After a little hiatus, the new Kiss You Back design is here, including the forums! At first we were planning on waiting to release the forums until we had a little bit of content on them (they’re completely bare as of now), but we ended up deciding to let you guys help us start the forums off on the right foot. Head over there and start posting so that we can build the community up and make it all it can be.

As always, we welcome all your feedback. Let us know what you like, what you don’t like, and what we’re missing so that we can make Kiss You Back as good as it can be. Enjoy!

I recently got dumped by my boyfriend of 2 years. Obviously it’s been a very emotional time for me, and what’s even worse is that I see him all around with his various other girls since we live in a somewhat smaller town. What can I do to get through this?

First of all, stay tough! Break-ups can really devastate our psyches and bring about a lot of drama in our lives. There are countless stories of people that go into severe depression or start unhealthy lifestyle choices while dealing with a break-up. It doesn’t sound like you’re there, so that in itself is something to be proud of. The next thing you need to do is to do as much as you can to emotionally detach yourself from your ex. This is one of the most difficult parts of getting over a break-up, and it could take a substantial amount of time. When you’re in a relationship for a while, it becomes part of your everyday routine, and those behaviors are the toughest to break. Don’t worry if you feel like you’re not making progress at first. Start slowly and stay as consistent as possible.

The key to getting over a break-up is to turn the negative to a positive. Use your new found freedom to focus on things that interest you and make you happy. By focusing on yourself you help yourself in two ways. First, focusing on yourself means that you won’t focus on your ex or your relationship. Second, it means that you’ll be doing things to make you feel good about yourself. One of the biggest challenges when getting over a bad break-up is to regain your self-confidence. By doing things that you feel good about yourself, you’re less likely to get down on yourself and keep it from letting you get on with your life.

It’s important to understand the things that motivate you the most. For some people, they concentrate on the hurt feelings they go through during a break-up. Feeling that pain motivates them to move on so they don’t hurt anymore. Other people cannot function like that, and they choose to focus their mind on anything but the break-up. By keeping it out of their mind they are allowed to move on in a way that is easier for them. The key is to do whatever works best for you depending on your personality. Don’t be afraid to experiment and try new things in your life. Sometimes those new things can give you a much needed spark and expose you to something new and exciting.

Make sure that you keep the company of good friends as you struggle through your break-up. Having a strong support system is good for everyone, and they can be a huge help in getting your mind in the right place. Whether it’s being there to go out with, or just being there to talk with you through your problems, having people you can lean on in your time of need is important to anybody going through a tough time. In the end, break-ups only make us stronger. It seems like the end of the world, but everything happens for a reason. Focus on how you can make yourself better, and I think you’ll find that the new chapters in your life can be even more fulfilling than the ones you’ve already experienced.

With the rising popularity of online dating sites, and the multitude of sites to choose from how do you know which one is right for you?  The online dating industry is big business and there are new dating sites being created everyday.  Some sites out there are more fluff than anything, and some can be down right scams.  Sites that offer paid memberships can be sketchy on the details, and with automatic recurring charges being the norm, it can be a little much for someone just trying to meet people online.  This leaves people hesitant to hand over their financial information for a paid membership, even if it’s one of the bigger well-known sites.  So is paying for a dating site membership worth it for you?

The first alternative to paying for a dating site membership is to go to one of the many free dating sites out there.  While a free dating site is usually a fairly quick and easy way to meet people, the quality of the people you meet may be questionable.  Usually free dating sites attract a lot of people that aren’t very serious about finding love online.  That’s not to say there aren’t any, it just means that you might have to spend a lot of time wading through some less attractive options before you find someone worth holding on to.  One advantage of a paid dating site is that you know the people on there are serious enough about online dating to pay a monthly fee.

Most paid sites also offer a free membership option as a way to attract new members.  The thought is to get people registered, offer them a glimpse of what (and who) the site has to offer them.  The free memberships often lack a lot of the core functionality of the paid sites, including the ability to contact and interact with members, and that’s used as the marketing catch to convince people to upgrade to a paid membership.  So while a free membership may not be a total answer for your online dating needs, it can give you an opportunity to try out a site before you decide to fork over your hard earned money to join as a full fledged member.  That way you can see if you like the layout, seem to find interesting people, and enjoy the other features it has to offer before you decide.

Choosing a dating site that is right for you is a process that is different for everybody.  You’ll have to decide what you’re really trying to accomplish with it, how serious you are about it, and which option best fits your needs.  My advice would be to register at one of the more popular free sites, as well as one of the bigger paid sites that offer a free membership.  While trying to manage two accounts at first might be a little annoying, it will give you a chance to try multiple sites out at the same time.  Over time if you start to think the free site isn’t fulfilling your needs, you can decide to try to pay for a membership at the other site.  Either way, you should treat online dating sites much like your actual dates.  Try a couple until you find one worth holding on to.