Friendfinder

Friendfinder is one of the most popular communities online with 20 sites catering for different groups based on nationality, sexual orientation, age and many more criteria.

Friendfinder certainly boasts a very large membership across the world and has web cam chat and a searchable database of members.

It offers three membership plans. With Free Registration, you can search profiles and send limited e-mails (this is a little complex as paying members can purchase ‘standard contacts’ and standard members with popular profiles receive privileges). Standard members can also upload a video to their profile, but cannot view the photos or videos of other members. You can contact other members under standard membership. E-mails are viewable on Friendfinder’s system and will be viewable for 30 days.

Silver Membership allows you to view member videos and use a more comprehensive member search system. It also allows you to view the first 5 photos in a member’s profile. E-mails are viewable for 60 days.

Gold Membership allows you to see all of the photos in a member’s profile, view larger photos and get a higher listing for your own profile. E-mails are viewable for 120 days and you will also get other contact details (ICQ, MSN, Yahoo Instant Messaging and AIM) for other members who have added these.

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Yahoo Personals (Match.com)

This is the largest personals website on the Internet with over 15 million members worldwide. The service is provided by Match.com.

The site provides access to all member profiles which can be searched without purchasing a subscription. You can create a profile too without subscribing. However, to contact members, it is necessary to sign up and pay.

It is definitely worth signing up to be able to search the profiles. With so many people online, there are bound to be some that interest you. Then you can pay for a subscription if you wish to contact somebody.

Yahoo! Personals 7 Day FREE Trial offer

Friendsearch.com

Friendsearch is an online community of people from more than 250 countries. Its features include a searchable database of members, activity groups and organised events.

There is a feature in which members can upload a profile with more adult-oriented materials such as photos and a sexual profile.

There are four types of membership. Normal Free Membership allows you to search and send messages to all members. Platinum members will receive these messages to their actual e-mail address as well as being added to their friendsearch.com in-box. Members sent to non-platinum members can only be read by them if they agree to ‘sponsor’ (pay for) the message. Messages from other Normal members cannot be read unless you sponsor them.

Gold, Silver and Bronze members can send messages to all other members and these messages will go to both their actual e-mail address and into their friendsearch.com in-box and they can reply regardless of their membership status. You will have to sponsor messages sent by normal members if they initiate the contact.

Platinum members can send and receive messages from any member with no additional sponsorship costs.

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Lavalife

Lavalife says that it caters for the UK, but it allows you to search all countries. It is an online community for singles. It has three sections, Dating, Relationship and Intimate Encounters. It contains instant messaging as well as a searchable database of members.

It is free to sign up and create a profile, view other profiles, including the videos and to send a ‘smile’. However, you will need to take a paid membership if you want to send e-mails or instant messages. Paying members have no limits on the number of messages they can send and no extra charges for sending them.

Meet local singles at Lavalife.com

Great Expectations

Great Expectations offers a mainly USA service and is a traditional dating service where they meet every member face-to-face in order to screen them and validate their information. It has been in existence since 1976, long before the days of the World Wide Web and has offices across The States.

If you are not in the USA or even if you are, you can sign up to Great Dating which is the online service and is part of the Relationship Exchange network of sites. You can create a profile free, post three photos free and express interest in members free. You can also respond to mail and instant messages from members free, but you will need to take a paid membership to initiate messages to other members, although paid membership is not required to send an ‘I’m Interested’ message that says no more than that.

Great Dating also have a two stage screening process (computer and human) for all profiles to verify legitimacy and seriousness, so if you want to feel more confident about who you are in contact with, this site is well worth checking out.

Serious about dating? So are we. Great Expectations Dating.

Perfect Match

Perfect Match uses a system called ‘Duel’ to match you with people that are either similar or who will complement you. They then e-mail you the details of profiles that match your own.

They claim to offer a site designed from the ground up to be a relationship site and the site does look very high quality. You can create a profile free and this profile appears to ask many more questions than the common ones, aiming to get a full picture of your ‘values and ideas’ and ‘life and lovestyle’

Again, to be able to view and communicate the other members, you will need to take a paid membership. This costs a little more than most dating sites, but their aim is to offer a far higher quality experience than many dating sites focusing on helping you find longer term relationships.

Members from any country are welcomed.

The site has featured on television and in many magazine and newspaper articles. The relationship expert consulted during the development of the Duet system Dr Pepper Schwartz has appeared on a number of television shows.

This site is certainly worth visiting if you are looking for help in finding your right match.

Try Perfectmatch.com - The Best Approach to Finding the Right Person for You.

Matchmaker

Matchmaker is owned and operated by the founders of Date.com for a more mature audience of 35+, focusing on long-term serious relationships and marriage. It offers dating advice, a range of tools to communicate with other members and online personals.

The site caters for all countries.

You can sign up and create a profile free. Once you have done this you can browse all the profiles of other members and see their photos. You can ‘show interest’ in another member and if they are a Gold Member, they can respond to by e-mail.

Once you upgrade to Gold Membership, you can have access to e-mail, instant messaging and the chat room.

The site has a toolbar which you can install and this allows you to remain in communication with other members even when not viewing the Matchmaker website.

Go and have a look if you are 35+

Find love again...seriously. Matchmaker.com