Now personally I have no experience with online dating, but I have numerous friends that participate and pay good money to use these services.  One friend actually spent $900 just last year in dating services alone!  That doesn't even count the babysitting, shoes, clothes, gas, meals or activities for the dates!

When I got married it was 1994 and the internet didn't exist, but times have changed!  Dating has changed rapidly since the existence of online dating services.  You can meet someone the first day of signing up.  Coffee/drinks seem to be a great start.  It's like a small meet and greet date - mini date if you will.  It takes the pressure off of an actual date.

I've heard that you know if you have the right chemistry with someone within the first 10 minutes of meeting.  I think that's why these mini-dates are perfect! 

There are hundreds of dating services.  Anything from Christian to fetish sites.  It's amazing what's out there.  There are even sites dedicated to one night stands!  It's amazing how things have changed since I started dating.

The more known sites are eharmony.com, matchmaker.com, americansingles.com, date.com, firstclickfriend.com, friendfinder.com...

Then there are the fetish and more sexual sites like adultfriendfinder.com, hornymatches.com, alt.com, bondage.com...

There are also gay dating sites like outpersonals.com, gayfriendfinder.com, gaydatingonline.com, gaycupid.com...

Even seniors have their own dating sites like seniorfriendfinder.com.

There truly is something for everyone!

Some websites are free, or you can have limited access.  Some sites charge huge enormous fees to join and you have to pay extra charges to get more and more access.

You have to be extremely cautious with online dating.  Some people are not who they say they are and pretend to be someone they aren't.  Just be extremely careful with online dating and don't get fooled into paying for something you aren't receiving!

I should also mention that my friend that spent $900 is not dating anyone at the moment and never got a solid relationship out of the money she spent.  Most of the men had over compensated on their profiles and were not what they appeared to be online.

Good luck out there!