Out of the blue, despite having de-listed myself on the dating sites, I got e-mail from both Yahoo and Match.com today, both of which were ineffective in the first place. (Actually, I did meet Cath on Yahoo, and we dated eight months, but she was the only person to respond.)

Here's what's funny though. Yahoo included three profile pictures, all of which I've seen probably a hundred times. Match sent a crazy low-ball offer to try to get me back in, at a rate of as little as $4.25 a month! That's pretty desperate.

eHarmony is the only one that paid off. I had a lot of dates and responses (though none of them were really "right" other than Diana, obviously). I have several theories about why that's the case. First of all, it's less popular, so there aren't a ton of people with stale and inactive profiles. They match people for you, so you aren't endlessly browsing. If someone is off the market, they generally turn their matching off. It costs more, so if you're not serious, you don't spend the money. And finally, their marketing angle is all about people meeting and getting married, which doesn't appeal to the get laid crowd. Oh, and it's 2 to 1 female, which works for dudes since the others are at least the opposite ratio or worse.

So I got a good deal around Valentine's Day for $60 for three months, and in March I was matched with Diana. We didn't meet until the end of May (she had family issues in Florida), but the system actually worked, and we're trying to be one of those annoying couples on the TV commercials.

I'm still surprised that dating sites aren't entirely free. I know there's a guy pulling down $20k+ a month doing a free site supported by Google ads, and it's the most terrible and hideous thing I've ever seen. But as I've learned with eHarmony, there is a certain benefit to having only paid members because there is more sincerity in terms of desire to meet someone.