Looking for something new and inexpensive this year in your search for love? Frustrated with the crowd on Plenty Of Fish or OkCupid? Match.com has just launched DownToEarth.com, a new site for free online dating.
I, for one, am intrigued… let’s take a look!
Why The Switch?
Paid Sites Are Becoming Obsolete…
I think match.com is starting to realize that paid dating sites are becoming obsolete. Most people are thinking, “Why should I pay $xx.xx a month if I can go to Plenty of Fish or OkCupid and get the same thing for free?”
Nothing Is “Free”
My first trip to DownToEarth to check it out shows a good deal of Adsense boxes. On the home page, there’s a banner at the top, one at the bottom, and an Adsense square on the left side. No matter what page you’re on, you will see ads.
At the moment, these ads aren’t going to generate much revenue, but if DownToEarth pulls the same kind of traffic that the other free dating sites do, those nickels and dimes could add up to some big profit.
The “Partners” page is another money grubbing opportunity. It lists other online dating services, including… oh gee! affiliate links.
What’s Good About It
- Free for you.
- There could be an exodus of people from paid services to test out this one.
- People who gave up on the existing sites may come back to try this one out (aka: new faces!).
- Nice interface (way nicer than Plenty Of Fish or OkCupid in my opinion!!).
- Ability to rate the truthfulness of people’s profiles once you’ve been communicating/meeting them. A system called RealRatings allows users to rate other users’ profiles. Supposedly, this will keep girls from putting up their skinny pictures and guys from putting up their pre-balding pictures.
So What’s The Catch, E?
From what I can tell at first glance, the biggest catch here is the EXTREMELY limited search functionality. Your only options to search are by sexual orientation, age, distance from you, and pictures/no pictures.
If this site gets as big as they hope it’s going to get, finding a match will be the proverbial needle in a haystack problem.
But perhaps that’s what they want… remember the Partners page? Here’s what DownToEarth says about its partners:
Finding the right one can require exploring more than one location. We understand this and have done the footwork to find other websites that could help you in your pursuit. We are constantly building new partnerships to give our community the best tools to find that special someone.
Translation? “You probably won’t find love here, but if you click these links, we’ll make some money wherever you go after ditching us!“
My advice? Stay where you are. This isn’t worth jumping ship from your current service.
About e
I haven’t tried OKCupid, but if Plenty of Fish is anything to go by, I’ll be sticking with paying for Match.
It may cost me ten quid a month, but at least it helps get rid of spammers, filter out some time-wasters and doesn’t have as many barely comprehensible profiles.
@ Hammer – I’m with you there.
THe quality of OKC is far superior to POF. I’ve had far more success there than Match.com, frankly. And I live in NYC.
Ok, stay where you are… But for a first try in dating, is it a good idea to begin with this site? I’ve no profile on any site and if I wanted to find somebody that could help me no?
Hyb’
Further to my last comment, I signed up to OKC last night to see what the buzz was about, and I was left feeling…well, like it was a MySpace/LJ clone. There is just something a bit…’off’ about the whole thing, but I can’t quite put my finger on it.
I do like how you can do one search for women and men instead of one or the other.
Anyway, kind of off topic of the original post. Very tempted to take the topic of dating sites to my own blog (Sorry e) so I can riff on it properly.
Still sticking with Match.
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@ messerole – OKC definitely has the better interface! POF is just awful. ;p There may be good people there, but I don’t want to stay there long enough to find them.
@ Hyb – DownToEarth is going to have a growth period, so there won’t be many people on it for a while. Honestly, I’d start with match.com. There’s a link for a free week trial if you check my dating help section.
@ Hammer – I agree that OKC has the myspace/LJ feel. It’s cute and has some neat features, but I definitely prefer match. Feel free to chat about it on your blog too!
Oh it’s not for me, I have no intention for now of using any dating service, it was just that in your article you propose to people to stick with what they have. I was just wondering for new persons…
Hyb’
@ Hyb – I advise new people to start with match.com. Going with the biggest and most well-known service is best.
Just thought I would comment on down to earth.com,,,.they say it is 100% fee , NO it is not!!!! if you don’t pay and others don’t pay, you can only send a pre-designed flirt of a couple words , if someone who has paid sends a message they can provide a non paying person with info, and there is a limit on how many flirts you can send, then you get a message saying that you have used all the flirts permitted and no more available to flirt with that person, some ladies I would have like to chat with some of the ladies but required to pay first, before I pay I want to know that the women are real , not BOTS and really want to chat, 100% free it’s not