chphan Posted August 23, 2011 Posted August 23, 2011 Ok so I made a few accounts on some dating sites as a test for now. One thing I notice that is in order to actually do much with them you have to subscribe. You can't send emails or even reply to emails unless you subscribe. Generally you looking at what maybe $20 per month for a 6 months term from these sites. For 1 site is might be okay but if you trying to try out different sites since different sites might have different people or you might get different results or better result at another site. How do you guys afford being on more than 1 online dating sites? This is coming to mind that you might not even get much in return from some of these sites even if you are a subscriber.
zengirl Posted August 23, 2011 Posted August 23, 2011 How many pay sites even exist? How many dating sites? The big 4 are probably: EH (pay), Match (pay), OKC (free), POF (free), and most people won't even do all of those. EH + Match (the two pays) together probably runs, what, about $50/month, max? And you don't have to do both at once. Pay the slightly higher price, try it for a month, and see if it even makes sense for you. Any which way, that's not really a lot of money in the scheme of things, particularly if you're in the age bracket that works best for those two sites (25+/30+, depending on other factors, for Match, I'd say and either deeply religious or closer to 40+ for EH). I've only ever subscribed to Match, and I remember it being pretty cheap and that if you declined subscription they used to keep sending you lower and lower prices. I mostly used OKC, which was free, because I liked it best.
Author chphan Posted August 23, 2011 Author Posted August 23, 2011 ok that makes sense. might be better to take a hit and pay higher for short term. Do you know if viewing members that look at your profile can see or tell if you are a subscriber or not? POF? what's POF? the others I've heard of.
sm1tten Posted August 23, 2011 Posted August 23, 2011 POF is Plenty of Fish. You can't tell who is a paying member or not by viewing the profiles, as far as I know. If you're paying month to month, the value is quite bad for subscriber sites. I've done one month at match (27.99 because I got a coupon; it's regularly 35.99) but got a 3 for 1 month at chemistry.com (match's sister site) so I think that's okay (49.95). I hated eHarmony and never bothered to pay for it, so I can't tell you what there. I would suggest paying the higher upfront cost to see if you really like it before committing to several months for the lower price. I've never done this for more than a few weeks at a time but if I'm not successful I'll probably go off and on the paid ones - keeping the profile up but not actively subscribing. If you sign up you can often get emailed special deals - Chemistry.com is having a free night sometime this week, and Match just sent out at a 15% discount offer.
FitChick Posted August 23, 2011 Posted August 23, 2011 Match.com is the parent company for dozens of paid websites. I am still trying to find out if they are all the same price or if ones that appear to be smaller, niche type websites are cheaper. That way you could join the cheaper site and still have access to Match.com's vast database of members for less money. Generally if the website's layout and features look very similar, it's the same company. You can usually find out by checking out the About Us or Contact Us link, where they have the company name. I would suggest putting up a profile and not joining until you have several people you want to contact or who have contacted you. Most websites will not allow you to say you are not a subscriber. Sometimes, you are not even allowed to reply with your email address but you can write it out as xyz (at) server (dot) com. I've had the experience where even doing that I was blocked because it was the same address I signed up with, so I just used a different email address. Sometimes if you s p a c e o u t the letters you can bypass the software.
FitChick Posted August 23, 2011 Posted August 23, 2011 I got a coupon Where do you get coupons? I have a hidden profile on Match.com but they've never sent me a coupon or offer for any of their affiliated websites.
sm1tten Posted August 23, 2011 Posted August 23, 2011 Match also owns OkC. I've heard that they will poach from one site to another but never seen it - I'm getting totally different results on Chemistry versus Match versus OkC, but that could also be because I live in a huge area, too. I got my coupon via email last Friday. I just did a google search and found the same one, so you could try that. It's just a link to sign in and subscribe, not a code.
Author chphan Posted August 23, 2011 Author Posted August 23, 2011 thanks for all the info. I don't mind paying if I know I can get a good return. lol. Because that's some gas money going to waste. I would suggest putting up a profile and not joining until you have several people you want to contact or who have contacted you. That's like the best idea so far. However if you aren't paying, does your profile get buried? They make it sound like not being a subscribe means your profile would get buried amongst all those either profiles. Another concern is that does anyone know if these sites uses empty bots account to try and get you to reply on winks or emails? I had a few of these and most of them are all from accounts with no photos. Only one account was from a photo member. And when I check back to some of these account with no photos later on those accounts no longer existed.
sm1tten Posted August 23, 2011 Posted August 23, 2011 I got something weird on Chemistry where the person's profile became inactive right after they messaged me, but whether it was a bot or what I have no idea. Some Match people don't put up photographs, too, but who knows? I don't know what happens to your profile if you aren't paying, actually, but I suspect that you might be harder to find unless you hit someone parameters and they searched a bit. Otherwise there'd be less benefit to subscribing.
grkBoy Posted August 23, 2011 Posted August 23, 2011 I say save your money and look for other avenues. OKC seems to get a lot of positive praise, and it's free. If you have the means to put up a solid profile, have the looks and income women want, then try a paid site.
Author chphan Posted August 23, 2011 Author Posted August 23, 2011 Hey can hidden profiles still send winks? I just got another wink and when I click on the profile it says unavailable. This is getting annoying. Granted it was someone from far away but I was curious to see who it was.
Casablanca Posted August 23, 2011 Posted August 23, 2011 I really only do the free ones...Ive done free trials at the others, but my responses were about the same in terms as the free ones...would I ever do a paid one, ask me again in a decade and we'll see....my issues with them is on match, you don't know is who is pay or who is free....on eharmony...with free communication weekend (that means everything but email) so you have to ask in one of your three questions you get to make up on your own (or maybe put it in an answer) what your email is to see if they are interested in talking once you couldn't progress anymore...also not being able to pick matches is kind of lame
FitChick Posted August 23, 2011 Posted August 23, 2011 To be honest, I haven't been on match.com in a couple of years, though my profile is still there but hidden. It has changed quite a bit and is rather more annoying than other websites and cumbersome to use. I don't think it matters if you are a subscriber or not because they want it to look like they have loads of active members so other people will subscribe. I'd go by the last time the person was logged in. I noticed not many men were "logged in right now" compared to other websites considering the vast number of members they have. I'm not even sure if you can delete your profile. If not, then just remove all photos, change all your stats to ones that are undesirable (say you are 99 years old and grossly obese looking for gay men).
carhill Posted August 23, 2011 Posted August 23, 2011 Women pay for my dates so I can easily afford the subscriptions. It's a gift which keeps giving
Cypress25 Posted August 23, 2011 Posted August 23, 2011 Use the free sites. All the same people are on the paid sites anyway. Paid dating sites don't do anything special except take your money. I've always gotten decent results from the free sites.
Casablanca Posted August 23, 2011 Posted August 23, 2011 Use the free sites. All the same people are on the paid sites anyway. Paid dating sites don't do anything special except take your money. I've always gotten decent results from the free sites. I wouldnt say that everyone on paid is on free...some dont want to deal with the extra goober guys on the free site, I have seen a couple on both free and paid, but not a lot, though I'm sure there was plenty I missed when trying the paid ones. Though I find it odd that one would be on one free site and not both, just seems like you can freely double your chances (depending on your area)
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