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Our Favorite Dating Sites |
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Top Dating Categories |
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LavaLife: Full Review |
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Pro Rating :
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User Ratings :
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Avg. Rating :
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About LavaLife |
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URL
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Year Started
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1987
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Location
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United States of America
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Languages
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English
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Short Description
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is one of the oldest dating companies around, having started in 1987 as a telephone-based service. Based in Toronto, Canada, jumped on the internet bandwagon in 1997 and has since gained a reputation for exceptional service and a truly diverse database of singles. The most distinctive feature at is the division into three separate categories: Dating, Relationships and Intimate Encounters.
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Number of Members
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4,600,000
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Overall Rating
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is a top-quality site that manages to balance straight-arrow dating features with a section for alternative lifestyles like swinging. If you take offense easily, simply stay away from the Intimate Encounters section. The quality of 's members overall (income levels tend to be middle- and upper-middle class with higher educations) is good. The highest enrollment is in the Dating and/or Relationship sections, so you can find plenty of people to correspond with. Overall, excellent quality and great features. Given time, could give even the largest site a run for its money. The pay-as-you-go is an innovation more sites should consider.
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LavaLife Categories & Features |
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Lifestyles
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All
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Relationships
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Alternative
Friendship
Marriage
Pen Pals
Romance
Three-some
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Religions
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All
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Ethnicities
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All
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Finding Your Match
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Automated Matching
Online indicator
Photo Gallery
Search (Advanced)
Search by location
Search (Quick)
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Contacting Members
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E-mail
Instant messaging
Private messaging
Virtual kiss (Icebreakers)
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LavaLife Dating Service Review |
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The Company
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has been around, starting out well before the internet revolution with a telephone dating system. The experience shows. They are a solid 5 in terms of quality, dependability and service. The company has solid financial backing, with revenues of over $100 million yearly. Their marketing campaign on television shows they're knowledgeable and savvy at marketing and knowing the dating marketplace. is around for the long haul.
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Site Navigation
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All pages were clear and crisp, navigation is easy and the instant messaging page loads quickly, giving the exchanges a real-time feel. The bright graphics are appealing and the links are all clearly marked. The only down side to is the quality of the photos - resolution seems to be a bit low across the board, indicating that this is probably a site problem.
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Site Response Speed
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Fast
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Sign-Up Process
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's sign-up is free to visit and actually use the site if you want to browse freely and respond to anyone making the first move. This may be the easiest sign-up around; it's certainly one of the most comprehensive free-version memberships around. No credit cards needed for the freebie version and you can use it as long as you want. 's questionnaire for your profile is easy and quick. If you want to join more than one of 's area (for instance, Relationship and Intimate Encounters, for whatever reasons you may have), the profile will automatically duplicate so that you can just make quick changes, not have to reproduce the whole thing.
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Breadth of Services
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features every kind of heterosexual interest out there, from those who just want a date for the occasional Saturday night to people looking for group sex partners. The broad range covered by the three categories is impressive. does not have a lot to offer the gay community except in the Intimate Encounters section, where bisexuality is a common trait.
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User Base
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has lots of people and decent profiles with a fair amount of information, but not as much as at some other sites. There's a distinct shift in the type, age and geography between each of the three categories. The only area of concern is in the Intimate Encounters section, which has a fairly high percentage of college-aged people who seem to be online for the opportunity to have cyber sex. If you are looking for a discreet sexual encounter, however, is probably safer than some.
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User Experience
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user profiles are easy to understand, the introductory profiles offer key information, there is a hotlist where you can store the ones you want to refer back to, user information answers standard questions and customer service is great. 's content and links are generally quite good.
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Customer Service
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Outstanding! responded to my email in less than twenty-four hours and offer telephone connections for questions regarding billing, services, etc. also has over 40 sites in the United States where you can use voice mail access to chat with members. With over 450 employees, they are never without staff if there's a problem.
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Customer Service Hours
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Telephone contact: 1-866-242-LAVA x990
Email contact: helplavalife.com
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Registration Options
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Registration Procedure
FREE to register
Quick registration
Online help
Tips and examples
Photos by download only
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Additional Services
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Hide profile option
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Long Description
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is an established company with over 450 employees and over 4.6 million members, and over 850,000 active members in any 90-day period. According to their own statistics, enrolls 10,000 new members a day.
Browse personals and initiate contact with matches for free
There is no "trial membership" phase at , and it's not really necessary because you can browse all of the membership profiles and send a "smile" for free. These are simply one-line messages to make contact with anyone you are interested in. If an enrolled member contacts you by email or instant message, you can reply at no cost to you. The catch is that you can't initiate contact, so if you see someone you want to chat with, you will need to pay to begin a dialogue. If you want to try it out for a while, you will get smiles, emails and instant messages relatively quickly. My experience at was productive in getting to know a few people without any fees at all. If you want to be more active and initiate contact yourself, you pay for credits that can be exchanged for opportunities to contact people. For instance, 50 credits cost $14.99 and it costs 5 credits for one intro email or opening a 20-minute instant message chat. The more credits you buy at once, the cheaper they are per unit. has an exceptional membership base and the members generally seem to be more active than at many sites. The ease of using the instant message/chat feature and the great freebies make a great site for anyone who wants to try out a site and you are comfortable visiting a site that offers intimate areas. One caveat - this visitor did discover a few women in the intimate encounters section who may charge for their services, so be careful when in this section. A few members also looked remarkably young, even for the 19 or 20 they claimed. On the whole, however, the ads were legitimate seekers.
Erotic possibilities in 's "Intimate Encounters" section
's profiles aren't as detailed as at some dating sites, but they do give you the opportunity to list standard items such as your interests and what does/does not appeal to you in a partner. If you are going into 's Intimate Encounters section, be aware that this is an adults-only section. You won't see anything particularly objectionable when you browse, but if you open a profile you are likely to see some explicit stuff, including nude photos. This section is exactly what it says it is - intimate. This area includes a wide variety of members seeking primarily sexual liaisons, including couples looking for threesomes and people who are looking for everything from extra-marital sex to bondage and fetishes. has discovered a great way to cater to a wide range of tastes by providing a safe site for those looking for real relationships alongside a dating site that caters to more adventurous tastes. You can choose any one or all of 's sites, tailoring it to your own interests.
Read personals and start chatting
The look of is fresh and trendy with a distinctively edgy feel to it. The layout is extremely well-executed and easy to navigate. Bright, bold colors and mono-colored photo graphics add to the sharp, contrast-laden look of the site. 's profile section is basically "fill in the blank" until the last section, where you can add a paragraph or two about yourself. Predictably, some people skip this section, which lowers their chance of being contacted by as many people. 's instant messaging area is in the upper right-hand corner and opens automatically when someone IM's you. If you begin to chat on 's IM, you can continue to surf throughout the site - the IM box remains open at the top of the screen. Somebody IM's you and you want to check him out? Just pull up his profile on the lower half of the screen and Voila! - you can take a gander at his picture and check out his profile while you're chatting with him - and cut it off just as quickly if his profile truly repels you. One click, and he's gone - if you want, he can be gone forever with 's blocking feature.
Let match you
provides a decent matching system that takes into account the basic criteria you would expect for a dating site. The fact that you can reply to anyone who contacts you by email or instant message without paying for a membership fee balances the lack of depth on the profiles. Particularly helpful on the profiles are statistics that indicate when each member has last been on so that you can get an idea of how actively they are pursuing a potential relationship. If you add multiple photos to your profile, you can opt to have only the main photo available with viewing of your additional photos by invitation only if you like. This is an unusual but very nice feature for those who are a bit antsy about loading photos onto the internet.
has a large, active membership looking for love, dates, and sex
is a huge dating service with an unusually high number of active members. The typical member in the "Dating" section tends toward twenty-somethings, while the "Relationship" members are mostly thirty and above. In the "Intimate Encounters" area, just about anything goes, but there are convenient red warning labels to alert you whenever you may be clicking on a photo or profile that has adult content. Here the profiles are short on personality traits, but you can indicate whether you are interested in bondage, submission, fetishes or multiple partners. Quite a few members in this category seem to be individuals or couples who are looking to experiment a bit and aren't hard-core regulars.
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LavaLife Pros & Cons |
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Pros
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The sheer magnitude of is impressive, and the division into three distinct levels based on the seriousness of the relationship you're looking for means you don't waste time looking through endless profiles of people who aren't after the same thing you are.
Smiles, those nifty little "one liners" with a smiley face attached are great for sending to see if you'll get a nibble without having to stew over the contents of an email. If you get a reply - great! If not, you can cut bait.
Ease of navigation and an excellent filtering system to find matches for you testify to the quality of the program used at .
Customer service was attentive and easy to contact, with a quick turn-around on emailed questions.
's pay-as-you-go option is perfect for anyone who wants to try the site out for a short time or individuals who may not be able to visit regularly. By paying only when you want to, you don't run the risk of paying for weeks that you don't have time to use the site.
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Cons
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While has an "intimate" section that included a variety of alternative sexual proclivities, there is no homosexual section for those looking to date or find a serious relationship.
While 's pay-as-you-go concept is nice, a flat fee might be nice for someone who will use the site extensively and would be easier to keep track of.
The unusually high number of very young people (saying they are 19-21) in the "Intimate Encounters" section is a bit off-putting.
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LavaLife Plans Offered |
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Pricing
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50 credits for $14.99(5 credits = 1 introductory email or a 20 minute instant messaging session; 10 credits = 60 minutes)
100 credits for $24.99
200 credits for $39.99
notifies you periodically as to how many credits you have left and renewal is simple
Full access - you can email anyone and begin IM sessions yourself
You can join all three groups or any one or two that interest you at no additional cost
Blocking features
Pay-as-you-go flexibility
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Site Freebies
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Trial membership includes a complete profile, a brief interests section and the opportunity to post a photo. You can search and browse profiles and have cross-match you against other members according to your chosen criteria. With the ability to answer emails and instant messages, along with the opportunity to send brief "smiles" to anyone of interest, this site offers more freedom and usability for free than almost any other site out there. The fact that so many people pay to get full membership is a testament to the quality of the site.
Photo gallery for quick browsing of photos
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