This would be confusing enough in itself but with the creation of affiliate programs there are now several thousand more portal sites pretending to be real dating sites but are actually using the member databases of the big dating web sites through partner programs.

As someone who has researched many dating sites I have found it extremely frustrating to click through several sites only to be lead back to sites I have already been at. So it would appear that there are not as many real dating sites as I had first thought but this still leaves hundreds instead of thousands. So, its still a head spinner in regards which one to join.

In addition to this you will find that all sites are not created equal. The big players seem to have the best featured sites with ever more features being added such as time video messenging etc. Where as smaller sites will have more basic features.

At the end of the day, it really depends on what you are looking for that matters. In this regard, whilst the bigger personals sites have more features, like webcam chat etc, they are very generalised and are really only aimed at dating personals in general.

You will find they have an international membership base, so if you are only looking for someone in your immediate area, you can have a problem. If you live in one of the major developed countries such as America or Canada, you will find that the majority of web sites are centered around these countries as they lead the field in the area of internet development.

However, if like me, you are living up a hill in the middle of nowhere, youre going to have to look further afield for friends and new lovers. Isnt this the whole point of the internet? To bridge borders and build distance no longer an issue!

Apparently not, as many profiles will state "no long distance relationships" and "looking for people in local area only". Do not let this deter you as there are many more everybody that have no problem with distance or are fed up dating all the people in their local area.

Believe it or not, if males and females in your local area or even country will not give you the measure of day, you will be described as cute and a babe or hunk by all the people from another country. Simply because you are different than what they are used to. You do not look like them or talk like them. 90% of people find accents sexy. Whats that I hear you say? I dont have an accent Im sorry to break this to you but if you speak to anyone outside of your own country, you will have an accent. You will also be seen as the mysterious stranger. People are attracted to mystery, especially females.

Getting back on track here, perhaps you are not looking for plain vanilla dating. If you are looking for something specific in regards to sex or dating, this is where the internet excels. Niche dating is big business with everything catered for from every fetish you might think of to defined ethnicitys and even religion. So theres no reason why you can not find someone who has the identical common interests or sexual perversions that you do. And now you can do it from the comfort of your arm chair.