Even though you might be single now, that doesn’t mean you have to be alone in your hunt for someone to date. The truth is that you need a sort of wingman (or wing-woman) to help you navigate the online dating scene, while you also need a dating buddy to commiserate with as you jump into the dating pool.

There are a few things you should look for in your dating buddy:

• Someone who is looking for love too
• Someone who has been successful on the site you’re using
• Someone who is positive
• Someone who will motivate you to take chances

You want someone to make sure you are buddy-ing up with someone who will push you to try things that you normally wouldn’t. That is, if you get rejected on the site by someone, your buddy is the one that tells you to try again anyway – not to give up.

You also want someone who is going to be completely honest with you when you need that dose of reality. If your profile needs work or you simply need to take more chances winking at people or emailing those that you like, your buddy should be telling you so.

Together, you just might find love and then you won’t need a dating buddy anymore – but you can then start being each other’s relationship buddy.

Personal Profiles, Rejection, Self Confidence Alone, Buddy, Friends, Lonely, Profile

Still not seeing anyone special? You need more strategies…

Without further ado, here are some tips to get some responses for your profile on that online dating site.

Get advice from someone else – Before you post your first profile, have your best friend read it…and then ask them to be brutal about what works and what doesn’t.

Focus on creating contact with someone on a regular basis – Don’t just sit around and wait for people to contact you, try to make contact at least once a week. Email someone or IM someone to get used to talking to others. Soon enough, you’ll be meeting up with all the right ones.

Be honest with those you meet virtually and in person – You want to be make sure you are telling the truth so that you’re actually making a connection with the people who would be the right fit for you.

But…don’t tell everything – Releasing all of your personal history, your divorce, your children, your lack of child support, etc. Until you know that you really like the person, total disclosure just isn’t necessary.

Create time in your life for love – You can’t start dating unless you have time in your schedule to date. You need to start making room for love…before you start adding dates into your day planner.

Good luck!

Dating Essentials Buddy, Chat, IM, Love, Profile

One of the main reasons people avoid online dating is because it seems to be an unsafe method of meeting that special someone.  You don’t get to see anything more than their picture and you can’t be sure anything they say is true.

Consequently, a lot of people are staying off line, but are also staying single.

The idea of background checks has become a popular selling point for sites like True.com.  By screening all of their singles, members of the site feel safer knowing that they are talking to the ‘real’ person they think they are talking to.

Or are they?

There’s a lot of discussion right now as to whether these background checks are actually all that effective.  After all, thieves and con artists thwart them in other situations, why is it so difficult to believe that they can’t slip past them here too?

Some people are crying ‘foul’ for these background checks as they generally are only a cursory check that doesn’t usually spot the liars.

But with potential new legislation making background checks necessary for online dating, is this combination of events setting up the online dating system for a fall?

If this legislation is enacted, more singles might come online, thinking that online dating is safer.  But since the checks are often meaningless, this might actually increase the dangers of getting online – more people = more problems.

In the next few years, this question is going to be something that people consider before searching for love online.  For if the checks in place aren’t really helping, then what’s the benefit to them?

Happy Valentine’s Day?

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