Would you like to date Charlie Sheen?
Few weeks ago the entire world was amazed to see how Charlie Sheen got crazy after his hit sitcom “two and a half man” got cancelled and his career looks dead. Funny enough, this move happened to because the star got caught parting with porn stars (which he did), had domestic problems with his wife (he had) or his cocaine addiction, it happened because he insulted the man who created the show Chuck Lorre, the man who is responsible for other hit show “the Big Bang Theory”.
So how all this connected with the dating supermarket? Well, imagine that you are using an online dating service, you see a great picture of a guy (Charlie does look great for his age) you click on that and open his profile, and then you discover that this guy is a mad man, would you still go out with him?
I know that so far in this blog I explained again and again that the most important thing we always forget to do when we build our dating profile, is to give our online photo a makeover… but not the kind of makeover that require us to go on a diet or change our hairstyle (which you could obviously do as well) but the kind of makeover that you could do to your best looking photo while you use photoshop or you go to an online service such as www.looking-better, and pay them to do so for you.
But what happens after you get your picture done? Is this enough to increase your date rate? Well, this is a complex question. If we go back to our example of Charlie… how many woman would click on him and then run away after they read about his crazy character?
So even with our improved picture we still require having the right profile. There are many websites and tips on how to do that, and I will summarize some of the tips in my next post, but there are 2 unconventional tips that I would like to share with you now, both been tested and proved working…
First tip on building your profile is based on the type of online dating service you are using. If it has the option to start one on one chat with the potential date then you can choose to build the mysterious profile… in other words, build your profile in such way that it will make the other website curios about one or more things you wrote for example… if you like watching movies, don’t write it like that say in your hobbies that you are attracted to dark place with strange vibes… etc… this will immediately help trigger the conversation. You can add couple of “interesting” mysterious facts about yourself, and plan how you will answer them in a funny way in the chat.
Another unconventional tip that my friend used and I was surprised to see its success was to basically build the opposite profile than a person expects to see in a dating website… in other words describe yourself like Charlie Sheen would do… my friend wrote about himself that he is a liar, two face, coward etc… he said that his hobbies includes flings, reading Russian novels and not paying on his date… well you can imagine the rest…
If you think this is a radical way to build a profile you might be right, but if you have a great sense of humour, than this profile will allow you to brand yourself differently in the dating supermarket… and in any case, you can just experiment with that… change your profile, give it couple of days, and if you don’t like the results change it back…
I will be happy to hear your thoughts about how to improve your dating profile, actually I will be happy just to hear your thoughts about all the posts… start commenting… and share my wisdom with all of your friends… let my supermarket grow to a chain of supermarkets…
Is Facebook the new place to look for online dating?
I took couple of days off, and went to my hometown. Just to clear the head, and check on my last three single friends, well, at least I thought I have 3 single friends, imagine my surprise when I discovered one of them is not only dating someone, but she is already living at his place… my second friend was too busy meeting me as he had two dates, and it is all thanks to Facebook… curious? here are the full details.
Chuck is trying to break the records of being single… he is almost 40, and it always seemed that he will be single forever, and annoy us all with his dating stories, but than he joined Facebook. if you check Chuck page on Facebook, you will notice that his profile picture confirms that he is on a band. this is always a great pose to thake your photo when you are single and in your 40’s as this means that you are going for the rock and roll groupy crowd. The girl who managed to win him, actually spotted his picture, when she was bored one weekend and looked at one of her mate’s Facebook friends. she so Chuck picture, so his single status, and sent him a massage, thinking it is only for a one night stand on the weekend. well one night turned into two and than three, and as she did not have her own place, one morning she just stayed there, and that’s it. remember my last post about people who meet online tend to get marry faster? I think Chuck’s girl is aiming to break a record. can one photo really do the different? apparently, even on Facebook our photos are our ambassadors. they tell the rest of the world who we are, or who we feel we are. and choosing the right photo is clearly the way to attract potential dates…
My second friend, the one who was busy dating, actually changed his entire online dating strategy and shieft it towards Facebook. his new way of getting dates is by being introduced to single girls who are friends of his friends. last Tuesday he was suppose to meet up for the first time with a new girl which, funny enough, I used to work with. He showed me her facebook profile, and I couldn’t hold myself from having a little laugh… this girl, Tammy, really nailed her Facebook profile. Tammy is not a stunning girl, she is alright, but her Facebook profile told me another story. Tammy chose 4 or 5 great pictures of hers, all of them showing her in a very smart way… not too much flesh… one or two artistic ones, no pictures with kids (this is always makes the guys wonder), and one important picture of her holding a drink (boys like this type of pictures…)
I hope this date will go well for both my friend and Tammy, but this two stories, really expressed how online dating is evolving once more, and how clever we need to be about the way we present ourselves in this new section of the “Dating Supermarket” this is why improving your digital photos for Facebook, is now a smart thing to do, so sharp your Photoshop skills or use online services, such as http://www.looking-better.com . since I came back I have started to examine my friends Facebook page… want me to exam yours and analyze it in my next posts? not a problem, just send me your name, and I will check the pictures for you…
oh, by the way, if you enjoyed this post, check my previous ones, and why not press like?
see you…
Here is the best tip no one told you about online dating…
And here is the biggest secrets of all… you can get more dates if you look better. Yes… that’s all, you don’t need to take special lessons, you don’t need to have a dating coach, you just need to look better…
OK, let’s get serious, obviously dating gets easier if you are a very attractive person, but what happens if you are just an attractive person or even less? Well, that’s where things get a bit easier in the modern world of online dating.
Lets imagine you are about to go out tonight, what do you do? You take a shower… you put perfume… you dress up… you style you hair… in other words you are trying to make yourself look better than you look lets say on a Saturday morning in front of the TV.
Now lets think about online dating… how does this thing work? You either use a dating website, or you use a social network, but one way or the other you are trying to make an online move on somebody. Life online are similar to real life in one sense, if someone is making a move on me, first thing I do is to check their photo, isn’t it? If they look good, than the chances I will respond positively, grows.
And coming back to our bombastic headline; How can you make more people respond positively to your online romantic moves? Improve your online dating photo, make yourself look better.
This is not a new invention you know, celebs are using software such as Photoshop to improve the way they look all the time. So why don’t you do the same? It doesn’t matter how good you look, if you are not using a professional photographer, a makeup artist and a stylist, your pictures will always be kind of OK, but they will never work for you. But if you fix the light, put some filters, and make an annoying zit or double chin disappear, than it is still your picture, but now it’s a better you.
If you are not a photoshop master, than you can easily learn some tricks by watching some online lectures on youtube or you can use an online service that will do the job for you for example: www.looking-better.com
The right way to improve your photo is not to change yourself completely, or the dates you will get online will become very short one in real life, but to do it smartly.
How can I get more dates online?
So you decided to spend some time and money in an effort to find love online. and now the next question you need to ask yourself is how to get more dates. Remember, dating websites are packed with many people in the same conditions as you, so don’t feel comfortable just by building a simple profile with a nice picture. to improve your online dating chances, you need to be smart, much like real life.
First you need to understand the territory. It’s the same as real life. if you meet a girl in a bar you will use a different tactics than if for example you will meet her in some friend wedding, wouldn’t you?
It’s the same online. You have many different environments to look for love, and each one requires you to act differently. For example: if you are looking for a date on Facebook, than your best chance is to check all your friend friends, right? But after you identify a potential date, you would probably ask that friend some details about them, and the most important one, is this potential date is actually available. If the answer is yes, then you might contact her, but then you know what will happen… she or he will check your Facebook profile, examine your pictures, your friends and probably have a chat with your mutual friend. All this can be avoided on a dating website, but dating websites do come with their own little challenges.
There are many dating websites, and the only way people who launches a website could differentiate themselves from one another, is by giving their website something unique. One way is the payment model of the website. Certain sites are free, which means that you don’t have to take the financial risk by joining them (plus, some people do feel funny about paying to find dates.,,) however, when you don’t pay for something you tend to treat is differently then something you do pay for which means, your potential dates on the website, are not that serious about their participation in the dating game.
Secondly, different website describes their service differently. Some say that they are trying to match people by using special algorithms that supposed to do the matching hustle for you and introduce you only to the right people, other website will ask you for your basic search requirement and will bomb you with hundreds of potential dates.
Imagine that the person you are trying to date is also using the same website, so how will they react in each scenario? I participated few years ago in a beta stage of a dating website that was built by a psychology professor who claimed that by answering his special questionnaire, he can find you your perfect match. At the end of the process I have received an email with 10 names of girls who are not only the girls I am looking for, but I am the guy that they are seeking. I tried to contact the girls, and the result was almost 100% everyone felt that this is a risk worth taken, and although none of us used a picture, we all wanted to meet each other… I did not find the love of my life, but at least it was a busy winter.
So identify your potential website for your dating game. And let’s move to the next level.
The Dating Supermarket 