The search for love can and should always begin at home. Literally speaking, that’s as easy as sitting down at your home computer and flipping through our list of dating sites to pick one. Just don’t forget to follow the suggestions set out in other parts our online dating course to guide you! However, when it comes to choosing a dating site, there is one factor that should weigh more heavily than the rest. That factor is the amount of members in your area.

Most people don’t have the means to be trotting all over the globe every time a foreigner (ie. anyone outside a reasonable driving distance) sends a smile their way. Even if you do have the means, it makes people question your mind when you go shooting off here and there for the promise of long-distance love. The search for your right match should begin nearby. The distance is really up to you but it is something to consider before you join a dating site. Are you only interested in finding people within a 20-minute drive or is a two-hour trek just as acceptable? Figure out what you’re willing to accommodate before you go searching for people in your area and you will be better prepared to make a decision on any given sites worth to you.

"Finding dates is a lot easier when you have many options in your area."

Dating sites offer different search features when it comes to sorting through their member databases. Some sites will allow you to input the name of your city and it will spit out any of the members who have joined from there. Other sites will only allow you to search by state, province or country. Still other sites allow you to sort members based on their distance or radius from you. To do this, sites require that you input your zip or postal code. They can then make calculations to tell whether a member is within a certain distance such as five, 25, 50, 100 or 1000 miles from your location. The sites that allow access to this feature for free are the ones that you should look for. Since you’ve already figured out how far you’re willing to travel to meet a stranger from the Net, you should already have some idea of the maximum allowable distance. Keep in mind that some sites will allow access to localized searches, such as within 100 miles of your location, but limit searches within a closer proximity to those who have paid for their memberships. This may or may not be a bad thing depending on your location so you’ll have to make the call on that one for yourself. Unless you are experienced with online dating or have recommendations from friends, we highly recommend not joining a dating site that doesn’t allow you to do localized searches. There are just too many that offer proximity searches for free to take a chance on a site that doesn’t.

Finding dates is a lot easier when you have many options in your area. Someone living in a rural community might have a different opinion of an acceptable driving distance than someone who lives in a major urban center. Whatever your situation, you should make up your mind on how far you are willing to travel for love and figure out how many members a site has within that distance before unwrapping your credit card and laying it down for any dating site membership.