So if you are single and looking to meet someone then what’s the best way of getting yourself a date in this day and age? Well having worked for quite a long time in the dating industry I have dealt with a number of services involving chatlines, dating online and various mobile text dating applications. So which is the best I hear you ask?

Well from what I have seen they are all very different in their offerings. From my observations, I have seen that in their own way they all work in terms of putting you in touch with singles but if you want something to come out of it then you’ll need to do the leg work – don’t just expect the mountain to come to Mohammed.

Let’s start with phone chat lines, these are basically the equivalent to online chat rooms but on your phone. Basically, you call into the service and record a greeting and introduction message about yourself. Once this is moderated then it goes on to the service for all to hear. You can then peruse the service and select the profiles you like and send them a message or request a live 121 chat with them. Of course this service is totally anonymous and we always discourage callers from giving out personal information. As you can tell this service is heavy on the chat side and dating is a little harder to accomplish but not out of the question escort listings. I have come across people who have married after chatting with someone on a chat line. One of the great things about this type of dating is that it’s relatively cheap to call into the services as most now run on a 10 pence per minute tariff so all you need is your phone.

Online dating is a different kettle of fish all together and has changed over the years to become an acceptable way of getting a date. There are a zillion dating sites out there all trying to offer something a little different. There are the general ones designed for everyone, matures ones, adult ones, people in uniform ones and sites out there for people who are into horses!…say no more. The most important thing about online dating is creating a good personal profile. Unlike phone chat with online dating you have more time and space to add information about yourself so you want to make sure you have added a good picture of yourself and write a paragraph or two about yourself, what you like and what you are after. These days you can go that extra mile by also adding a video of yourself. With online dating most of the interaction will be through messaging and email before you even pick up the phone to talk to them. You can create lists of your favourite profiles and start to whittle that down to the ones you really like. All in all online dating does offer a number of great features which are designed to make getting a date a lot easier – with phone chat it’s back to basics and down to good old fashion conversation whereas with online dating you can dress yourself up to be like a well designed book cover with nice image and blurb which appeals to the pass by but they’ll need to delve a little deeper to get the real details.

So what about text dating on your mobile, well this is probably one of the easiest methods to engage with someone else but possibly the hardest to actually reach that end goal of getting yourself a date. Like phone chat you create a profile of yourself i.e. name, age, location, age of people you are looking to meet. You’ll then be sent matches direct to your mobile which you can then message back if any of these appeal to you. You are normally charged per message back you receive depending on the service you are on. These days, most services have a feature where you can upload and download images so this helps a lot when you are chatting with someone on the service. People use SMS a hell of a lot nowadays and so this type of service generally appeals to people who are constantly on the go and don’t have too much time to pour into searching for a partner. Basically it’s down to personal preference so if this works for you then stick with it.

What lies ahead in the dating industry in terms of tech – video chat and dating is already out there although at present a lot of people are a little hesitant about seeing the person on the other end of the phone or computer. As usual the adult industry leads the way in introducing you new ways to interact with people and you’ll find there a few video chat services already being used. Virtual Worlds online are another option – I mean why go down the pub when you can go down the virtual pub and chat someone up!