Match.com

Packages and Features

Match.com offers only one package if you're planning to commit for less than 6 months. If you're thinking about the 6 month plan, however, you can upgrade your membership for an extra $1 each month to take advantage of additional benefits which would otherwise cost extra. These features include:

• A highlighted profile
• Notifications when your emails were read
• “First Impressions” - having your profile emailed directly to new members to provide them with a sense of Match.com's members. This can directly increase the amount of interest in your profile.

If you're interested in trying out Match.com you can experiment with their free version that enables you to get a feel for the other singles that use the service and to determine whether you enjoy using the site's interface.

Feature	Free Trial	Standard Plan	6 Month Upgraded Plan
Receive match suggestions
Search independently
Create a profile
Add images
Send winks
Respond to communication
See who's viewed your profile
Block certain members
Send and receive emails
Use instant message communications
Highlighted profile
Receive Notifications when emails are read
Have your profile emailed to new members

Pricing

Match.com offers 4 pricing plans. 6 month plans include a guarantee that if you don't find someone special within the 6 months of your plan, you will receive 6 months free. In order to qualify you must create an honest profile and respond to or initiate communication with at least 5 people through the Match.com system during your first 6 months. All chats, winks and communication outside of Match.com do not qualify you for the Match.com guarantee.

All Match.com plans will be automatically renewed before they expire so that you won't lose your saved matches or communications. You must take an action to cancel your subscription if you don't plan on continuing.

*Sales tax applies in New York and Texas.

Match.com also offers several unique features that can be added to short-term plans for an extra fee:

In addition to these add-ons, Match.com offers ProfilePro services that will help you to create a profile that will get noticed by people you want to meet. The one-time fee for this service is $39.99.

Membership Base

• Over 29 million members
• Serves heterosexual and gay singles
• Married people may not register for Match.com
• Approximately 17% of women and 16% of men using Match.com are 50 or older¹

How Match.com Works

Match.com offers a plethora of search options so that you can identify potential matches based on any criteria that are important to you. The site offers keyword searching as well as customized search through which you can narrow down your options based upon qualities like marital status, political views, salary range, astrological sign and even eye color.

In addition, Match.com offers 3 helpful search options:

• Search based upon which users are online in your area now. This service will help you find relevant people near you and will also lead you directly to profiles that are still active. Searching by those who are online in your area will also allow you to chat immediately with anyone you are interested in.
• Reverse matching. With this search feature you can check out profiles of singles who are looking for people like you.
• Mutual matching. In this section you can find people who answered the ‘About my Date’ section similarly to the way you did.

Match.com presents each profile in a clear, concise way and also tells you which aspects of your profile match the profile that you’re interested in.

Example of Match.com profile

Match.com also enables you to sort your search results in various ways so that you can view your options in the most useful way. You may choose from the ‘detailed’ view or the ‘gallery’ view.

Detailed View

Gallery View

Finally, Match.com offers you its Daily 5, suggestions of 5 potential matches based on various qualities that you have in common. You should be aware that you may not always receive a Daily 5 suggestion (or, in some cases, you may just receive a Daily 3), if Match.com’s algorithm does not find an ideal suggestion for you.

Registration

Registration for Match.com takes approximately 30 minutes which is a reasonable amount of time considering that there are 3 main categories of questions. The first category is About Me, which has 8 subsections including:

• Basics (2 pages of questions about where you grew up, marital status and other obvious questions)
• Appearance (I page of questions to describe how you look)
• Interests (3 pages including multiple choice and optional free-response questions about your hobbies, favorite sports and other leisure activities)
• Lifestyle (2 pages of multiple choice and optional free-response questions about your smoking habits, occupation and pet preferences)
• Background/Values (2 pages about your religion and ethnicity that surprisingly don’t ask questions directly related to your values)
• Get to Know Me (2 pages of questions that offer a glimpse of yourself such as which comedian you like best and how you act at a party)

The second set of questions focuses on what you are looking for in a partner and includes 3 subsections:

• Appearance (1 page about what you want your ideal partner to look like)
• Background/Values (1 page that asks what ethnicity, religion and education level you want your ideal partner to have. Again, these questions don’t relate to values as much as your partner’s background)
• Lifestyle (2 pages that ask you to choose your ideal partner’s salary range, occupation, smoking habits and whether or not he has/wants children)

The last section of creating a Match.com profile is the In My Own Words section that asks you to describe yourself and your ideal match in 4000 characters (or less) and to provide a headline for your profile.

Unlike compatibility matching services that require you to answer every question in the registration questionnaire, Match.com allows you to skip questions or to choose ‘no answer’. While this may make it easy for you to skip questions that make you uncomfortable, it also causes many Match.com profiles to be incomplete, leaving you with an incomplete picture of a potential partner.

Upon completion of the questionnaire you will be asked to upload a photo. You can also email Match.com your photo if you have trouble uploading it. When your registration is complete you will be asked to send it for review, and once it is approved by the customer care team, it will be made live on Match.com. This process can take up to 24 hours.

Customer Support

Although most online dating sites offer customer service by email only, Match.com offers both email and phone support. I called their customer care center on a Sunday afternoon at 2:35pm EST and received an immediate answer. I did not wait for even 1 minute before Daniel came to the phone. He was both friendly and helpful and knew the answers to all of my questions.

I also emailed their customer service center by submitting the form on the website. I sent the email at 3:45am EST on a Monday.

My email to Match.com

Although they promise a response within 24 hours, I was disappointed that I did not receive a response to this email during the promised time. Instead, I received a response 2.5 days later. Although the reply was late, it did answer my questions directly and appropriately.

Match.com's response

Match.com in the Media

Match.com on CNN
How seniors use Match.com

cbsnews.com - September 2009
Match.com’s Whitney Casey on CBS about how to create a profile

Match.com : An interview with CEO Gregory Blatt

Summary

Positive Features

• A large user base
• Mobile dating availability
• Live chat option
• Customer service by phone
• Ability to view your search results in multiple ways
• Search by who is online now
• Daily suggested matches based upon compatibility
• 6 month guarantee that you’ll find someone special
• Side-by-side comparisons of features that you have in common with viewed profiles

Negative Features

• You may not receive the Daily 5 that Match.com commits to offering
• Having so many options can be overwhelming
• Flash advertisements can be distracting