What does Plenty of Fish Cost and is it Worth Upgrading?

Should I upgrade my POF Membership

Well there are a few benefits to upgrading your POF membership. I don’t personally believe that most of the benefits on the site are worth it but you may disagree.

First the cost of POF (Plenty of Fish)

If you choose to pay over a 12 month period it means you pay less per month. About £6.78/$8.35 per month, £8.50/$10.46 for a 6 month Plan and a significant increase to £12.90/$15.88 for a 3 Month Plan.

If you’ve already been on the site awhile and have had a positive experience already I would recommend the 12 month payment for less per month. If you think it might be a flop just go with the cheaper alternative

The Benefits of Upgrading your Membership:

Being able to Upload more images to your profile: This isn’t much of a benefit. The only profile pic that really matters is the main one. You have more than enough on the free account.

Unlock every user’s extended profile: Not really that important since there’s rarely much to see.

See if your emails were read or deleted: This is a somewhat better feature although it can be discouraging to find out just how many dismiss your emails. However at least you know whether they’ve seen it or not. This can save you sending another message just in case they missed the last one

Experience POF ad-free: Not a significant benefit if you’re on a PC but if you use the site on a mobile the ads can be a bit intrusive.

Find out the date and time someone viewed your profile: Not that important. What matters is that they’ve seen your profile in the first place.

Send three gifts per day: I’ve never really seen any benefit in sending gifts. Sending a gift is pretty pointless and looks rather cheezy. They either like you or not and sending a gift can make you look desperate.

Some unpaid members who’ve paid for the pleasure of sending a gift consider it a bit of a bullying technique into getting someone to pay more attention to you then they originally would have.

See who viewed your profile and you voted yes/maybe on: Can be demotivating when you find out someone viewed your profile but never bothered to respond positively. I’d actually rather not know.

The only two benefits of signing up with POF are:

Stand out in all searches: This is much more important. The whole point of the site is to find a date. Standing out in all searches does increase your chances quite considerably, but only if you’re a women, or a great looking guy!

Why?
Because on POF, men significantly outnumber women. Therefore it tends to be men who search and initiate a conversation. Women can afford to just respond.

Show up first on Meet me: Showing up first on Meet me will benefit you considerable if you’re attractive, not so much if you’re a less attractive guy. If you’re an attractive guy you will get a lot more opportunities to respond, knowing that they’re attracted to you. If you’re an attractive female you will get a ton of meet me notifications.

The downsides of upgrading are two fold. Firstly the cost, secondly upgrading may make you look desperate. A long term member should be able to tell whether you’re a paid member or not, on the other hand it can make you appear more serious.

Conclusion

The site claims becoming an upgraded member can double your chances of meeting someone. However, I would say this is somewhat of an exaggeration. It really depends on whether you visually stand out and make a great first impression.

Upgrading does increase your chances of finding a date – marginally if you’re a not so attractive guy, significantly if you’re an attractive female.

Sarah Johnson

Sarah is a relationship and marriage counselor who provides relationship and counseling to couples. She also likes to write in her spare time.

How to Prevent your POF (Plenty of Fish) account from being Deleted

Why does POF keep deleting my account?

If you’re Plenty of Fish account was deleted there are a number of reasons why and some steps you can take to prevent it happening again

It can be frustrating having your POF account deleted, particularly if you’ve spent some time and effort writing out your profile and customizing it to your liking.

Why your POF Account was Deleted

According to the POF blog there are six reasons your profile can get deleted

1. You are looking for casual sex
2. You’re married and not separated
3. You’re a scammer, a spammer, or using a fake or underrate profile
4. You’re just plain rude to others on the site
5. You post inappropriate photos
6. You login from a country where PlentyOfFish doesn’t exist yet

Plenty of Fish is the largest dating site in the world and it’s very difficult to keep track of everyone’s profile and monitor private conversations. Therefore POF relies upon both human intelligence and artificial intelligence system to detect suspicious activity that fits any of the above.

While I’m not familiar with the technical methods used by POF to detect suspicious activity I do know that the system will look for regular expressions or patterns of behaviour that could indicate suspicious activity.

These could include words, phrases, searches or selections you make indicating that you’re just looking for a hookup, that you’re married, or that you’re just using the site for commercial reasons.

Being rude to others or posting innapropriate photos on the site may result in your profile getting flagged by other users, leading to your activities being more closely scrutanized.

Websites can track your IP address which means that they know geographically whereabouts you live. If you login from a country where PlentyOFFish doesn’t exist yet, this would be an activity that is easy to detect and flag by the system.

How to Prevent your POF account from being Deleted

Simply be more cautious of the words, phrases, searches or selections you make that could indicate suspicious activity.

If you’re looking for a hookup there are plenty of sites that cater to this. If you chose to use the site for this there are more discreet ways of going about it.

Do not message people too quicky as your activity could be interpreted as automated activity usually carried out by spambots.

Do not copy and paste the same message to multiple users. It’s common to copy and paste the same message to multiple users to save time. After all sometimes you have to send multiple messages just to get one positive response. Copy and pasting the same message can save time. However this could be interpreted as automated behaviour. Therefore try and vary your messages, even if it just involves changing a few words here or there.

Taking time to create and customize your profile will indicate you’re a real person and not a spambot automatically creating worthless profiles just to send out automated messages.

My last piece of advice is to simply be pleasant, humorous and interesting. You’re more likely to make a positive impression, find a date and not get your account deleted.

Sarah Johnson

Sarah is a relationship and marriage counselor who provides relationship and counseling to couples. She also likes to write in her spare time.

POF (Plenty of Fish) Username Search Hack

How can I find someone’s profile page on POF using their Username?

If you receive a message from someone via POF you may want to check out their page on POF so you can know more about them. Here is a quick and easy method.

Unfortunately POF has now removed the Search > Username feature so you cannot search for a Username on the site.

However, there’s a way around this problem.

Just go to the Google search engine and type:

Site:http://www.pof.com/ USERNAME

Replace USERNAME with their username

Their profile should appear in the search results, assuming their POF account isn’t too recent and Google has indexed their profile page.

Sarah Johnson

Sarah is a relationship and marriage counselor who provides relationship and counseling to couples. She also likes to write in her spare time.

Get a POF Free Upgrade with this Simple Hack

How can I upgrade my POF account?

This article shows you how to find out who wants to Meet You on the Plenty of Fish dating site for free without having to upgrade or become a paid member of the POF free Dating Website.

You may have noticed if you’re not a paid member of Plenty of Fish that you cannot find out who wants to meet you after viewing your photo and selecting Yes.

Here is a quick hack to get around that.

First make sure you can receive emails from those who want to meet you by Clicking on “Edit Profile” and “Mail Settings” and make sure “Send me an email when someone says yes to me on meet me:” is set to yes

When you receive an email in your inbox from someone who wants to meet you their username should appear in the Subject of the Email. Copy it down exactly making sure to copy any special characters in the name.

Next check out the POF username search hack to find out how to find their POF profile

Sarah Johnson

Sarah is a relationship and marriage counselor who provides relationship and counseling to couples. She also likes to write in her spare time.

Dating Sites Similar to Plenty of Fish

What are some Dating Sites Similar to Plenty of Fish?

If you’re sick of POF, here are some Free alternatives similar to Plenty of Fish. They all have their pros and cons and you will have a higher chance of meeting someone on some more so than others, the most important factor being the ratio of males to females.

Couplelizer

An easy to use site designed to encourage users to go on actual dates rather than spend hours chatting online. It also prevents fake photos and photo edits by only permitting selfies.

Users indicate their private information, name, surname and date of birth, gender and the place of living. Just a brief description of yourself and a selfie is enough. You will get to know the person in real-life
Click here to visit Couplelizer

FREE

Inner Circle

This dating app is not for everyone and not everyone can become a member. As the name suggests it’s more for high-end, exclusive members.

You don’t just join – you must be invited based on a strict screening process upon registration to ensure eligible singles with similar lifestyles. Members provide plenty of details about themselves and are selected based on their profession, education, age, interests and more according to the CEO.

If you’re a man, the greatest advantage of Inner Circle is that unlike POF and other dating sites there isn’t a disproportionate ratio of women to men. In fact, It’s so popular among women that the site owners had to have a one month ban on allowing new female members signing up. Also the Inner Circle hosts plenty of “exclusive parties” — held at some of London’s “most glamorous” venues. The Inner Circle currently hosts offline events on a regular basis for users located in Amsterdam, London, Paris, Milan, Barcelona and Stockholm.
Click here to visit theinnercircle

FREE

Tinder

This dating app is not recommended unless you’ve got a thick skin or very good looking. The disproportionate number of men to women mean you’ll have a hard time finding a date, even if you meet their criteria. Also some of the profiles will be spammers such as call girls. It caters more to guys than gals whereby and superficiality matters more than substance.

You signup through facebook and add a photo of yourself with just a few characters for the description. You swipe left to pass or swipe right to like when viewing other users profiles. If the other user swipes the same way then you’re a match. It’s somewhat similar to the Plenty of Fishe like function. Don’t expect to get a positive response soon as women are inundated by men trying to contact them.

One advantage of the app is the number of users. You should find people just about anywhere with the app and the live chat feature means you can talk straight away.

The paid version for $9.99 / month includes unlimited swiping, GPS spoof,a super like function and the ability to undo an accidental swipe.
Click here to visit Tinder

Free to Join but limited Swiping for non paying members

Bumble

Similar to Tinder in that Bubble’s main platform is a hot or not-style swiping game, in which you swipe left to pass or right to like. Also like Tinder the app requires facebook to signup but unlike Tinder communication is in the hands of females and is only available for 24 hours after a mutual match is made. This encourages females to be more active and initiate conversation. It also means men waist less time typing out a message to someone who is unlikely to respond.

It’s free to join and if you want extra functionality you can pay $9.99 a month. This will enable you to see people who have already liked you so you don’t have to swipe and wait for matches. It will also enable you to reconnect with expired matches, extend beyond 24 hours and provide an undo accidental swipe feature like tinder.
Click here to visit Bumble
Free to Join but limited Swiping for non paying members

OKCupid

OkCupid is more detail orientated than Tinder in that users tend to fill out a lot more information about themselves, so you can avoid those who aren’t looking for a serious relationship. However just like Tinder, men significantly outnumber women. Unlike Tinder and Bumble anyone can contact you without matching first. This can lead to women receiving too much unwanted attention.

It used to be a very popular site but has decline in popularity due to the rise of Tinder and Bumble which offers a more geo-specific experience.

I noticed from a number of reviews that customer service isn’t always that great – even if you’re a paying member – with some members claiming it was difficult to contact customer service and how they’ve been scammed by some users. Also some users claimed they got blocked for no apparent reason after using the site for a number of months.
Click here to visit OKCupid

FREE

Happn

Happns is quite a sophisticated app created by computer engineers who came up with the idea of finding people you’ve crossed paths with (within a 250meter radius). The app is designed to save you from missed connections, “boosting luck again”.

If you’re shy about approaching that person who gave you the look, maybe you can contact them via happn. Happn’s popularity has skyrocketed with 100,000 people signing up for the app within the first five weeks.

Just like Tinder it anonymously creates your dating profile using facebook. It will then use GPS tracking to present you with a list of people near you. How many times you’ve crossed paths with them and a map of roughly where you crossed paths, their photos, name, age and profession and what you may have in common.

If you like what you see, you can hit the red love heart and if it’s mutual you can start messaging straight away. Even without a mutual like you can send a charm, which they’ll see.

The majority of those using this app are under 40 and conversations can be hard to come by.
Click here to visit Happn

FREE

If you know of any dating sites similar to Plenty of Fish which you’ve tried yourself and liked, please mention them in a comment below.

Simon Hough

Simon is the ower of askboard.com. He is a web developer, online marketer and techie who enjoys testing and reviewing online software and services