In the early days of online dating, all dating web sites were
free. Reason? The Internet was seen more as a taboo, just the
same way that very few people then would give their credit card
number for online purchases.
As the Internet itself blossomed, so did online dating. Suddenly
machine matchmaking was the talk of the town. Out of curiosity,
people flocked to dating sites in droves to be matched with
somebody. As Internet payment systems matured, the acceptance of
dating online, and ultimately the willingness to pay for the
service followed suit.
The dating industry enjoyed unprecedented growth over several
years, before the growth peaked and leveled off.
After people's
initial curiosity had waned, the tide began to
turn against the effectiveness of the service. Many came out of
it with hopes dashed. On any dating site, men outnumber women by
a large margin. As a result, most women on dating sites do not
care to respond to the large number of messages they are
bombarded with on a daily basis. The consequence of this is that
the trust people have in online dating as a whole is declining.
Online dating websites can be broadly categorized into free
sites, and pay sites. It goes against all rational judgement
that anybody would pay for anything that they could get for free
elsewhere? But the answer lies in user loyalty, as opposed to
free dating sites being somehow
inferior. Most people do not
bother to look for the latest trend in a service they have been
paying for in a while, even if similar, or better quality
services are now offered free of charge.
In a bid to edge out free dating sites, some people have argued
that free dating sites attract spammers, since the spammers do
not have to pay for the service. Unfortunately, this information
is very misleading.
On the surface the statement may appear reasonable, but it is
untrue. The fact is that it's free to post profiles on any
dating website, be it a free, or a pay site. Therefore, all that
a spammer needs to do on a pay site is post an attractive
profile, or use the "Wink" feature to get paying
members to
contact him or her. There is absolutely no substance in the
claim that free dating sites today are more susceptible to
spamming than pay sites are.
If anything, paying sites are more likely to retain known
spammers, as long as monthly dues are paid.
At the end of the day, the quality of a dating site is
determined by the amount of care put into it by its operators,
not by membership fees.
A particular free dating
site, www.oasisoflove.com is aggressively clamping down on
scamming/spamming to the point that hardly any scam letter can
now get through the system.
This is
revolutionary, since not even pay-based dating sites
have put this much effort into combating this problem. The fact
is that pay sites have reason not to make an effort, since such
action would decrease the proportion of paying members.
If other dating sites would follow the footsteps of
oasisoflove.com, the overall quality of dating online would be
elevated.
About the author:
About the Author: Richard Akindele is the Founder of
http://www.oasisoflove.com, a full-featured, and FREE online
dating service. Features offered include: Audio/video chat,
private photos, spam watch, etc. Sign-up and start to meet
singles in your local area.
