Reviewed On: 3/4/2008

Price/Period: $19.95/30 days



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Reviewed by Cupids Reviews Staff

Arabium.com is a web personals site that targets Arab singles for both friendship and dating. It offers all the services you would expect from most online dating sites and also does well at creating a sense of community, with features such as online members' forums and blogs. The site also has its limitations, which I will get into shortly, after I describe the signup process in greater detail.

When it comes to creating free profiles on Arabium, members are asked to enter typical criteria when joining. Many of the questions can be skipped, but you do need to provide a couple of written essays, one about yourself and the other about your potential partner. The profiles are reviewed before being posted, which keeps any ill-intentioned riffraff out. If you are an upgraded member, your profile will be approved faster.

"If you send a sign of interest to a member who has paid for a subscription, he/she can email you and you are free to reply to him/her at no cost, which is perfect for getting your feet wet. "

Search options are a bit limited on the site. The most debilitating aspect is that it only allows you to search for members by country, state/province and city. Entering a city is an optional box during the signup process and has to be typed into a field manually rather than by selecting from a dropdown menu, so you cannot be sure that every person will necessarily enter his/her specific location with the same accuracy. There is no zip or postal code proximity search available.

If you send a sign of interest to a member who has paid for a subscription, he/she can email you and you are free to reply to him/her at no cost, which is perfect for getting your feet wet. You cannot initiate emails or instant messages, but this should not interfere with your decision-making process. You can use group chat rooms, as well as audio and video chats, if you upgrade, though.

It is free to create your own personal blog on Arabium and you will find some interesting bloggers, some of whom include pictures of various trips they have been on. Others simply seem to leave a greeting to everybody on the site. You also can read posts on the message boards before paying, but to submit your reply to someone else's message is supposed to require a premium membership. Additionally, free links include horoscopes and world news.

Currently, the biggest issue with the site is the lack of visitors to its pages. It just does not seem to do that well at promoting its services. As a paid subscriber, I always appreciate the ability to contact all levels of members, but I guess the lack of truly localized searches might still take its toll as far as getting people to join. Arabium.com has potential but, as of yet, has not tapped into its sizable audience of possible members.

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