Tips To Make Your Dating Profile Interesting

The past week I’ve been on OkCupid searching for potential dates. While I’ve come across plenty of great profiles enticing me to initiate contact and horrible profiles I’ve had to pass on. When I began online dating many years ago, much of the profile creating advice was geared towards men, plenty of guys thought a shirtless picture and sparse description would woo the masses. It doesn’t. Over time the advice has been more even handed, however, women still need plenty of help here. In searching for potential dates, I’ve found several irritating trends. I’ve categorized them into four segments: profiles with not enough information, profiles with too much information, profiles with needless information and the limited profile.

Many profiles include several pictures and sentence length answers to questions. In several cases, these short answers are very appropriate (i.e. your job, six things you can’t live without.) These profiles won’t get my attention. I understand the logic here, several cute pictures will get a lot of notice from many men. It’s a formula that works, but expect your messages to be “You’re cute!” or “Hi! Lets meet!” There’s nothing but pictures for me to respond to. Do yourself a favor and in areas that provide more detail, provide it. Two short paragraphs is more than enough information.

Your dating profile isn’t a novel. I will not read every detail. Leave some information for the first date. Your dating profile should be cliff notes that make you stand out. Don’t list out every musical artist or book you’ve read, Make it interesting. If you love hip-hop say something like “I grew up listening to Run D.M.C. and loved hip-hop ever since.” Here you’ve provided key details about yourself in a short concise manner. Also don’t be repetitive, you may really enjoy knitting but mention your passion for it once or twice.

I used to believe including “I’m not very good at describing myself” or “I don’t know what to say but here it goes” was appropriate profile information. It isn’t. It’s annoying. I hate this! Please, I beg you to stop! This is needless information, who cares if you’re bad at writing profiles, so is everyone else! I had to hire someone to help me with mine! Get over it! Instead of saying that you’re bad at writing profiles talk about things you’re actually bad at, like hopscotch, marbles, or being an astronaut.

The profile I hate the most are the limited profiles. These are really well written profiles with 1 picture or a profile with 10 pictures with one word answers to questions. I’ve come across many of these and tend to ignore them. I’m seeking the full package here, not just looks or words. Find a balance, give me enough information to initiate contact.

My last tip has to deal with profile pictures. I understand not everyone is photo friendly, but please cut down the amount of photo’s of your friends. I’m not trying to date them, I’m trying to date you. If you have 5 photo’s all 5 shouldn’t include your friends. If you include a picture of you and your friends, clearly indicate where you are in the photo. Your photo’s shouldn’t all be headshots either. I would like to know the full package. Which means several full figured shots are very helpful. In order to make a decision, we need to see everything (though with your clothing on!)

(Image Credit: icanhascheezburger.com)