Online Dating Guide & Blog

A reader recently wrote me with a very unique situation that was leading to multiple unsuccessful first dates.

In many cases, failed first dates can be a mystery: did she not like my personality? Was he not attracted to me? On the other hand, sometimes we know exactly why we are seeing failed dates…we just don’t know how to respond to them.

In this case, my reader knew exactly why he was struggling on the first dates but wasn’t sure how [...]

Filed under: dating advice

First dates are a nerve-racking business. You’re about to spend several hours with someone you barely know. You’re uncomfortably aware that this will be your only shot at impressing them. You’re nervous. Your hands are probably shaking. And you’ve been so obsessed with the logistics of the evening – what to wear, getting there, turning up on time – that you haven’t even thought through what you’re actually going to talk about. There they are, they’re walking towards you, you [...]

Filed under: dating advice

A reader wrote in that he was talking with a woman on an online dating service but she was very nervous about actually meeting someone using the service. Here’s his question:

I’ve been emailing a girl on Match.com for a couple of weeks now, and I’m struggling to work out where I stand, and how best to develop the email conversation into a real date. The girl has a really nice profile but took a few days to respond to my [...]

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Following the pattern from my last post, I wanted to highlight an old post that I think still holds a lot of value today. Many of these old posts I highlight come from a time when I had very few readers so in some cases some of my favorite articles are getting very few eyes on them..

In this case I wanted to discuss my post on Bad Dates and Your Dating Mind-set. This article covers something I see from time-to-time [...]

Filed under: dating advice

When I first started this site, one of the things that bothered me most about the online dating advice I had been finding was that everything had the same answer: be more confident.

I found this advice very hard to take and I actually gave up on acting confident. I think occasionally I might have been successful at appearing confident but I was consistently successful as not portraying who I really was…the gains weren’t worth the sacrifice.

At any rate, I discussed [...]

Filed under: personal experience

First date conversations are a tricky thing: we all realize how important they are but sometimes we still don’t prepare while other times we put so much emphasis on having “good” conversations we actually create problems for ourselves.

In one of my very first articles for this site, I had given tips for first date conversations based on what worked well for me. I wanted to touch on the points I made back then as I still see them as valuable. [...]

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In a post a few weeks ago, I gave some additional details behind my online dating experience. After writing that post, I decided I wanted to talk specifically about some of my dates in detail.
Photo by Peter Clark
For my first topic on the subject, I wanted to talk about the time I was stood up and offer my thoughts topic.

Filed under: personal experience

Photo by AI404
You have decided to go on your first date off-line after some emails or online interaction. You are nervous and distracted. But sometimes through all of the excitement people forget basic precautions and do not see the “Red Flags” that they should have seen on their first date.

While most everyone’s idea of what a first date should involve is different, there are still solid guidelines that can be used. Oftentimes people do not listen to their [...]

Filed under: dating advice

With online dating, the rules for dating are sometimes similar to the old-style of dating but in many cases the rules that people operate under are very different. One area of difference occurs when someone loses interest. Below is a question I received from a reader recently:

Thanks so much for your kind words of encouragement! I have a question and maybe I know the answer but sometimes it’s helpful to hear it from others. I had been communicating with a [...]

Filed under: dating advice

Photo by ground.zero
According to a new Match.com commercial I’ve been seeing lately, 1 in 5 relationships are now started through online dating services. Still, even with that fact, there are a large number of singles who believe that online dating does not work, or at least not for them. With that in mind, I wanted to post a challenge to all of the doubters. I really believe that people who feel that online dating doesn’t work fall into one of [...]

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Thinking of interesting and unique date ideas can be difficult. Sure, you can find some good ideas if you look long enough online but even many of those end up being something less than interesting or unique.

Filed under: dating advice

There are many mistakes that are made on first dates…far more than I will list here. However, I will cover the 10 mistakes that I saw from others while dating online, made myself while dating or have learned about by talking with other singles about online dating. If you are struggling to find second dates I would strongly recommend seriously reviewing this list.

1. Trying to Act Like Someone Else
Many people ask: How should I act on a first date? The [...]

Filed under: dating advice