Advice, Dating Online Personals

Personal Dating Profiles

Let’s talk about profiles. As I browse through the online dating profiles, my biggest pet peeve is incomplete profiles. As a woman who has a profile, the likelihood of me spending anytime getting to know someone who did not add an any personal thoughts to their profile, is very low. In order to have a truly satisfying online dating experience, everything starts with your profile.

Headline - 3 Words Describing You!

Your headline is what makes you stand out from the rest of the crowd. On search results, it shows up next to your photo, making it truly the very first impression of you. Writing a descriptive, capturing headline can be difficult, as you are often limited to a certain number of characters. Depending on the dating site that you are using, you may have to create your headline, before you continue with the rest of your profile. However, if you are able to skip the headline and move onto the other parts of the profile, do that. It might be easier to come up with something capturing, after you have filled in the blanks. If you aren’t able to skip the headline, simply put in your favorite quote and go back and change it after you have filled out the rest of the profile.

When you do create your headline, avoid any negative words or words that can be interpreted in a not so endearing way. I personally skip over any profiles that contain the word “nice” in the headline, because it implies to me that the particular person probably has been walked all over. I also avoid profiles that have personal qualities such as “honest, loyal, and caring”. I know it seems strange that I would pass those by, but the truth is, those shouldn’t have to be listed as selling points, they should be standard.

You are probably thinking “what the heck am I supposed to write if I can’t use those words and need to avoid anything that can be interpreted negatively?” Well, this is where you have to look at what you have in the rest of your profile and yourself. Headlines that reflect activity or philosophy are generally good. Be creative. Your headline does not need to be a complete sentence; in fact, your headline could actually be a single word that sums you up. If you really get stuck, ask your closest friends to give you one to three words that describe you.

Meat - Building Your Profile

Most online dating sites have easy to use questionnaires that help you build your profile using questions and multiple choice types of answers. Simply filling these questionnaires out is enough to have your profile match other profiles, but it will not help you narrow down your choices and will often end up matching you with others that will make you go “what the …?”

To help you get your best matches, you want to take the fullest advantage of the “About Me”, “in my own words”, or “who I am” sections. Every dating site will call this area something different, but across the board they all have the same goal: To have you describe yourself in your own words and in a way that stands apart from the rest of the profiles. It’s not enough to list your qualities and hobbies. In fact, starting off this area with a laundry list of qualities most decent men should have is not the best way to get the attention that you seek. Think about it; if you list loyal, trustworthy, and honest - are you really setting yourself apart from the rest of the candidates? The key is to grab the attention. If you’ve already chosen your headline, work that into the first sentence. For example, let’s say you are a fire fighter and your chosen headline is “Seeking My Flame”. You will want to have the first line of your in your own words section to read something like “Seeking My Inextinguishable Flame”, and then go on to describe what that means to you. The best in your own words sections are written as though you are already communicating with your perfect match. Written in this manner, it speaks directly to a person.