Let's pretend we're architects. If you were to write out a blueprint of a successful internet dater, you'd have hundreds of small details to fill in. Your search methods might be your bathroom layout, or your chatting and dating processes might be the plumbing. But of all the pieces of your free internet dating blueprint, your profile is the frame and the floorplan-- it's the most important part. Which means it's almost impossible to spend too much time and effort getting the profile just right.
Your internet dating profile is what attracts potential dates to you. It's also what tells them who you are, what you want in a partner, and how compatible you might be. Your online profile is to your love life what a resume or CV is to your career: it's the first and best way to present yourself to somebody new.
You'll find lots of great tips here at Datepad for composing a great internet dating profile. But today, we're getting down to basics: simple description. When you set aside your attempts at humor and charm, what you have left is the most important part. A simple description of who you are. Here's how to get that description right.
Start with the basics. Filling in the basic information on your internet dating profile probably isn't the most entertaining part of the process. But it may be one of the most important. Details about yourself (like your eating or drinking habits) may seem unimportant to you. But they may just be of utmost importance to some potential partners. Some people see incomplete profiles (and especially incomplete basic details) as a sign that you're shifty or lazy. So take the time to fill out your basics as honestly and as thoroughly as you can. It seems like a small thing to you, but when it comes to searching and scanning profiles, your potential dates may not think so.
Be your own interviewer. Now that you have the basics in place, it's time to ask yourself the questions that will give you the most pertinent answers for your profile. Make the questions deep and interesting, and use the answers on your profile in order to flesh out, so to speak, your personality for potential partners. A few good questions might be:
• Which are your biggest dreams that haven't yet come true?
• What is the hardest thing you've ever done?
• What bothers you most in others, or about humanity in general? What do you love?
• What do you wish you could change about yourself, and what are you proud of?
Ask for help. It may be a little embarrassing to ask your friends or family for help with your internet dating profile, but... do it anyway! Sometimes a person with an outside view is much better at spotting which of your attributes are most important, attractive, and indicative of who you are. Ask them to summarize your personality, your interests, and your best and worst character traits. You may just be surprised by how the people you love describe you.
Work from the ground up. Filling in your basic attributes/preferences on an internet dating site can actually be very useful. It paints you in broad strokes, and gives you a great base for filling in the finer details. Once you have your basics in place, it's time to think about the smaller elements of your personality that make you who you are. You start with your age, race, location, etc., then move onto your hobbies, interests, and point of view. From there, you can get truly specific. If you take each stage in turn, it's that much easier to avoid leaving something out.
The deeper you try to look inside yourself and the harder you work to get that description on the page, the more attractive you will be to potential dates. Being funny and interesting is important. But knowing yourself and presenting that person clearly is more so. It will not only help you to target the right kind of people, it will also help them to target you. And hey, you never know what you might learn in the process.
