For a start, new members are interviewed and vetted. This tells you instantly that this is no common or garden dating site. Most sites will simply check new profiles for anything that looks like a con artist or which contravenes their terms of use by including clearly visible contact details. Dateline Platinum uses trained consultants who interview the prospective member and then write a clear and concise profile. This kind of close interaction with their clients ensures not only a secure and exclusive membership, but also provides more accurate prospective partners within this professional dating agency.

Singletons can apply to join on-line, by phone, once you have joined Dateline Platinum arrange a house call from one of Dateline Platinum’s trained consultants. The consultation process is detailed and precise and (if your application is approved) results in a profile that looks impressive and informative. Members can choose to receive information about any suitable matches by post or use a secure members only website to match themselves.

The site incorporates the Club Sirius Dating Service which you may have seen advertised in the broadsheet newspapers over the many years, so they’ve a wealth of experience in both on-line and off-line dating. If you’d like to know more there’s a brochure request form or call them on their free-phone number 0800 840 1866. Don’t forget to mention where you saw them advertised!

If you can afford an expensive gift, a dinner at your favourite restaurant (perhaps the place where you proposed or got married or had some other significant occasion) would be special. Or you could take her to a romantic destination for a few days or on a short cruise or to see a play or concert that everyone is raving about.

If your desire is to buy her something personal that she will enjoy, in addition to the always-appreciated jewellery or flowers or candy or beauty products or perfume, you can either buy her a negligee or lingerie or give her a gift card to pick the gift out herself. You can take her there to try the items on for you to see and approve, too. You could also treat her to a visit at the spa or beauty parlour.

If she has a special collection, that makes it easy if all you need to do is look for an unusual angel or whatever item she most enjoys. Perhaps she has a favourite colour, and that creates a wide variety of ideas since you can go into a store and look around for that colour in all the different departments.

If she has a hobby, that, too, makes it easy whether she’s a golfer, plays tennis, bowls, dances, does handicrafts, works puzzles, or has mentioned wanting a new book by a favourite author. You could present her with a book of poems and read them to her.

Does she like to cook and bake? That opens the gift buying up tremendously as there are so many presents for all prices that you can find in a store devoted to that type of item or in the housewares section of her favourite department store.

If she works, go to an office supplies store and look around. You will get ideas for gifts in all price ranges depending on what you know she’s been needing whether it is a computer accessory, a new briefcase, a picture frame for her desk in which she can put the new family picture, etc.

The main way to find out what your sweetie wants is to listen ahead of time to what she has to say or what she mentions needing as she works in the kitchen, living room, bedroom, office, or is out with you window shopping in stores. Your buying her something that she has talked about wanting will make her know that you pay attention to her desires and will make you dear to her heart.

Singles are turning on their computers instead of daytime TV as two of the dating sites with the most traffic found more people were logging in for love at 3pm rather than the usual busy time of 10pm.

Singles break the ice looking for love

Mysinglefriend.com says web site visits were up 55% on one afternoon, while Singles365.com says visitors were up by more than 25% on the same days last year.

January tends to be busy online as many people make a New Year resolution to find some romance.

TV property developer Sarah Beeny, founder of Mysinglefriend.com, says the snow was “proving to be an icebreaker for singles out there”.

“January has always been our busiest month, but this surge in traffic is unprecedented.”

The big increase in people using dating websites comes at a time when the industry is already booming.

Online dating set to generate £368 million

Forrester Research predicts the number of Britons paying to use online dating agencies is set to grow from 2.6 million people in 2006 to six million by 2012, creating revenues of around £368 million.

This surge is put down to more computer literate adults, the stigma attached to belonging to dating agencies has gone away, and the ease of joining up online makes people more comfortable and confident to take the plunge.

Less traditional dating websites also report more business during the cold snap.

IllicitEncounters.com – a web site for married people to look for an affair – says a record number of new members have joined – mainly from areas worst hit by the weather.

The firm says that in just under a week, 2,567 new members, 37% more than usual, signed up and as a result has needed to take on additional staff to cope with the rush.

A text message in the middle of the day lets your wife know you’re thinking of her even when you’re working. It tells your boyfriend that he’s important to you. It makes your girlfriend feel like a million bucks because you remembered her interview at 10 o’clock. It helps your husband get through another work day.

If you’re a romantic and you want to express your love for someone through a text message, it’s really quite simple. Intend to be honest as you write and think of ways to express powerfully but concisely. Anything you could say in person or in a handwritten letter, you can say through a text message. You only have a small amount of space, though, so no need for any filler. Get right to the point.

“I love you” (or if you want to be a true texter, “i luv u”) goes a long way in any relationship. Receiving a text like that can touch some more than you ever thought possible with three words.

Try some of these romantic text ideas:

“To the world, you may be one person. But to me, you are the world!”

“I love you because….. fill in the blank.”

“ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTVWXYZ…what is missing? Im missing U!!!”

You can also get incredibly creative with romantic text messages. Some ideas might be creating a scavenger hunt and sending text messages at scheduled intervals throughout the day to send your beloved on a hunt for little gifts or notes. You could text a meeting place and time for a romantic dinner, a couple of lines of mushy poetry, or something that made you think of him or her.

Text messages are certainly the in-thing for expressing love and building romantic relationships, but there still is nothing compared to a handwritten letter with an actual stamp or a candlelight dinner for two where you can quote some rehearsed lines or express your sincere love. Go right ahead and send those text messages, but don’t hesitate to take some extra time and energy to do something romantically old-fashioned as well. You might just win your beloved’s heart for the rest of time.

“Just want to share with all Lovesail ‘wannabees’ that love appears in unexpected ways. I have been in touch with anon on this site for 6mths in friendship and we have chatted a lot on-line. On meeting, we surprised ourselves by finding that we had a great deal more in common than we expected and the man that came to dinner a week ago is still here and may well decide to relocate from abroad to live here. True to Cilla Black, “you might need your hat”! We both agree it seems too good to be true, but as in all fairy stories, there is a happy ending.” – Mummysailor