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Dating tips
If you are meeting someone in real life that you have met online (whether it be from personals, chat, etc), here are a few dating tips:
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Get a new free email account to use instead of your normal email address. This allows you to be completely anonymous so that in the event that you no longer wish to be in contact with someone, they will not have access to your primary email address.
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If you decide to meet someone that you met on the Internet, meet in a public place. This is vital in order to ensure your safety as there are a few people on the Internet that try to deceive others.
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Always be honest in your personal ads and email correspondence. It is never right to put inaccurate information about yourself. If you are honest, you have the best possibility of finding a true match on the Internet.
Writing Your Personal Ad
Putting up your picture
Responding to ad
Online Dating Safety Tips
Writing Your Personal Ad
The headline - Your online personal is like an advertisement. And in this advertisement, you are the product. If your personal ad doesn't sell a reader, he or she will breeze by it looking for a better model.
The key to creating a successful personal ad is your headline. It has to get a person's attention, it has to do it in few words, and it has to do amidst a lot of other headlines. This is a lot to ask of a description that's usually less than ten words. How do you do it? The key is to appeal to the other person's interest.
The trick is to play to the wants that are important to your target reader. In general, women seek honesty, security, sense of humor, confidence, someone who will make them feel sexy and special, physical attraction, and someone who will listen (when dealing with women, men can be pretty bad at this, so pick it up guys). So if you're looking to appeal to a woman, example headlines might be:
Don't promote negativity, it's not too appealing. If you have to use negativity, try to at least throw in some humor.
Your actual personal ad - Your headline got them in the door, your personal ad now has to generate a response. How do you do this? Once again, it comes back to telling the reader what's in it for them. What are your favorable qualities? What does the reader stand to gain by getting to know you ... by meeting you ... by dating you?
Let them know what they stand to gain. Don't be shy. Don't under-value yourself. We all have majestic and wonderful qualities. Let people know about yours. Tell them what they stand to gain by having an awesome person like you in their life.
Write your advertisment in a word processor first - use the spellchecker, proof read it and when you are happy with it - post it. This also has the advantage that you can cut-and-paste it into several sites.
Putting up your picture
If you do use a photo, think carefully about which pictures to use. Guys - don't use that picture of you after a joyous amount of beer. Let her find out the horrible truth of who you really are in her own time. Ladies - don't use a photo of you with your ex-boyfriend snipped out. I know you like the dress you were wearing in that picture but trust me on this one.
Get a friend to take a photo of you on your own. One facial and one full-length if possible. Make an effort to look happy, relaxed and natural. Don't go to a studio and have a model shoot as they may be assumed to be fake.
Responding to ad
Always respond to messages you receive, even if you are not interested. Remember that it is another human being that wrote to you and they will be checking their mail box for the response. It can be disappointing to get a 'thanks, but no thanks' but it is less stressful than waiting for a response that never comes.
Online Dating Safety Tips
The simplest way to safety is by using common sense. Do not give out personal info -- your last name, phone number, credit card numbers, and so on. If you do decide to let someone know personal information, wait until you really get to know them or have a really good feel of them.
It's almost always a good idea to chat on the phone a few times before meeting someone. And except for rare instances, I typically talk to a person online for 2-8 weeks before I entertain the idea of talking to them on the phone. I then like to have a few good phone chats before I entertain the idea of meeting them in person.
Am I overly cautious? I hope so. There are a lot of nuts out there, and I don't want psychos knowing my last name or my home address. When I finally do decide to meet someone, I do it in a well-populated public place. A restaurant or coffee shop in a mall or shopping center is always good.
It's unfortunate that one has to be so cautious. But these days, better safe than sorry. On top of all that, I always use a separate email address for online dating stuff. This way, people don't know my real email address and if things go wrong, I simply create another pseudo email address.
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