These are my own observations about the personal ad services that I've tried. You might find you have different opinions about some of them.

I recommend that you make a "Personals" section in your hot list, and then go to each of these sites, and add them to your hot list.

Each link will open in it's own window so you can explore each site without having to use your back button to find the rest.

Place your ad in all of them. The more exposure you can get, the better your chances are of meeting someone special. While you are there, browse though the ads. All the services are there for your use, try them out.

The search options are extensive choices like age range, height range, more body types than I've seen in any of the other services,country state/province and city.An alternative to state/province is to enter up to 10 telephone area codes at once. There's also all the other options such as religion, number of children etr.

I like the thumbnail photos that come up in the search results. I've only seen one other service use them.

When you click on an ad you see the full photo and a very extensive profile with everything from favorite foods to favorite activities. as well as the persons own personal message and up to 5 photos

They have a chat service that you might like

As I said before, they are growing rapidly and I think will become one of the biggest services. Get a photo ad in now and get your free email coupons.

This site was originally intended as an adult site, but it is used my most people as a regular personal ad site. You should check it out, you might find the person you are looking for there.

There are three communities you can search from.

They are:
• Dating is for casual dates and talk
• Romance is for you if you are looking for commitment
• Intimate is adult orientated.

If you don't plan to respond to a lot of ads this may be the service for you because instead of a monthly free you buy tickets or credits which don't expire. The prices are good. Joining is free, you need to create an identity for one or more of the communities.

A nice feature is the instant messaging. How it works is you can send an instant message to anyone that is logged in, or if you have created an identity (ad) for that community they can send you an instant message while you are logged in. You can receive and reply to these message for free, but if you want to initiate the conversation you need to use credits.

You can also save and name your searches and they will show up on the search menu.

They are worth a visit.

They have some unique features such as voice messaging and attaching a video to your ad.

Guests are limited a photo search which brings up a thumbnail photo and ad headline, you need to become at least a free member to browse the ads. All you need to do for a free membership is place an ad, which you'll want to do anyway.
Your free membership will not allow you to see the full size photos, but you can view the ad.

Search capabilities are very limited until you become a Silver or Gold member. You are also limited to one message in a 24 hour period until you become a paid member.

The advantages of the Silver membership are:
• Unlimited email to other members
• Viewing othermembers photos
• More search options

The advantage of the Gold membership includes all the Silver membership advantages plus:
• The most search capabilities
• You will be at the top of each list of members, which will increase the responses you get a lot.
• Use of the cupid service which is email notification of new ads that match your requirements.
• Telephone technical support.
• An option to turn off banners

They have plenty of ads, and and a lot of traffic so you will get good exposure to your ad. They are very good after you've become a Gold or Silver member. I recommend the Gold membership because your ad is placed at the top of the list with the other Gold members, and this does increase the responses you will get. It also gives you access to more search options.

Guests can browse the ads, but the search is limited to age, and location.
Community members have some more options, such as religion, race, and interests. The problem I have is that you can't multi-select, so if for example you want to find people with some of your interests like dancing, and fishing, you have to do two different searches. I think they should have more search options as well.

The search results bring up the photo, age, location, occupation, and who the person is seeking.

The profile is quite long, and covers a lot. There is plenty of room for the body of your ad. They have photos and voice options.

When someone responds to your ad, you get an e-mail from them, and then you need to go to their web page to retrieve the message. I'd rather be able to reply directly to the sender. What I do is give the person my email address in the body of my reply, so that we can start communicating directly.

Their membership is large, so you have plenty of ads to choose from, plus a big audience for your ad. I've had a good rate of response to my ads at Singles Online.

Unless you are a preferred member (Paid) you can't reply to an ad. You can only receive, and respond to email sent to you.