The online dating world today can be a confusing place to be. As more people flock online, there are companies ever more eager to jump on the dating bandwagon. This has lead to literally thousands of dating sites springing up online.

This would be confusing enough in itself but with the creation of affiliate programs there are now several thousand more portal sites pretending to be real dating sites but are actually using the member databases of the big dating web sites through partner programs.

As someone who has researched many dating sites I have found it extremely frustrating to click through several sites only to be lead back to sites I have already been at. So it would appear that there are not as many real dating sites as I had first thought, but this still leaves hundreds instead of thousands. So, it's still a head spinner in regards which one to join.

In addition to this you will find that all sites are not created equal. The big players seem to have the best featured sites with ever more features being added such as instant video messenging etc. Where as smaller sites will have more basic features.

(You will in fact find that most people join more than one site. You will find some of them at

http://www.sexy-american-singles.com

and while we can't list every site that is out there, we do list some of the top ones.)

At the end of the day, it really depends on what you are looking for that matters. In this regard, whilst the bigger personals sites have more features, like webcam chat etc, they are very generalised and are really only aimed at dating personals in general.

You will find they have an international membership base, so if you are only looking for someone in your immediate area, you may have a problem. If you live in one of the major developed countries such as America or Canada, you will find that the majority of websites are centered around these countries as they lead the field in the area of internet development.

However, if like me, you are living up a hill in the middle of nowhere, you're going to have to look further afield for friends and new lovers. Isn't this the whole point of the internet? To bridge borders and make distance no longer an issue!

Apparently not, as many profiles will state no long distance relationships and looking for people in local area only. Do not let this deter you as there are many more people that have no problem with distance or are fed up dating people in their local area.

Believe it or not, if males and females in your local area or even country won't give you the time of day, you'll be described as cute and a babe or hunk by people from another country. Simply because you are different than what they are used to. You don't look like them or talk like them. 90% of people find accents sexy. What's that I hear you say? 'I don't have an accent' I'm sorry to break this to you but if you speak to anyone outside of your own country, you will have an accent. You'll also be seen as the mysterious stranger. People are attracted to mystery, especially females.

Getting back on track here, perhaps you are not looking for plain vanilla dating. If you are looking for something specific in regards to sex or dating, this is where the internet excels. Niche dating is big business with everything catered for from every fetish you can think of to specific ethnicitys and even religion. So there's no reason why you can't find someone who has the same common interests or sexual perversions that you do. And now you can do it from the comfort of your own home.

I wish you well.