These days, it costs a great deal of money to maintain a presence on the dating scene. Bars and nightclubs routinely charge covers simply for admission, and everything inside will set you back quite a bit. You can find cheaper drinks at certain hours of the day, sure, but the odds of finding a romantic prospect between the hours of 3:00 and 6:00 PM are pretty slim, to say the least. More accurately, establishments will actually raise the price of drinks as the crowd grows; after all, what other options do the people have? By the time you factor in the various costs associated with simply going to a bar or club and buying drinks for yourself, let alone buying drinks for other people that pique your interest, it’s not unheard of to spend well over a hundred dollars in a single evening. All of that, and there is still no guarantee that your time, effort, or money will translate into romantic success.
One of the key advantages of online dating versus traditional dating is that you don’t have to spend any money in order to simply participate or to achieve success. Creating an online personal ad or profile requires very little time and effort, and only rarely will a company charge you for the actual hosting of your profile. If there is any fee associated with such a service, it is generally nominal. Simply having a profile available online is the best way to increase your odds of finding a romantic partner; just as you are searching online for potential matches, so too are others looking for somebody just like you. Browsing through available online personal ads is generally free, as well. Occasionally, websites will allow you to browse through the front pages of online personals but will require a paid membership in order to actually contact the person. Often, however, this cost is rolled into the price of personal ad hosting. Regardless of how the fee structure, if any, is structured, it still represents a significantly lower cost than a night on the town with high aspirations and uncertain results.
Not even when you find a romantic prospect and actually connect with them are you required to spend money unnecessarily. A simple exchange of emails and telephone calls costs nothing, and by the time the relationship progresses to the point where the two of you go out, it is generally assumed that there is sufficient mutual interest to warrant such a decision. Because of this, a night out will not be a matter of throwing money around in hopes of finding romantic success; as there is already interest, any money spent will go towards fostering the development of a relationship. Furthermore, getting to know somebody online and by telephone before actually going out with them gives you the opportunity to explore interests and discover what the two of you have in common. Because of this, there is no “testing the waters” to see what the two of you can enjoy doing together. In all aspects, online dating is a more economically feasible option than traditional settings.