Dating Sites for All Types

Online dating is big business. According to Online Dating Magazine, more than 20 million people will visit an online dating service every month and every day, there are 16,000 new subscriptions to the sites. With an average monthly charge of $20 and $30, the sites are raking in a chunk of change. In fact, Jupiter Research says singles will pay an average of $239 every year for online dating services, and those numbers are quickly climbing.

The use of smartphones has nearly doubled the amount of traffic on dating sites from mobile phones just this Summer. According to mobile media measurement group, Ground Truth, the use in mobile dating sites increased by 92 percent from the first week in June to the last week in July.

These days, it seems there are dating sites for everyone. On the heels of a dating website devoted solely to Beautiful People, a site launched on Monday geared to those "aesthetically challenged," as described by the site's creator. While Match.com and the Yahoo! personals seem geared to general dating interests, there are now more dating sites seems to offer its own benefits by gearing toward a niche. Perfect Match, Chemistry.com, and eHarmony all offer personal profiles to help you find someone who matches your values and interests. There are dating sites based on a particular religion or race, sites for single parents, and online dating havens for women who define themselves as "cougars."

And then there are those special interest sites. The newer site, Cupidtino, is geared toward Mac fans. Tastebuds hooks people up with similar music interests. And for the literary connoisseurs, there's the site Alikewise.

In all, there are over 1,400 different dating sites to choose from. And with a few hundred online-introduced couples announcing their engagements every day, it's no surprise millions of people continue to invest so much in the services.