If you're single and lonely, looking for that special someone who will light up your life but have found it next to impossible to do on your own, you may want to try online dating services.

Dating services can either be for pay or for free. Demanding payment, however, is not a guarantee of quality service so you have to be careful about which dating service you select. If it's free, the same holds true, there are no guarantees that you will wind up with someone you can have a relationship with.

According to the website www.free-dating-service.info, some of the top dating-related websites are as follows: True.com, AmericanSingles.com, Date.com, Love Access, ThirtyPlusSingles, PerfectMatch, SingleMe, Dreammates, Yahoo Personals, WebDate, and U-Singles.

How do these services differ? Some allow you to post your personal profile for free. Others permit you to browse into their inventory of profiles of individuals who are also looking. One will let you do online chatting with members of the site.

What would each site be looking for? You can post a profile that lists your hobbies, interests, occupation, gender, looks, religion, income and location. Every dating service has a matchmaking component that aims to let couples that are compatible meet up in cyberspace.

Will that first date lead to a second date? It depends on you and your date, of course. But a word of caution: by patronizing a dating service, you are opening up your life to strangers so be careful what kind of information you divulge to the world.

The site free-dating-service.info is merely a portal that lists the afore-mentioned websites. It does not offer dating services per se.

It does however, provide more information that may be useful to someone on the prowl. For example, it subdivides the services offered into categories such as Alternative Dating, Adult Dating, Ethnic Dating, Regional Dating, Religious Dating, Specialty Dating and Speed Dating. There is something for everyone.

It also offers other data like a column on Dating Resources. This has Dating Articles, an Online Dating Guide, Dating Books and eBooks, Love Horoscopes, a button for sending eCards, Dating Fun and Games, and Dating Gifts/Flowers.

For the Dating Advice column, you get information about Dating Experts, Dating Ideas, Dating Tips, Self-Help, Advice Books, Dating Profile Help, and Dating Tip Sites.

To ad a little spice to the site, it has FDS Dating Quizzes which asks questions like: Is it Love or is it Lust?, Do You Like to Flirt?, Do You Know Your Celebrity Couples?, Is Your Partner Cheating?, and Are You Conservative or Risque Between the Sheets?

Furthermore, the site has a few ads related to online dating.

Some of the sites listed allow you to email your prospective date or even see a live video of them. You can enter chatrooms or try voice mail.

You will need a secure telephone line and Internet access, of course. But you get all this from the privacy and comfort of your own home, in front of your personal computer.

So what do you have to lose? Check out an online dating service now and see the results.