Jeepers Creepers, Where'd You Get Those Peepers?

For a profile to be successful, the most important thing are the pictures. If you have no pictures, you will get no interest. Doesn't matter how awesome an introduction paragraph you can write. No pictures, no meeting new people.

I could end this post here but I should provide a few pointers (which are also my pet peeves) about the photos that people post to their profile. These are all big no-no's. 

1.  Pictures taken with cell phones (not enough focus, if you don't have a digital camera I bet the first person you call on that cell phone of yours will have a camera)

2.  Self portraits (one corner of the pic is always taken up by an arm and you get really weird angles)

3.  Pictures that don't include the user (your dog may be great but I am not interested in dating your dog, your truck, or your sister)

4.  Pictures that minimize the user (the scenery is great but what do you look like?)

5.  The picture that combines them all: Self portraits in the mirror, enough said. 

What you do want are pictures that show off your best features and make you look happy and confident.  You are trying to put your best foot forward and when you are competing against thousands of other online daters you need all the help you can get.  Don't be afraid of asking friends for feedback on your profile.  If you are really worried about your pictures just post a picture of yourself with uglier friends.  Just don't let those friends know the real reason you want to take a picture with them. 

Oh Yes It's Ladies Night

A friend of mine, chadillac23, pointed out that dating websites are designed to attract women. I had never thought about this before but his argument makes sense.  Here is what he said: 

"Seems like a site's popularity is driven by how many women they can attract. It's kind of like how clubs will have ladies night: if you let the ladies in for free, more of them will show up, and now that you have a plethora of ladies you will have more men (who are the ones who spend the most money). Instead of ladies night, these sites offer something different. The layout is more appealing to women (or so i've been told). Some sites have "cyber gifts" you can send, and they're all gifts for women (flowers, candy, teddy bears, etc...). I think the main thing that attracts ladies to a site (and hence, attract more men), are the tests and personality profiles. The more women these sites attract, the more men end up there too."

So ladies, if you show up online then the men will follow.  Isn't that just their way?  All jokes aside, men and women may both complain about the quality of people online but you gotta go somewhere to meet new people and online dating isn't going anywhere but is only getting stronger!