Jump to conclusion and user reviews.
For this review I’m going to take a closer look at Muddy Matches. A country dating site that is also popular with townies.
If you like the idea of dating a hard working farmer, an equestrian, or simply someone who enjoys pulling on their wellington boots and romping about in the mud, then this might just be the right dating website for you.
But if the very idea of getting dirt under your finger nails repulses you, and your wardrobe only has room for designer suits and trendy labels, then you’re probably barking up the wrong tree.
About Muddy Matches
Founded back in 2007 by a group of close friends, the site has grown rapidly to become one of the UK’s leading dating sites in the country/farmer niche segment. And it’s not only for country dwellers and cattle herders, but also for townies who love pulling on their wellies and escaping the concrete jungles when the opportunity arises.
You’ll find that members on the site are aged from 18 to 80 years old. It’s really nice to see that there is no age limit to finding your soul mate today.
Although most members are looking for a relationship, there are also a few seeking friendships. This is most definitely not a casual dating site, so if one-night-stands are your thing, Muddy Matches is definitely not for you.
Creating Your Profile
You can easily join Muddy Matches by filling out the simple sign-up form that you can see below. If you are quick, it will take you less than 90 seconds.
Once you have signed up, it’s time to complete your profile. There are 5 different sections to complete, these include: general information, your introduction, interests, background, lifestyle and appearance. It’s important to remember that the more effort you put in here, the greater the rewards. So don’t be lazy! Make sure that by the time you have finished, you sound irresistible.
One you are finished with the writing part, all that’s left is to upload a photo or two, then wait for your profile to be approved. All profiles are approved manually to help prevent spam, but this usually only takes 24 hours at the most. But in the mean-time, you are still free to perform a search and view the profiles of site members. There’s also no need to pay just yet.
Features You’ll Find
You’ll find exactly what you need to make your experience on the site fun and enjoyable.
The website itself is well designed with an intuitive interface, and all of the most important tools are just a click away. It’s unlikely that you will need to reach for the help pages, but if you do, you’ll find that they contain answers to 99% of the questions that you may have, and their support team is also always there to provide help along the way. You are definitely in safe hands here!
One pretty neat feature is the “Muddy Test”. This is a fun way of helping to determine whether you are more mud lover, or town lover. You can then compare yourself to other site members to help find your ideal muddy match. You can view a couple of the muddy questions below:
The countryside events calendar will help to ensure you don’t miss out on any local happenings in your area or around the country, and also helps you to take the online experience offline. Sometimes it’s nice to meet people with similar interests in real settings too.
Searching for potential matches could not be any easier. Just enter whether your partner should be male or female, their age, and region, and hit the search button. It really is that simple. Of course, you may want to be a little pickier, in which case there is also an advanced search option available. Here you can enter preferences like appearance, lifestyle, background and interests. But if you are a little too picky, you may find the results slightly disappointing.
There is no winking here, but I do find winks terribly cheesy anyway, so they won’t be missed. But the most important communication tool is present, and that’s messaging. So you can send messages to members that catch your eye, and also read their replies. There’s also a favourites list where you can add your favourite members, and a blocking option for those who you’d prefer to avoid future contact with.
There is also mobile support in the form of an app for the iPhone and iPad. Unfortunately there is no support for Android at this time, but I’ve heard one is in development.
If you are looking for a little inspiration, then reading the numerous success stories on the site will most definitely provide it.
The Traffic Test
The last thing that you want to do, is to join a dating site, pay for a subscription, then discover that there are not enough members living in your area to satisfy your dating needs. I think we all know that money unfortunately does not grow on trees, so we can’t afford to waste it!
Therefore I recommend testing the mud first before diving in. Simply use their search tool to look for members within ten, twenty or thirty miles of your postcode, or however far that you are happy to travel. Of course, you could find your soul mate at the other end of the country, but it does make meeting up a rather an expensive affair.
This is not a dating site that has millions of members like match.com, it is after all a niche dating site, so don’t expect to find hundreds of members living within walking distance. Within 20 miles of my location, and between the ages of 25 and 33, only 18 members are returned. But this will vary greatly depending on where you live. And despite the low numbers, who’s to say that one of them is not going to be a great catch?
Within only one week of joining the site, I’d received a message from a girl living just over 20 miles away. So their members are most definitely active despite the lower numbers.
The Scam Test
Try not to be in too much of a hurry to complete your profile and upload your photos. I always recommend waiting for 7 days after initially registering before completing your profile. Why? Because if you receive any messages whilst your profile is blank, they are most likely sent by scammers. Real members do not message users with blank profiles and no photo.
My profile on Muddy Matches has now been active for a little over six months. In this time I’ve not received a single message that I believe to be from a scammer. So I think it’s safe to say that this is a well monitored and safe dating site.
They also check and approve each and every profile by hand. It may take 24 hours before you profile is approved, but it’s worth the wait.
Membership Prices
It may be free to join, but to make the most out of Muddy Matches, you will need to be able to write messages to, and receive messages from other muddy members. And to do this, you will require a paid subscription to the service. The 2013 membership prices for Muddy Matches are:
£6.00 per month for a 12 month membership
£9.00 per month for a 6 month membership
£12.00 per month for a 3 month membership
£18.00 for a 1 month membership
Payment is always made in one single payment.
What’s nice and very unexpected about this dating site, is that they don’t automatically rebill you at the end of your chosen membership period. This is actually the only paid dating site that I know that does not rebill you automatically. I think this says a lot about the people who run the site.
Good and Bad Points
Niche dating site for mud loving country fans
Most members are looking for a partner for the long-haul
Very easy to use and excellent support
iPhone and iPad app
No Android app
Small membership numbers
To Conclude
Muddy Matches is a great dating site run by people who genuinely love the country as much as you do, and their main priority is to help you find someone, not to take as much money of you as possible by using sneaky rebilling tricks.
This is one dating site that I’m definitely happy to use and recommend. Sure, it’s not as big as some dating sites in the UK. But don’t forget that it’s a niche dating site, you can’t expect to see the big numbers that you do on match.com. But then, not all members on match.com are avid country lovers, whereas on Muddy Matches they most definitely are.
So why not take a look on www.muddymatches.com today. You never know, you may just find your soul mate there.
Leave a Reply