International Matchmakers Reviewed

WHAT WE FOUND: If you are a single parent, this is the service for you! SoloParentMatch brings together single parents for friendship and romance in a safe and comfortable environment. Start your visit by taking the tour and then join for the free trial so you can place your profile online for others to find you. You can make 3 contacts free with your free trial membership, then you have to become a paid member to continue sending messages, but by this time you'll know all about SoloParentMatch and whether this service will work for you or not. We like the ability to add voice messages as well as pictures to your profile and the anonymous system they have for placing telephone calls to other members that doesn't reveal any personal information about you and keeps your phone number safe too! There are 4 steps to completing your profile, which will take you anywhere from 3 minutes to much longer. Take you time, remember, this is the first impression you are making and the SoloParentMatch system works best when you follow their advice about what to say and how to say it.

WHAT YOU'LL FIND: Free trial membership, 3 free contacts, picture and voice personals, AutoMatch feature. Straight personal ads for single parents.

Read our complete review here.

WHAT YOU'LL FIND: 100% dating site. You can choose to contact members through a messenger of your choice or through SomeoneNew.com’s site. Profiles are nicely laid out and easy to read. Four different types of searches, a chat room, and a store to purchase computer accessories.

WHAT WE FOUND: SoulMate is designed to make it fun and easy to meet people. As a part of the Relationship Exchange there are new members joining at the rate of 15 a minute, every minute, every hour, every day. Joining for free is the way to start. You’ll be bale to include just a few details about yourself on your profile then, if you like, wait for the messages to be sent to you. It’s free to reply to messages you receive, through the messenging system or by using the Instant Messenger chat feature. If you want to introduce yourself to someone you can also do that for free using the “I’m Interested” feature. If you want to send more detailed messages, or start conversations in the IM you need to be a premium member. Your profile section is divided into required and recommended sections so you know what needs to be completed and what is optional. We suggest that you complete as much of your profile as you are comfortable with so that potential dates have a lot of your personality to read about you. The ‘My Match’ preferences area should be completed as well, or you’ll have too many matches emailed to you to be of much use. Be sure to have a photo (up to 3) of yourself ready to upload and add to your profile. A nice head and shoulders picture will do. It’s easy to keep tabs on who is interested in you and who you’ve sent messages to in the easy account menu, one of the best we’ve seen. With millions of members and plenty of local matches, you’ll enjoy being a member at SoulMate.

WHAT YOU'LL FIND: Free to join and reply to messages. Messages emailed to you and Instant Messenger features available. Three different levels of singles services to join. Show or hide your profile and pictures. Become a premium member to initiate contact. Straight and same sex personals.

WHAT WE FOUND: Your first visit to SoulWeavers is your first step to finding others of a spiritual nature and understanding, to communicate and share of yourself with others. You will be able to do a “search-wide” to see other member profiles on your initial visit, but to get the full SoulWeavers experience you will need to join for a free membership. W are very pleased with the layout of this service and particularly impressed with the quality of profile and essay questions that make up your profile. We like what is asked (for example: “We believe relationships are great teachers. What are the most important lessons you've learned from your past relationships?” and “How would you describe your spiritual orientation?”) and the fact that if you don’t feel answering some or all of the essay questions important, they are not shown on your completed profile, so you don’t have big blank areas under your member name. Your free membership allows you to complete detailed searches and read complete profiles of other members, as well as adding up to 3 pictures with your profile and reply to messages. Premium membership allows you to make first contact with others and create a favorites list of members that interest you. Messages are saved in your member mail box and a notification is sent to your registered email address that you have messages waiting. The Dreamcatcher is where you choose the type of person you’d like to meet and you are emailed when matches are made. We like the “deep searches” and the optional search criteria you can include in your search (for free and premium members) to really find someone you’d like to meet. Also the information included with your profile helps you know who’s interested in you by letting you know how many people have placed you in their favorites and how many have visited your profile. In a true spiritual fashion the SoulWeavers profile form has the most religious options we’ve seen, going beyond the regular Christian, Buddist and Judaism choices to also include New Age, Native American, Pagan/Earth-based among others. If you feel you are a spiritual person, this should be one of the places you frequent to meet others.

WHAT YOU'LL FIND: Free and premium membership options, become a paid member to make initial contact, free members can reply to messages, fast and detailed searches. Straight and same sex personal ads available.

WHAT WE FOUND: SpinHeart is a free membership dating service that has a lot of the services you’d normally find in a pay dating service. Joining is fast and you can quickly start to send messages to other members but you do have to join before you can search or browse current member profiles. After you join make your first stop the “Who’s Online” section so you can find someone to join a 1 on 1 instant messaging. There is also private general chat rooms that accommodate up to 4 members. What is different about these chat rooms is you have the ability to set up a set of questions (the Qzone) to be used in the chat to help eliminate those awkward pauses often found in chat rooms. The Qzone can also be used to start interest in your profile with other members by inviting them to answer your questions or by answering the Qzone questions of other members. We recommend taking the 5 minutes that is needed to complete the profile section and be sure to have a picture ready to upload.

WHAT YOU'LL FIND: Free to join and contact other members. Include a picture with your profile. Chat rooms, Qzone questionnaires and 1 on 1 instant messaging. Straight and same-sex personals.

WHAT WE FOUND: Successfully Dating is an easy to use site that offers plenty of dating fun along with your membership. We like the profile form, it allows you plenty of room to describe yourself and what you'd like in a match, but we didn't like all the profile simple answers to the regular search-type questions. Be sure to use the open text areas by describing yourself more that can be seen through the preset questions. You'll have fun, once your profile is verified, by using the fast searches and the chat system. You can send members 'smiles' to show your interest, we like that easy introduction feature. The search methods are well throughout including simple and advanced searches as well as instant matching based on your preferences and searching for members that are online when you are, which can lead to meeting in the chat room. The video messaging is easy to use and fun.

WHAT YOU'LL FIND: Free trial includes access to all features for 3 days. Messaging, video messages and live chat are fun things to do at this site. Lots of advice articles and movie and book reviews.

CHANGES WE'D LIKE TO SEE: (Suggested October 2004) Video profiles first in search results and saving different searches by category would be helpful.