Online Dating Guide & Blog

This is a guest post by Kate Houston of trysweettalk.com

Millions of singles are dating online. There are so many people to choose from that no one can rely on looks alone. So how do you get attention and keep it? Easy – apply the same rules to your profile that successful brands apply to their ads. As an ad writer with over 20 years experience, I guarantee that good ads get noticed and get replies. The same can [...]

Filed under: dating advice

This is a guest post by Kate Houston of trysweettalk.com

10. Bald spot camouflage.
If you’re going bald don’t hide the fact under a cap. It’s not a character flaw and there’s no reason to be embarrassed by it. Besides, bald is the new sexy. So show skin with pride.

9. Saying you’re young at heart.
Generally only people over 40 years old say this and often it’s to compensate for being older. Age is not a defect. Just pick someone you can be [...]

Filed under: dating advice

This is a guest post by Kate Houston of trysweettalk.com

I had a client whose original profile asserted, I love to cook. As a professional dating profile writer, I can tell you that about 80% of the profiles I read say the very same thing.

Eventually I learned this client not only loved to cook, she loved it so much she collected antique cookbooks. I also learned she was a truly unconventional woman in many respects. So, rather than keep, I love [...]

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Through this blog, from time to time I find myself reviewing profiles. One of the most common problems I see is the tendency for people to share a little too much, a little too fast. Often the extra details are confusing but other times they are damaging. In either case, the profile isn’t strengthened by it. I wanted to briefly discuss the idea of intentionally being aware of what you are revealing about yourself in your dating profile.

Filed under: dating profiles

eHarmony has recently added a new feature to its online dating service. This feature further enhances your profile when other singles view it by helping provide (not surprisingly) something for the two of you to talk about.

Filed under: online dating news

Just for fun, here’s a post over at GameSpy that supposes what things would look like if video game characters had dating profile. You’ll have to be familiar with video games to appreciate these but I found them pretty amusing. I particularly like Luigi’s response to “Do You Want Children”:

Apparently this idea is becoming popular as GamesRadar also has some video game dating profiles in the post If game characters used dating sites. They then opened the idea to their [...]

Filed under: internet dating

This post will be a guide to eHarmony. It is the second post in a three-part series where I’m going to discuss in detail using Match.com, eHarmony, and finally I will compare these services to determine which is the “better” of the two. In this article, I’ll be describing eHarmony from the ground up.

Thoughts on the eHarmony Profile

eHarmony is known for its long sign-up time but that’s part of the service. The long sign-up process is based on determining your [...]

Filed under: online dating guide

In this three-part series, I’m going to discuss in detail Match.com, eHarmony, and finally I will compare these services to determine which is the “better” of the two. In this article, I’ll be describing Match.com from the ground up.

Creating Your Profile at Match.com

When you visit Match.com, you’ll be presented with a form to search for singles where you can enter simple details, such as if you are a man looking for a woman, etc. This is actually part of the [...]

Filed under: online dating guide

I’ve looked at my fair share of online dating profiles and I wanted to talk about one of the bad habits I see in many profiles: the plea for contact. There are many examples of this; some good examples but honestly most of the time when I see someone trying to encourage communication it isn’t done in a good way. Here are some of the more common ways people will attempt this:

If you decide to contact me, I’m very flattered.
Please [...]

Filed under: dating profiles, online dating guide

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Writing your online dating profile can be a tricky thing. Many of us feel fine discussing ourselves in conversation but put us in front of a computer screen with a few text boxes to fill and we freeze up. I believe that writing a profile from the heart is the best option as it [...]

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Strangely enough, this situation seems to happen more often than I would expect: after finding a serious relationship some men still keep their online dating profile active. The explanations for this are pretty weak but these men always make the argument that there’s some good reason to keep their profile active.

If you’re a woman who has found herself in this situation, I think you have a problem on your hands. It may not mean he’s cheating but I do think [...]

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I’ve been bothered lately by Plenty of Fish. I don’t mind that the site has been successful but I do hate when I talk to someone and they say, “Yeah, I tried online dating at Plenty of Fish. I guess internet dating just isn’t for me. The problems were [insert a list of issues here]“. Here’s the thing: in my opinion Plenty of Fish is a far better example of successful internet marketing than it is of online dating. If [...]

Filed under: dating advice, online dating services

Does your profile get a lot of attention but you’re not getting any contacts from other online daters?

I wanted to discuss a few possibilities on why this can happen. One major assumption I’ll be making is that you have a good profile photo. As I’ll discuss later in this article, a good photo is often the most important part of your profile, especially for women. However, since the problem being discussed includes the fact that the profile is receiving [...]

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Recently in the Telegraph there was an article that discussed how women should dress at the bar to meet the most men. They’re findings suggest that a woman should reveal 40% of her skin to meet the most men. Revealing too little leads to far less contact from men (up to 40% less). However, revealing much more than this leads also leads to less contact, although the article doesn’t reveal by how much.

A couple of thoughts on this. First, none [...]

Filed under: online dating news

A few weeks ago I had mentioned that a study had shown that your appearance in a photo reveals a lot about you. Later I discussed why picking the right photo for your dating profile, even without this study to prove it, is very important.

Newsweek covers this same study in far greater detail in an article called Making a Digital First Impression and a part of the article covered a real-world example of this with online dating. One of the [...]

Filed under: dating advice, dating articles

This is a question shy men often ask due to the dilemma of wanting to be as honest as possible when dating online but, at the same time, not wanting to hurt their chances with women who may reject a man who mentions this trait. I believe the answer to this question really depends on the severity of the shyness. Due to this, I’ll discuss different degrees of shyness and then give my opinion on what should be included in [...]

Filed under: dating advice, dating profiles

Writing a profile that stands out is a difficult task for most of us. When asked to describe ourselves, it turns out most of us sound exactly the same. Whether we’re easy-going or fun-loving, whether we love going out or love cuddling up for a movie in, whether we hate playing games or love the outdoors…putting any of this in our profiles make us sound, well, like everyone else. Sounding like everyone else isn’t the worst thing in the world. [...]

Filed under: dating profiles

First a warning: this article does not tell you how to create a funny dating profile. It explains why trying too hard to create a funny profile is a bad idea. There are many things that should be a part of your profile (which I cover in my online dating guide) but being funny, especially artificially so, is not one of them. I know this isn’t what most men want to hear, trust me. I also know you’re not going [...]

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We all have had to plug in some title on our dating profiles and everyone knows it is more difficult than it looks. I never held a bland profile heading against someone because I went through the same impossible task of summing myself up in one sentence. While I don’t see the profile heading as making or breaking a profile, it can do wonders to direct others to or away from your profile.

This directing people to or from your profile [...]

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Recently, when a friend needed photos for his online dating profile, it was a good opportunity for my wife (who is a professional photographer) to get some portrait shots while helping a friend at the same time. The shoot went well and our friend genuinely liked the photos and had them up on his profile very quickly. A few weeks later, I mentioned that perhaps she could offer this service in addition to her other photography services. Interested to see [...]

Filed under: dating profiles, online dating services