Enough, But Not Too Much
Including details in your profile is vitally important, and yet, it is also just about the easiest part of the job to mess up.
Provide too much information and you will swamp your profile reader. Chances are that they will get half way through, and then get bored reading it!
On the other hand, provide too little information and it can appear that you don't want to tell the whole story about you, or that you are simply not willing to make the effort.
Either way, too little detail will consign your profile to the trash can just as effectively as too much information will!
Aim for the happy medium, the sensible middle ground. Give just enough information to draw the person in but try to retain a little mystery, an unanswered question that they can only uncover by communication with you. Provide them with a teaser, but don't tell them everything right from the word go.
Imagine how you would like this person to be feeling once they have finished reading your profile. Would happy or sad be better? Wearing a smile or a frown?
The answer is obvious, so that is your specific aim when creating the profile.
Make sure that this is the way that you will leave them, so that they walk away from the PC and remember your name or something in your online dating profile that sticks out.
This element of mystery, something that piques their curiosity will draw them back to your profile, and probably encourage them to communicate with you too. Of course, you need to apply some common sense, and not forget the need for safety. You should keep personal information that could help identify you out of your profile.
Never tell anyone where you live, your place of work, or any personal and physically identifying things about you. Yet, you do need to give enough to become as real a person as it is possible to be, when communicating online.
Remember that your purpose here is to create a great first impression and that to do so, you need to be positive, optimistic and cheerful. Okay, so here's what you can do.
Make a very quick list, as naturally and spontaneously as you can, of all the good things about you. Don't think too much, just make it a pure 'stream of consciousness' thing.
Include what you like doing, what you are good at, what you have achieved in the past and so on. Then, look at your list, and select the things that you can put up online, without sounding boastful, rude or arrogant. How does it read?
Are you happy that this is the 'you' that you want people to meet? Does it make you smile, and would it make you appear cheerful and happy to others who might read it? Does it still retain that vital element of mystery? Good!
Once you have satisfied all of those criteria, stop work. Don't overdo it, editing and re-editing so many times that it becomes bland and probably boring as well. Don't lose the essential 'spark'! Now, do the same thing in reverse.
Write down what you are looking for in the person you are seeking through your involvement with online dating.
Again, do the job as quickly and naturally as you can, as this will tend to generate the most honest answers. Now, when you compare the two lists, you should see some common characteristics listed there. Imagine that the person that you want to meet does exactly the same as you just did. They should then be looking for exactly the characteristics in you that you are putting own in your profile. It's a match, in other words! Heres a few words and phrases that it will definitely pay you to incorporate into your profile, assuming that they do, in fact, apply, of course!
• Honest
• Reliable
• Hard working
• Outgoing
• Generous
• Fun
• Humorous
• Sincere
• Caring
• Dependable
• Good Listener
• Committed
• Understanding
• Good looking/handsome/pretty/beautiful
• Attractive
When you consider the 'spontaneous' lists you created, the most important things to note are the areas where your list and the one that you created for the ideal person that you believe you are seeking are 'matched'. This allows you to have a very clear picture of the person that you are looking for, the person who is going to be your ideal online dating partner.
That is not, of course, to say that you will meet or find them online immediately.
However, you must hope that they, like you, have created their profile and have given it as much thought as you have.
If so, then you know that those people who have profiles that match your requirements are obviously the very people who you should be looking to meet and date, first.
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