The Do's and Don'ts Of Online Dating
To be successful at online dating, it is important to learn a few of the
basics, the (until now) 'unwritten rules' that anyone who is using the
online personals sites should abide by. Simply by learning what to DO
and what NOT to do, you can dramatically improve your success rate when it
comes to meeting members of the opposite sex online. WebPersonalsOnline.com
is proud to present another informative dating article, entitled The Dos
and Don'ts of Online Dating that anyone can use as their roadmap to
online dating success. Whether you are a first-time online dater or a
seasoned veteran, we hope that you can find something useful, or new, in
the following article.
When it comes to online dating there are a few things
everyone can and should do to improve their success and there are a few
things everyone should not do. Before we get into the actual 'Dos and
Don'ts', let's first define what we mean by online dating 'success.'
Success can be meas-
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ured by how many responses you receive to your profile or
it can be measured by how many people you, ultimately, meet in person for a
first-date. But however you measure your online dating success rate, the
responses you receive to your profile are the first step to establishing
contact with other singles you originally met online. By adding some of the
'Dos' to your online dating repertoire and eliminating some of the 'Don'ts'
from your online dating repertoire, we believe you will dramatically
increase the response rate to your dating profile and this can only lead to
more dates!
Do: Be Honest! This applies to your
profile first and foremost because it is the first thing people see and
read about you and it is the your 'first chance to make a good impression'.
We have outlined in detail how
to make a good first impression online in a previous article, but here
we will just re-iterate one of the main points: Be Honest. Post a
relatively recent picture of yourself and be truthful about your physical
characteristics, such as your age, height, and weight. People will
appreciate that and won't feel mislead if you post that you look like Brad
Pitt, are six-foot-two and weigh 190 lbs and, when they finally meet you,
you like like Danny DeVito, are four-foot-two and weigh 390 lbs! The nice
thing about joining an online
dating site with hundreds of thousands of members, is that there IS
probably someone (or several) people who are looking for that four-foot-two
Danny DeVito look alike - so just be honest.
Do: Post a Detailed Profile. While the first
'Do' states that your profile should be honest, the second 'Do' says that
your online dating profile should be more than, 'Date Me. I'm
Honest!' People want to see your personality shine through in your
profile. They want to learn about the type of person you are and get some
insight into your personality. Besides your picture, your profile is
extremely important so make it a good one. This is especially true for guys
because there is usually more competition because slightly more men use
online personals sites than women - but that gap is closing.
Ready
to Place Your Free Online Personal Ad?
Do: Post a clear, recent photo of yourself. This
one should go without saying, but you would be surprised at how many online
daters don't take a decent photo of themselves to post at their online
dating site of choice. A photo is worth a thousand words, so post a nice
one. Here are a few tips: Your personal photo should be recent and reflect
how you look today (not ten years ago). You should use a high-quality
digital camera and take the picture in good light. Your main photo should
be a head shot with you looking directly into the camera and smiling.
Do: Be safe and take a friend when meeting
someone in person for the first time. Sometimes people are not
always who they say they are or are not how they appear when you have only
corresponded with them through email. Anytime you take an online
relationship offline and are meeting someone for the first time in person,
please tell someone where you are going, bring a friend, and meet in a
public place. Safety first!
Those are four simple things that can skyrocket the
response rate your online personal ad receives. Now for some no-no's.
Don't: Pester someone who has not
responded to your email or wink. Nobody likes to be nagged and if a
reasonable amount of time elapses between the time you initiate contact and
the person you contacted doesn't respond, simply move on. A second polite,
"hello" after a reasonable amount of time has passed is OK, but
any more than that and you go from looking like an interested member from
the dating site to a stalker. Don't be a stalker!
Don't: Take things personally online. While it's
only natural to feel hurt or rejected if someone doesn't find us as
attractive as we find them, it is important not to take things personally
on the internet. If someone has not responded, to one (or maybe two) polite
efforts by you to initiate contact, do not take this as a personal affront,
simply find someone else who piques your interest. You can never know the
real reason why someone has not responded to you, so it is important not to
take it personally and keep trying until you find someone who DOES respond.
Ready
to Place Your Free Online Personal Ad?
Don't: Believe everything you read about a
person online. If things seem too good to be true, it is possible
they are. Employ a healthy amount of skepticism when browsing dating
profiles online because not everybody on the internet has read our Dos and
Don'ts of Online Dating article (yet) so they may not know that the most
important 'Do' is to be honest.
Don't: Give away your personal or financial
information to a total stranger. No matter how much you have conversed
with this person via email or IM, you need to be aware that there are
people out there who might try to take advantage of you so use your best judgment
and do not provide too many personal or any financial details about
yourself.
So there you have the 'Don'ts' and hopefully you already
know some of them!
Conclusion
While we only listed the Four Dos and Don'ts of Online Dating we
don't want you to think that those are all there are. We do want you to
take our advice above when posting or responding to another member at your
online dating site of choice, but we also do want you to come up with some
of your own unwritten rules of online dating. It is up to you to get the
most out of this exciting new way to meet other singles who share common
interests in the age of the internet, now why don't you place
your own free online personal ad and put some of the advice you
received above into practice!
Interracial
Relationships can be difficult in our society. Find out when you can do to
create an open-mindedness among your family and friends to make them more
accepting of your partner. 
