Online dating is no longer "weird" -- well, any weirder than regular dating can be anyway.

There are about 90 million singles in the United States and more than 25 million of them log on to hundreds of Internet dating sites every day. Online dating and personal ads are the second-most profitable paid online content, topped only by pornography sites.

During holidays, online dating spikes. In December, 26 percent of all Internet users visited a personals Web site, according to Media Metrix. The number of people looking for love this Valentine's Day is expected to be even higher. Why not give it a shot? Unlike real dating, you have nothing to lose -- as long as you're careful.

Here's some help:

Go To Right Site

There are your basic giant sites -- Match.com, Date.com, Yahoo Personals, but you can get very specific in what kind of person you are looking for, such as:

J-Date.com for Jewish singles

DeafSinglesConnection.com

MyCountryMatch.com for people with "true country values"

Harley-Match.com

Don't waste your time filling out long registration questionaaires until you are sure it's a site that will "accept" you. For example, E-Harmony.com won't do same-sex matchmaking, but it doesn't tell you that until after you complete a questionnaire that can take up to an hour.

How Much Is This Going To Cost You?

It's like anything -- you get what you pay for. Free sites will have a lot of people using them who aren't as serious as sites that people pay to use. Experts say, the more you pay, the more likely you will find a match, but who knows if that's true? Most charge a monthly fee -- $20 to $40. Most sites will let you browse (shop), but you can't actually contact the people unless you are a paid member. Suggestion: Browse first … if there is someone interesting, then maybe join.

Get Multimedia

Some sites, such as Yahoo Personals, let you attach voice and video greetings to your profiles. Match.com offers "phone dates." Yahoo Personals is probably one of the easiest sites to use. It even helps you flirt with "Ice Breakers." So if you see someone you like, but you don't know what to say, you click how you feel and the site spits out an intelligent and witty opening e-mail line for you to send. Most sites allow you to search profiles with photos only, so you probably want to attach a photo. Smiling in the photo is probably a good idea, unless you want to try for one of those pensive, sensitive expressions, but those often turn out ... well, not very pensive or sensitive looking.

Safety

Don't use your home or work e-mail to register. Instead, get a free e-mail account from Hotmail.com or Yahoo.com. Then you can ditch the e-mail address without a lot of hassle if you find a match or some creep is bugging you. Don't give out your home address or phone number to prospective dates. Basically, use common sense. Don't do anything virtually that wouldn't do in reality.

Special Note On Lying

Don't lie. Web sites can't police whether people are lying in their personal information, so beware. The most common thing men lie about is their height, age and income. Women mostly lie about weight and age. With photos, obviously, people post their most flattering pose -- and often it's not that recent. If you see a high school picture posted with a 35-year-old man's profile, take that as a warning. Experts say you should assume the people are 20 percent worse looking in person than they are in their picture. And if not -- bonus! (Not that looks are that important, of course.)

Seek Professional Help

If you are really serious about this or you are an obsessive-compulsive perfectionist, you might want to hire help. Cyrano.com is a dating consulting service. Professional writers will help you compose a profile and help you turn your first email "conversation" into a real-life date.

Log On For Love

You probably don't need to hire professional help after reading this article, so get out there and go! If you're still nervous, check out Online Dating For Dummies or pick up a copy of "I Can't Believe I Am Reading This: Guide To Online Dating".

And don't forget to think of a good, positive screen name -- that's the name you'll be known as through your profile unless you choose to tell someone your real name. For instance, "DreamyDrew" will probably get more bites than "BigBellyBill," and "StarryNiteSue" would probably get more interest than "HairyHilda."