I’m creative, spiritual and outspoken, but a little lazy. I can be anxious and misunderstood at times. I love shopping, good conversations and have strong family values. Satisfied with the answers, I click “Submit” and my personality profile of 436 questions on eHarmony.com is complete.

The Web site is one of a nearly uncountable number of online dating sites. Google “online dating sites” and you’ll retrieve more than 11,000,000 search results. You can find Lawrence singles between the ages of 18 and 24 on several of the popular online dating sites. Lavalife.com reported 1,787 single females and 624 single males in and around the Lawrence area. DateKansas.com has profiles for 124 single males and 58 single females in the Lawrence area. With 26 percent of Match.com’s 15 million members falling into the 18-to-24 age range, search results found 240 single males and 173 single females in the area.

Some KU students have found success with online dating. Stephanie, Wichita junior, and her boyfriend talked online for several months through DateKansas.com before they began dating. At the time, Stephanie was dating someone, so she wasn’t really looking for a relationship, but exchanged messages with a few other members just to meet new people. One member’s profile in particular struck her interest because of his interests in sports such as snowboarding — not to mention, he was cute as well, she says. So, Stephanie decided to send him a message and the chatting began.

After several months of talking online, and after Stephanie broke up with her boyfriend, both decided that it was time to move the relationship status from online to. Stephanie recalls that he picked her up from her house and they had dinner at J.B. Stouts early January of 2005. The date went well and both have been dating since.

Derek Ralston, Baldwin City, junior, felt the need for a local dating service and launched Datekansas.com in January 2004. College students are too busy to get into long distance relationships. With sites like eHarmony.com and other services, people don’t have that guarantee that the person they meet with be in close proximity says Ralston, a business major.

Datekansas.com is prominently marketed toward KU students but all Kansas residents are welcome to join. The site currently has 500 members with the majority being KU students. Datekansas.com is a free service, so there is not charge for contacting another member as in most other sites. The site benefits students looking for long-term relationships or just friends.

DateKansas.com and most all online dating sites work in a similar manner. Each site requires you to fill out its personality profile before you begin searching. The personality profiles ask for your basic information such as age, gender and sexual preference, and then detailed questions about your characteristics and what you are wanting in a partner. You set up a user name separate from your first name or e-mail address, and from there, you can search profiles of singles locally or nationally. Dating services will even send you profiles of people that they think you may be compatible with. The browsing is free, but you have to pay a membership fee to contact other members. No need to worry about privacy either. Online dating services withhold your entire name and all of your contact information. All online sites maintain the anonymity of members. If you choose to e-mail a potential date through a service, it is done on a double blind system, so all a person sees is your user name. That way, a person can move at his or her own pace before giving out any personal information.

Match.com, close to celebrating its 10-year anniversary, prides itself on being the largest and oldest dating site internationally with 15 million singles.

And, “Size does matter,” according to Kristen Kelly who is a spokes person for Match.com.

Kelly believes that people in their 20s have lifestyles that are better geared toward online dating. With the Internet playing such a large role in this generation’s world, meeting people online just seems natural.

Match.com works like most other dating services. You create a profile, which contains detailed closed and open-ended questions. It asks for your likes and dislikes, and specifically what you’re specifically looking for in a partner. So, you control whole profile you would like to see says Kelly. Match.com can send compatible matches your way as often as you would like be it on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. The site also allows you to do your own searches based on geography, age or even hair color for that matter.

What’s different about eHarmony is that it is in the dating industry but not quite a dating service. Joe Zink, public relations manager for eHarmony.com, describes it as a “relationship service.” eHarmony also has a distinct way of helping singles meet. The site matches people through a 29 personality dimension patented system. eHarmony takes the 436 question personality profile and turns it into a mathematical algorithm where certain questions dispersed throughout the profile are grouped into categories. Based on the answers to those categories, eHarmony.com pairs you with someone who has similar choices.

However, eHarmony.com is not the best site for college students unless they are seeking long-term relationships. In fact, singles must be 21 or older to become a member. Approximately 5 percent of eHarmony.com’s members fall into the 21 to 24 range. Zink does suggest that college students who are looking for serious relationships to try eHarmony.com to see if it’s right for them because the profile is free and the matching is free. You only pay if you decide to start writing someone

Not everyone will have success with online dating though. Liz, Lawrence senior, doesn’t think that online dating is a bad way to meet people, but she feels that it’s just not right for her. She set up an account with eHarmony.com after her friends requested she should try it. At first, Liz didn’t feel that the matches eHarmony.com found for her reflected her personality. After a few weeks, however, Liz found a match that she felt she had a lot in common with. After talking for two weeks, both felt the connection was strong enough and decided to meet. The date went well and Liz never heard from him again. She could find no explanation for him not calling after the date, but it was enough to turn her off from online dating. Overwhelmed by e-mails and not feeling a connection with any of the other match eHarmony.com found her, Liz decided to cancel her 60 dollar membership.

Although there are downsides to dating online, Don Jones, a licensed clinical psychotherapist in Topeka, sees several benefits with online dating. First of all, it’s a positive way for those who are shy to meet people. You also get to know people through e-mails before meeting them. An added bonus for college students is that virtual dating in inexpensive up until you decide to meet them.

Online dating works well for Jones, who is 42, because going to the bars is not practical anymore, and he does not want to date someone at work. Online is a convenient way to meet others. He has been dating online for four years and has been in two long-term relationships since. Jones has been in his current relationship for 16 months and was in his previous one for nine.

At the same time, Jones advises people who are trying online dating to be patient and use caution. You have to rely on the honesty of others when dating online, and often time’s people misrepresent themselves. People can be married but will say they are single. Jones has been in a few situations where people would be much heavier than they portrayed themselves to be.

You also have to be patient for online dating to work. Jones talked to several people and went one five or six dead-end dates before truly meeting someone. Don’t rush into things too fast. Sometimes people may get excited about having a connection with someone else and start furiously send e-mails back and forth, which can scare the other person off or just lead straight to a dead-end if you run out of things to say to the each other.

Online dating is similar to dating in general. You will run into instances where someone you are not interested in will message you or vice versa says Jones. People will often times be rude or leave you hanging and not reply, which is Jones stresses never to do. Be honest, upfront and kind if you are not interested. Occasionally, you will run into to some freaky people or stalkers. Jones once had a woman send him naked picture through e-mail.

“You need to have tough skin. People with shoot you down, but just hang in there. Don’t let it get under your skin,” say Jones.

Personally, I am not looking for a relationship at the moment, but I did try out some of the online dating sites to give you a better perspective of what to expect.

eHarmony.com’s personality profile takes a good 45 minutes to complete, so give yourself plenty of time when registering. The questionnaire ranges from general questions about personal characteristics to in-depth questions about relationship styles. The self-description portions ask if you find yourself to be clever, submissive, aggressive, intellectual, communicative and so forth. The personal characteristics section asks about beliefs, work ethics and church involvement. The test is thorough but long using blurbs, true and false questions and “never to always” scaling questions. Personal interests — art, animals, cooking and dancing — are conveniently alphabetized, and E-harmony wrote encouraging phrases such as “try not to over analyze it” and “you’re doing great” to give you that extra drive to complete your profile. Some questions seem difficult for college students to accurately answer or relate to such as dating someone with older children.

Even after completing the detailed analysis, eHarmony.com was unable to find me a match. The sites reasoning for such is that 20 percent of the users do not benefit from that site, and I happened to be that one person out of five. Part of the reason may be that I preferred to be paired with another Muslim, and perhaps not many Muslims are using eHarmony.

DateKansas.com is a simple for page questionnaire that takes no long than 15 minutes to complete. DateKansas.com questions focus more on physical appearance but also question your interests topics such as religion, music, partying, traveling and sports and which languages you speak. The last page asks for a written description on your personality, your appearance and what you are looking for in a date. However, inappropriate sexual language is not allowed, so nothing scandalous. Ralston, president of the site, personally checks each entry to make sure the entries do not offend others, so take an extra minute or two to polish your words.

If you’re only looking for random play, lavalife.com provides you with the option to create a dating, relationship and/or an intimate encounter profile. I played it safe and chose to fill out a relationship profile with questions about romance, values and personal details. There is also a written portion, which asks for you to describe yourself in at least 100 characters. As soon as you complete the short 10 minute questionnaire, Lavalife.com allows you to browse through profiles and pictures of singles.

So, if you happen to run into the username “Sandy Mandy” with and opening line of “hey hey” on Lavalife.com, then drop me a line.