My Favorite Free Dating Sites

As a college student, at times, funds are limited, and this is reflected in my choice of dating sites. From Match.com to Chemistry, many dating sites are premium and require quite the cost for their services. Unfortunately, many free dating sites tend to not provide the maximum services they are capable of, operating in perpetual "half" mode. I still have found a couple websites which provide good services for the cost.

Keep in mind this list is short, because I have very limited experience with dating sites, and only the ones which are worth it are mentioned here.

OkCupid.com

OkCupid is a free dating site with some interested principles and features. They feature, for example, many different things to build matches, such as questions which are user-generated and quizzes (great way to kill some time). After you've filled out a decent profile and answered some questions, people are rated based on their romantic, friendship, and enemy scores. Additionally, you will probably get frequent emails (about once per day, if you're adamant about responding) with a new "quiver," which is a selection of a few matches which the system thinks is right for you, which you can accept by sending a message or reject by hitting a button.

OkCupid has many new and exciting features coming in, and I think it's a great way to kill some time, if not find the love of your life. I've found one date through them, and he was actually pretty worthy of being seen again, so I consider this at the top of my list.

PlentyOfFish.com

PlentyOfFish is a site which looks to have been thrown together in a matter of days. It's definitely not competing for the prettiest site, although most aren't these days. They offer limited features which forces you to do the searching and the matchmaking yourself. Don't expect to be bombarded with e-mails about people interested in you; if you're not actively looking, this site is useless.

I'll be updating this list as time goes by and I have more (review-worthy) experiences with free dating sites.

If you feel I've missed something great, feel free to share it in the comments.

Review: FriendFinder

FriendFinder is a general-purpose dating site which is not targeted at any specific individuals.

This basically means two things: You won't necessarily find somebody with your exact interests (as they may be on other sites), but you stand a better chance of finding somebody with interests at least in the area of yours, as there are far more people (and thus opportunities) present on this site.

FriendFinder offers both free and paid services, with the free services limiting you to certain actions.

The registration process begins just as most others, with filling out a basic profile. I found the amount of information they requested to be about average: not too long and daunting or boring, and not too short and limited, either. It took me about 30 minutes to fill out my profile while doing other things.

After that, there is an opportunity to sign up for premium services, which I do recommend everybody do, as the free option is rather limiting.

As far as finding people, the search and browse features make it easy to limit people by many criteria, including location, gender, and age, as well as some others. There was a nice selection for my area and interests, and I found myself intrigued by many of the profiles, and I ended up wasting about an hour and a half sending messages to random people.

Within the week, I had received a response back from all but three people (out of the twenty I initially contacted). I currently have two dates over the next week, and one more after that.

While not for everybody, FriendFinder makes it easy to find some interesting people in your area who share similar interests and meet the qualities you seek. I encourage many of my friends to sign up these days with my recent success. I'll try to keep you updated as to how my adventures go.

The Safety of Internet Dating

A major concern many people face before moving into the world of online dating is safety. From free sites to paid sites, many website administrators are fighting a constant uphill battle against the paranoia of the average end user.

As a person who's experienced both painful and wonderful results from online dating, I can vouch for most of these sites when I say they err on the side of caution and do their best to keep you safe. Unfortunately, no amount of hand-holding will ever prevent injury, and as such, they maintain their lack of liability in their disclaimers.

Here are a few simple and commonsense tips to keep you from getting hurt:

1. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. So you've found a guy with no kids, who doesn't do drugs, and who works out regularly, and he's fallen madly in love with you. As of now, he's raised no red flags, and he's offering you a chance to move in with him soon, without ever even meeting you in person. Wait a second. Unless you're Jessica Alba, I doubt you're going to get such an offer from a legitimate person. As such, go with what your gut tells you, which should probably be, "Back away -- quickly."
   
2. If she refuses to show more than one picture, it's probably fake. That's right; sometimes, people use fake pictures they found on Google images to fool people into lust, often to get something out of it, like money. If they won't show more than one picture (for whatever reason), or get defensive, or if their photos look just a bit too professional, or are at awkward angles where it's hard to view them, chances are, it's a fake. If they ask for money, you should know it's best to get out of this relationship, and fast.
   
3. If he claims to be Mr. Right after knowing you for two e-mails, it's not going to last. This could be a sign of any number of things, from a scam to insanity. Either way, if you've not yet met and he's asking you to marry him, you need to remove yourself from the situation.
4. Don't give out personal or identifying information. From an uncommon last name or social security number to a phone number or home address, anything which can be used to locate you is not safe to hand out over e-mail. Think about it: if you met a guy in a bar who wanted your home address after dancing with you a few times, would you hand it out? God no! I hope not, at least. If they ask for it, chances are you're in trouble, and you need to put an end to it immediately. Even a first name combined with an uncommon job title (especially with a company name) can be used to locate a person in a smaller town. If you live in Greenpond, Alabama, avoid telling him you own the tanning salon. If you live in New York City, you can probably get away with a little more, but it always pays to be cautious.
5. Don't meet them in private. Think about it this way: would you walk into some stranger's house off the street because he offered you an opportunity to watch a movie? Again, I hope not! Don't meet in private, don't meet in darkness, and try to keep people informed of where you're going and when you'll be coming home, so that if you're not able to be located, they'll know where to send the cops.
   
6. Don't come unprepared. My final tip isn't for safety, but, rather, to keep you from becoming insanely bored. When going to meet somebody at a restaurant for the first time, take along a book, a friend, or an mp3 player to keep you entertained while you wait. If they should decide to flake out and not show up, you'll be a lot happier with some kind of amusement than without.
   

While I haven't covered all the bases, they shouldn't be necessary. When meeting anybody for the first time, use extreme caution, and always be prepared for the worst case scenario. If something should happen, you have a lot better chance of surviving to tell the tale than if you were not.