Worth A Thousand Words? How about $150?
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Kate has been taking photography classes and has been looking for an outlet for her creativity. Recently, when a friend needed photos for his online dating profile, it was a perfect opportunity for her to get some shots of someone other than me and the dog. The “shoot” went well without any problems and our friend seemed to genuinely like the photos. A few weeks later, I mentioned that perhaps she could start a small business to offer this service to others in our area. This seemed to be a nice stepping stone to the wedding photographer she would someday like to be. Interested to see if other services like this already existed, I looked around for “online dating profile photography” sites and found a rather large one: www.LookBetterOnline.com.
Before I offer my thoughts on the site let me get something out of the way: one area where my guide is lacking is regarding photos. To me, most photos start to look the same after about two minutes of viewing. When dating, I was just as inclined to contact someone who had a photo with bad lighting as I was to contact someone who had an obviously professional photo. In other words, I am no expert on photos or photography. My following thoughts should be taken with my self-admitted ineptness regarding photography in mind.
Right off the bat I’ll say this: $150 seems a bit pricey for a dozen photos. That’s equivalent to 10 months of many dating services! Also, I thought the site made some rather impressive promises:
Then your potential matches will…
- Be drawn to your photo as though it’s the only one on the page.
- Be engaged by your personal ad so they read it all!
- Recognize that you are the person they have been searching for.
- Email you and ask to meet you!
Those are some strong statements. When I was single, if I thought a service could deliver on all of those promises, I would have gladly paid what they are asking for (it is cheap if it is true). I would love to talk to someone who has used this type of service because I would like to believe this is more than marketing and that their success rate truly is as high as they suggest. Regardless, I am sure their service offers value and, without doubt, has even led to some people’s success online. Still, I’m not sure I would personally want to date people who were only interested in me after I had a professional photo on my profile.
Since my online dating guide was light on photo advice, I’ll give a few of my personal thoughts and experiences:
- I never contacted someone who had a great photo attached to a horrible profile.
- I married a woman who had no photo at all on her dating profile so anyone who says that “the photo is everything!” hasn’t met me or ever seen a newspaper dating ad.
- Obviously, you should have a photo on your dating profile if possible. The exception is women who want to avoid having men contact them based off of their picture instead of their profile. In my opinion, guys should always provide a picture when able.
- An exception: better no photo than an unflattering one. Get some honest friends to look at your pictures! If they are just dying to take pictures of you after they look at your current photos, you might have an issue. In this type of situation, the above service may be well worth it.
- If you don’t post a photo and someone contacts you and asks for a photo immediately, try to go easy on them (i.e., they might not be a jerk only concerned with looks). I was lied to on a few occasions before some dates and became more aggressive with trying to get photos up-front. Remember: your potential dates may have dealt with some liars. Even if you are not one, you’re under suspicion.
