Internet dating websites

First... this is NOT for me! 
(Although, if i was looking for a man, I would definitely try internet dating.)

My friend at work has decided that 2009 is the year she will give up on waiting for a boyfriend to fall from the heavens, and she will actively start trying to find a partner.   
I've got her almost convinced to try an internet dating website... something like match.com or dating direct.com, but she's wondering about the cost.   She doesn't currently have a computer and isn't really au fait with the internet, so i said i would investigate and report back to her.

It doesn't seem, though, that you can get info on how much it costs, etc unless you actually register for it, and i don't really want to give them my details just to find out the scoop for her.

I know that many of you met your partners on dating websites... can you give me an idea of the cost?   Also, maybe could you tell me which sites you think are best, and why?

Thanks!

Wow - you're right! I checked a couple of sites and there doesn't seem to be any pricing info available until after you sign up. That's weird. It's been years since I did it, but I'm pretty sure pricing was upfront back then. I think it would really annoy me to have to register before finding out how much it costs! Although, for most of them, you can register for free. At least, that's the way it was back when I did it in 2003-2004. With a free membership, you can see people's profiles, but you can't send anyone a message. So they pretty much do sucker you into paying.

As for how much it costs, I think they were all about £15-20 a month? I could be wrong about that, but those numbers seem sort of familiar. I do recall that most of the sites were about the same cost. Not much difference there.

I tried a lot of different sites. Ultimately, I met my bf on match.com, but I dabbled around on lots of others too. Dating Direct, UDate, Yahoo, etc. I think Match and Dating Direct are good because they have the most members. Bigger pool of victims!    (Although total membership could have changed in the past 4 years. Maybe other sites are bigger now.)

anyone else?
I'm really trying to help my friend... 

Sorry...no help. I met my DH through a community website (YouTube/LiveVideo) and we just happened to have similar interests...bonus as it was free.

Although I met my fiance through traditional means (at a football match) I have done internet dating in the past, as have most of my male friends.  So, these are my thoughts ...

match.com - not done it myself, but one friend is about to marry one of the girls he met there.

mysinglefriend.com - (according to my male friend) not really worth the money

Guardian Soulmates - pretty good, eclectic bunch of people though obviously mainly liberal left and quite intelligent.  Good for the older lady (not sure how old your friend is, but the Guardian has them all)

Gumtree - free, and pretty good once you sift through the perves.  I have several pretty good mates I met on here.  Might be better if she lives in a city.  But maybe a good place to practice her patter.

Vicky

match.com - not done it myself, but one friend is about to marry one of the girls he met there.

I have some match.com success stories, too. My cousin met his now wife there. And another cousin met her boyfriend there.

Is she kinky? - www.alt.com is very good and has over 520,000 uk profiles....i know cos my friend has one....

I have a friend who met her husband through eHarmony, but don't know if they have a UK site or not.  She said it was the best experience of her life, and they actually do match people up according to personality.  They got married in Ireland and just had a baby!     Sorry I don't have more info. 

DH and I met on Second Life.  It's a great way to meet people from all over the world.  Kind of a 3D chat type thing.  It's free, although you do end up spending some money here and there.  But you don't really go looking for people, per se, you just kind of find them along the way!

I know someone who met her DF on eHarmony and is marrying him soon (they are in the UK). I don't know how much the fees are though.

My cousin met his wife on J-Date but I suspect that won't help your friend much!

I have another cousin doing this... I'll ask her what the fees are and post back later...

We met through E-Harmony.  We got a promo thing about a launch in the UK, they asked us to be on the radio, but I haven't seen much since.

I've heard some good things about e-Harmony except that when I tried it 4 years ago I was one of the however many percent of people that couldn't get matched!    I've had limited success with match.com too, but that was eons ago.  My husband and I ended up meeting on Livejournal, though.

We met on Udate but, to be honest, it's not that good a site and theres not many on it in the UK. I was letting my membership run out when I met my now wife, in fact it did run out before I'd got her email address so I signed up for another month!

Hi guys... thanks for all the comments.
I pretty much know a lot of the sites that are out there... what i would like to know, if possible, is cost.   

She's 52, very straight/traditional/non-kinky... just wants a genuine nice man (although she is overly picky about looks, in my opinion), and doesn't want to have to spend too much time sifting through pervs.

Then I think the Guardian would be perfect.  It's free to join and browse, but you have to pay a sub if you find someone you want to messgae.  I seem to recall that you could pay for one, three or six month membership (at least you could about 4 years ago when I used it).

Vicky

Then I think the Guardian would be perfect.  It's free to join and browse, but you have to pay a sub if you find someone you want to messgae.  I seem to recall that you could pay for one, three or six month membership (at least you could about 4 years ago when I used it).

Vicky

i'll go and have a look -- that's not one i'd thought of before.  THanks!