It's hunting season... for love

When it comes to finding love, even Cupid can't spur singles to action faster than a New Year's resolution.

January marks the busiest and most profitable month for online dating services, with singles going online in record numbers to find soul mates or dates for Valentine's Day, many industry watchers say.

"You get this massive surge. People start to re-evaluate their lives. They don't want to marry this person. Or they want to break up with their boyfriends. Or they haven't had a date in a while. And they all set their New Year's resolutions to find someone," said Markus Frind, founder of plentyoffish.com in Vancouver, B.C., one of the largest dating sites in North America.

Plentyoffish.com, with 10,000 members in Washington state, projects a 30 percent spike in traffic from new and current members this month.

Perfectmatch.com in Bothell, the largest dating site based in Washington, expects a 15 percent jump.

"We have an annual poll that we do relative to New Year's resolutions, and finding love is at the top of the list," said Perfectmatch.com founder Duane Dahl, one of the pioneers of online dating.

Hitwise, which tracks Internet traffic, found that more singles visited dating sites in January 2006 than in any other month that year, mostly due to New Year's resolutions.

As a result, many dating sites now start major advertising campaigns around New Year's Eve.

For the online dating industry, this time of year is like a perfect storm, serving up the family holidays of Thanksgiving and Christmas, then the going-out holidays, New Year Eve's and Valentine's Day.

"You have the November and December effect with family gatherings, and all those questions get asked — 'Who are you dating? Are there wedding bells?' " said Mark Brooks, editor of onlinepersonalswatch.com, which tracks the online dating industry. "And New Year's Eve, people want to go out with their other halves. And of course, you have that build up toward Valentine's Day and you get the loneliness factor rising."

The surge is similar to the gym phenomenon, where a record number of shorts-and-spandex-clad newbies will hit the treadmills and Pilates classes every January to fulfill their resolutions to lose weight.

Of course, as any gym rat knows, most of those resolution-inspired members will eventually fall to the lure of happy hour or return to their old after-work routines.

Same with online dating. Traffic starts to drop after the week of Valentine's Day and faces a steep decline by summer, Brooks said.

Robert Glover, a Bellevue-based therapist and dating coach, explained: "By spring, you start to go outside. There are things to do. All of the sudden, you are not sitting at home on a holiday such as Christmas, New Year's Eve and Valentine's Day, thinking 'I'm a loser.' I strongly believe that the holidays bring out a person's strong sense to feel connected to somebody. When the holidays come and go, it's not on our minds as much." Feeling lonely "might still be there, but not [with] quite the same intensity."

Danell Long, a 37-year old single mother from Federal Way, didn't find Mr. Right in 2007. But January, she said, marks a new beginning. With all the singles logging on this month, "That's good news," Long said. "Hopefully, the choices will be a lot better, because I'm tired of seeing the same old faces online."

Tan Vinh: 206-515-5656 or tvinh@seattletimes.com