REMEMBER the days when you’d meet someone special at bar or party and you’d shyly introduce yourself? You’d spend the night agonising how the meet had gone, and wondering whether they’d call.

Then you’d spend the whole next day pleading with the phone to ring.

Thankfully, these days, dating is a lot easier. One of the greatest aspects of this digital world is our opportunity to connect. We can connect with anyone, anywhere, and with just a few taps on your phone.

Dating is now easier than ever. It doesn’t matter where you live - the city, the coast or the country – you have the ability to meet people and form meaningful bonds from the comfort of your home.

Regional Australia is enjoying online dating more than ever. Around 40 percent of users of Australia’s most used online dating site, RSVP, are logging on from regional areas in search of that one special person.

It can be scary taking that first leap, but RSVP Chief Executive Officer Dave Heysen says don’t be afraid to give it a go.

“Online dating now is just another, if not better way, to meet people,” he says

“And with thousands of people in your area already using it, why not give it a go?”

A big question for many would-be online daters – is online dating safe, especially from scammers?

Online dating is a great way to meet people, but it’s important to ensure you always protect your privacy. Wherever there are a lot of people, there are always going to be a few bad apples looking to take advantage.

There are safeguards built into dating sites to help weed out the scammers. Sites like RSVP use technological safeguards to check the location of members so people outside Australia can’t create a profile on the site. RSVP also have a full local customer service department, so if something seems suspicious, users easily reach out and talk to one of the friendly team members.

Online dating is very affordable.

You don’t have to pay upfront to use a service like RSVP - it is free to use the site and free to take that brave first leap of reaching out to someone you want to get to know better.

All you have to do is send a ‘kiss’, and if you get a positive ‘kiss’ back, you can buy a stamp to talk to them privately. This means that before you’re spending any money, you have a clear indication if the person you’re about to talk to is interested in you. There is a 30-day guarantee on these stamps, so if the person you’ve sent a ‘kiss’ to doesn’t talk to you after you purchase a stamp, you get your money back.

Some people think that online dating is for a certain type of person. But dating websites are now the second most preferred way to meet a new partner, behind being introduced by family or friends. More people are finding it fun, easy and full of potential.  

Not to mention, according to RSVP, in Northern NSW alone there are more than 12,000 active members, in southern NSW 20,000 and in Canberra alone, more than 5,000.

“Nearly half of our user base comes from the regional areas of Australia, so we want to make sure people in those areas know there are people just like them looking for connections,” Mr Heysen said.

“You never know, you could find your keeper.”

It may be six degrees of separation in the big smoke, but in regional towns this can be much smaller adding to many people’s fear they may see, or be seen by, people they know.

While online dating used to be a last resort, now it’s just another, and in some ways, more efficient way to meet people. With so many Australians now using this method of dating the likelihood of seeing someone you know does increase.

But there are safeguards to this too with filters which can be used to select how many kilometre radiuses you’d like to see matches from to ensure you don’t see people you don’t want to.

This article was sponsored by RSVP