Megafriends.com Review

Mega Friends is yet another site that promises to let singles sign up for free and meet someone fast.

It is also yet another site that seems to fall far short on the promise of its ad copy. There is also a bit of debate over whether or not the site is alive, or if it is only showing life from ghost traffic driven by keyword trapping.

First Impressions

On first sight, Mega Friends just screams “someone thought they could make money by downloading a template and throwing it online.” You have seen everything before; you just probably have seen it done much better. The profile pictures at least look real, the problem is they are distorted, which suggests they are from image scraping and not uploaded by real users.

There is a lot of meaningless phrases on the page and they do an immediate location scrape to try and stack the profile pics they show on their landing page as ones being from your area. The end result is that this site comes across as a poorly executed template site.

How does it compare in the real world?

The Alexa report on this site isn’t very complete. It gives a traffic registration that allows for a global ranking of 525,757 and a US ranking of 166,554; but then information about the site drops off sharply.

• The demographics show an age range of 30s to 40s
• Traffic is almost evenly split between the US and India

Given that there is no other information reported, except for where traffic came from, the fact that this site is using either a keyword piggyback or an AdSense campaign seems about right to get that ranking with no other registered information.

Features

There is nothing about this site or its features that is new or enticing. Almost everything is standard, but there are a few more features offered than the usual template site-

• Build a profile
• Send messages and IM if you have a paid account
• Upload pictures
• Video intros and chat
• 170 point custom searches
• See who viewed you and have extended search filters when you are a paid member.
• Buy virtual gifts

While there is nothing overwhelming or impressive about their features – except for how outdated they are and the programming of the site is – at least the paid membership options are reasonable.

Price and membership

Of course, registration is for free. In order to use what features they do offer you must select a paid membership program. The prices start at $29.95 per month and then descend in cost depending on the length of the membership you choose. The cheapest you can get it down to is $9.95 a month with a 12-month commitment. For some reason this is referred to as a “gold membership.” It doesn’t allow you to do anything golden; just try to interact with people who aren’t there.

The billing is done on an automated, subscription basis and of course, there have been a number of complaints about this to consumer organizations. What isn’t directly mentioned is how one is affording to buy those “virtual gifts.” The answer comes from additional token purchase in excess to your membership fee. This can add up quickly.

Conclusion

Mega Friends isn’t going to do to much for your social life. It doesn’t have the traffic or active membership to support a claim to being a vibrant and active dating environment. That said, there is something that Mega Friends does have going in its favor. Surprisingly, the even distribution of members between the US and India may mean that better use of this site is as a matchmaker vehicle between the two populations. If that is your intent, while you may be able to find a better sight with more up to date functions and code, you may not be able to find a site that offers the same affordability.

Even though they don’t have much to offer in bells and whistles, they do offer everything plus they have video intro and chat options – and that isn’t something that is standard to the template. Using this site successfully may mean that you have to make sure you identify clearly why you are on it and what you are looking for.