Overall Results:

In the Chart below you will see the overall results for MatchMaker.com & Date.com. Although these websites are marketed separately, they both belong to the same company: Avalanche, LLC. The two websites share the same software and also the same member base, so the results will be the same. In the chart below you will see the results obtained by these websites compared to the average of all 10 reviewed sites and to Match.com, the overall winner.

	Average 10 Sites
Overall Score (1-10)	6.89	6.77	9.23
Search/Find Members (1-10 Score)	6.80	6.76	7.65
Communication with Other Members (1-10 Score)	6.16	7.27	5.91
Free Registration (1-10 Score)	5.74	5.00	7.50
Prices (1-10 Score)	5.61	5.67	5.87
Number of Monthly Visitors	2,321,000	1,697,000	7,100,000

Matchmaker & Date scored 3rd and 4th place respectively out of all the reviewed dating websites. These sites were well rated for all the categories, especially for the “Communication with Other Members” category where they earned third place. These sites were also well rated for the rest of the categories.

See the Overall Test Results for All Sites

Free Registration:

Free registration on Matchmaker allows a user to fill out a profile and flirt by showing interest. The catch is- you won’t be able to send a message once you’ve flirted! You will just have to pay to email your Romeo or Juliet.

Type of Dating Website:

Matchmaker is a match-based dating website geared towards straights and gays alike. Its intention is to help marriage-minded singles find true love. That level of quality in mind, it still provides different relational options to make sure all members can find the kind of connection they seek. These options are: marriage, serious, casual, and friends.

Filling Out Your Online Dating Profile:

There are 4 categories to cover your bases: Basic, Details, In My Own Words, and Partner. Basics are just that, basics. This includes location, orientation (eg. woman seeking man, man seeking man), distance willing to travel, relationship type (serious, casual, friends, marriage), ethnicity, physical characteristics, education, sense of humor, relationship status, education, faith, and a few other basics to put you on the map.

Details include favorite music, books, T.V. shows, spending habits, sports, hobbies, and where you’d like to live. “In My Own Words” gives a member the chance to describe and introduce him/herself. You can keep this simple, or you may choose to answer Matchmaker’s short answer questions. A few of the questions:

• What celebrity do you resemble the most?
• Describe the person that you might be interested in meeting.
• Ask a question that someone can use to start a conversation with you. (ex: “If you had one wish to make, what would you wish for?”)
• If you could “Do Lunch” with anyone, who would it be, and why?

Matchmaker.com even gives you the ability to write an essay if you’d like! Talk about getting to know someone.

Seeing Other Singles Profiles:

Matchmaker.com offers a wonderful balance between a member’s short creative answers, basics, and interests. A member’s profile includes everything you filled out in your own profile: basics, details, short answers and essay, and the type of partner s/he is seeking. When viewing a member’s profile, you will see when his or her last activity was, and how far he or she is willing to travel for love.

When searching through profiles, you will be able to see how far in miles different members live from you, their body types, relationship preferences (serious, casual, etc.), exact location, and whether or not they’re online before even clicking on their profiles. You have the option of sending them a gift, mail, showing interest, and adding the member to your favorites.

Matchmaker includes the added option of being able to send a member’s profile to a friend simply by typing in your friend’s email and clicking “send.”

Members’ profiles are conveniently ordered by how close they are to you geographically.

Preferences for Your Dating Profile:

Choose your ideal partner by specifying: age range, ethnicity, body type, height range, weight range, hair color, eye color, relationship status, smoking, drinking, family, faith, level of faith, pets, Western and Chinese horoscope, education, income, occupation, family background, and spoken languages.

You may see who’s online and instant message a member or enter a chat room for some dynamic interpersonal fireworks.

You can set your preferences as to what kinds of email you would like to receive from Matchmaker. This large variety of options assures you will be dialed into the right love station.

Online Dating Paid Subscription:

Matchmaker.com offers a wide variety of payment methods like credit card, online check, PayPal, or regular mail. The rates are as follows:

• • 1 month for $34.95 USD
• • 3 months for $69.95 USD (only $23.32 USD per month)
• • 6 months for $99.95 USD (only $16.66 USD per month)
• • 1 year for $139.95 USD (only $11.66 USD per month)

Paid membership allows a member to send emails, instant messages, and audio/video messaging. You can also become the highest ranking in search, access chat rooms, and post more photos. Paid members also have the pleasure of receiving answers to relationship questions from Matchmaker’s experts.

What I Liked Most About MatchMaker:

Even though the front page of the site states that Matchmaker is geared towards people who are marriage-minded and looking for a serious relationship, I liked the fact that there were options to choose from regarding what type of relationship a person is looking for. The relationship options include a wide enough range of possibilities to suit anyone’s relationship style. I loved the fact that Matchmaker allows its members to write essays and lengthy responses to interesting questions, as opposed to endless multiple choice questions.

What I Liked Least About MatchMaker:

There was nothing I did not like about this site. I can see why Forbes magazine recognized it as one of the “best of the web” sites.