Title: Alternatives to Online Dating Sites Word Count: 520 Summary: If you are a fan of online dating sites, then you probably know the most popular ones inside and out. You may even be the type of user that check or updates the accounts every few hours or days. Successful yet? Chances are good that if you have been using online dating sites for a number of years or Keywords: dating sites, online dating Article Body: If you are a fan of online dating sites, then you probably know the most popular ones inside and out. You may even be the type of user that check or updates the accounts every few hours or days. Successful yet? Chances are good that if you have been using online dating sites for a number of years or months and have not found any success, you are either just not working them to their fullest capacity or you are not on the right sites. The good news for online dating site visitors is that there are very viable and popular alternatives. In addition to the plethora of available sites, there is a host of sites that are not full-service dating sites, but that still provide the connectivity and relationship start that you may need. Among those sites are forums and chat rooms. When you use forums and chat rooms, your communications with others is public. In other words, whatever you say in the chat rooms or on the forums is free for others to look at. For this reason, you will not be able to get terribly familiar with your crush, but you will be able to get a good idea of what your crush is like – at least in “public.” If you find that you and your crush have a lot in common on the forum and chat-room sites, then you may wan to invite him or her to communicate with you through email or instant messaging. When you are able to communicate personally, it is likely that you will be able to develop that relationship that you would otherwise would through an online dating site. When looking for chat rooms and forums, start with sites and forums that interest you. If you are into auto racing, then look for auto racing forums or chat rooms. Similarly, there are chats and forums available just about anywhere for singles. You can visit local singles chats or chats for singles that are interested in the same topics. As you begin to interact on those chat rooms and forums, keep in mind that you are one of many who will also be viewing and participating in the forum. Therefore, you may have to look a little harder to meet others and to make yourself visible to your potential crush. However, for some people, chat rooms and forums are the most appealing way to go…especially when first meeting people online. In general, though, chat room and forums do not provide the same sort of personalized and targeted dating opportunities. For this reason, many people prefer to enroll in subscriptions to online dating sites. Your subscription to online dating sites will likely offer links to open chats and forums, which may help you to meet a bunch of other subscribers on a personal level. Experiment with a bunch of different online dating options and choose the method that seems to work best for you. Some people prefer to put themselves out there on an online dating site while others enjoy using the back-door entry approach that comes with chat rooms and forums.