Paid sites versus free, what is really the difference?

This is one of the biggest questions asked by dating site users. Why pay for it when you can get it free? A lot of people are under the impression that they are more likely to meet someone on a paid dating site. This is not true at all. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. Because people have paid to use a service, they have a certain expectation and a narrow acceptance range so you’re less likely to get a response from people on paid dating sites. There is also the misconception that the quality of members on a paid dating site is better than a free site. Well firstly how do you define “quality of members” and secondly how can you possible even measure that?

Based on my dating experiences, and believe me when I say I have used quite a few online dating sites in my time, I have found no difference between the two other than one method manages to get money from you and make a lot of profit.

Looking in detail at what you really get when you join a paid dating site, false illusions aside, at least most paid sites are advert free. That helps make your online dating experience a little more constructive. Because you’re not tempted to click on banner adverts, you spend more time actually searching for members and responding to messages. You also get the opportunity to be bombarded with promotional emails when you decide you no longer want your subscription. When I cancelled my paid accounts, I was forever having to unsubscribe from all sorts of promotional emails I received. I’m sure a lot of sites out there are not paying any attention to the privacy policies they seem to advertise.

Another thing about a paid dating site is it makes you feel like you’re achieving something. It’s a psychological phenomena that when you pay for something, you’re actually getting something and in this case, you’re getting a potential date or the love of your life. Hmm. The only reason I say that is because that’s what I thought until after a couple of years subscriptions, I realised I’d actually lost a lot of money.

Like a lot of things on the internet today, if you search around, you’re sure to come across a good free service. And when you do, remember that they only exist because people like you use them. I think it’s important to use these free services because without them, the internet would just be once big commercial service extorting money from powerless consumers.