Tips

The most important aspect of your online dating profile is the photo. While visual-based dating apps like Tinder have made the photo the only determining factor in whether to swipe left or right, photos have always played a crucial role in how many times your profile gets viewed and by whom.

Does this seem shallow, or turn you off of online dating altogether? It shouldn’t. Let’s face it – when you meet someone in real life, the first thing you notice is what he or she looks like. The difference is, while you might not initially be attracted physically, having a chance to interact in person could change your opinion. Chemistry is elusive – you might want it with someone who looks a certain way, but actually have it with another who isn’t your type. But you don’t know until you meet face-to-face.

Which is why you want to give yourself the best advantage by including photos that will make people stop and take a second look at your profile, regardless of whether or not you feel you look like a model. The point is – you want to get to the actual in-person meeting to make that determination. But you have to get past the screening process first – a.k.a., the photos.

Here are some tips:

Accentuate your unique features – even the ones you don’t like. Think your unruly hair will turn people off? Think again. OkCupid did a study, and as it turns out, online daters have really varied tastes! Most are interested in people with unusual features rather than just ordinarily attractive features – so emphasize your curvy hips or regal nose. It will get you more attention.

Look into the camera. Most people prefer online dating prospects to look at the camera, and to smile. It looks much more inviting and engaging.

More is more. Posting a slew of selfies isn’t a great way to create your online dating profile, but you do want to post more rather than fewer photos. Have a friend take some varied shots that you can sort through later. Go outside where the best light is, and where you can have a little more fun with the camera.

Vary your poses, and do a close-up. You might not be comfortable in front of a camera, but you don’t want to make potential dates work hard to figure out what you look like. Embrace a close-up photo so your face is clear, and incorporate a body shot so you don’t look like you are trying to hide. Don’t pose with friends – this is a solo act.

Show your active side. Do you like to climb rocks, play volleyball, or strum a guitar? You’re much more likely to get messages if you have a visual of what you love to do.

Show your playful side. A big trend in online dating is to not take yourself so seriously. You are looking to meet people and have a good time, so it’s good to be a bit more playful and creative with your photos. People want to see your personality up front – so do that silly pose. Have more fun.

With over 29 million members, a buzzed-about blog, a #1 dating app, and more than 14 million followers across the social sphere, it's safe to say Zoosk knows a thing or two about online dating.

Using their dating expertise and data gathered from studying nearly 4 million messages and 430,000 profiles, the gurus at Zoosk curated the hottest trends of 2014 and made a few predictions for the new year.

Which online dating trends left us lonely in 2014 and which ones got us (digitally) hot and bothered? What does 2015 have in store? Check out Zoosk's infographic here, and some highlights below.

Messaging

In 2014, singles were least responsive between 2pm and 3pm, presumably because they were either deeply entrenched in work or snoozing off a post-lunch food coma. Men were most active in the morning, between the hours of 9 and 10am. Women, on the other hand, were night owls. The majority of their interactions occurred between 10 and 11pm.

Prediction: Moving into 2015, Zoosk predicts that our 'always on' culture will result in instant interactions all day, every day.

Photos

2014 saw a bunch of trends where photos were concerned. For men, outdoor photos increased messages received by 19% while selfies decreased messages received by 8%. For women, the trend was reversed – selfies increased messages received by 4%, while outdoor photos decreased messages received by 40%. For both men and women, posing with a friend or animal proved problematic, but full body photos increased messages by a whopping 203%!

Prediction: Duck face and bathroom selfies are out, along with mirror photos. Enlist a friend to take your full body shot instead.

Profiles

Honesty reigned supreme for men in 2014. Profiles that included “divorce,” “separate” or “my ex” received 52% more messages. On the other hand, sharing too much too soon scared off potential dates for women. Profile mentions of “divorce,” “separate” or “my ex” received 4% fewer messages.

Prediction: Zoosk predicts we'll all be over surprises in 2015. More and more daters will rely on technology to verify user authenticity.

Technology

Traditionally, online dating has rested on a foundation of surveys. Some are longer than others, but the end goal is always the same: categorize daters based on (possibly meaningless) questions. 2014 was no exception to the trend.

Prediction: Online dating will be about the opposite of “Do what I say, not what I do” in 2015. Instead of relying on your self-reported answers, dating services will increasingly learn your preferences based on your actions.

You think I'm insane, right?

There's no possible way there could be one day that's better for online dating than all the others. That's just crazy.

Except it isn't crazy. It's a real thing.

Online dating is there for you all year round, but there's one window of time each year that's more active than any other. Match.com and Plenty of Fish – two of the biggest dating companies in the game, so rest assured they know what they're talking about – say that the single most popular day for online dating is (drumroll please):

January 4.

And it gets even more impressive than that. They've even narrowed it down to an exact time period. (Are they sorcerers over there?) Roughly 5pm to 8pm are the magic hours in which the largest number of people sign up, log on, and start searching for online love. If you're still skeptical, Zoosk backs the estimated timeframe up. In 2014, its most trafficked time was the Sunday after New Year's.

Across the board, online dating sites see a huge boost in action between New Year's Eve and Valentine's Day. And it's not hard to imagine why. There's an obvious seasonal sentimentality that takes over during that time, and its natural manifestation in the techno-obsessed 21^st century is online dating.

Although the exact reason is unclear, we can easily speculate. The new year is a time for a fresh start, for new goals, for making positive changes. For many people, those things mean a renewed focus on finding love – and what better way to kick your love life into gear than joining an online dating site?

On the other hand, the holiday season is a notoriously lonely time, and that could also explain why online dating sites see a serious boost in action. Hitting a low point could be the motivator needed to finally try out online dating after all.

Interestingly, it's not just online dating that feels the effects of the holidays. The Washington Post reports that researchers have also observed a post-holiday spike in searches for porn, and that “a 2012 study by Facebook’s data team found that people are far more likely to change their relationship status in January or February than they are at any other time of year.”

And lest you think this is merely an online phenomenon, a study also found that “the holiday season tends to see a jump in both condom sales and conceptions.”

So what are you waiting for? The time is NOW.

New Year's Day is about more than nursing a ferocious hangover. For many people, it's also a symbol of new beginnings and a time to make resolutions for the year ahead. And what better way to start than with your love life?

The road to the right relationship isn't always smooth. Frustrations and disappointments are guaranteed, like potholes and traffic jams. But sometimes the road is clear, and if you drive for long enough, eventually you'll reach your destination.

And here's the best part: there are shortcuts. They may not always feel short, but perfect your approach to online dating and you'll give yourself a serious leg up in the race. Here are 4 online dating resolutions you can make this year, to make 2015 the year you win big:

1. Learn to market yourself. Unless you're in the very tip-top tier of the online dating population – and maybe not even then – online dating is, at some level, a competition. The dating pool is vast, which means you need to work hard to differentiate yourself from the other fish in that sea. I'm not saying you should treat online dating as a war, or that you should be calculated in every single thing you do, but you're probably missing opportunities if you haven't learned to market yourself at all. Optimize your profile. It should be one big advertisement for why you're awesome.
2. Make the first move. Yeah, approaching someone (even if it's online) is scary – so what? Everyone – man or woman – will benefit from learning to be the aggressor. If you lack the courage to initiate, you stand to miss out on the best people. When you see someone you're into, make that first move. Don't just hit a “like” button and hope for the best. Your odds of meeting someone incredible are drastically improved when you take charge of your destiny, instead of waiting on fate.
3. Don't blame online dating when things don't work. I wish I could tell you every date would be a grand slam, but the only guarantee of a grand slam is breakfast at Denny's. Bad dates will happen. But bad dates also happen when you meet in person, and either way, you can't let those experiences turn you off. Positive vibes attract positive vibes; negative vibes attract negative vibes (and more bad dates). Keep your optimism up and keep your goals in sight. And speaking of goals...
4. Make them. The best way to avoid disappointing dates – in 2015 and beyond – is to set smart goals and stick to them. If you know that a certain political affiliation is a dealbreaker for you, for example, set it as a goal and don't waver. Dating people who don't meet your most basic criteria is a recipe for disappointment. Just make sure your preferences and the goals you set are reasonable. The goal is to be smart, not to be superficial.

Have an online dating resolution that should be added to the list? Let us know in the comments!

Do singles prefer taking selfies or traveling? What city has the highest number of active daters, or at least those who message the most? What height do most women prefer when they filter their matches?

If you like knowing the answers to these kinds of questions – in other words, identifying peoples’ preferences and what are they actually doing when they’re online dating - Match has just presented a wrap-up list of dating stats for 2014, culled from its extensive database. 

Tinder might be taking the dating world by storm, but so far the traditional dating websites like OkCupid and Match have been studying their users and providing us with valuable data about how people actually date, instead of just making assumptions. As it turns out, not everyone is into hooking up or taking selfies despite popular opinion and Tinder. But singles do tend to be visually stimulated. It’s all about the photos.

According to Match.com, 4.8 million photos were added to its site in 2014, and 280 million total were “liked.” It seems the ladies know that men are looking at their photos more than anything else, because straight women topped the list of most photos posted, with an average of 3.6 photos uploaded per woman (compared to Lesbian women and Gay men with 2.3 photos on average, and straight men with 2.8 photos on average).

And what cities are the best in terms of active online daters? Interestingly, Miami subscribers sent the most messages (over both New York and Los Angeles); users in Albany, New York logged in the most; and not surprisingly, those from Anchorage, Alaska searched most frequently outside their city looking for potential dates. Salt Lake City was the runner up, with the second highest number of users looking outside the city limits for love.

As for keywords people include in their profiles, “travel” came in first with over 1,000,000 people using the term to describe their interests. “Down to earth” is another popular phrase used in online dating profiles, with over 232,000 including it in theirs. The word “selfie” appeared in profiles far less often – just north of 5,600 times. Match.com even discovered who included the most hashtags in a profile – (44 hashtags to be exact).

Among the most common words used in profiles: Electrician, Welcoming, Warmhearted, Quickest, and Ladies. Other interesting choices that were among the most popular include crochet, sewing and Cosmetology. (I’m kind of surprised things like “jogging” or “watching football” didn’t make the top of the list, but maybe people are starting to branch out?)

And apologies guys – the height that most of your female Match.com counterparts were looking for was 6 feet. Being tall is definitely an advantage for men.

What’s in store for 2015? I guess we’ll have to wait and see. For more information on this dating service please check out our Match.com review.

How many potential dates do you think clicked on your profile, only to have their eyes glaze over when they saw your mediocre profile photo? Dozens? Hundreds? Maybe even thousands?

Of course your picture isn't the most important thing, but anyone who tries to tell you it isn't an important thing is either lying to you or lying to themselves. If your photos aren't up to par, you’re putting yourself at a serious disadvantage.

Before you book yourself time with a pricey photographer, know that professional headshots are absolutely unnecessary. All you need is to learn a few online dating photo hacks that make you look like a pro.

1. Go for quality, not quantity. One amazing photo will serve you better than 10 crappy ones. Your priority, of course, should be your profile picture. No filters, strange effects, or bizarre cropping. If you can only manage one photo, nail this. If you can post several, use the selection show off your face, your body, and your personality.
2. Don't be shy. You've seen the profile pictures that are taken from so far away you can barely tell there's a figure in them. And don't even get me started on the pictures of pets. Your profile photo is the time to get up close and personal with your real self. Don't post anything that requires a magnifying glass to verify that you are, in fact, in the picture. And unless you're looking for a mate for your cat (preferably also a feline), it should only appear in pictures alongside you.
3. Practice makes perfect. Camera shyness is totally cool. It happens. Professional models rock it when they get in front of the lens because they have tons of experience under their belts. If you get nervous when the camera comes out, spend some quality time with your mirror. Figure out your angles. Practice your poses. Learn how to put your best foot (or in this case "face") forward.
4. Play make-believe if it helps. Pretend the camera is someone you're flirting with. Imagine the confidence-boosting things they're saying to you. Go ahead and say them to yourself out loud, if you want. Do whatever it takes to get yourself feeling good and, as they say in the biz, make love to the camera.
5. Show off the right side – which is probably your left. Here's a fun fact: a study published in the journal Experimental Brain Research found that the left side is your best side, because it's more emotionally expressive. Is it a foolproof conclusion? Of course not. But it can't hurt to try.