So What is a Dating Club Anyway?

I have been writing about relationships, dating and romance for a while now and I frequently encounter the term “Dating Club”.  I found it used even more frequently in recent months and I just couldn’t quite get what the difference was between a regular dating website and a dating club.

After a little research I began to see a pattern of differences, which although not dramatic, will impact both how you use the service, and what kind of outcome you get from it.

At first I thought that the differences might be in platform, services or process and in a sense there are some, but the main difference is around purpose.  Let’s take a step back and look at the big picture for a minute.

Online dating sites can be divided into general and niche.  The niche dating sites focus on a specific demographic, situation, preference or whatever.  These niche sites on the surface look very similar to a dating club.  As a matter of fact they look so much like a dating club that some niche online dating services started calling themselves dating clubs in error and causing much of the confusion.

A dating club relieves the pressure of dating.  Granted, there are like minded people there for a purpose, but they kind of just mingle and mill about and stroll around, to use physical world analogies.  There is no rigorous process to contact someone or anything like that.  They resemble more the social dating sites we currently have popping up into the scene.

Another factor is that they typically are geographically focused.  Hence you would find the Christian Dating Club of Chicago, versus just a general “all over the world” Christian dating club.  In a dating club you can take the “milling around” into the physical world and sometimes they have local events and such.  The best way to put it is that it’s a cross between a niche online dating site, and a local dating service agency.

I hope I helped clarify, if not, you can find more articles and commentary at OnlineDatingVille.com