How to Get a Date?
Very few people want to be alone, so why are you?
Perhaps you are perfectly happy being single but if you are reading this post then it might be a hint to yourself that you are ready to date again.
If you have reached the ‘I’ll never meet anyone’ stage or you seem un-dateable, you have to figure out why before you should start looking for a date.
There are various elements that involve how to successfully get a date. Let’s explore a few of these options in more detail below.
Would You Want to Go Out With Yourself?
Take a good deep look at yourself. Not just physically, but emotionally and mentally as well. Are you ready to date again? You may have gone through a divorce or a really harsh break up, so you may not be ready to move on emotionally and invest that many feelings into one person again. Are you afraid of relationships or love? Physically, you may have given up on your appearances because you feel like you are un-dateable. If you are looking to get over your ex, doing physical activity will not just make you feel better about yourself but it will also help you to meet new people. By meeting new friends you will start letting go of your emotional problems and stress, this will start gearing your attention towards dating and finding someone new in your life.
Do You Want Someone to Approach You?
After you decide you are ready to date again and begin feeling confident people will begin to notice, because self confidence is always an attractive quality. When people begin to notice you and pay you attention how are you responding? Does your body language say “Hey, come on over” or is it saying “Not interested in the slightest”? When someone shows a slight interest in you, your body language must be able to respond. Without a flash of a smile or a playful nod of the head, people will be afraid to approach you. The best way to overcome this is by testing out the waters. Start smiling, laughing and inviting people into your life, even if it’s just as new friends. This will help you to practice in order to snag yourself a date.
Remember Who You Are Talking to
Men and women communicate differently. If you are talking to a man, do not pretend he is your best girl friend. You may talk his ear off so much that he forgets to even ask you out. If you are talking to a woman, you have to remember that she likes it if you take an interest in her. If you seem uninterested in what she has to say, there is little reason for her to take this conversation to the next level. Communication is key, so remember who you are talking to and how you should speak to them in order to get a first or second date.
Do You Want to Date?
Your will to date will answer whether or not you want to date. You may say you want to but in reality you are not even putting yourself out there to date. You must make yourself available in order for people to realize that you are on the market. Start going out with friends, take up a new course or start a new physical activity to start getting yourself out there. Online dating will help you tremendously to get a date when you do not have the time to start joining new activities but don’t get stuck in the rut of hiding behind your keyborad, online dating is only a spring board to a real date and is not in itself a relationship.
When you are flirting with someone that you would like to go out with, remember to be yourself and be honest. Within a few minutes you will realize that your Friday night movie at your house just became a dinner date for two!
Allison Schleck is a featured writer for the Senior Dating site. Allison is a well-accomplished bilingual writer for magazines, websites and newspapers who teaches Karate Do on her down time.
National Rekindle Romance Week – How to Romance Your Partner Without Breaking The Bank
Calling all country couples and singles, did you know it is National Rekindle Romance Week from 9th to 15th August? This is the week to show your special someone what they mean to you and reignite your relationship whether you are plucking up the courage to ask someone out or have been with your partner for a while.
Many people only romance their partners at certain times of the year for example valentines day or Christmas, so national rekindle romance week came about to help the UK keep romance going throughout the year. This is your chance to show your partner what they mean to you, whether you take them for a weekend away, take them for a meal or even something as simple as running them a bath but make sure you romance your partner.
Living in the countryside provides you with beautiful locations to rekindle the romance in your relationship, why not take your special someone for a scenic walk and have a picnic in a picturesque location. You should also think about making a personal effort to romance your partner, why not run them a relaxing bubble bath and cook them a romantic meal. These options do not cost much at all but can quite often be the best when romancing your partner as they show thought and effort which is always appreciated by a partner and can have a better effect than grand expensive gestures.
You both obviously enjoy the countryside so why not make the most of it while romancing that special someone. You could go for a romantic horse ride or take an afternoon rowing boat trip, thus combining your mutual love of the countryside and doing something special together which will make your day even more special.
If you are feeling you would like to do more to romance your partner why not take them away for a weekend to a country hotel. As you know there are hundreds of beautiful hotels set in charming locations all over the UK. Romancing your partner with weekends away can be expensive but you can find there are great discounts available online for countryside hotels. These could save you up to 50% on your booking, giving you more money to spend on romancing your loved one once you are there.
You could also romance your partner by taking them for a romantic meal. Why not ask when you book your table for something special. This could range from the best table in the house to your partners favourite wine or flowers and a candle to be on the table when you get there. Simple things like this can make the difference between your meal out being an everyday occurrence and a real romantic evening. Most restaurants are happy to oblige with your requests and some will even go as far to suggest other romantic ideas.
Although it may not seem romantic you can also save money when taking you partner out for a romantic meal, many online voucher sites now offer restaurant discount vouchers. These can get you up to 50% off in many country pubs and restaurants. You could use a voucher to make the most of your money on your romantic evening, it could enable you to have that extra bottle of wine or get a taxi instead of one of you having to drive. The majority of restaurants are discreet, if you do not want your date to know you are using a voucher it is possible to slip the voucher to your server discreetly or pay away from the table. However if you have gone to the effort of having a surprise on the table when you arrive at the restaurant as mentioned earlier and have had a special romantic evening with great food and conversation, I very much doubt your partner would even care you used a discount voucher. They will appreciate being made to feel special for an evening!
However you decide to show that special someone how you feel about them it is important to remember romance is very important when you are in a relationship and it should not be a one off effort. Enjoy rekindle romance week but don’t make this the last time you romance your partner before Christmas! The more you romance your partner the stronger your relationship and love for each other will become, so go on rekindle your romance!
A romantic moneysaving guide by Jessica Bourne at Moneysupermarket.com
The Imperfect Partner: Why “Settling” Isn’t Always a Bad Idea
We’ve all heard the phrase, “Nobody’s perfect”, but do we really take it to heart?
When it comes to love, it seems that the answer is generally “no”. More than ever before, today’s singles (and marrieds, but that’s a different post…) have options.
Many of us truly believe that we will find the perfect partner, a soulmate who will fulfill our every need through every stage of our lives.
Staying with someone who doesn’t completely fit the bill is labeled as “settling”.
An impossible standard.
When you see it written on a page or hear it said out lout, it’s easy to see how ridiculous this trend is.
Clearly, nobody exists or should exist to meet all of your emotional needs. People change their worldview as they age. Sometimes your life partner will be out of step with you during these changes. Is it a bad thing to “settle” for someone who doesn’t completely share your viewpoints?
The answer:
The reasonable answer is to realize that sometimes a partner can only be asked to support your goals, dreams, and the changes in worldview you undergo. As long as your goals don’t break your marriage vows or personal promises to each other, and you aren’t dragging the relationship through one financial crisis after another, support isn’t an unreasonable request.
Are you in a place where you’re willing/able to support someone else?
When you enter into a committed relationship of any sort with another person, you should also ask yourself whether you can reasonably support that person as they change and mature. This isn’t a one-way street. Sometimes your partner will need more support from you than you’re getting from them. That’s an expected part of any long term relationship, and you shouldn’t consider committing to one if you’re not willing to make that type of sacrifice.
In the long run, settling isn’t always such a bad idea. If you don’t settle on some issues you’re likely to jump from relationship to relationship, never finding anyone who is worthy of your commitment. Assuming that a long-term relationship is something you want, settling for someone who truly cares about you and who tries to support you can be the key to happiness.
Bio: Alexis Bonari is a freelance writer and blog junkie. She is currently a resident blogger at onlinedegrees.org and performs research surrounding online schools. In her spare time, she enjoys square-foot gardening, swimming, and avoiding her laptop.
Online Dating Scam Victims – We Need You
We need to hear from scam victims, have you been scammed after joining an online dating site?
Have you received requests for money from someone you met on a dating site but realised it’s a scam before sending money?
Some of the victims stories we are currently receiving are heartbreaking but there is little practical help we can offer to victims after the scam has taken place.
We are currently considering starting a new blog dedicated entirely to educating potential online daters of the dangers and warning signs of scams but before we spend time and money on this project we need to hear from you.
Please leave a comment (or use the “ask a dating question” link at the top of this page) answering these simple questions to help us decide whether such a blog would help people avoid being scammed:
1. Did you do any research online about the dating site you joined before you joined?
2. If you did do research what did you type into your search engine (eg name of dating site+reviews or does “name of dating site” work?).
3. After you joined the dating site did they send any information to you about how scams operate and how to avoid them?
4. Did you read any of the newsletters or admin emails sent by the site, about any topic, or did you just delete/ignore them?
5. Can you think of any delivery method which would have given you information about online dating scams before you joined a dating site or were you just too excited to get started once you made the decision to join a dating site?
We would really appreciate your answers to these questions so we can try to find a way to help people before they are scammed and not just after they have become a victim.
Thanks for any replies we receive. We are currently having a problem with the comments sections which we are trying to fix, so if you try to leave a comment and get a blank page please use the Ask a Dating Question link right at the top of the blog to send your answers by email, because we really need to hear from dating scam victims.
Online Dating Scams – Are Legal Documents Real?
Online Dating Scams generally involve the sending of copies of legal or official documents in order to build up the victims trust.
Official looking documents can appear impressive but how many people check if the information these legal documents contain is real?
This post follows on from my last post about online dating scams – First Bank of online dating scam First Private Bank.
Nobody likes to think they are being scammed but we should never take any legal looking document on face value .. no amount of impressive letterhead or stamps makes a document real. Beware of any documents stating they are copy passports, letters from Embassies, banks or legal business contracts.
A new poster on this blog has forwarded a pdf file of a legal contract her scammer sent her for to me to investigate .. be aware I have no legal experience and am not a private investigator but it took me all of 30 seconds to recognise it as a photoshoped fraud.
Let’s have a look at a few obvious errors (I will not publish all the errors or this just gives a head start to the next scammer looking for online dating victims).
An easy and obvious one to check is the bank details noted in the “contract”. They have provided a bank name, location and swift number.
Each bank around the world is issued a swift number, as an identification number. All you have to do is an online search for a swift number list.
These are the bank details provided in this contract:
As you can see the contract states thier bank is ICICI Bank in Manchester UK but the swift number, without even looking it up, is issued to a French bank (circled in red is FR, this is France) … could this be ICICI? Well no, it turns out this swift code belongs to “France …… BNP Paribas S.A. ……. Paris …… BNPA FR PP” .. so the swift code belongs to a bank called BNP Paribas which is registered in Paris, France.
As a quick reference guide you can use the knowledgerush List of SWIFT codes which lists the most popular banks by country but this is not a complete list. If the code you are looking for is not there just google bank swift code list and do some searching.
Now let us look at the wording in the contract – remember this contract is worth over 1 million Euro to the supposed parties concerned:
As I say I have no legal background but let’s imagine the buyer of the “works of art” claims that not all the pieces were delivered so is witholding the final payment. They then go to court with a legal contract as vague as “certain amounts of works of Art” and expect a judge to rule in their favour … let’s all guess how well they would get on in court!
Finally let’s look at the signatures beside the impressive looking seal on the document:
Fist look at the 2 red circles, the fonts are completely different. This would lead me to believe that the top name is real and is from a real legal document but photoshop (or similar program) has been used to add in the scammers name under the bottom signature.
Now look at the green boxes … the signature appears to belong to someone called P Thomas (or similar) but the name underneath is Collins Clemente. Signatures can be very difficult to read but if you’re in this situation take a look, does it look anything like the name?
Just to show you how easy this is to do .. it took me about 3 minutes in Photoshop to do this (so imagine what I could do in 30 minutes?!):
Online dating scams come in many forms and scanned documents are so often used to gain your trust, so if you receive any such documents (passports, flight ticket, contracts, etc) do not take them at face value … ask yourself are the legal documents real or fakes?
Remember my golden rule – if anyone online asks you for money they are either a scammer or simply not worth knowing.
Online Dating Scam – First Private Bank – Beware 419 Scams
An excellent example of an online dating scam has been brought to my attention .. please beware of online dating scams. This scam involves a website called First Private Bank of Holland (this is not a real, it’s a scam) and a poor chap who’s been mugged on a business trip in Africa.
Someone left a comment on this blog’s article what is an online dating scam giving details of this scam, which I investigated before approving the comment.
The comment reads “He got my information from match.com we started sharing messages , all of them beautiful love letters for almost 2 weeks until he said he travel to africa for a very important bussines , once there he was supposed to travel to my country with his daughter to meet me, it was supposed to happen this week, however just last night contactd me telling me he lost his wallet and had to cancel all credit cards, then at 1 a.m.he called me telling me he needed to pay $4.500 as tax and he did not have any cash. he was asking me to check his bank acccount and wire transfer this amount to my account and then send him the money through western union which i realized was a scam . I did not want to do it , i contacted my bank and explained and then re-checked his bank account and noticed it was a simple website he built probably for people to wire transfer money.”
It was a brilliant call by Sony, who posted the information, and I’m so pleased she didn’t fall for this scam.
Let’s have a look at the scammers bank, First Private Bank of Holland. When I first opened the link to the internet banking login page provided in the comment I didn’t know whether to laugh … it uses the identical layout of my own bank in the UK (Lloydstsb) so was easy for me to recognise.
This is the login page from First Private Bank of Holland
Now look at the logon page from Lloydstsb Bank … look familiar?
Please note that the scammers haven’t even bothered changing the background image of the Tip button.
So what does this scammers website do? Well obviously it makes them money by scamming trusting people. If you click the link on the right of their login page which says “Not registered for Internet Banking?” you will see the following page:
As you can see the page design changes totally and the image capture above only shows a small portion of the page.
You can also see at the top of the page in red test the words “Insufficient filesystem permissions to upload the file specified in FileUpload1 into temporary folder” which is not something you would expect to see on a banks website.
However, were you to fall for this 419 scam and put your details into that web page you would be giving scammers the following information:
Name
Address
Date of Birth
Passport number and expiry date or driving licence number and expiry date
Phone numbers
Occupation and employers details (including your office address and phone number)
Your photo
and then you would have to send them a minimum of 3,000 Euro’s to open your scam bank account, which is a good little earner if you’re a scammer. With all these private details they could do untold damage to you, your finances and use your details to scam other people.
So what was this person hoping to get out of this scam because of course the money would not transfer from their account. Bank transfers generally take a minimum of 3 working days … you would transfer the money from the scam account and then the scammer would need the money today .. you would send the $4,500 of your own money with the confidence of knowing their money was already winging it’s way into your account. Of course by the time they had received and spent your money you would find out that the transfer from their scam account wasn’t coming through and there would be nothing you could do about it.
NEVER NEVER NEVER give out your personal details to anyone you met online and if they talk to you about money cease all communication with that person. Do not trust a website just because someone you met online gave you the details and do not think just because someone gives you secret information, like their passwords, that this makes them trustworthy.
I have reported this scam website to the relevant authorities and hope the website will be removed quickly .. but of course they can just open a new one in about an hour.
People fall for such 419 scams every day and many of the victims are from the online dating world, don’t become a victim and do some research and you can bet the First Private Bank of Holland is not the only scam bank on the internet.
A Dating Scammer Profile
What does a dating scammer profile look like and how can you identify the profile of a dating scammer?
The photo on the left is one of almost a dozen of the same man and I simply downloaded it from stock.xchng.
This man is not a scammer but how easy would it be for me to create a dating profile and place this picture on the profile?
What if we then started chatting online and I sent you the other photo’s of him … would you be convinced the photos are of me? The correct answer is … probably, yes.
A comment was left on my blog post what is an online dating scam leaving a scammers name. Before allowing the comment I checked on the name given and it took all of 2 seconds to recognise the profile as a scammer.
How did I know this? How did I find her profile? All the commenter left was the name of the scammer and which dating website he met her on.
I simply used copy and paste to put her name into google search and it returned just 2 results, one for ChristianSinglesNet and one for Connecting Singles.
This doesn’t sound bad, only two web pages mention that name and both are dating site profiles, nothing wrong with that.
Before we get into her profile I want to say the commenter who was scammed by this person is not a stupid person, like so many he is simply open hearted and trusting, looking for someone special and reading profiles with rose tinted glasses and a lack of knowledge.
He should have read Behaviour patterns of online dating scammers but like most victims you don’t google dating scammers until it’s too late.
So back to the job at hand, I then clicked on the first profile link for this “woman” (who knows could be a man?) and this is what I found:
Laila Member Name: Laila2g9 (1)
African American / Black, 31,
Single – Never Married (2)
San Antonio, Texas, United States
Personal Details
Gender: Female
Age: 31 (9-Apr-1978)
Race: African American / Black
Marital Status: Single – Never Married
Children: 0
Religion: Christian
Drinking: Non-alcoholic beverages only
Smoking: Never
Food: American
Occupation: Banking / Finance (4)
Education: High school
Languages:
Interests: Arts / Crafts
Cooking
Dancing
Music – Christian / Gospel
Music – Pop / R&B
Religion
Eye Color: Brown
Hair Color: Brown
Body Type: Athletic / Fit
Height: 5’06″ – (167 cm)
0 photos in album view
General Information
My name is Laila Amidu,I am 31years Old,I am Single (five
years ago) (2), Fair, dark black hair, brown eyes, 5′ 6″, 121
lbs..,L(3)ong Hair and a healthy Lady. I am self-sufficient,
Beautiful, happy, secure, self-confident, psychologically
aware, emotionally and financially secure. and working as a
Waiter In a Local Restaurant (4) ,i email me i will tell u more (5)
my long name is my id and here is my email address
./Laila2g9 /at /yahoo /dot /com/ am Living with my
grandMom.i will tell u more about me (5)
Appearance
My name is Laila Amidu,I am 31years Old,I am Single (five
years ago), Fair, dark black hair, brown eyes, 5′ 6″, 121
lbs..,Long Hair and a healthy Lady. I am self-sufficient,
Beautiful, happy, secure, self-confident, psychologically
aware, emotionally and financially secure. and working as a
Waiter In a Local Restaurant,i email me i will tell u more
my long name is my id and here is my email address
./Laila2g9 /at /yahoo /dot /com/ am Living with my
grandMom.i will tell u more about me
Looking for
i will tell u when we meet onlinei will tell u when (6) we meet
onlinei will tell u when we meet onlinei will tell u when we
meet onlinei will tell u when we meet onlinei will tell u
when we meet onlinei will tell u when we meet onlinei will
tell u when we meet onlinei will tell u when we meet onlinei
will tell u when we meet online
The parts in bold are where we need to look. Look at the numbers I have inserted and let’s go through it one by one.
1. Laila2g9 – google the username. Not just this one, any profile you look at, scammers tend to use the same username on all the sites they join and Laila2g9 is no exception.
Clicking the first link (Matchmaker dating site) we see that Laila still claims to be black African but her photo is a dark haired white skinned lady (bit of a give away), it also looks like a models photo so I would run it through a reverse image search engine. She has also moved from San Antonio to Adrian. On other sites she moves to Massachusetts and even to Ireland, all in the same year because her age never changes.
Also pick out a sentence and google it in quote marks .. I chose a sentence which I knew wasn’t written by the person copying and pasting the profile information … like this “happy, secure, self-confident, psychologically aware, emotionally and financially secure” (the quote marks make google look for the exact same phrase). What I found was a profile for ralleylove on romancescam … please people do a little searching before being scammed.
Sound familiar?
My name is Regina,i am 32 years Old,I am Single (five years ago), Black, dark black hair, brown eyes, 5′ 9″, 141 lbs.,Long Hair and a healthy Lady. I am self-sufficient, Beautiful, happy, secure, self-confident, psychologically aware, emotionally and financially secure. and working as a Waiter In a Local Resturant,am Living with my Mom and Dad in a Logging house
I stopped clicking links at 34 profiles with this same paragraph, they simply changed the name and age (some profiles are for men removing references to lady) … there are actually 16 pages of search results with this same paragraph on various profiles and every one is a scammer.
2. States single never married but then says she has been single for 5 years! People who are seriously looking for a relationship take time to write their profile (good way to find the players too) so this sort of mistake should be taken seriously.
3. Quick quiz … why do scammers so often have capital letters in the middle of sentences? Answer ….. translation software.
It Looks like this, With capital Letters in very Strange Places.
This is something I found out through online discussions with my husband. His first language is Arabic so of course he has to look up some words in a translation tool. Each single word he translates starts with a capital letter.
Try it, go to google translate, translate some basic single words from English to Arabic and back to English. This is what you will see:
Hair
Eyes
Lady
See how they all begin with capital letters … watch out for it on profiles, capitals in the middle of sentences = translation = English not their first language.
4. She works in the banking/finance sector but also as a waiter (not waitress) in a local restaurant .. the global recession must have hit bankers harder than we thought or she can’t remember where she works.
So this lady doesn’t know whether she is single or divorced and is confused about where she works … come on people they are huge red flags.
5. Writing sentences that make no sense within the paragraph. This is simply due to copy and paste. Remember scammers are working in a foreign language so when they are sent a script to copy and paste they have no idea where to start or stop, so they just copy and paste what they see … would you know where the end of a sentence written in Chinese is?
6. Repeating the same thing over and over again Repeating the same thing over and over again Repeating the same thing over and over again Repeating the same thing over and over again Repeating the same thing over and over again – about 90% of the scammers profiles I reject on my dating website have at least one paragraph like this.
If you are chatting to anyone you met online please read 5 tips to spot a nigerian dating scammer, it’s better to give a little offence to a genuine person than get caught by a dating scammer.
Older Women Dating Younger Men | Cougar Dating
What do you think of older women dating younger men? Do you think of cougars, cradle snatchers or women refusing to accept getting older?
I remember more than two decades ago when Friday night at the Casino was known as Grab-a-Granny night, so older women dating younger men is hardly a new concept but is it now becoming more socially acceptable?
As I am slightly more than a decade older than my husband (no secret it’s on my About Me page) it is a subject close to my heart.
I tend to shy away from any internet information discussing the subject, as it tends to be highly stereotypical and rarely written by an older woman dating a younger man.
However, a new survey by a Cougar dating site, Cougared.com, may just blow the lid off the stereotypical older women dating younger men viewpoint and I was delighted when they emailed me a copy of the report.
The report asks some very searching questions like:
How old is the average cougar and what is the typical age gap?
What is the reaction of the guy’s family and friends to her age?
Why is dating men their own age yesterday’s news for cougars?
What kind of relationship are real life cougars really looking for?
You can read the full report here on the Cougared.com website, it makes interesting reading.
What I love about this report is it is written with authority, the information being provided by self confessed Cougars and not a stab in the dark by self proclaimed dating gurus.
The report also reassures me that I am not a typical Cougar … phew, I do hate to be labelled.
Now compare the reports answers to the suggested motivation for cougars provided on this Ezine article written by a dating pro (who writes on many dating subjects), who says:
“While many older men often marry their young girlfriends, cougars are generally not looking for a long term relationship, although sometimes it does happen despite their original intentions. Mostly, they are looking for some fun, both in and out of the bedroom.”
As hideous as that comment sounds it is far less insulting than this eHow article which suggest younger men have to be prepared to be prey and talks about helping them with essays, as if older women are seeking helpless school children … let’s hope that author and I never meet up!!
There is now a report stating “More than 90% of cougars are looking for a serious relationship – a myth-busting finding which shows that cougar women aren’t all just looking for casual fun” which I can point people to when they raise their eyebrows having heard about the age difference between my hubby and I.
I can only speak for myself but lack of commitment is certainly NOT the reasoning behind marrying a younger man and neither is his prowess in the bedroom … we simply fell in love, as any normal couple does.
I am not wealthy, I hadn’t dated a younger man before, we didn’t meet in a bar, I can’t provide my husband with a sumptuous lifestyle and I am far from mutton dressed as lamb … unless lambs have started wearing wellies and comfy knickers!!
Just might have some fun later and answer the survey questions on a blog post.
It all just goes to show that relationships come in many forms, people should not be labelled and it’s way past time that society got past their silly ideas of older women dating younger men.
Online Dating Site Reviews – Can You Trust Them?
Have you searched online for dating site reviews? These are websites who purport to independently review and compare online dating websites but can you trust them?
First we have to understand why dating review sites exist.
They are there to make the review site owner money … and there is nothing wrong with that providing the reviews are fair and impartial.
When someone follows the links from the dating site review and becomes a paying member of a dating site, the review site owner is paid either a one off fee or a percentage of the membership fee.
I repeat, there is nothing wrong with this, the dating site review owner has to put in the time and money to get internet browsers to their review site and the service they offer (if genuine) can stop you joining the wrong dating site.
Where I do have a problem is with review sites who do not even invest 30 minutes of their time to write a review, they simply copy and paste whatever the dating site owners send over. This is not a review, it’s purely an advert.
So let’s have a look at some review sites and decide wether they are review sites or advert sites. To be fair I am simply searching google uk for Online Dating Review Sites and choosing the top four sites in the search results.
I hope this shows you what you need to be looking at when visiting a dating review site and helps you to find real review sites rather than a page full of adverts.
No3 on googles list gets my vote, not because it is the best review site but because it appears to be the most honest. If the owners would add some more information into the reviews then they would be miles ahead of the competition.
No 1 Best4sure
As I am based in the UK I went straight to their UK Dating Sites page. At random I chose the review for the iLove dating site.
I copied a phrase from the section headed ‘Our iLove Review’ and googled it (including quote marks around the phrase to ensure an exact match).
The phrase popped up on a couple of blogs dated from 2005. Now if this is THEIR iLove review then why does the same exact phrase come up on other site review pages?!!
Scrolling to the top of the page I see .. *****latest ilove Uk seems to be no more ! .. so why is it still on the review site if ther dating site is no more (answer – search engine optimisation).
Knowing that even the small ‘Our review’ section is actually written by the dating site I have lost all trust in the review site … next.
No2 Online Dating Reviews
This looks a bit more promising. At random I have clicked the review for Dating for Parents and there are two guest reviews, the second is titled “Paid Members Getting False Reports”. This is what reviews should sound like, a mix of positive and negative.
I click the link to read their review and then click again (at the bottom of the short review) to read the full review (am getting dizzy now). The full review includes difficulties the review staff had registering with the dating website but gave an overall good score – sounds fair and honest.
I was really starting to like this site until I clicked all the review links down the page … there are a lot that simply don’t have a review, making them simple adverts rather than reviews.
I get the impression that the site began with great intentions but over time has lost steam (let’s hope they have made a fortune and are on a beach in Barbados, far too relaxed to write reviews). It’s a shame and I hope next time I visit they have found a new lease of life and completed all the reviews.
Still it’s a good review site to begin your search and I couldn’t find any standard phrases across the net.
No3 The UK Online Dating Review
I will declare an interest in this site … albeit a very small one, as they use this blogs RSS feed for their Dating Advice page but as I believe in honest reviews that is what I shall give and hope my RSS feed doesn’t disappear off their site.
It is centred around the UK. Not simply sites for UK only but also worldwide sites with a high UK membership.
The first review on the page is for eHarmony in UK and the site states “No rating yet, as we don’t have enough feedback”. That suggests honesty to me.
All the information is on one page so you don’t have to chase round the site following links. They also include a mixure of dating site types, from traditional dating sites to speed dating.
However, the reviews are simply too short, I would prefer to read more about the reviewers impressions of the site but you can see the honesty in the short reviews provided.
If you are looking for a UK dating site I would certainly check out The UK Online Dating Review and look out for little comments like “watch for fake profiles”, it certainly gives you a hint of how well the dating site is policed (or not).
No4 Dating Jungle
I’m totally confused by this review site.
I clicked the section for extramarital dating and there are two sites listed (illicitencounters with an overall impression of 6 and Lovinglinks with overall impression of 1 (these scores are out of 10).
Now call me old fashioned but a score of 1 out of 10 has to be a pretty poor review surely?! Yet the overall impression wording states “The design of the site is attractive and makes lovinglinks stand out from other dating services.”
Likewise in the dating site reviews, Dating Direct gets a dreadful 1 out of 10 and yet the overall impression simply says “Impressive are the detailed profiles which optimise your matchmaking success as well as the responsiveness and ease of use of the Site.”
Anyone else confused? I can only assume that the good scores are given to paying sites and the badly scored sites are simply added to encourage you to join the paying sites?! One to be avoided I think.
What Makes The Best Wife in the World?
I was really touched by a comment left by Matt on my article why can’t I find a husband, giving a link to his blog titled “Best Wife in the World”. To date his new blog consists of just one post but what a post, explaining why he has the best wife in the world.
I have never searched the internet for the term “Best Wife in the World” before and was surprised how many web pages contain this phrase.
I feel sure we all remember Tom Cruise and his antics on the Oprah show, declaring his love. This had such an impact in America that urban dictionaries now include the phrase Jump the Couch.
As a Brit we tend to be more reserved about our personal feelings and squirm at such open declarations of love but Americans seem to have none of our reserve when it comes to declaring their love, faith or opinions.
I would die of embarrassment if my husband started a blog declaring me the best wife in the world … and yet, like any human with an ego, I would secretly be immensely flattered.
If you don’t go and read the short blog post I want to share a couple of lines with you.
Matt says “She has endured unbelievable hardship, much caused by me, some caused by “life” in general.”
This statement had such an impact on me. Reading between the lines it shows Matt’s acceptance that he has not been the best husband in the world and yet his wife has endured and continued to try her best to be a good wife.
Matt also tells us “She is the total package of friend, playmate, confidant and lover to me.”
This line in itself should tell us women what is really important to a man in a wife. He does not talk about her weight, her looks or what she wears. A marriage is so much deeper than external appearance and yet some women still believe looks are what it all boils down to.
To be a good wife you need to be devoted, faithful, playful, trusting, energetic, secure, supportive, forgiving and on occasion long suffering.
A tip for MEN … this is not a one way street, we can only continue to be all of these things if you respond in kind and make the effort to play your part in the marriage.
If you read this and think “erm, maybe I haven’t been the best wife or husband” then it’s rarely too late to change your ways, so take a leaf from Matt’s book and start now.
Well done to Matt for recognising his wife’s efforts and I hope you will continue to cherish Jean, now you have recognised just how fantastic she is.
Now I don’t want to burst your bubble Matt but the Big G (Google) will often highly rank a new blog but over a few weeks it will fall into it’s natural place in the search engines … however, if this happens it doesn’t mean you don’t have the Best Wife in the World!!
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