Broadening horizons is key to online dating success

Lifestyle over distance; Spreading the net, not narrowing the field, is key to unearthing your perfect Muddy Match

Did you know the average search radius set by singletons on online dating apps and websites in the UK is now a staggeringly low 15 miles from home?

Online dating logic would have you believe that love will land on your doorstep; that narrowing the field, not broadening your horizons, is the answer.

At Muddy Matches we know love doesn’t deal in logic. Nor does attraction appreciate postcode nor consider county border. Our committed, rural and remote members cast their net a lot further – about 35 miles further – than the average online dater on other apps.

For fair reason too.

Offline, when eyes meet across a busy dancefloor, rarely is the first thought: ‘I wonder where she lives?’. When ‘workplace’ is high on the list of ‘places people meet’ it’s worth bearing in mind that office workers can spend up to 4 hours on the daily commute*. (*Back in the pre-working from home era, when working in an actual office was an actual ‘thing’)

Yet when it comes to the all vast benefits of online dating, and there’s a whole country of singletons to explore, we choose to restrict ourselves to 15 miles?

For some of our muddier and more remote members (yes, we are thinking of you up in the extremes of the Scottish Isles), such a blinkered approach to looking for companionship may not even get you off your own land – let alone offer the choice or variety you should expect of a dating service.

At Muddy Matches country life dating, we find the singletons who put their trust and faith in us, on the whole, are somewhat more realistic and open minded when it comes to spreading their wings and casting their net.

They tell us that shared interests, common experiences, joint outlook on life and rural aspirations rank well above distance. They are not wading through endless profiles or trudging through search listings for the sake of it mind you. They are just using different variables and keywords that are more important to them.

In fact, the average search radius on Muddy Matches now stands at just over 50 miles; and we have members who go well beyond that. Many choose to delimit location entirely from their search such is the craving for country life and willingness to up sticks and relocate for the right person.

Recently, we’ve seen this emerge as a female trend, especially when it comes to unearthing farmer love, more so than that of the country gent who still has eye on the ‘girl next door’.

It seems the female of the species are more than willing to put themselves out there, even if it is hundreds of miles from their home comforts.

That’s why Muddy Matches are fast attracting a reputation for inspiring long distance, but meaningful and lasting, relationships. Let’s not forget being in someone’s pocket or at someone’s beck and call brings its own downside; absence, we are told, makes the heart grow fonder.

“My Muddy Match queried the fact that we lived 40 miles apart when we first favourited each other. I told him I had wheels and would travel for the right man. I didn’t see distance as a barrier to my happiness.” says Eve, from Lancashire.

Eve is not the exception here. We hear of many success stories where peoples who’d never have crossed paths geographically in real life, have found exactly what they are looking for in a match thanks to taking the bold decision to broaden their horizons when it comes to search radius.

Cambridge to the Isle of Man; Kent to Cornwall; Lancashire to Hampshire. One man’s first date even took him to Germany thanks to the connection he felt online.

Hundreds of miles have separated lots of our Muddy Matches inspired couples during lockdown, but they are still going strong.

On the flip side, we do appreciate that for some of our members, especially those out standing in the fields and pastures, locality is key. Rural life and work schedules, especially around farm life, makes ‘up-sticking’ harder when it comes to matters of the heart.

We won’t swerve the frequently overused comment: “There’s no one near me to favourite” either but with over 330,000 members to search through nationwide, spreading the net wider than the end of your nose is not only sensible but so much fun too. There’s a whole countryside of single people to discover.

Our advice on location is clear;

• Put trust in traditional values that shared interests, mutual experiences and a common outlook on life offer a greater depth of relationship than the convenience of ‘he happened to live locally’.

• Give yourself a wider pool to play in by pushing the boundaries slightly if, and when, your own lifestyle allows.

• Evaluate what’s really important to you and then be open minded when running searches

• Appreciate Muddy Matches’ singles often live, work or love rural and remote lives

• Give your heart what it desires, not what logistics make sense.

And, if the perfect Mr or Mrs Muddy does indeed land on your doorstep, embrace it with both hands.

Get Yourself Out There.