Dating: Are Enough People Contacting You Through the Online Personals

Joining an online personals site is one thing, having enough people reply to your profile and make contact is quite another. If you've recently joined an online dating service and you're finding that few people are making contact, then here are some ideas that might help. You can also use these ideas to improve your rate of being contacted if you are just starting with online personals and you are writing your first profile.

So let's begin at the beginning, with the service you have joined. The type of service you are planning to use to attract a dating partner may in itself be a big factor in how successful your efforts are. Specifically, how many members the service has. Clearly a smaller organization with fewer members will provide you with fewer chances of being contacted than a larger service with many more members.

If you are seeking someone for dating locally, always try to find out how many members the service you are considering has in your area. You can do this by using the search facility most dating services provide and do a search for your state or province (or even country if you live in a smaller country with fewer Internet users). If the results page turns up only a handful of members then clearly that service is not going to be much use to you.

What you should be looking for is a dating service that has millions of members overall, and at least a few thousand in your home area. You should also be looking for a quality service that offers guarantees of your money back, and wider facilities than just the personal profiles database itself. Try to find out if there are lots of satisfied users. You can do this by navigating the site but also by searching for reviews and user experiences on the major search engines.

When you have subscribed to a good dating service there is still a lot more you need to do to ensure you get contacted by other singles. If we are talking about something as important as finding a future partner then everyone should find it worthwhile to do a bit of work to be successful!

Take a good look at the profile you have written and plan to use. Don't just post the first rough version that comes into your head. Spend some time looking at other people's profiles to see which ones you are attracted to. Try to work out why. Then take what you have learned and apply it to creating your own profile.

The photo you use is usually the first thing that gets noticed by people browsing the profiles. Of course it is very important that you use a photo of yourself! This may shock you, but some people don't. This may be because they are shy and so make the mistake of using a friend's photo, or they may have joined the personals with a view to scamming other members -- in which case they may use a photo of a model stolen from another site, for example. Such people are out there, be warned! They can often be discovered through inconsistencies in what they say, an avoidance of answering your questions and ultimately heart-wrenching requests for funding for travel, as an example.

The photo you use should be a good one of you that is of high enough quality to give other members a fair idea of what you look like, usually a head and shoulders view. So no smudgy images of you standing in a dark place! It's also best not to post a photo that has other people in it aside from yourself, as this can put off those who might otherwise be interested.

When it comes to writing the words in your profile, one useful technique is to put yourself in the shoes of other members of the site. Try to distance yourself from your own work and see it as other singles might see it. Does it make you sound like an interesting person to check out? Does it make you seem serious about meeting someone? If you are looking for a life partner a good approach is to present yourself as someone looking for friendship as a first stage, with the suggestion of possible romance further down the line.

The header of your dating profile is important. What kind of headers have you found yourself attracted to in the other members profiles you looked at? You may want to note down some good examples and use them to inspire your own -- don't copy other people's work though.

Nothing worthwhile in life is achieved without at least a bit of work, so it is well worth taking the time to get your profile right in something so important as seeking a life partner or dating partner. As a large proportion of those who use the online personals don't make such efforts your profile should stand out among the rest, greatly increasing your chances of success.

You can find out more at Internet Personals Sites. For more on using photos: Online Photo Personals Sites. Stephanie Constantina writes for Single Dating .com. You can use this article on your site if you keep the links and anchor texts intact.