Mar 30 2009
Why Use PlentyofFish.com?
You are out there in the big crazy world of online dating. There are literally tens of thousands of online dating sites to choose from. Each one even more crazy and ridiculous than the next. Which do you choose? What will give you the best odds? Unfortunately, this is a difficult question to answer; however, what I’d like to do with this post is to show you the benefits of using the increasingly popular Plentyoffish.com in your online dating pursuit.
Plenty of Fish is an interesting dating site, as it is quite different from typical paid sites such as the likes of Match.com and eHarmoney. PlentyofFish is a 100% free online dating site created by entrepreneur Markus Frind. Now here’s the thing, the site is UGLY! Yes, it is a simple dating site with an ugly layout that is supported by Adsense revenue. However, despite it’s unprofessional look and appeal, it IS one of THE largest online dating sites in the world.
The sheer size of the member base of Plenty of Fish is probably it’s biggest advantage over any other online dating site. It makes sense to me how one can use this to their advantage. Quite simply, the larger the pool of fish, than the better your odds of catching one is.
Also, the whole “Free” thing is nice too. You aren’t pressured into trying to attract dates at the end of the month before you have to renew your subscription fee at the end of the month. On PlentyofFish you can take your time and attract and date people at your own pace.
Now some would argue that this is a disadvantage, because of it’s free nature, it attracts a high quantity of unsuitable mates to the dating pool. For example, there have been problems in the past which included a lot of spammers and scammers. Essentially, people setting up fake profiles in order to lure people to other paid dating sites. This doesn’t seem to be much of a problem anymore though, as these fake profiles are caught and removed from the system pretty quickly. However, even without all the fake spam account, you still get some people on the site with, lets say, less suitable social graces than is normally acceptable. This would basically include a number of men who are essentially looking for a quick hook-up.
Fortunately though, using the sites email control tools, it is fairly easy to filter out the unacceptable candidate (see picture below).
This aspect of the site is especially important to the female members, as it allows them to keep certain men from filling up their inboxes with emails that she finds undesirable. For instance, most women on the site will set a filter to block anyone who is seeking “Intimate Encounters .” It’s these types of tools, if used properly that will help users have a better experience using PlentyofFish.com
Other advantages to the site is it’s simple and intuitive function. Even though the design is ugly, it’s at least functional. For example, the thumbnails of potential dates, are always displayed near the top of the screen, like this picture below:
This type of design makes it incredibly easy to browse other peoples profiles. Conversely it also helps other people find your profile, giving it much more visibility than most online dating sites have.
Another great tool on Plenty of Fish is it’s “Add to Favorites” button. This, in my opinion, is a great indicator of interest. For example, if someone adds you to their Favorites, than it is probably safe to say that they are attracted to you in some way. This gives you a green light to go ahead and initiate contact with that person, thus increasing your odds of receiving a reply from that person. It’s also a great way to get someone’s attention without sending an email, basically a tool for those of us who are shy.
These are just a handful of the advantages to using the Plentyoffish.com online dating site, among others. Certainly, there are disadvantages as well. No doubt, there are quite a few critics of the site, however, I think if used intelligently this dating site really can be a great tool for attracting potential dates into your life.
