Of course, personal ads and marital agencies are far from being a modern concept. In fact, it could be argued that these avenues of finding love draw their roots from the millennia-old custom of arranged marriages which is still in use in many parts of the world. They’re all essentially forms of blind-dating, meeting a potential partner through a third party. And the wealthy and privileged, often too occupied with far more pressing concerns to venture out and find someone on their own, have been utilizing newspaper personal ads and matchmaking services since the latter half of the 1800’s. To further protect their privacy and to be more selective to prevent embarrassing public break-ups, many of the wealthy found personal ads far more preferable than meeting at social functions.

The early 20th Century also gave rise to another interesting twist to the personal ads – the so-called “mail-order bride” agencies. Like the regular personal ads before them, mail-order bride agencies were used mainly by the rich and wealthy. Acquiring a wife possessing a more traditional mindset toward marriage from poorer Latin American and Asian countries became preferable among many wealthy men who were wary of increasingly independent western women.

It wasn’t until the mid-1960’s that personal ads began developing a somewhat more mainstream appeal. More and more middle-class income-earning professionals began turning flipping to personal ads in newspapers. Nevertheless, most of society looked upon personal ads with great suspicion and even scorn. People who posted and responded to personal ads were perceived as weird and geeky people who wouldn’t dare approach someone at a party. Younger people still preferred to meet at parties and older people still preferred meeting at church. Placing the personal ads sections in the very back of newspapers was probably intended to illustrate how society views their usage.

Nevertheless, the use of personal ads continued to grow and 1970’s and 80’s saw the use of dating and matchmaking services skyrocket. This helped lead to the creation of even TV shows such as The Dating Game and Love Connection although due the adult content of these shows they were usually aired late-night on syndication which resulted in low viewership.

The arrival of the internet towards the end of the 20th Century placed even greater attention on personal ads, marital agencies and matchmaking services as these companies found another outlet to reach millions of potential clients. The quick rise in the number of internet users only made it inevitable that the use of dating services would become more popular and more acceptable. Speedy email and even speedier instant messaging brought forth greater curiosity into this intriguing way of meeting people. According to most surveys, fewer than 20% of adults submit and respond to personal ads but this number is most likely much higher. Lingering doubts and suspicions about personal ads and marital agencies makes most somewhat reluctant to admit to using them.

Widespread use of personal ads, marital agencies and matchmaking services have turned love-finding into a big business and more such agencies and outlets for personal ads have been created to cash in on the growing industry. As of this writing, there are as many as one hundred personal ad columns in newspapers and magazines and marital agencies and online dating sites catering to as many 300 million available singles and, unfortunately, married people pretending to be single.

Generally, posting a personal ad in a newspaper or local weekly magazine is free, usually up to the first 30 words. Extra space is typically 30 cents to one dollar per word depending on the newspaper or magazine. For safety reasons they typically won’t print phone numbers although they will allow email addresses. Ads usually run for a week after which you can re-submit the ad. Some newspapers and magazines, if specifically requested, will run the ad for up to four consecutive weeks.

Most major cities also have dating hotlines and telephone personals in which you call a number and listen to the personals. When you open an account with them you are given a pin number which you use whenever you wish to check and see if someone has responded to your telephone personal ad. This service is generally free although some charge as much as $2 per minute to listen to other people’s personal ads. You can find such numbers in most major newspapers and magazines in the ad section.

Many of the online dating sites very happily claim to be free but most really aren’t. True enough, they’re usually free to join and post profiles but you have to be a premium-paying member in order to respond to other people’s profiles. So, in a sense, they’re not free at all. Saying that they’re free is merely a marketing ploy.

These are some of the more popular sites for finding love:

Yahoo Personals: Membership in the millions, with hundreds of new profiles posted daily. Free to join and post a profile but must be a premium-paying member to send a response to another member. Have 1-month, 3-month and 6-month membership packages. If you do not wish to have to pay for love Yahoo also has an extensive network of chat rooms and online groups, many which focus mainly on finding that special someone, which you can join. Of course, this route isn’t very affective.

Friend Finder Network: Includes friendfinder.com, adultfriendfinder.com, seniorfriendfinder.com, asiafriendfinder.comand many other sites with a collective worldwide membership of nearly 50 million. Adultfriendfinder.com, the largest of the network, has nearly 30 million members alone. Free to become a Bronze member but other than posting a profile, you really have no privileges as a Bronze member. You can only send email to another member if that member contacts you first and you’re limited to sending only 3 emails a day. You can view, though you can not respond to, five profiles a day. Look but can’t touch! You must be a premium-paying Silver member to take advantage of more of their services or a Gold member in order to enjoy total unrestricted access to all of their services. So, free? I don’t think so! But, among the thousands of online dating services, they have one of the best customer service systems.

eHarmony.com: Everyone who watches primetime TV is familiar with this company. Commercials that feature couples telling America about how they met through eHarmony to the tunes of Natalie Cole. Essentially a matchmaking service in every since of the term, when you join eHarmony you fill out a questionnaire telling them the kind of person you are and they match you with another member “based on 29 dimensions of compatibility.”

Match.com: Believed to be the world’s largest online dating agency, boasting a worldwide membership exceeding 20 million. Like most online dating sites, it is free ONLY TO JOIN! Membership packages come 1-month, 3-month and 6-month deals. They also have excellent customer service.

Matchmaker.com: Also free to join but must be a premium-paying member in order to enjoy full benefits. Millions of members.

SinglesNet.com: One of the most popular online dating sites. Like most, it claims to be Free to join, post profiles and respond to profiles but there is no doubt a cost somewhere in enjoying full advantages

Date.com: Has thousands of profiles. Also “free” to join. One thing unique about date.com is that they offer tips for finding potential mates in the off-line world such as how to attract someone at a bar or party.

alt.com: As the largest online community for fetish personals, it is perhaps also the most notoriously-renowned source for online personals. Its million-plus membership has included the likes of John Robinson, a serial killer who used the site to lure many of his victims to their gruesome deaths as well as many other sex offenders. It is free to join though you must be a premium-paying member to have full access to the services.

Aforeignaffair.com: The largest online agency specializing in introducing western men to foreign brides, the vast majority coming from the former Soviet Union and a very sizeable number from Latin America. Has a wide range of plans you can take advantage of in meeting a prospect such as paying a monthly membership for a certain number of addresses per month, purchasing a lady’s address individually or discounted rates for the more you purchase or paying as much as $3,000 for romance tours which covers air and hotel fare to the country of your choosing and to attend large socials featuring the ladies from the agency. Has very good customer and tech support.

Craigslist.org: I on purposely saved possibly the worse source for online dating for last. Granted, Craigslist’s personals are totally free, making it perhaps the most completely unrestricted source for meeting people. Personal ads can contain up to 5,000 characters and you can post up 6 photos with almost no restrictions on the content. And if you’re very crafty with words you can post as many personal ads you like, which is often necessary since some sections add up to 50 new personal ads every hour, pushing yours further down to the bottom. But Craigslist relies almost entirely on users to watch for and erase illegal ads and many users routinely abuse this privilege and delete ads simply to eliminate competition. Since one does not need login credentials to view and respond to the more than three hundred thousand personal ads posted on the site at any given time there is no way of telling who deleted your ad. And you can forget about making a formal complaint about it or for any other problem you’re having with Craigslist – customer and tech support is virtually non-existent.

Wish you all the luck in finding that special someone! Check out the following related articles by this author: Advantages of Meeting Online, Avoiding Fake Online Correspondence, Posting a Proper Ad or Profile, Properly Responding to Personals, Safe Online Dating Tips.