How Do Personal Ads Work?

Almost any newspaper or magazine with classified advertising pages will have some kind of 'personal' section, containing adverts for people wanting to meet for friendship or dating. These 'lonely hearts columns' will usually be split into a number of sections: for example, men seeking women, women seeking men, men seeking men, and women seeking women.

Traditionally, you either place your own advert or respond to someone else's ad by post, and letters are forwarded to the relevant box number. However, it's becoming more and more common to find a telephone-based service. This allows you to place a free ad by phoning a number and leaving a voice message for potential dates to listen to. At the same time, you will normally also be given the option to create the advert that will appear in print. Alternatively, you can ask for the advert to be created for you, based on the details you leave in your message.

The publication then prints your advert, which is listed with a dedicated phone number. Interested readers can then call up the voice mailbox, listen to the recorded message and decide whether to leave their details.

Anyone who has placed an ad will be given a number to telephone to collect any messages that have been left for them, and then it's up to them to decide if they want to respond.

Personal ads can be a relatively cheap way of meeting people as calls can cost as little as £1; however, calling small ads can become very addictive and you could end up running up a huge phone bill!