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closeWednesday, Jul. 08, 2009
Looking for love, in all sorts of places
There is no shortage of dating services and online sites ready to help you find your match or even a mistress. Here are just a few:
Match.com: Dallas-based Match.com launched in April 1995. Like many dating services, its members create free profiles and browse thousands of users. With service to 24 countries, it’s buffet-style dating. A little bit of everything. There is a cost to use the service after establishing a free account. It’s $34.99 per month or $17.99 per month with a six-month subscription. If you’re looking for LecheFresca, that’s me. I was researching.
It’s Just Lunch: Founded in 1991 with franchises in multiple cities across the United States including Dallas and Fort Worth, it matches busy professionals with potential mates. Representatives meet with clients in an initial interview and arrange lunch dates (or after-hours drinks) with potential mates. It calls and tells you about whom you’re meeting. At the end of the date, clients choose to exchange business cards or phone numbers. The service costs $1,800 for a year (minimum 12 dates), which has attracted some complaints from clients online. Essentially, it’s blind-dating for busy people.
AshleyMadison.com: Established in 2001, the site helps married people find fellow cheaters and singles looking for someone attached. With slogans like "Life is short. Have an affair," it’s gaining popularity and trying to become more mainstream with increased marketing, including an open letter to Eliot Spitzer published in the New York Post. If you don’t find someone within three months, the site will refund you $249 as part of its Affair Guarantee. Um, yeah. No comment.
IntimateArrangements.com: The site bills itself as a "matchmaking service for wealthy benefactors, and attractive guys and gals." It’s a sugar-daddy service for men of a certain age who are interested in sugar babies of a much younger age to "mentor." The site shows graying Dirty Daddy Warbucks types and bikini-clad girls interested in pampering. Men can choose their own monthly budget levels from $1,000 to $20,000 a month.
Speed dating: Like the title suggests, it’s timed pre-dating. Organized events are advertised on local Web sites, including HurryDate.com. Parties are held in bars and restaurants, and there’s a fee associated with the events, usually under $40 for nonmembers. Men and women participate and hold conversations for less than 10 minutes and rotate. If there’s continued interest, partners fill out a scorecard and can follow up online. Joanna Cattanach
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