Match Personals Review Day 1 & 2
Match Personals is one of the largest online dating services.
Started in 1995 they have managed to stay ahead of other online dating services through integration of other, smaller dating businesses, through portal sites that are hosted by many online newspaper and other community websites and, most importantly, through innovation.
Note: This review covers day 1 & 2 of my ongoing review.
Match.com features, as well as online dating, mobile dating, a comprehensive compatibility match system, a successful online magazine called “Happen”, distinctive American, Canadian, British and Australian websites, as well as other localized versions of Match Personals worldwide.
The great thing about Match.com is that they’re quite easy to join. Sure they are plenty of profile questions to answer, and really, you should have at least 2 pictures of yourself, one the standard head and shoulders shot, one in activity somewhere, full body.
A few good ideas for the second (or more) photos:
1) standing tall, outside, maybe leaning against a street light pole. Sittling in a chair by a window, use the natural light instead of the camera flash, if possible.
2) if you own pets or maybe a horse, that is a great photo opportunity for your profile. Only use your own animals.
3) Always remember, unless required for some arcane rule or law, use photos that have only you in them. I can’t tell you how many profile pictures I’ve come across and there’s two women ion them with no easy way which is the one with the profile and which is the friend/non-profile person.
My feature rich review
Joined June 30, 2009 – “RGuyRtime” in Canada: (Remember to search for this user, this is my “stale test user” that will only be logging in once a day until July 7, 2009, after that, please email me if you find “RGuyRtime” member still available to send flirts, even though I won’t be logging in and I won’t have access to the member account I set up for it. This is the stale member test, please do email me when you come across the profile of “RGuyRtime” it is important that I know when/if the member profile I have created is removed by Match.com personal.
1) Your login for existing and new a members can be what you signed up with or the MSN live passport Hotmail or LIVE email address you have. Much easier for sites to MSN, Match and other websites to track your surfing habits. I am sure the information is captured and encrypted, used only for marketing and site design planning stages. You can always ask them too.
2) I checked the “Yes, send me email… so I will attentive to post a short version of what is sent to me from Match.com and their partners.
3) Don’t check the box that says “Only show me members that have photos” to see the maximum results for your searches. Conversely, if you want to get a lot of traffic to your profile, check the box and be sure you have several photos of yourself ready to post. You will get more than 10x traffic to your profile. No kidding!
4) The rest of the basic profile was quite quick to finish, there is a percentage meter telling you how close you are to completing the basic profile which is needed for you to sign up.
5) Match does ask for a profile headline, which I really like. You can change your headline regularly and that counts as updating your profile which will get you higher rankings in the search results, as will logging in up to every 48 hours.
6) Additional features of interest:
- add match words to narrow down your search results. Match words are used to help find people that also match your match words in a simple search. Don’t pass this feature by without using it. You can change your match words at any time. Match words require approval, mostly, before being displayed.
- The Daily Five. Each day fine new matches, based on your profile, are offered for you to browse, and if you have a premium membership, make contact with them.
- Smart Search – use a keyword and search by sex and zip code.
- Mutual matches, the search results of people that have a lot in common with you based on your completed profile, and the Reverse Match, people that have been looking for someone like you based on your profile.
7) There is also a quick search and a user name search available.
The free features include posting your profile searching and sending winks to interesting members. Premium members can send and reply to email messages, to use the Instant Messenger, remove members from view (people they’d rather not see/meet can be blocked from your profile) and also see who has looked at your profile (but maybe not sent you a wink or a message).
9) Membership pricing as of June 30 2009:
$34.99 per month for month-to-month membership
$19.99 a month for a 3 month membership
16.99 a month for six month membership which includes the “Love Guarantee *If you don’t find love in 6 months you get an additional 6 month membership free* offer details on site, may end without notice)
$17.00 a month includes all premium features plus: Email Read Notification, First Impressions, Highlighted Profile
Email from Match.com number 1) Immediately after I completed my profile and in my (registered) inbox are 12 matches for me already. (It should be noted that I did choose to accept email from Match.com to see what they send and how much. I’ll try to post something everytime I get mail from Match.com
July 1, 2009: My primary photo was approved and I received these rules about photos that are currently in effect:
For All Photos:
* No nudity or sheer/see-through clothing
* No copyrighted images (ie: drawings, photographs, or other illustrations)
* No identifying information (ie: license plates, email or web addresses, visible street address numbers, etc.)
* No illegal acts or violence
* No minors only (without an adult included in the photo)
We support the following image formats but convert all images to JPEG (.jpg) to be viewed by all browsers: .jpeg, .bmp, .gif, .tiff, .wmf, .png, .ico, .emf, and .exif. The maximum file size accepted is 5MB.
To upload your photo:
1. Go to www.match.com
2. Sign in with your username and password
3. Click on the My Profile link at the top of the page
4. Click Edit Photos
5. Click Browse to locate and select the photo stored in your computer
6. Click upload photo
Or if you would prefer, feel free to email your photo to photos@match.com instead. Make sure the address you send it from is the one you have registered with on Match.com, and include your first and last name, current username, and birth date. We would be happy to assist by uploading it for you. Please note that photos with borders will show the border on the site unless you crop the border out of the photo before submitting it.
Note: If you submitted more than one photo, we will send you a separate confirmation message for each one.
Tags: Match Personals, match review, match.com