With Internet dating becoming more popular, you need to pay particular attention to your dating profile to increase your chances of finding dates. As competition is fierce on most dating websites, a poor quality profile can significantly dent your success.

Your Username
Most people create an online username without paying too much attention to it, but it can have a big effect on how you come across to other members of the website. This is not that surprising when you consider that your username is often one of the first things that prospective dates will see when they encounter you. Choosing something original and quirky that reflects your personality can draw attention and spark interest.

Your Profile Photograph
If you do not include a photograph as part of your profile, it is likely that it will not receive too many views. Research has suggested that you are eight times more likely to be contacted by other members if you upload a good quality photograph. Most prospective dates will want to see what you look like before making contact with you. Make sure that the photograph is up-to-date. If you upload an older photograph to entice other members, you will not be able to maintain the pretence if one of your admirers wants to meet you.

Be Truthful
It is tempting to expand the truth or even lie to appear more interesting to prospective dates, but this is not the best idea. Lies and half truths are likely to catch up with you sooner or later. Even if this is not the case, being economical with the truth is not the ideal start for a new relationship.

Be Positive
Using active language can make you appear more confident and assertive to prospective dates. For example, you can encourage prospective dates to get in touch with you if they like your profile. It is often a good idea to include a list of qualities that you desire in a partner to discourage responses from members who would not be compatible with your requirements. At the same time, avoid listing the qualities that you do not want in a prospective partner as this can make you come across as too negative and choosy. Generally speaking, positivity will work wonders in terms of how you are perceived.

Your profile can make or break your online dating success, so it makes sense to spend time making it as good as you can. Most people will find that either their “about me” section or photos could be improved, but it is often hard to look at it objectively. If this is the case for you, ask a friend to look over what you’ve done and suggest areas that could be improved. A friend can often suggest or highlight positive aspects about your personality that you hadn’t thought of or weren’t even aware of yourself!

By Sally A

Personal Profiles Personality, Photos, Profile

Want to know where the happiest people are? Well, according to a report by ABC News, you can get a pretty good visual picture of where people are in the country.

New York artist and performer Luke DuBois used data from over 19 million online dating profiles to create a map showing how Americans in different parts of the country describe themselves when they’re looking for love.

The results offer some pretty interesting insight into how different areas of the country use different terms to describe their single status.

For example, women in West Virginia and men in parts of the Southwest are more apt to describe themselves as “kinky” than in other areas of the country. Women in Oklahoma, Florida and men in Texas often use the word “lonely” when they’re single.

DuBois then gave each town its own one word description, based on the word most often used by singles there to describe themselves. Washington DC is “interesting”, while Montgomery, Alabama is “conservative”.

The data brings to light how people use their online dating profiles to attempt to stand out from the crowd. DuBois mapped 20,000 different words in his research, which certainly proves that all online daters are not using words like “fun”, ” smart” and “free-spirited” to describe themselves.

News & Views Funny, Happiness, Personal Profiles, Personality

Last week we talked about the boyfriend/girlfriend match, that wonderful and exciting type of relationship that’s based so much on having fun, seeking out adventure, and spending time with someone who very likely is opposite to you in so many ways. It’s a very common type of match in the dating scene, but there’s another type of match that is also important to understand and consider.

It’s called the husband/wife match and its characteristics are both distinct and noticeable. This kind of match is based on enjoying each other’s company, but for reasons very different from the boyfriend/girlfriend match. A couple like this is usually two people who are very similar in a great number of ways; they probably like the same things, have similar life goals, place value on a steady and trusting relationship, and the like. It’s very common for this kind of couple to be very much the same in terms of their personalities; they come together out of a sense of feeling comfortable, connected, and partnered in the deepest sense of the word.

There’s a lot to like about this kind of match, especially if you’re interested in settling down into a longer term relationship. For some people this type of match screams “BORING!!!!” but that does not have to be the case at all. Two people can have fun together, it’s just that with this kind of match the definition of what’s fun (and the lengths you’ll go to in order to have that kind of fun) tends more toward the conventional rather than the adventurous.

So what kind of match do you want? There’s no right or wrong in this, just a matter of being honest with yourself (and with your partner) about your intentions toward the relationship and the kind of relationship you most want to have.

Dating Essentials Couples, Fun, Husband, Match, Personality, Wife