How to write a better dating profile

10 Tips For an Online Dating Profile that Gets Responses

If you set up an ad on an online personals site like Gumtree or Craigslist, or set up a profile on a dating site like Match or DatingDirect, what's your goal? A response of course. Same if you write to someone on these sites – you want them to respond back.

The more responses you get, the more chances you'll have to find someone you really like. If you buy a car, you want to look at several ones to compare and find the best one – same as finding a girlfriend / boyfriend – you want to meet several of them to figure out which one you like best.

So how do you write an ad that attracts a response? Do this:

• Make the headline interesting and different. Newspaper headline never just give you the news, they give you the most interesting bit of the news to draw you in to read the article. You must do this too. Stress the most interesting bit about you in the headline, so that people will go, hey, I should click on that profile. Once you've got them to read your profile, you can reel them in more until you got them.
• Advertisements do this even better than newspapers, because they can be more creative with their headline. Say something unusual such as “Your mama warned you off men like me” or “If you want to be one half of a couple silhouette on a beach” or “Answer this, make your girlfriends jealous”.
• In the profile, write more about yourself, and keep it witty / creative / interesting. Noone wants to go out with a bore, everyone wants to go out with a scintillating individual. Even if people are looking for a good long-term prospect for a steady relationship leading to marriage, they are looking for fun during the dating phase. So show your fun side.
• Another tip to keep it interesting: Most people write the stereotypical ad like “I am a fun person who loves movies and music. I like walks on the beach, good conversation, and dining out. I'm looking for someone who is fun and can make me laugh.” Yeah, likes to laugh like anyone else. Make it more specific, and instead of “I like movies,” say “my favorite movie is ____ because _______” or use a movie character to describe you. “I'm a lot like _____ in ______ because _______.”
• Add a photo. Yes, it's that simple. Profiles with photos get more responses. Most dating services let people filter profiles without photos, and a lot of people use these filters and will never ever see your profile without the photo.
• The photo has two tasks: To make people to see you, and to show you in your best light. So use a photo that has good lighting, is not blurry, is close enough to see you, only has you in it, shows your face clearly, shows you smiling and upbeat, and shows you looking good.
• Use the background of the photo to your advantage. Add an interesting object in the background that will make people contact you to ask about it, or choose a bright color to make the photo stand out amongst the photos in a search result.
• Use more than one photo. Gives people a better idea of you.
• Tip for writing a response to a profile: Include a question in the response. That makes it easier for your target to answer, gives them something to talk about.
• Put a bit of effort into your online dating: Commit to writing 10 messages to 10 members, every day, for 10 days. This will give you practice at coming up with interesting messages, and will likely yield some responses.