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Match.com Free Trial: Seven Days to Decide

Brad — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 04:00:22 +0000

Match.com offers a free 7-day trial to new members and is one of the few services of its type that does so. By “type” I am referring to the fact that Match.com allows you to contact any member that you want. Free trials and events are more common with the matchmaker type of service, such as eHarmony or Chemistry, where the members that you can contact are limited by the service itself. The fact that a service like Match.com offers a free seven day trial means that they are giving you an opportunity to truly get a feel for their service, which is pretty nice.

Are You Brand-New to Online Dating?
If you are new to online dating and considering signing up for the Match.com free seven day trial, that’s great! However, I would ask that those brand-new to online dating consider this first: make sure you’re ready to use the service before signing up for the free trial. You’ll find that your free seven days goes by quickly. If you’re spending most of your time figuring out how online dating or Match.com works, you may find your free trial flying by without you having made much progress.

I would recommend the following if you’re brand-new to online dating or if you are nervous:

Check out my free online dating guide. I had a lot of trouble with online dating in the beginning in my guide offers advice on just about every area of online dating. I met my wife using Match.com so I promise you that the information in it is relevant!
If you’re not interested in reading my full guide, at least check out my 30 point online dating checklist. I believe that this can help even someone brand-new to online dating gets started off on the right foot.
Consider trying OKCupid first. This is a totally free service and in some ways is similar to Match.com. In general, I find that most people have far less success with the free services. However, that is no reason to avoid a trying one. OKCupid happens to be my favorite and I feel that this service offers singles the most opportunity to have the most success (of the free services, anyway). The idea here is to get comfortable with online dating and then try to Match.com free trial.
You may also want to consider trying Chemistry’s 14 day free trial. This is because chemistry.com helps guide users through the dating process and can be a good place to start for those new to online dating. While chemistry.com offers seven days more free than Match.com does, they also control who you can communicate with. It is still a great service but a free trial with it probably still offers you less opportunity than half the time with Match.com (but that’s just my opinion, you may find you have far more success with it).

Note that you will have to provide credit card information to sign up for the Match seven day free trial. As long as you cancel the subscription during your first seven days, you’ll be charged nothing. This is a hassle although I suspect they do this so you cannot continuously sign up for additional free trial periods. Regardless, this fact is a big reason why I make the suggestions above to ensure that you’re ready to try the Match.com free trial and make the most of it. You really do only get one shot!

Try the Match.com free seven day trial now.

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Lavalife Free Instant Messager Event – July 28 2010

Brad — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 10:32:24 +0000

Lavalife will be providing free use of their instant messenger service to all memeber this Wednesday, July 28 2010.

The email alert I received from them suggested that I:

Log in now and start hot-listing your favorites, then come back first thing Wednesday and start communicating with 1000s of local singles on IM for FREE!

This seems like pretty good advice to me (and I’m actually surprised to see the service offering such clear instructions on how to best take advantage of the free time!)

This Lavalife free event begins at 12:01am local time Wednesday, July 28, 2010 and ends 11:59 pm local time Wednesday, July 28, 2010.

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Chemistry.com Free Communication Weekend: July 23 – 25 2010

Brad — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 23:57:22 +0000

Chemistry.com is having a free communication weekend starting Friday, July 23 and running until Sunday, July 25, 2010. It is going to be a busy weekend for free events! This is because in addition to this free weekend at chemistry, eHarmony is also having a free communication event starting this Friday (see my previous post for more on this).

While free events are always a good thing, this weekend offers some particular value because of both of these free weekends. A common question is, ”What is the difference between chemistry and eHarmony?” or, “Which of the two services is better?”

Decide For Yourself…
This weekend you have an opportunity to decide for yourself! You will be able to compare the two services side by side and decide for yourself: which service is easier to use, which one provides better matches, and so on. Regardless of which service you prefer, the great thing about all this is you get to answer those questions for free.

With that being said, a warning: both of these services have a extensive sign up process and if you plan on signing up for both of them on the same evening I would set aside an hour (and perhaps a touch longer). As I always recommend on these free events, better to sign up earlier rather than later. Allow yourself some time taking the latest matches and review them so when it comes time to use the free service, you’ll know who you want to contact right away.

Best of luck to all of the singles this weekend!

Try Chemistry – Free Communication Weekend! July 23 – 25 2010

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eHarmony Free Communication Weekend, July 23rd – Aug 1st 2010

Brad — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 20:43:49 +0000

Update 7/25/2010: It appears that this free event only allows you to take the communication so far – see the comments below for more details. It doesn’t appear that the free weekend is all it is cracked up to be, at least for this event. If anyone has more details or experiences with this, please feel free to comment below. Thanks!

This eHarmony free communication weekend is far more than a weekend – it’s a full 10-days of free communication. The Free Communication Weekend begins at 12:01AM on Friday, July 23nd and ends at 11:59PM on Sunday, August 1st. Please note that this free event is only available to the United States (sorry Canada, but you did have your own free 10-day communication “weekend” in the past).

Even though you will have 10 days to use eHarmony for free, I still recommend signing up in advance if you can. Having your profile and matches already available and ready to go when Friday arrives gives you a nice head start. If you are reading this and the event has already started, I still think you should sign up (obviously). But for those who know in advance, I say give yourself every opportunity for success that you can.

If you already have an account with eHarmony, remember to turn on the setting to provide new matches if you have it turned off! This should be done as early as you can.

The normal eHarmony free communication weekends are great but I do feel that having a large amount of success in 3 days is a tall order. Will you find dates on a 3 day free weekend? Sure, but with 10 days you can have time to build more of the conversations which will lead to more first dates. This really is a great opportunity to get a real feel for the service.

Just a note to anyone who has not read my online dating guide: some singles think they should only talk to one person at a time with online dating. I believe this is a mistake (you can read why here) but it is even a bigger mistake when you only have a 10 day window. It may seem like a long time but it will fly by before you realize it.

Note: Chemistry.com is also having a free weekend this coming Friday through Sunday. If you ever wanted to compare the two services, now is a perfect time.

eHarmony.com – Try for Free July 23 – August 1.

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DatingDirect Free Trial July 21st 2010

Brad — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 20:42:25 +0000

This Wednesday, July 21, 2010, DatingDirect will be offering a free trial to all new subscribers who sign up between 6 PM and midnight (UK residents only). Compared to most free dating events, this is a very small window of time to take advantage of the service.

In addition, it appears that only the users who actually signed up during this six hour period are going to be able to take advantage of the free communication. I see this as a problem because I normally recommend that people sign up ahead of time to figure out the people that they would like to contact. Even a three day free event like MatchAffinity recently had can be over in the blink of an eye, so six hours is barely any time at all really.

Still, free is free. If you are available this Wednesday evening, you might want to check it out. It does seem unfortunate that this promotion would encourage people to create one account to check the service out, and then another account once the free trial period has begun. If it turns out that I’m wrong about the rules of this promotion (and I hope that I am), I will update this post.

Check out DatingDirect now.

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eHarmony Free Communication Weekend, July 2nd – 5th 2010

Brad — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 21:34:18 +0000

eHarmony’s next free weekend is July 2nd until July 5th 2010. If you are new to eHarmony, during the eHarmony Free Communication Weekends you can communicate with all of your matches absolutely FREE. While eHarmony almost always refers to these events as weekends, there are actually 4 days of free communication for you to take advantage of (so it is more of a free long-weekend). Generally the events begin at 12AM of the first date and end at 11:59PM of the last (local time in both cases).

eHarmony.com – Try for Free July 2 – July 5.

As I am quick to repeat during these free weekends, it is best to sign up earlier rather than later. Not just for the obvious reason (because you want to take advantage of the full event) but also because eHarmony provides the matches you can communicate with. The last thing you want is to sign up on Friday only to receive a few matches. I also like the idea of signing up early because you can plan who you want to communicate with while you are waiting for the free weekend to arrive (and trust me, these free events always go by quicker than you want them to.

If you are on the fence about trying eHarmony, now is the best time to find out if it is for you. While four days isn’t the longest amount of time you could hope for, it is long enough that I think you will see the value in the service. And if you don’t find value in the service, at least you won’t have to wonder any longer and can just move on. Personally, I think having an eHarmony account is worth having even if you only use it just for these free weekends. While you would have to be very lucky to find that special someone in 4 days, stranger things have happened. My wife met me using a 3-day free trial so it does happen!

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Save 50% at Parship During July 2010 (UK)

Brad — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 00:50:00 +0000

For the first time ever, Parship.co.uk is offering a voucher for 50% off of their 3-month subscriptions. To qualify for this promotion you will need to:

Visit this sign-up pagewhich includes an area to enter the voucher.
In the voucher box enter 33A45
Do this on or before July 31st

Parship – Helping Singles find REAL Relationships

Parship is part of Europe’s largest and most successful compatibility-based online dating service and has been helping millions of singles in the UK and Europe find real relationships using their free compatibility tests. After taking the test, you will be given personal test results that will help you find a real relationship by providing you with recommended partners. This compatibility test is the basis for the service’s matching process which brings together people that really could be right for each other.

Parship is a service specifically for those who are interested in a real relationship and who is looking for that special someone who is right for them (and who they are also right for). This is important because the singles who use the service all have the same goal of real relationships. This can remove some of the difficulty of other dating services where different people are looking for different things in their dating and relationships.

More on the Promotion

Keep in mind that this voucher is specifically for the 3-month subscription. As I have talked about in the past, the 3-month subscription plan is the time frame I normally recommend for singles (regardless of the online dating service). Why? For services that offer a single month subscription, most often people do not find their perfect relationship in 30 days and end up spending far more on their subscription over time since the single month subscriptions always cost the most. At the same time, you don’t want to sign up for a year only to find yourself with that special someone after a few months. In both cases, you’ve spent more than you had to. With that in mind I generally recommend going with the middle option.

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Chemistry.com Free Communication Weekend – June 11th to 13th 2010

Brad — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 02:13:16 +0000

Chemistry.com is having another free weekend this June.

Chemistry.com is having this free communication weekend from Friday June 11th until Sunday June 13th. During this free weekend you will be able to communicate with all of your matches absolutely free. No credit card or other type of payment is required: just create your free account and when the weekend arives you’ll be able to talk with all of your matches.

Hopefully you are reading this before the weekend begins. If you are here is my recommendation: if you don’t have an account yet, create your free profile before the weekend begin. Why do this? It will help you be prepared for when the free weekend arrives. You’ll already have matches waiting on you and you won’t have to spend time on Friday creating your profile and then waiting for matches.

I actually recommend that those who are interested in trying Chemistry.com create an account early rather than later. This way when Chemistry has a free weekend (which is normally once a month) you’ll already be prepared: you should be accustomed to the service and you should have identified some singles you would like to contact. Once you have a free account, you can take advantage of each free weekend as they roll around. However, if you sign up at the last minute on a free weekend, you’ll actually be missing out on some free time (until the next free weekend rolls around, anyway).

How Chemistry.com Works

If you are not familiar with Chemistry.com, it works very similar to eHarmony. The service basically involves the following steps:

Create your account which requires you to create a personality profile (this can take quite a bit of time)
Once your profile is created, your personality profile will be used to provide you people you match well with
You can then begin the communication process with these singles (or respond to the singles who start a conversation with you)

The service concentrates on quality over quantity although many suggest that Chemistry.com is far less strict than eHarmony with the matches it provides you. In my opinion, a service like Chemistry.com is especially good for those brand new (and not necessarily comfortable) with online dating. This is because Chemistry.com helps walk singles through each step of the process.

For anyone signing up for Chemistry.com to try the free weekend, I wish you the best of luck!

Try Chemistry.com Today!

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MatchAffinity Free Weekend: June 4th to June 6th 2010

Brad — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 20:38:38 +0000

MatchAffinity, a U.K. base dating service, is having another free weekend starting Friday at 4PM and running until midnight on Sunday June 6th. This will be a great opportunity for U.K. residents to try one of the newest online dating services which has been showing a lot of promise.

Most standard online dating services today separate themselves into one of two categories: sites that concentrate on providing you a limited number of high quality matches and sites that let you browse all members but with less reliability on relationship compatibility. MatchAffinity breaks this mold by offering an extensive personality test to provide you with recommended matches but then allows you to browse all members, not limiting you to those that appear to match with you best. This is a great idea as the services that provide limited matches can be frustrating because of the limited amount of matches while the browsing services often end up with less-than-compatible dates. So in some ways, MatchAffinity offers the best of both worlds. I you are interested in learning more about the service, you can read my full review of MatchAffinity.

My recommendation for all free dating events is that singles who plan to take advantage of the free weekend sign up as early as possible. This may sound obvious but many people will wait until the last minute not realizing the commitment completing your personality profile will take. Signing up early means your profile is already ready (and you’ve already identified good matches) when the free weekend begins. I would suggest that if you are on the fence or even if the free event has passed by that you consider signing up: MatchAffinity appears to be making a habit of these free weekends and having a profile ready for the next event will be a benefit.

Try MatchAffinity today.

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eHarmony Free Communication Events for May 2010

Brad — Sat, 22 May 2010 12:20:45 +0000

This event has already ended. For the most current eHarmony event, see my post on eHarmony Free Communication Weekends

Another free eHarmony weekend is upon us. Free communication events are available for both eHarmony U.S and eHarmony Canada for May 2010. During these free events, eHarmony users can communicate for FREE with their matches. The sooner you register, the longer you’ll have to communicate for free so if you are considering trying the service out don’t hesitate for too long. When you sign up, no credit card will be required: the free events at eHarmony really are free!

eHarmony 10-Day Free Event for Canada – May 21st – May 31

For the first time that I am aware of, eHarmony will be offering a full 10-days for free although only to Canadians (or is it Canadiens?). From 12:01AM on Friday, May 21st to 11:59PM on Sunday, May 30th users of the Canadian eHarmony service will be able to use the service in its entirety for free. This is the longest free event for eHarmony that I am aware of so those in Canada who are interested should consider themselves lucky! Take advantage of this free eHarmony event now.

eHarmony Free Weekend for the U.S. – May 28th – May 30st

U.S. Free Communication Weekend begins at 12:01AM on Friday, May 28th and ends at 11:59PM on Monday, May 31st. Note that while the Candians are getting a much better deal, U.S. member are actually getting 4 full days so everyone is getting extra days during this free event. Sign up at eHarmony to take advantage of the free weekend.

Registering Sooner Rather Than Later

I always recommend signing up sooner rather than later for these events. For eHarmony Canada, it’s obvious to do this since the event is already happening. However, even though the U.S. free communication weekend is a week off, signing up now will allow you to collect matches and it will enable you to contact other singles as soon as the free event begins. Best of luck to all those who will be participating in these free events!

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