There are many free online dating or internet dating sites out there these days, and though I hate to say it, I think you get what you pay for.

Plenty of Fish ("POF") is the most successful of all the ad-supported dating sites. Not quite what I'd call an elegant design, but it is simple. The in-you-face adultfriendfinder.com advertisements really bother me, I don't have fun using the site, and I don't mean to sound so negative, but I just don't like the way the website looks. Its one-man business model is inspirational, but its defining characteristic is its appearance. Utilitarian, yes, but it is also not much fun to use.

OKCupid.com is a very interesting website, but I don't see the point of joining a dating website like OKC when many of the members clearly state that they are "Only here for the fun tests". And though there are literally thousands of tests to take and questions to answer in order to build up your profile and increase your compatibility with other users, the site was ruined for me when I found out how little that compatibility score really meant and realized how few of my "matches" were actually dating other OKC members. A more ideal dating site would focus less on tests and focus more on encouraging people to communicate with other members in order to get to know them prior to an actual date

To me, Mingle2.com is a better looking version of Plenty-O-Fish. It is also simpler, with just a plain-vanilla "search members" or "advanced search" function. You can "nudge" people just like on most other dating websites, and the creator seems to be a down to earth, genuine nice guy (like me!). His blog also says that he has been spending the past few months optimizing the site so that it is easy to find on search engines. Maybe that is why Mingle2 does not have very many high-tech features.

I designed my own website - ZoneDate.com - with these other websites in mind. It is easier on the eyes and has technology that blows away all of the other sites. It has built in instant messaging and internet-based voice chat, webcam-based video chat, 3-D chatrooms, fun match making, free multiplayer games, photo-rating, blogs/online journals, friend lists like on MySpace or Facebook, the ability to invite your real-world friends to join, and of course you can search for other people using our powerful search engine.

In my opinion, the only advantage that these websites have over ZoneDate.com is the number of members, but ZoneDate.com is new, and membership might not be a real issue at all, actually...Some dating websites allegedly pad their membership numbers with fake ads and keep old profiles on file, they also count trial members (who can't DO anything if you email them) and they inflate their membership numbers by including inactive members in their databases.

From The American Chronicle, September 6, 2006 ... To avoid online dating scams, your best bet is to stick with the major online dating sites that have been around for a few years and have a large member base. They won't admit it, but I have personally seen some of the smaller or more obscure dating sites 'pad' the website with fake profiles and even go so far as to send a message to their members from this 'fake' person in the hopes of generating more activity on the site. The larger, more well known dating sites have no reason to do this and generally have employees whose job it is to monitor new accounts and weed out the spammers and the scammers. The larger sites also have a public image to protect, which works in your favor.

So when you fail to get a response when you contact "Mister Tall Dark and Handsome" on another site, "Joe Handsome" just might be a member that has been inactive for 3 months, an old profile that was "accidentally" never deleted, or - more interestingly - the result of an Ebay auction similar to the $29.99 "buy it now" auction which I just found...

"I an selling over 67,000 profiles for your dating website. These profiles are from throughout the world. I am getting out of the Dating website business due to demand of other businesses, and have decided to sell the database of profiles.

I had several dating websites and have combined databases. In total there are over 67,000 profiles. You will receive several files for download. I am selling these at an affordable price that anyone can afford and not break thier bank account like other databases for sale. Also look at my other auctions."

ZoneDate.com doesn't play this game. You will find ZoneDate.com representatives online all of the time, day-in and day-out recruiting real, eligible people from blogs and social networks, who are interested in putting personal ads on Zonedate.com.