How to Make the Most of Your Chemistry.com Free Trial
Published on March 1, 2010
In my last post I discussed some of the good and the bad regarding the usefulness of Chemistry’s 14-day trial. This time I wanted to offer tips to those who do decided to take advantage of this offer. My hope is to provide advice that will help make the most of the dating service while it’s free.
1. Mention You’re Trying the Free Trial
One part that is difficult with any online dating service trial is that the people you contact don’t realize you may be gone soon. I would recommend briefly mentioning this in your profile, but in a way that works. Something like “I’ve always been interested in online dating and since I saw the free trial here, I thought I would try it for a few weeks”. This way, those who you contact realize there is an expiration date on how long you’ll be around to chat.
2. Contact All of Your Matches the First Day
This needs to happen sooner rather than later. Two weeks will fly by faster than you know it and life always has a habit of getting in the way of our personal lives. Don’t tell yourself that you’ll get around to contacting people tomorrow. In the case of a free trial, you just don’t have the time. I recommend contacting everyone and I took my own advice when I used eHarmony (which is a similarly structured service to Chemistry). If you know with 100% certainty that you would not want to date someone then skip them but if there is even a sliver of doubt, I say contact them. And yes, you should contact those without photos as well.
3. Try to Have Some Fun!
As you get new matches contact them as well. Don’t feel like you have to take things slowly. You can ask someone out once you’re far enough in the communication process to communicate freely. Meeting for coffee is a great way to safely meet someone and you’ll learn more about them in your first few minutes than in dozens of emails. Remember to enjoy yourself and not to see meeting people as your job or mission. Be open to the experiences that present themselves to you as you talk to more people.
4. Evaluate the Service
After not too long your time will run out on the service. Hopefully you’ve had a few dates and maybe even have a prospect for something more. Take this time to evaluate how you feel about the service. Did you enjoy it? Do you think you could have real success with it? How important to you is it to find a meaningful relationship? Many people are scared off by the price of online dating. Chemistry isn’t the cheapest service in the world by any means but you need to ask yourself how important is being in a relationship to you. How much money will you spend in other areas like going to a bar or a club when you’re really just doing so with the hope to meet someone? You may already be spending far more money trying to meet singles in a round-about way than you would if you were subscribing to a dating service.
Only you can answer these questions. If you hated the service or feel that a relationship isn’t necessary, then obviously you should move on. If on the other hand you enjoyed using the service and have no idea where your next date will come from if you stop using it, you need to do some serious contemplation as to the value this service could bring to your life.
5. Remember the Free Weekeneds!
Some services have free events from time to time and I always try to inform my readers these events for Chemistry or eHarmony (or rarely Lavalife). If you’ve tried the free trial and decided that it’s not for you, remember that when the free weekends occur you can log right back into your account. You won’t have to recreate your profile and you’ll likely even have gained some matches that you can now talk to. On the free weekend, just follow the rules laid out here. Yes, 3 days is much shorter than 14 but you’ll already have experience and you never know what could happen!
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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