details than not. Strong sites are built on quality profiles, so single Greeks have it good on this site.

“Niche dating sites like Eligible Greeks face uphill battles when it comes to membership levels.”

Search options are limited before upgrading. It seems that when we first visited Eligible Greeks that wasn’t the case. Currently, they only offer only the basics until you pay for advanced options. That’s unfortunate, as the free searches do not narrow the radius of results to any closer than 150 miles. When you upgrade, you can get to within 20 miles of a given postal or zip code. All of the dropdown menu fields that were mandatory when you signed up to fill also come into play after you pay.

Single Greeks who are just looking to poke around will find that the site falls in line with most standard online dating sites on the Internet, allowing you to send signs of interest and receive email from members without having any costs associated with it. You can also review full profile info, including the last login date, to give you some clue to how active a potential match on EligibleGreeks may be.

Niche dating sites like EligibleGreeks.com face uphill battles when it comes to membership levels. It’s not as easy attracting large numbers of visitors from a smaller group of potential surfers – in this case, finding single Greeks versus finding any eligible person. Unfortunately, according to the latest independently obtained stats on numbers of visits to the site, it seems to have lost ground in its popularity battle in the last year-and-a-half since our first visit.

Counterintuitive to this small decline in traffic is that the price, which was top of the normal range in web personals pricing, has actually increased by about 15 percent. It continues to offer paid instant messaging and free member forums. However, now, costing more than most average sites, Eligible Greeks has lost some of its initial appeal. Yet if your search for other singles online has Greek men and women in mind, this is one of the few choices you have to ensure most other nationalities are weeded out.