There are a large number of online dating sites, and most of them have their share of benefits as well as drawbacks. There are a few, however, that are probably not worth you time, and you should know about them and avoid them.

One of these sites is the type that claims to be free – but then charges you to contact members or even read your emails. While this may seem like a good idea at first – you only pay to talk to people who interest you, and are not paying to receive emails that don’t appeal to you – this approach can backfire. First, it can often be difficult to decide from a profile whether you want to talk to a person. For example, someone who was on your “maybe” list would quickly move to your “yes” list if you receive one great email from them. This won’t be possible if you turn them down before paying to read their email. Another problem with these sites is that they can quickly end up being more expensive than a regular paid membership.

Any site that makes unrealistic promises should be avoided. If you see an ad that promises to deliver a larger number of single firefighters, for example, be very suspicious. There are a few niche dating sites out there, but generally there is not one single site being used by mostly models, military men, and so on. Often these sites are full of fake profiles, and you will only waste your time and become discouraged in the process.

Another type of niche dating site to avoid, are the ones that sound appealing (date only tall men, rich men, women with large breasts, and so forth) but have no way of verifying that their members are telling the truth. The truth is, unless they dispatch a representative to your home to interview you, there is no way to discern millionaire men from men who simply want to trick gullible women into sleeping with them.

If you are very serious about finding a long term relationship or marriage, some of the free dating sites should be avoided, or at least viewed skeptically. It doesn’t hurt to try them, but keep in mind that a large number of users simply view these sites as “hookup” sites, and are not serious about dating. If you do choose to use a free site, it might be best to also join a paid site and compare the two.

The last type of site to avoid are the types of sites that attract a much different age range than what interests you. There are several sites run through social media networking, and they mostly attract college-age singles. This is fine if that is the age you prefer, but for most older daters, these sites will quickly become annoying and useless. Be sure to investigate a site before joining, and get a feel for the age range each attracts – otherwise you will have limited success and may even lose your taste for online dating before you’ve even given it a fair chance.