Whenever you go to a dating site your are asked questions about yourself and the qualities you are looking for in your potential mate. You¡¯ll start by answering questions, checking boxes to indicate a wide range of preferences and habit. Preferences such as smoking and drinking habits, ethnicity, hobbies, hair color, TV viewing habits, religion, and so on..

All the dating sites have a space provided where you can describe yourself and the person you are looking for. All the sites seem to have profile tips and dating safety tips.

Some sites make you browse profiles while other sites let you take tests so that they can tell you about people who share your interests and match your concerns.

Subscription packages involve various lengths of time and price. What you gain by paying is the ability to communicate fully with other subscribers. A single month at Yahoo Personals is about $25. At eHarmony it¡¯s $60. For longer time commitments the rate goes down. If you cancel before the end of your paid period, most sites don¡¯t give a refund

EHarmony will reject you if they deem you unmatchable. About 16 percent of potential users are rejected for lying, under 21 and a variety of other reasons. Once you¡¯re in you have access to those you are compatible with in the testing process. EHarmony has a seven-day trial period.

Yahoo Personals will let you search independently but will also match you for compatibility with other members who have taken their personality and compatibility test. Yahoo Personals has a three day trial period.

American Singles and Match.com provide matchmaking services based on your listed preferences. You can tweak them as you go. If you want to narrow your choices to those with college degrees, Phd¡¯s, musicians you can. If you want to broaden your search you have those options too. The only rub is if you looking for a Phd and you requested a happy go lucky, athlete you may get matched with a glum Phd.

Visit each dating site before you make a commitment. You¡¯ll want to read the privacy policy and terms of service and check out what they offer. Next create a separate e-mail account for your dating email so you can protect your identity and manage your messages so that you don¡¯t compromise your personal in box.

Then give your credit card number to the dating service you finally choose. All the sites have ice breaker shorthand designed to keep communication open without the need to pen a long note to open conversation.