maritalaffair.co.uk

What is maritalaffair.co.uk?

This is an interesting website and one that really opened my eyes to a different and fast growing part of the industry. You can probably guess from the name that the site is designed to facilitate dating between married people. When I came across the website I was intrigued to know how popular a service like this might be but not really surprised that it exists. It should come as no shock to anyone that affairs between married people are conducted on a regular enough basis that a service industry has grown up around the phenomenon on the internet. Perhaps the only shocker here is the size of it. After discovering maritalaffair.co.uk I started to look around for other similar services and it seems there is a serious marketplace to be tapped. Understandably there is also a fair amount of high profile publicity surrounding some of these sites and most of them proudly display the logo's of the media owners who have 'featured' their service in some way. Big names from national tabloids to the BBC and American news networks litter the homepages of these sites and appear almost as if they are endorsed by them - which is the point of course. The truth is, celebrity infidelity is a regular feature in the news and representatives of these websites are often asked to comment on the story, giving them an opportunity to promote their service quid pro quo. Far from endorsing the websites however the shows invariably decry such moral ambiguity but all publicity is good publicity if you're trying to drive traffic to a website. So maritalaffair.co.uk is just one of four big sites created to facilitate infidelity in the UK, others that will be reviewed on this blog are lovinglinks.co.uk, illicitencounters.com and ashleymadison.co.uk who have launched a UK version of their hugely successful US site. In terms of categorisation these sites are not regular dating sites but also not in the same camp as adultfriendfinder and the like. Putting the moral issue aside for the time being these businesses pitch themselves somewhere between the adult and mainstream dating services. Sex is implied but many members are not simply looking for a hook up, a great deal of them are looking for a solution to whatever problems have befallen their marriages. A common theme that exists throughout these services is the opinion that an affair may in fact save a marriage on the rocks. I am certainly aware of the argument that a sexless relationship can be revived for the good of all concerned by one or both parties seeking a bit of excitement elsewhere. In truth I don't feel qualified to comment on this aspect so I will leave the moral philosophy for other people. I can say however that more than a few people I have spoken to from these sites agree with it.

Moving on now to the specifics of maritalaffair.co.uk where "the grass is always greener!" I will start with their homepage where you are presented with a barely clothed lady promising all manner of naughty pleasures within. This page also makes a number of bold claims including Hitwise stats that place it as the 13th largest dating site in the UK. As I mentioned earlier there are also logos claiming coverage in The Sun, Telegraph and London Newspapers and most bizzarely The Alan Titchmarsh show (no seriously). The design is dark and somewhat sultry and reminds me initially of a Soho sex shop front. Moving inside to the registration process things start to appear less polished and a fairly simplistic form takes some details and immediately gives me access. It is quite clear that the site does not care too much about the quality of profiles for new users as there is no requirement to adequately fill in any details about yourself or what you are looking for in other people. As a newly registered user you have a basic account which restricts your activities to browsing the members and sending virtual winks, or buying gifts for other members. These gifts represent a serious revenue stream for dating sites, even ones claiming to be free, as micropayments for the gifts provide consistent incremental income even after members have paid their dues for premium access to the site. The entry level payment for full access to the site is £24.95 for 30 days and the maximum price which represents a full years membership is £124.95.

I paid the monthly fee and re-entered the site to fill out my profile and add some pictures, and amazingly received a mail from a member before I had even started. I uploaded a couple of photos which displayed the notice "waiting for approval" beneath them, presumably to ensure I hadn't uploaded anything unnacceptable to the website rules. By the time I had completed the profile to my satisfaction and uploaded my pics I had received 4 messages from members. Understandably I thought I had hit dating gold and moved to my inbox to read the messages. I quickly noticed a common theme though which deflated my hopes somewhat as they all contained hidden email addresses asking me to contact them outside of maritalaffair.co.uk. Still I dutifully emailed them all from my hotmail account and got poorly worded replies asking me to meet up with them on other dating sites. I have no idea if these sites are connected with maritalaffair.co.uk (which would make sense) but they all claimed to be and directed me to cupid.com and datetheuk.com with a huge list of email recipients in addition to mine. Some of these members sent more than one email but eventually their accounts disappeared from the site and new ones came to take their place. The only person I was able to get to respond to an internal message, after contacting every single member in the Greater London area, very generously offered to meet me for a date immediately at Baker Street tube station for a £45 travel fee or she would come to me for £75. Unfortunately I was unable to talk to any genuine members about their experiences of the service as I couldn't seem to find any. I didn't think much of the picture approval process either as it took about 30 hours before mine became visible to other members and I quickly discovered there was explicit porn available on virtually every other profile I viewed. So I really have no idea what took 30 hours if they are prepared to approve pictures of this type anyway. Another picture related curiosity that I stumbled on here is photos from members of other dating sites appearing on this one, without the consent of their owners. I suspect it happens more than I am able to prove but one woman in particular confirmed that she had genuinely uploaded her pics to one site only to find herself appearing elsewhere.

"SO SO HORNY MY PANTIES ARE WET THOUGH COME SEE ME ON CAM IF YOU DARE XXX"

So what does this all mean?

There isn't much else to say about this website as there are no other features worth mentioning aside from the usual search and message functions. The layout is poor and the lack of profile policing means it's not exactly fun to trawl through nonsense posts from scammers with pig ugly pictures of someone elses fat arse. At no point did I feel like I was even close to talking with a genuine woman about potential dating opportunities. In fact if anything I immediately felt like removing all trace of myself, and my credit card details from the site. I had no confidence in the owners or the members.

In Summary.

Don't bother. I really don't think anything good would come of contact with the members of this site. If any gems are truly hidden in the rough here then good luck to any of you brave enough to prospect there. Whatever you do please be careful with your personal details and be sure the person you are talking to is in fact who you think they are. If anyone offers to meet you in return for the cost of their travel expenses I would strongly suggest you ignore it - I'm not sure if it's illegal but it's definitely ill-advised.

So my first foray into married dating did not go so well but worry not, this is not always the case!