http://www.coolinfographics.com/blog/2011/5/2/the-real-cost-of-dating.html

Yes this is for Americans, but it shows how inexpensive an online
dating membership is compared to a single date! And considering you
can meet and get to know tens (or even hundreds) of eligible singles
for less than the cost of a date, it’s a no-brainer.

Now, some people regard e-mails as something informal, so they don’t
really watch out for their grammar or construction. But this isn’t so.
Actually, I find it a turn-off when a person has bad grammar in their
e-mails to me, it’s a minus point, and I think that a lot of people
think the same way I do.

Okay, so as an unwritten rule, it is considered best for both parties
that your communication be kept within e-mails for the first few days.
In that way, you can get to know each other in a more impersonal way
and you can organize your thoughts better.

In finding your dream match, the key is communication. The more you
communicate, the more likely your chance to find exciting dates. And
as with most of the things in this world, e-mails are also governed by
a set of rules and manners, which are known as netiquettes or e-mail
etiquette’s. Here are some of them:

1. Guard your privacy. Your privacy and that of your loved ones should
always come first, so you must keep privacy foremost in your mind.
Never give your personal e-mail address, home landline number, or your
home address. Consider it paranoid, but it is always better to be safe
than be sorry.

2. Be yourself. Do not be a fake or a poser. Your main goal is to
start dating that can be your soul mate for a lifetime, so do not try
to be someone you are not. You should market yourself, and not someone
that you are making out to be. Because the singles would want to know
you, the real you.

3. Ask and answer questions. Taking time to answer their questions
means that you are showing them that you are making an effort, and by
asking some questions back, then you are also showing that you are
willing to get to know them better. This also opens up channels of
communication and invites more exchange or e-mails.

4. Be responsive. Be prompt. If you like the person e-mailing you,
then go ahead and reply. If not, then ignore the message. If you are
the one waiting for a reply, if the person you sent an e-mail to has
not replied for several days, then chances are, they aren’t ready to
communicate yet. But don’t worry! There are other singles out there
who are just waiting to hear from you!

So open up those channels of communication and get ready to have the
time of your life!

We’ve added some new features to the profile pages and has been seeing a fantastic response. Everyone loves them!

Here’s a short list of the new features:

Member Introduction:
A short overview of the member is now presented at the top of the page, detailing their name, age, location, what they’re looking for, their distance from you and whether they’re online or not.

Photo Gallery:
Conveniently browse member photos from within a profile with the all new Member Photo Gallery. Move forward and back through a members photos and zoom when you want to see more detail.

Status Commenting:
When a member updates their status with something interesting you can now send a comment.

Instant Requests:
Send instant requests for more details such as photos or profile text.

Come online:
The member you are viewing isn’t online? Send a request to come online and chat.

Similar Members:
View similar members to the profile you are viewing from right within a profile page, providing a quick and easy way to browse through members.

Random Member:
Can’t find the right person? then try the new random member button.

More information:
We’ve added even more info about the member into the profile page, you can now view photos, diary entries and videos all from the one page.

Clearer Layout:
Even with all the information we have added we still have a cleaner, clearer layout.

Popular Actions:
We’ve moved popular actions such as ‘Send a Message’, ‘Send a Wink’ and ‘Add to Favourites’ into more prominent, clearer locations.

Inline Messaging:
Having an in depth conversation with someone you like? You can now send and reply to messages right from their profile page.

Message Preview:
See a preview of the last message you have received from a member right from their profile page.

Why don’t you login and have a look yourself?

If you really like a guy, you may not be paying attention to his body language, the inflection of his voice as he speaks, or the tone of voice in which he is speaking, and so might miss some of the non verbal cues that would otherwise clue you in to what he is thinking, and how he views you. Does he view you as a potential partner, or a potential bed partner?

We all know the dating rules, or at least enough of them to know what to do and what not to do on a date. However, if you are dating for real, some of those rules don t apply. The rules for dating were largely established a few decades ago to make it easier for people to date, and figure out how to behave towards each other when they had no idea how dating between a man and a woman is supposed to work.

When you date for real, as in you are looking for a lasting connection with a man, rather than a fleeting infatuation, you are more likely to put yourself out there, be more honest and more direct than you would be normally. The interesting side effect of such blatant courage is that the man you are showing your real self to is blown away by your honesty and will probably respond in kind. A real relationship is not based on mind games or attempts at power plays or control.

If you begin your association with communication, honesty, and forthrightness, the chances are good that that will be the basis for the dynamic of your relationship. If you or he goes the other way, and depends upon a list of antiquated guidelines to look to for correct behavior, the relationship will never really get off the ground because neither of you will ever really get to know the other person.

It’s not about being polite, its about being you, the real you.

What happens a lot of times is that a woman will meet a man that she likes or who fits all of her idealistic relationship criteria: he is successful, he is good looking, intelligent, has a nice body, etc…..then she will try to figure out what he wants in a woman, and she will mold her personality to fit into what she THINKS he wants. Then what happens?

He is still not having a relationship with her. He is having a relationship with the woman he thinks she is. But she will soon grow tired of this game, and he will eventually notice that she is unhappy but will be unable to figure out why.

Dating for real is scary because it means that you have to let the other person in. You have to let them see who you really are in order to start something. Just as you need to see who he really is. You need to fight through the nice clothes, and the fancy car, and the sexy voice, down to who he is on the inside.

It’s a long, arduous frustrating journey, but at the end of all that, guess what you will have? You will have a bond with a man who knows you don’t look like Tyra Banks in the morning when you wake up, but loves you anyway.

So many men are looking for good women, and so many women are looking for good men, and they are all around us all the time. They are lonely and confused and have a few dings and scratches, or even a humdinger of a dent, but with a little care and patience, and honesty, they could be good for us.

What we put into a relationship is what we get out of a relationship. If you’re dating for real, be yourself. If he takes off, he is not the one for you. That’s all it is.

This is life. We are going to be rejected. It happens. But don’t shy away from being yourself for fear of rejection.

The hypothetical man in the above story just wanted a woman to be with who he could share his time and his life with. If she had been authentic with him from the beginning, things would have been different.

Be Real. That is the only dating rule you really need to follow.

Source: RoseMary Alberts from nsadatingsite.com

Better at them or not, the 21st Century has not been kind to women’s ability to form relationships in the first place. It’s easy to see why. Women are obliged to wicker a viable, sustainable career in there, as well, along relationship and family aspirations, however you define them. Which brings us to online dating and why it works especially well for women.

1. It’s high exposure. Once your profile is out there, it’s available 24/7/365. It never takes a break and never has a bad-hair day. You know why that matters, don’t you, ladies? It compensates for the fact that you’ve never been busier…or for both gender’s obsession with technology. The techno-bubble many of us live in complicates, rather than eases the meeting problem. Between cellular phones, texting, tweeting and near-universal, instantaneous internet access, most of us are so busy staying in touch with people we already know that we are often too preoccupied to meet someone new. Online meeting helps with that.

2. It fits inside a professional woman’s life. If you’re a single (or single again) professional woman, online dating is optimized for how you must live. We’ve already mentioned how it helps deal with our frenetic pace of life. For professional women, the pace may be even more hectic, if they hope to succeed professionally, because most women have found it pays to consistently out-perform expectations. Because online dating is so efficient, it has the advantage of being respectful of your time. It is also highly flexible. It’s is available when you are, so you don’t have to make it fit, as with more traditional ways of meeting.

3. It helps women separate their personal and professional life. Our employers are the custodians of most of our waking hours. Because of this, there is often a temptation to mix work and social life, even though we all (well most of us) know better. Online dating gives women access to hundreds of available…and “looking…” men. Many more, in fact, than you will meet at work, even if you work for a large employer. When you fold in the potential pitfalls if a relationship begun at work ultimately fails, it’s easy to see why online dating is a the better alternative.

4. You can filter your potential relationships better. In the more “natural,” or accidental ways of meeting, you’re often forced to snap decisions. Is he attractive? Is he truly interested in a relationship or something a less enduring? Is he trustworthy? In chance meetings, you have a lot of access…to include the advantage of body language and other contextual clues. But it all unfolds so quickly that your decision is mostly gut, if you’re caught by surprise. As a result, women err on the side of caution, for obvious reasons. Online meeting allows you to proceed at a pace geared to your comfort level, because you are largely in control of how quickly things unfold.

That’s all pretty good stuff, you might agree, but what about liars? One of the “knocks” online dating has suffered over the years is cyber-lying…or cyber-liars. It is certainly easier to lie online, than it is in person. But a recent study suggests that actual occurrences may be greatly exaggerated. As Jeffrey Hall, a Professor of Communications at the University of Kansas reported in Science Daily, (Mar. 8, 2010), “Because online daters hope to meet face-to-face eventually, the amount of lying is quite small.” While my own conclusions are based on methods less scientific than Professor Hall’s, I tend to agree with his conclusions; especially as online dating has become more mainstream.

This doesn’t mean someone with mainstream interests won’t misrepresent themselves. Both genders do that, though generally about different things. The growing evidence, however, suggests it is no less manageable than it ever was. The good news in online meeting/dating, is that it unfolds more gradually. As a result, you’re actually more likely to pick out inconsistencies, simply because you have more time to think about them. Chalk up another for the “good news” column.

For all the reasons outlined above, women…but particularly professional women have a lot of reasons to use online dating/meeting to achieve their relationship goals. Whether single or single again, online dating is not only one of your best bets for meeting relationship minded men in the twenty-first century: It enjoys special advantages women have generally not had in the past. By almost any standard you want to use, women have never had it so good in the world of dating.

By Dirk Sayers from http://www.thenofearguide.com