Free dating sites are hard to resist, I've joined most of the free dating sites I've come across except for the really ugly ones and the ones for specific groups of people that I don't belong to.
Not so long ago, Jason Sebik asked me if I could write a bit about his free online dating website called "Wheresmystar". At the time I thought I was finally becoming famous online! Webmasters asking me to review their site, wow! I said yes, after looking at his site and exchanging emails with him.
The idea behind Wheresmystar is simple, online dating should be free and Jason Sebik, the man behind Wheresmystar.com, is committed to keeping everything on the site absolutely free. Wheresmystar is his answer to big online dating companies who stop at nothing to get money out of online daters; in fact Jason wants to " put all Big-Money Pay-Dating sites out of business." I don't completely agree with Jason on paid dating sites and I'll tell you why in a moment but first let me tell you all you need to know about wheresmystar for now and why you need to join today ;)
Wheresmystar is not only a dating site where you can post a free profile and search for potential matches for free, it also offers a variety of services to its members, similar services that you might find on paid sites. In fact many of the services offered at Wheremystar are not typically available on free dating sites.
Here is a list of features and services available to members:
You have the ability to set your photos to be public or private. It gives you control and lets you hide your picture from the general public plus you are sure that your photo will not be used in an advertising campaign for the site. You have safety features like Sparks that guarantees you don't receive unsolicited messages.
You get personality profiling data Two way matching, which is a feature I see most free online dating site lacking, usually you get two way matching on paid dating sites. You can bookmark the members you are interested in to make it easier for you to contact them later on You can see not only who's viewed your profile but also who has bookmarked you so you know who is really interested in you. Jason is always working on making the site better and invites members to ask if there are any features they would like to see added to the site. Jason promises that there aren't fake filler profiles on his site, not many online dating site owners can make that promise.
There are a few things I certainly like about Wheresmystar, the fact that it focuses on functionality, which is not the case with most free dating site, Wheresmystar can really boast about the number of services that they offer their members. Also I have to say the proximity of the webmaster is a plus, Jason is available and open for contact, knowing that you can contact a real person with a name when there's a problem or for a simple suggesting is really a good feeling.
If you're still not convinced here is the WheresMyStar.com Promise:
"This place will always be totally free. Visitors will always be able to search freely and see everything that a normal member would see. We’ll never use any deceptive scams, tricks, or tactics to get people to sign up to this site. Compare us to "the others", and you’ll instantly see the vast differences. "
About Big-Money-Dating sites, indeed online dating is a big money business and many online dating sites use deceptive methods to get users to pay for premium memberships. Clearly, Wheresmystar is not one of those because it's free, but I've also seen free online dating sites who basically sell their members by making their profiles public and bombarding them with ads from Big-Money-Dating sites. Of course wheresmystar is not one of them. But the way I see it, most free dating sites are only making money because paid dating sites are paying to advertise on them, if you kill those Big-Money-Dating sites the free dating sites would die with them.
I've not only tried many free dating sites but I've also joined quite a few paid dating sites and some are part of those Big-Money-Dating sites Jason likes to refer to. I've also paid for a premium membership on a dating site and from my own experience I can say that it was worth the money I paid. I'm not even revealing the name of that site but you can find out since I've mentioned it before on this blog. I believe that creating and maintaining a dating site has a cost, advertising for that site also has a cost therefore those costs have to be covered by revenue. I also believe that if you are offering a service there's nothing wrong with getting paid for it especially if the service you are offering is of good quality.
The dating site I paid for is a good site in my opinion, I had been a member for some time and I had met people without paying but at some point I not only had enough money to pay for a full membership but I also had a really good motivation, if you see what I mean... Even though I did think the membership was a bit high, I gladly paid for it and after the membership expired, I still remained a member of the site. The key here is that this specific site allows members to view all the information on other members for free; in fact you can do almost everything for free on the site except send messages to other members. They match you up, they tell you who has viewed your profile and you can show interest but no contact unless at least one of the two people pays. Many find this frustrating and I can understand them but I've come to discover that, when you can afford it, the price does not really matter.
Most other paid dating sites I've tried hide so much information from you, they go as far as not letting you see other members' full profiles, they don't tell you who's viewed your profile and even when they allow other members to send you messages they don't let you see who sent you a message much less read messages unless you pay. You're paying while you don't even know what's there but you know what, those sites are highly successful at getting paid members...
Many people don’t mind not getting a lot of information before paying on a dating site maybe because they thinks it’s normal to pay for what those sites promise them. In many cases those people rely on the site’s reputation, the promises made by the site and in some cases the testimonials of members of the site.
The point I'm trying to make is that you cannot put all paid dating sites in one basket, many are not completely honest with their members and they are more concerned in billing them than giving them a good service while others are open but ask to be paid for the service offered. If I can afford it I don't mind paying when I can see what I'm getting for my money. Two things are important to me, what services are offered by the site and how much information I can get on the other members with a free membership. If the site takes the time to match me up, send me emails with my matches, offer advance search features, allow me to see full profiles and tell me the last time someone was online, I don't see why I wouldn't pay to contact people I would be interested in.
