By Marin Decker
LDS singles Web sites are no longer just a fad, according to those in the industry. Two sites, LdsSingles.com and LDSfriends.com, boast memberships of around 80,000, and other, smaller sites are growing as well.
'The idea has caught on; lots of people are using these services, and so lots of people are trying to build businesses to provide that service,' said Kevin Koger, vice-president of business development for LDS Singles On-line. 'It''s one of the bigger markets on the Internet right now, and so a lot of people are jumping on that bandwagon.'
Most creators of LDS singles sites got involved because they saw a need, and thought they could meet it successfully.
For Bob Haupt, founder of LDS Singles On-line, a friend''s bad experience with a brick-and-mortar dating service encouraged him to start his Web site for LDS singles. Roger Brown, creator of LDSFriends.com, began his site because of a friend''s suggestion that he start a site for members of the church to meet other members.
At the time Haupt and Brown started, there weren''t any other LDS singles sites. Now, on-line dating seems to be becoming more and more mainstream for LDS singles, said LDSMingle.com vice-president of operations Ryan Sanders.
'Initially, people looked at on-line dating with a leery glance,' Sanders said. 'Blind dating is kind of a scary thing when you first think about it, but ultimately it''s become more mainstream because people don''t have time to socialize like they once did. People are tired of going to a dance or outside the LDS community to a singles bar or something like that.'
Koger thinks the number of sites legitimizes the market in general. 'There''s still definitely a stigma out there of going on-line to find somebody to date,' said Koger. 'We still get comments, ''Isn''t it just desperate people who can''t find someone any other way that get on-line?'' And we tell them, of course, no, you''d be surprised at how many normal, great people are on-line.'
Noting the proliferation of LDS singles sites, one smaller site, SingleSaints.com, has tried to gear itself specifically toward college students.
'We''re younger, more geared towards humor, not as focused on romance and marriage as much as fun and dating,' said site founder Randy Tayler. 'When I started, there were a few other LDS dating sites, but they all seemed really cheesy. I wanted one that was less pink hearts and more just fun.'
Many sites have a large international membership, and LDSMingle.com is even available in Spanish.
Whatever their approach, LDS singles sites seem to be successful, even more so than mainstream sites.
'We have our reporting structure where people can tell us when they''ve gotten engaged or gotten married, and we''ve had over 1,000,' said Koger. 'Match.com, which claims to be the largest one out there, with close to six million members on their site, just a few months ago announced that they had hit a thousand successes. We''ve got 80,000 - our ratio''s a lot better.'
Employees think the fact that members have a religious common ground is what makes their Web sites more successful.
'On another site, when you find someone that''s interested in hang gliding, it might not be until you meet in person that you find out that they also enjoy Neo-Nazi rallies, or something,' said Tayler. 'So, with ours, you''ve got a basic commitment to righteousness and family down pat.'
Though a large number of most singles sites'' members are from Utah, it seems per-capita success numbers are better outside of Utah, according to Koger.
'This service is tailor-made for someone who lives in areas where there aren''t a lot of other people for them to meet,' said Koger. 'We have a lot of successes that people report back and tell us about where they say, ''You know, I was living in Texas, and he was in Alaska, and how else would we have found each other?'''
Most sites do not match singles up via computer, but instead let them find each other by searching member profiles.
'There is no scientific formula for matching people up,' said Koger. 'There are some criteria that can help give you a better shot of maybe being interested in the person, but it really comes down to, in the worldly sense, chemistry, and in the gospel sense, the spirit guides you to the person who''s really right for you.'
Tayler agreed. 'I don''t think that any computer program is going to truly find a match for you,' he said.