As someone fairly new to online dating, I thought I'd share my point of view on internet dating, and what it's done for me.
Dating sites are as different from conventional dating services as e-mail is from writing a letter. Internet dating is fast - traditional dating personals are slow. Finding matches with the online dating site is easy, as long as your search criteria is available in their data. Online dating encourages spontaneous exchanges, with virtual flirting replicating the smile across the singles bar. Old-school dating is high effort, so you tend to make sure that your effort isn't wasted on a less-than ideal prospect. Online dating is a bit safer than a blind date, or picking someone up at the club... you have a chance to exchange e-mails, then phone numbers, before ever seeing your potential date.
What is a good match worth? There is a free dating site or two out there, but compared to the cost of going on bad dates, pretty much all the paid dating sites are worth their price of admission (with the exception of eHarmony, which is a rip-off). I'd much rather pay the price of a couple cups of coffee to go on good, fun, possibly serious dates than try to find someone halfway decent on a free dating site. So far, the dating site hasn't let me down.