From coast to coast, people are looking for one thing – someone to love. And whether they choose to use online dating options or they go the old-fashioned route, there are a few lessons you can learn from the mistakes (and the successes) of others just like you.

Geography doesn’t matter in the land of love – only how you travel to your final destination.

First of all, being yourself is the main lesson that all of us could learn. We often believe that in order to impress someone else, we need to become someone else, but this is far from the truth. What we do need to do is to learn to accept who we are, even with our flaws, and flaunt the positive.

This means – women, don’t spackle on makeup to look ‘perfect’ and men, don’t fluff up your credentials or your achievements to seem successful.

Secondly, you want to make sure that you are clear about what you want from your relationship from the very start. Just want to date someone for fun? Tell your new partner that.

Looking for a long term relationship? Tell them that too.

This way, you can both be on the same page, and no one can ever say, “Oh I didn’t know that you wanted….”

Finally, if there’s any tip that works for both genders in every dating scenario, it’s this one – realize that it might not work. You shouldn’t put all of your hope and your energy into one person because it’s probably fairly reasonable to assume that they might not be the ‘one’ you’ve been looking for.

Go into each date and each relationship as though you could fall in love, but if it doesn’t happen, that’s okay too.

Move onto the next lucky date!

If you’re finding that there’s a theme to your dates, it might be time to find a different kind of site. For example, some people don’t want to date all hippies or conservatives, so they need to head to sites that favor their political flavor.

Or you might want to date all vegans or meat lovers – whatever your thing is.

What you need to know is that you CAN find your dating niche, if you look for it. Just be specific about what you hate and you’re certain you want. There’s a site for everyone.

And knowing this, you can choose dates that are much more likely to be successful, instead of dates that end up in an awkward moment on the doorstep and many ignored phone calls.

Niches are the next wave in online dating. Instead of just hoping for A date, you can choose THE RIGHT date for you and for your current tastes in men or in women.

After all, if you both are in the niche, you already have something in common – not a bad icebreaker at all.

From political affiliations to gender orientations and fetishes to favorite comic books, you CAN have it all. Finally.