Is the Chemistry.com Free Trial Worth It?
Published on February 28, 2010
Looking for details on the most recent Chemistry free weekend? You can find it here: Chemistry Free Weekend August 2010. If you’ve missed the free weekend keep reading as Chemistry offers on-going free promotions.
As of today, Chemistry offers a 14 day trial to try out their service for free. Recently I received the question: Is the Chemistry.com free trial worth it? At first, I thought this was an odd question. If it’s free, how could it not be worth it? However, the more I thought about it the more I realized the real answer is “it depends”.
Can I Have Success with Chemisty.com in the 14-Day Trial?
This is the question that was actually being asked and I suspect this is what many people mean when they ask if it is worth it. They’re really asking: Is it possible to use Chemistry.com for 14 days, meet that special someone, and then be done with online dating altogether? To these people, a free trial to a dating service that doesn’t end in relationship success won’t be worth it. With that in mind, to those people I say, no it probably isn’t worth it to you. Anything is possible (see my example at the bottom) but honestly, if this is how you’re measuring the worth of the free trial then it’s likely not going to be what you’re looking for.
The issue with services like Chemistry.com is that they limit the number of people you’ll be able to contact. eHarmony does the same exact thing. This is a part of the service and it’s actually a selling-point for using a service like this. Quality over quantity is what these services are selling and that’s great, you just need to understand what you’ll be looking at using a service like this.
The limitations of these services is why they are the most common to give away free weekends. The free weekend is great (and they really don’t have to do it) but because you are limited by both time and matches very few people are going to be able to line up a substantial number of dates in a 3-day period. Yes, a 14-day period does give you more opportunity and I’m sure there are people who have found great relationships using the free trial…it’s just not easy. Even at a site like Match.com where you can contact whoever you want, it takes most people a substantial amount of time to meet someone great for them.
The second thing that may not make the 14-day trial exactly what you’re looking for is that the communication process for these types of dating sites can take a little bit longer. This means that you have to work quickly and hope that the people you are contacting do exactly the same (this is even truer on the free weekends).
Why All of This is the Wrong Way to Look at Chemistry’s Trial
All that being said, I think this is the wrong way to measure the worth of the service. Really, there’s no way to test the service without this type of free trial and you might find that you actually like using it. Also, 14-days is unprecedented as far as free trials go. Most services offer no free trial at all and then a few others offer 7-days. I know of one service that offers 10 but none aside from Chemistry that is offering 14.
If you’re looking at a free trial and says to yourself that it’s not worth it if you’re not in a relationship two weeks from signing up, I’m afraid you’re doing yourself a disservice. First, because you could have fun using the free trial. Second, because you’ll get to try out the service to see what you think of it. And third, because if you think that most people are able to find strong, well-matched relationships in as short a period as 14 days then you’re in for a let-down as you begin to use whatever dating service you decide on. Online dating services can take time but it can be well worth the effort. If you can just look at the free trial as something new and fun to try, I think you’ll be far better off in the end.
It is Possible to Have Success in Two Weeks
I don’t want to suggest that most people can have success in two weeks because I think it’s the exception, not the rule. However, my wife had only been using a dating service for about a week when we met. So in her case, that short of a time period worked great. So it is possible! I’ll say again it’s not common and I was dating online very aggressively for a year before we met. In the end, we both feel we were very lucky…my luck just took a little longer to show up.
You may not meet the person you’re going to marry in 14 days at Chemistry but that doesn’t mean the free trial doesn’t have value. Look at it as an adventure. Chat with a few people and maybe go on a date or two. Sure, it may not lead anywhere permanent but you might actually enjoy using it and may realize that a service like this is actually worth your time.
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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