I found my love on a dating site

Darren met his partner on a Flirthut over four years ago and is now married and about to start a family. He wrote us a lovely message telling us that both himself and his wife had met on Flirthut in 2016 and were expecting their first baby. Thrilled to get such fantastic feedback from an ex-Flirthut member, we asked Darren if we could interview him briefly for his story, and this is what he wrote:

I met my love on Flirthut

I met Katie on Flirthut when I was 37. I was always the single one out of all my friends and it got to the point where people just assumed I'd grow old by myself. I was never a believer of online dating, and I certainly didn't believe that I'd find my love at the time. But the clock was ticking and I knew that I had to do something to change my life or I'd end up affirming my friend's assumptions. I remember waking up on my 37th Birthday and just thinking to myself that this year would be the year for me. I needed to put my skates on and start being more proactive in finding my life long partner.

I tried various clubs and groups at first, joining whatever I could in the hope my love would be there. But I found that the majority of people just weren't interested in meeting someone for a relationship, so I made lots of friends instead. A few weeks into being 37, I decided to try a few online dating sites. I signed up with Match first and ended up going on a fair few dates with women I'd met there. But there was just no chemistry. It felt like a conveyor belt just churning out women. A lot of the women had the same problem. They'd been on so many dates and were exhausted at the whole online dating process. So I decided to try a different tactic. I signed up with some of the smaller, more independent dating sites, including Flirthut. It was undoubtedly more challenging to find people given the number of users, but I expected that. In my area, at the time, I think there were only around ten women on Flirthut, and most of those didn't respond to any of my messages. Katie was one of the Flirthut members who I started a dialogue with. We were both astonished at how well we got on online. Because I wasn't overwhelmed with having to have different conversations with lots of people, I could focus on Katie more, and that just helped to build the bond. I didn't feel as if I was just 'another member' speaking to Katie. It felt more real and the connection was stronger. We arranged to have a first date, and the rest is history really. I found my love on a dating site, and that's something I really didn't expect to happen. Thank you Flirthut.
Darren - ex-Flirthut member 2016

Independent dating sites offer many benefits

Darren makes a good point in his story about independent dating sites like Flirthut. It's really easy to get washed away within the millions of online daters that some online services have. Finding a life long partner isn't a numbers game. It's about finding opportunities where you can focus your efforts on people that are more likely to be compatible with you. A lot of daters on commercial dating sites have already had lots of dates with various people. This can often bring out a cynical view of the online dating world, making it more challenging to find a prospective match. It can become very difficult to gain people's trust and to move forward easily. It's pretty normal to end up having multiple conversations with people and not focusing on each person individually. Ultimately, you end up dropping certain conversations because you just don't have the time to respond to them. Eventually, it all starts to become a bit of a blur. You can easily find yourself messaging people at the top of your list, potentially letting good matches slip away.

Fortunately, Flirthut has fewer members than the larger commercial sites and apps, so getting washed away in amongst our members isn't going to happen any time soon. That's something we're proud of. You're more likely to connect with someone compatible in a room of 20 people versus an auditorium of 2000. Size isn't always everything. When we're given too much choice, we tend not to appreciate things as much, as our options become more similar and we exhaust our quest to find that someone, or something unique.

If you're looking to find your love, Flirthut is an independent dating site that has new members signing up every day. One of those might just be the love of your life.