With Valentine’s Day around the corner, singles are joining online dating sites in record numbers.

Searching for romance over the Internet has become more and more popular over the years. Online dating is almost a billion dollar industry and growing every day.

Cyberdating is definitely a cheaper and more convenient alternative to meeting people. It saves you the cost of using a real-life dating service, it takes less time to find people to “chat” with, and it provides instant gratification. In addition, it’s a great service to those who are too shy to strike up a conversation face-to-face with a stranger. It allows more exposure for those who live in small isolated towns; and it’s perfect for those who can’t easily get out due to being a single parent, physical limitations, illnesses, or other conditions. Geography and demographics suddenly melt away. And, let’s face it, we all know that time stands still out in cyberspace when you have the ability to connect 24/7 from the comfort of your home.

The biggest positive factor may be the privacy. Nobody sees anything that you do unless you want him or her to, so you are free to make moves that you would never dare to do in your everyday life. You can define yourself, as you want to be seen. You can highlight parts of yourself that may not be that obvious. And you are free to look, from the comforts of home in your pajamas, or in your underwear for that matter. You can look and look and look. It’s a lot like going shopping, but simpler.

With the increased popularity of using computers to find dates, there’s lot of questions about this method of looking for, or finding, love. Some of the most common ones are listed here:

• Can you find true love on the web?
• I’ve been chatting with a great person online for some time now. We want to meet, but I’m afraid that it won’t work out. Should we take a chance and ruin a good online relationship?
• Can you really trust what someone is like from talking to them in a chat room?

Remember when you were a kid and you wanted to go out somewhere or do something but the only way to explain it to your parents was to say those dreaded words “everybody’s doing it”. In which you were quickly asked the stupidest question in the world; “If your friends jumped off of a bridge, would you do it too?” Well, the answer to that question today may surprise you. According to the US Census, 44% of American Adults are single; 40% have tried online dating.

It does not take a rocket scientist to figure out that these are pretty good numbers if you are looking for love. Lets break it down even further, that would mean that in the US, there are over 100 million potential partners available and of that number, oh about 40 million people that have taken the leap off that bridge and landed knee deep into cyberdating and are hanging around inside internet dating sites looking for a new connection.

The question now becomes what do you do next. Well, according to Sex in America: A Definitive Survey suggests, 63% of married couples met through friends and aquaintences. It’s the best way to meet people and make new friends….right? Even if you come across someone that is not right for you (as a potential partner), they could very well be your next best friend and the hookup to your love connection. Keep in mind these other numbers. For every 100 single women there are 86 single men. Now these numbers alter slightly depending on where you live.

The best thing about cyberdating is that it doesn’t matter where you are…right now. You can connect with anyone anywhere and all you need is a computer and an internet connection. Online dating not only covers the meet and greet part of dating it’s also serves to grow relationships too. People often use the internet to not only look for potential mates, but to flirt, ask someone out, and even look for ideas and locations to go out on that first date.

Now if you’re still stuck in that “old school” way of thinking, “let’s just go down to the local bar or nightclub”, it may be of some interest to you to know that only 2% of men and 9% of women say that they’ve actually found a relationship at a bar. And according to a report released by Pew Internet & American Life Project, even those that have not used a online dating site (yet), 31% of American adults knows someone that has. 26% know someone who’s gone on a date and 15% knows someone that been in a long-term relationship or married someone that they met online. Heck, my younger brother met his wife online, so I know for a fact that cyberdating works.

Don’t let the numbers fool you or scare you, but the reality is that the people that are the most insecure about dating online, are the one’s that have never tried it. Makes sense, doesn’t it? They don’t know any better. So, why are you still reading this article? Don’t you have some online dating to do?

Oh yeah, one more thing before I go, it took some economists at MIT and some University in Chicago to do a study to tell you that women and men who post a photo as a part of their profile had 15 times more responses than those without. So post an image or two of yourself.

So consider it! Get online and browse the profiles. Take a look at the our newest site Twin City Personals below and see what you can find. A lot of interesting, available singles are doing the same thing. Someone may be looking for a partner JUST LIKE YOU!

Join Twin City Personals before February 14th, 2010 and you will automatically be upgraded to a FREE Premium Membership for life ( $119.00 per year value) after your profile is approved!