img @ studioaccessballroom.com

Every time I think that there are absolutely no more possible niche dating sites left, something comes along and reminds me that the universe, and dating sites by association, are infinite. This one, however, might get more of a foothold than other dating sites — YouAndMeArePure.com, a site that connects virgins to other virgins, so that they don’t have to worry about meeting someone on a mainstream site and then having to awkwardly admit that they’ve never slept with anyone.

In theory, the members of the site could be open about their belief systems and reasons for remaining chaste until marriage, however, we see a few issues in the concept:

a) The site name is grammatically incorrect.

b) Since virginity tests happen to be illegal in most countries, nothing prevents wolves (or cougars) in sheep’s clothing from infiltrating the herd.

c) They have a SecondLife “Virgin Park,” which if you ask us, is basically some combination of a Dateline NBC special and a creepy 1 AM Cinemax soft core flick.

Check out the site at YouAndMeArePure.com, or read the full article at TheHuffingtonPost.

OnlineBootyCall.com, the world’s premier casual dating site, has always been known for their ability to turn the sometimes-too-serious world of online dating on its head. One of the most successful ways they’ve done this was with their release of the “Booty Call Commandments” back in 2007. With rules like, “Thou shalt get out before the sun rises,” and “thou shalt kiss anything but my mouth,” they showed a fun alternative to more mainstream sites assumption that all dating should be serious, monogamous, and forever.

Recently, the team behind OBC decided to revamp the site with a whole new streamlined look, and thought that using the booty call commandments as a cornerstone would be the perfect way to remind its members (as well as potential ones) of the rules of casual dating in a fun tongue-in-cheek way. Not only will new members cycle through them during the sign up process, but returning users can remind themselves anytime by visiting the Booty Call Commandments page here!

img @ onlinedatinganxiety

It’s hard to believe that just 3 months ago, Match.com celebrated its 15th anniversary. 15! That means there very well could be kids in high school and junior high whose parents met via online dating, an industry that even those of us in it feel is still young.

Once you take a deeper look into the online dating world, though, you’ll see that the advancements are monumental. Just like those kids in high school, the industry has matured, learned from its mistakes, and is growing into its most experimental, innovative stage.

Take DatePro’s past posts about “OppositesConnect” and “FlipMe” dating. No matter our personal opinions, it’s refreshing to see companies looking at dating from various approaches. Though mainstream sites like Match and eHarmony are still succeeding with individuals looking to the long-term, there are finally dating sites which, following the larger trend of society, are opening up to the flirting and casual dating crowd.

What was the turning point? Where did online dating go from a almost embarrassing secret to something that nearly 7 million people have used to meet other? We think it has to do with 2 aspects:

1) Becoming more open-minded

Match and eHarmony, as we said before, are massively successful companies with a great message, but we’ve noticed that more and more dating sites are realizing that its not only the “married within a year” crowd that is experiencing online dating these days. Now those looking for casual relationships can get in on the fun too, with sites like MetroDate and OBC, without having to sign up for sites that push undesired future expectations on its members. Catering to all is one of the surest signs of progress, and the online dating industry is a great example.

2) Taking ourselves less seriously

When online dating was new, we had to make big bold statements, promising big results and guaranteed matches and love at first click. Now we realize that dating sites are just virtual coffee shops and bars. We shouldn’t have to make false claims about your compatability with someone. If someone catches your eye at a bar, you don’t feel cheated if you guys don’t hit it off – you’re just two people meeting looking for a chance at fate (or just fun). The only difference in online dating is you get a bit of a head start — a glimpse at another single’s hobbies and personality, so you can avoid disasters.

These two simple items: both more related to taking a step back thank taking a step forward, are reasons that online dating is still steadily growing more and more popular. And as people realize that their nervousness about online dating is unfounded (with the correct safety precautions), we imagine the only place to go is up!

As a child of the 80s, I listened to my mother blast “Opposites Attract” by Paula Abdul at least 14 times a day from her tape deck. At the time I just laughed because “MC Scat Cat” and Paula were dancing together? And also MC Scat Cat was a cartoon cat? I don’t know. Needless to say it took quite a few years before the concept of “opposites attracting” became a actual , non-animated thought, when my first boyfriend and I were actually complete opposites, and madly “in love” (as much as two 16 year olds can be).

Now, that relationship fizzled (as any 16 year old’s would) and I’ve always dated people mostly similar to myself since then. I enjoy laughing at the same jokes, liking the same music, and enjoying generally the same lifestyle. However, one can’t deny that occasionally you meet someone you have nothing in common with, and yet you find yourself oddly attracted to them, like they are forbidden fruit, so to speak. These kinds of attractions are generally solely physical, and most likely aren’t successful as a relationship between two people who actually get along. This didn’t stop Larry Wilson from founding OppositesConnect.com, a dating site that goes pretty against the grain. Check it out here, and tell us what you think!

So to answer the question, do opposites attract? We’d have to say yes, they attract, but to they attach? Probably not…

After learning about a woman named Geri Brin in New York, though, I’ve decided I need to call my folks and thank them repeatedly for not being crazy.

Geri created a website called “Date My Single Kid,” from the parent site FabOverFifty, where women can sign up and create dating profiles for their kids. I can’t even read that sentence without feeling physically ill. Apparently, Geri has been trying to set up her 31-year-old son for so long that she believes she’d gotten it to a science, and set up the site to allow other mothers be overbearing and nosy and controlling, too!

Needless to say, her son Colby says, “I can picture her on her death bed . . . choking out the words, ‘Colby, did you call that girl?’ before fading into darkness.” Just the fact that he is picturing her on her death bed gives me the impression that he doesn’t really enjoy her intrusiveness, but he went on to say that hey, he’s a Jewish guy living in New York, and what can we expect?

How would you feel if your mom set up a profile for you on DateMySingleKid.com? Click HERE to sign up!

read more at the NewYorkPost

SAN DIEGO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–HerWay.com, the first dating site where women take the lead, today announced their official public launch. Unlike other dating sites, HerWay takes the “Sadie Hawkins” approach to online dating, placing women in charge of initiating the connection. By keeping female profiles completely hidden until she’s ready to connect, HerWay provides women unprecedented privacy and discretion as they search for Mr. Right.

According to HerWay, it is at least five times more likely that online daters will successfully connect when a woman initiates contact. By letting women make the initial connection with their potential suitors, HerWay creates an environment where women’s intuition rules and connections therefore have a much better chance of turning into love. This concept is mutually beneficial as it also relieves men of the pressure of having to compete for a woman’s attention, allowing them to sit back and let the ladies come to them.

“For the 40 million singles currently dating online, the process can be frustrating at best,” said Chris Dunn, CEO of Herway.com. “On other sites like Match.com, women are inundated with unsolicited messages from men competing for their attention, which makes them stop checking their messages and, in turn, frustrates the men because of the lack of responses. This dating environment overwhelms both sexes to the point that many simply give up on online dating. These issues are exactly what HerWay aims to solve.”

Here’s how it works:

The HerWay registration process takes less than a minute as users build full profiles and post pictures of themselves. Once their profile is built, female users can search the entire database of male profiles on the site and are encouraged to send free invitations to connect with men they find appealing. A woman’s profile is only revealed to the man of her choosing after she has shown interest in him with a connection invitation. Once the connection is established, the male user can view, flirt and message his match; and for traditionalists, set up their first date.

In addition, male users are offered numerous features aimed at making them better daters and more appealing to women. These features include detailed profile performance reports that illustrate how their profile success rates stack up as compared to other men on the site.

About HerWay.com

HerWay.com is the first online dating site where women take the lead. Similar to Sadie Hawkins, HerWay’s innovative approach to dating ensures women control the action by allowing them to browse profiles anonymously, while men are restricted from searching altogether. Founded in 2010, the HerWay concept provides men and women a dating solution that gives women unprecedented privacy and discretion as they use their intuition to search for Mr. Right. For more information please visit www.herway.com.

Last week, a select bunch of OkCupid users received an e-mail informing them than they had been placed in the top half of members in terms of attractiveness, meaning that from now on in search results, they would show up higher to others in their “more attractive” group.

The determination as to whether or not you are “good looking” enough to fall into the more attractive category was based on other users’ reactions to your photo in the “Quick Search” and “Quiver” area, sections that only have a selected part of your profile text and a photo.

How does DatePro feel about this? Well, we’re not so sure. While of course we all know intial physical attraction is one of the (if not the) most important factors in whether or not you approach someone, it seems as though this is giving people who were not considered attractive enough less than a fighting chance.

Take Ugly Betty from above. She’s played by the  gorgeous America Ferrera, and yet if she were a member of OkCupid, she’d probably get placed in the bottom half, and not be seen in many search results. Seems a little unfair, don’t you think?

On the other hand, its similarly not as fair to those who are automatically placed in the “more attractive” group- someone who has their exact interests may never show up on their first page of results if they aren’t deemed attractive enough? How is that a legitimate dating site decision?

What do you think?

Apparently we’re not doing enough for our moms, wives and girlfriends these days, guys, cause they’re feeling under appreciated enough to show up in record numbers to the website AshleyMadison.com, who’s mantra is “Life is Short, Have an Affair.”

According to the site, although a normal Monday will attract 3,000 new women, the day following Mother’s Day Sunday saw a 24,000 member increase, and Noel Biderman, founder of AshleyMadison, says they expect even more throughout the following week. The only day that sees even remotely close numbers to these is the day after Valentine’s Day, which seems to be clear proof that women have higher expectations of their mates and children on these holidays: expectations that aren’t being fulfilled.

Although there’s not really a scientific way to prove it, it seems, based on these numbers, that women tend to cheat when they feel emotionally neglected, whereas men tend to cheat when they feel physically neglected.

The only way to handle this problem, we think, is to ensure that in your relationship you maintain a healthy amount of romance, emotional availability, and sexual activity so that these annual holidays no longer act as “makeup” days, where you have to redeem yourself for a year of neglect.

Doesn’t seem to difficult, now does it?

Full story at WGN tv.

OPW INTERVIEW – Apr 26 – I first met Mo when I was working at FriendFinder in 2003. He’s done very well with OnlineBootyCall and has turned some of his attention towards developing an interesting new site called HerWay.com. Iinterviewed Mo back in August 2007. (Full Disclosure: Mo is a client of Courtland Brooks)

What did you do before you started OnlineBootyCall?
I was a software engineer. I worked as a database administrator and one of my side projects was an online dating site. That is how OnlineBootyCall started.

Why did you choose OnlineBootyCall? What other names did you consider?
There was really no name consideration. I just registered the domain so I could use it to do some web development and I had no idea the site was going to take off. I was the first member and now we’re close to 5 million members now.

Congratulations. You’re working on a new site, HerWay.com. How does this site work and how is it different from other dating sites?
HerWay, as the name implies, works a little differently. We set it up so it works similar to the Sadie Hawkins dance, a high school dance in which female students invite male students to dance. So on HerWay we allow the females to make the first move.

Isn’t this a distinctly American concept?
I would say 95% of the people I’ve asked heard of the concept. The dance idea started in the US but I’m not sure how many people internationally know about it.

It sounds like you’re empowering women but do women really want to be empowered in this particular respect or do the guys really want to lead?
I wouldn’t necessarily call it empowering women. It is more about saving them from being inundated with emails from guys who they aren’t interested in. So giving them the opportunity to search for someone they really want versus fielding messages and responding to winks and stuff or responding to guys telling them they’re not interested, is a lot more efficient. One of the things we’ve noticed is women are often inundated and guys are often ignored on dating sites.

So it sounds like you’re trying to readdress the boundaries with HerWay.com?
Yeah I think so. I’ve talked to a lot of women who have joined the site and they appreciate it. It’s like a breath of fresh air. It’s not for everybody, of course. Some women like to be chased and they like the traditional dating experience.

What inspired you to start HerWay.com?
While operating OBC, I started noticing that whenever a female would reach out to a guy, the response rate was sometimes up to 10 times better than the other way around. So it led me to believe that it’s really up to the female to decide who she’s going to meet regardless of who initiates the contact.

How is the site growing? How are you getting the word out?
Right now it’s mostly word of mouth. We’re growing at nearly 1000 members a day with little to no marketing efforts, which is going to change pretty soon.

Do you have any other projects in the pipeline?
We do but it is a little too early to discuss right now. There are a couple of projects we’re excited about to get started. So when that comes up we’ll definitely let you know about that.

img @ibspro

People make blanket  assumptions about online dating, claiming that it’s only for losers with no social skills or those who don’t ever go out in the real world. Unfortunately for them, they’ve no idea the crowd that they’re missing out on, awesome, successful people who didn’t have that uncalled-for amount of pride. In case you needed a little nudge, here are even more reasons to date online, with a little help from YourTango.com.

• It’s cheaper than the bar scene

Although signing up for a monthly fee can be a big step, mathematically speaking your money is better spent there than on expensive nights at a bar where you’re chances of meeting a decent mate are, well, quite low.

• It’ll narrow your search

With almost 7 billion people on this earth, thinking about finding your sould mate is pretty daunting. By using dating site search terms, keywords, and preferences, you can narrow your field down to only the people you want to see. Like how looking at cars in a car lot can seems impossible, while browsing online first can help you weed out the wrong make, model, and color, can make it far easier.

• It saves time

Instead of setting aside time in your week to check out the single scene at a bar or club, you can go about your life and check out the dating life online whenever you’re near a computer (which, in this day and age, is at least 5 times a day).

• It’s safe

Instead of getting inebriated and making mistakes or lowing your standards, going online will ensure you meet a person while you’re in your right mind. You’ll know, each time you sign onto your page at InterracialSingles or SingleParentsMingle, that the people you’re encountering are also looking for a relationship. Make sure to follow our safe online dating tips for meeting in person, and you’ll be set to go!