Finding Dates Offline
Published on January 15, 2010
On this blog I devote most of my attention to online dating but this isn’t the only method of meeting people. Just because you start dating online doesn’t mean you should forget about all the other options out there. Here’s a list of some ideas for meeting people when you’re not on your favorite dating site:
Meet-up Groups
I often recommend that people try Meetup.com as it has people of all types and ages meeting up for nearly limitless reasons. If you have an interest, there’s probably a meetup group for it. I know several couple who’ve met using Meetup but keep in mind that many of the people using the service will not be single! It’s not a singles service…although there are singles groups on the service.
Places of Worship
I’ve mentioned this before but if you attend a church, synagogue, mosque, etc., I would recommend trying another place of worship within your faith. For example, if you attend Church A, why not drive to Church B for a Saturday service? You can always ask other singles from your main place of worship if they would be interesting in tagging along. The point here is that many of us who attend worship services desire finding a mate of the same faith. Attending another place of worship provides you with some opportunity of meeting others with the benefit of meeting a potential requirement you have for the person you’d like to meet.
The Bar?!
Most people who turn to online dating have either become frustrated with meeting people at bars or never enjoyed it in the first place. Do I think the bar is a great place to meet people? No, not really. And I think it’s even more of a long shot if you’re actually looking for a relationship. However, just because you’re using online dating doesn’t mean you should totally abandon the traditional methods of meeting people. Providing yourself with more opportunities is always a good thing. As much as you might hate going to the bar, people do occasionally have real success there. Along the same lines, you shouldn’t be turning down any invitations to weddings or parties! The point is to keep all your options on the table
Let Your Friends and Family Know
I may be stating the obvious to my readers but dating online can be tiring. Always working to find that next date can get frustrating so why not let someone else do the work for you? People love to play matchmaker so why not let them? It seems that many people dating online keep the fact that they are single-and-looking a secret…or at least they keep the “looking” part quiet. There’s no shame in the desire to not be alone! The people who care about you may be able to help more than you would think.
Social Media
I’ve met some people who swear by MySpace for finding dates but I always found that a little…creepy. A general distaste for MySpace probably didn’t help much. However, there are some services out now that take advantage of your social media accounts such as Facebook. Different services work in different ways and here’s a few for Facebook:
- Zoosk: This is a very popular application that allows you to meet other singles near you.
- Are YOU Interested: A pretty simple application. You flag who you like and if they also flag you, you’re notified. This is a nice change a pace to meeting people since you can use it and then forget about it…and maybe have a nice surprise in the future.
Technically, I suppose these would be considered dating online but they’re unique enough that I wouldn’t consider them traditional online dating.
YourTango also discusses 6 Overlooked Methods For Finding Dates for some more good ideas.
Author: Brad
Brad initially struggled with online dating but over time became quite successful using it. He met his wife using online dating and has been giving advice and helping people improve their results since 2007. He has written a Free Online Dating Guide to help others find success with online dating. You can learn more about his personal experience using online dating and running this website here.
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