Dating Services

Every dating site has its own spin on the dating profile format. In this series, I'll take a look at some of the different profile formats and how you can write your best profile for that particular service. PlentyofFish is a free dating service that has skyrocketed in popularity in recent years. It has a very basic profile setup, so it's straightforward to fill it out.

Interests

List your top 6-9 interests here. Why 6-9? The default layout is three columns and you want something even and pleasing to the eye. Three interests aren't quite enough to fill out the box, but more than 9 and it starts to get a little bit like a laundry list.

About me

One of the biggest mistakes I see people making on PlentyofFish is being redundant. In other words, repeating information found elsewhere in the profile. In fact, the profile I chose at random to reference for this article is doing just that. In her statistics it lists her age, height, and location, yet she repeats them again in her profile. This is just wasted space!

This is the internet age, folks. We've been trained to skim and then LEAP to a new page if something seems boring within a few seconds. Save those precious words in your profile for things that haven't already been said.

Your profile is the back cover of the Book of You. Tell that interesting tale that gets people intrigued enough to pick you up, but keep it short and don't give away too much. A little mystery is what make people want to get to know you better!

Even though this says "About me," you will want to write about the type of match you seek here as well. After all, there's no other place in the profile to put it!

First date

What a random choice for a second section. What I'd do here is give potential matches a variety of ideas of places that you'd like to go for a first date. Bonus points if you can keep this section fresh and updated with local events!

For example: "There's a great film festival going on Downtown on Saturdays through the end of the summer. I'd love to go check it out!"

Having a good selection of date ideas puts a potential match at ease. You've done some of the work for them! Instead of suggesting a film festival and wondering if you hate movies, they'll know for sure that you want to go and would enjoy it!

Photos

Be sure your photos for your PlentyofFish profile include a close-up of your face, one full-body shot, and at least two other good photos of yourself. Avoid self-portraits, webcam photos, and group shots when you can and please, please, please, be sure your photos are recent so you are advertising exactly what you look like now.

Good luck going fishing at PlentyofFish! I hope you catch the big one!

For more information on the dating site mentioned in this article, read our PlentyofFish.com review.

eHarmony recently received a complaint in a letter from eRecruitment which stated that the dating site is infringing on their patents. eRecruitment is a job search site based in the United Kingdom that hold several patents which deal with classifying and indexing a website's members personal information. In the letter, eRecruitment told eHarmony to either shut down their dating site or start paying licensing fees.

eHarmony’s attorneys from Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe asked Judge Paul Friedman at the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to declare that the company had not infringed on patents owned by eRecruitment.

In my opinion this looks like someone who just wants to make a quick buck off of eHarmony. In the unlikely case that eRecruitment ends up successfully suing eHarmony, then all dating sites would be in trouble. Of course we have seen frivolous claims like this before. I forget who the company was but, there was one a few years ago that was attempting to sue any website who streamed video over the internet.

For more on the story, read The Blog of LegalTimes.

Starting Saturday July 25th, when members of eHarmony logged into their accounts, they found a message about a new feature and profile questions. There are 7 new questions which focus on commonalities. The multiple choice questions look at common traits that include things like your approach to money and food, cleanliness and humor. Once completed you can then see how your commonalities compare with other members when you view their profiles. While these questions are part of your profile, they are not taken into account when you are automatically matched with other members by eHarmony. That is what the other 256 profile questions are for.

Be careful when you fill out the commonality questions, as it looks right now, you cannot edit the answers once you have saved them.

To find out more details about this matchmaking service, read our review of eHarmony.

Every dating site has its own spin on the dating profile format. In this series, I'll take a look at some of the different profile formats and how you can write your best profile for that particular service. OkCupid is one of the free dating sites available to singles - absolutely no cost to join or use features. They are famous for their crazy quizzes and the "Friend / Enemy" percentages they use to indicate a match (or lack thereof!).

After filling out your basic stats and such, you are faced with the following sections to complete:

My Self-Summary

this is the quick and dirty version of who you are. OKCupid profiles are notoriously long, so brevity is of the essence here. Imagine yourself as a box of cereal on the supermarket shelf and write those few lines that describe you as succinctly as possible while making you sound tasty and worth eating.

What I'm Doing With My Life

This is your area to write about your school, job, kids. Again, keep it brief but interesting.

I'm Really Good At

This one can be a list of the things you excel at doing or you can write a sentence or two about one thing that you do very well.

The First Thing(s) People Usually Notice About Me

If you don't know the answer to this one, poll your friends. Do you stick out because you're really tall/short? Do you have pink hair? Are your fingernails always painted funky colors? Is your wardrobe stuck in the 1940s?

My Favorite Books, Movies, Music, and Food

You don't have to hit all of these. You can do these in a list or a paragraph, but don't make it an exhaustive list. Think top 2 or 3 of the category, not top 20.

The Six Things I Could Never Do Without

Very straightforward. List your top 6. (If you are a guy seeking a girl, putting "sex" in the list doesn't make you witty.)

I Spend a Lot of Time Thinking About

World Peace? How your cell phone works? Why the cable delivery guy is always late? Keep this answer short and either profound or witty. Bonus points if you can make it profound AND witty.

On A Typical Friday Night, I Am

While this does say "typical," if your typical Friday is lounging on your couch flipping through the channels, you may want to stretch the truth and talk about another activity you do semi-frequently on the weekends.

The Most Private Thing I'm Willing To Admit Here

Don't TMI (too much information). You can mention something weird ("My cat insists on following me into the bathroom, no matter what I plan to do in there.) or funny ("I frequently get 80s cartoon theme songs stuck in my head and have been known to be caught humming Mighty Mouse's song in business meetings."). But don't get too personal. That's for later.

You Should Message Me If

This is your call to action - someone read (or skimmed) your profile all the way down to here. What's the last thing you can say that convinces them to email you? If you just say "if you think I'm interesting and worth getting to know" you'll get a lot fewer responses than if you tied it into your previous profile text and said something like "you've ever been caught humming or whistling an entirely inappropriate song for the given situation." This is your last hurrah - make it count!

OkCupid.com allows you to have lots of pictures. I recommend at least 4, but no more than 6. One picture should be a close-up of your face, one full body shot, and the rest can be of your choosing (group shot, action shot, more close-ups, etc).

Best of luck getting Cupid to shoot you! Next in the series... PlentyofFish profiles!

For more information on the dating site mentioned in this article, read our OKCupid.com review.

The dating sites BlackSingles.com and HurryDate (both part of Spark Networks) have partnered with Eizzil Entertainment in a marketing campaign for the movie "SPEED-DATING". The movie is slated for a 2010 release and is a feature length romantic comedy starring Mekita Faiye and co-starring Clint Howard and Chris Elliott (among others). As part of a combined U.S. national promotion tour, Spark Networks and Eizzil Entertainment will present BlackSingles.com and HurryDate events in 12 major cities across the country.

For the full press release, visit SOA World Magazine and for more information on the movie, visit the SPEED-DATING website (including a full cast list). To find further details about the dating service for African-Americans mentioned in this post, read our review of BlackSingles.com.

It looks like our friends over at the Unofficial eHarmony Blog have had their DNS hacked. If you visit their website now, you will be redirected to a site called mybookface (which obviously plays off of Facebook). Unfortunately popular blogs are constantly targeted by hackers. I hope they get their site backup soon as it is a great resource for eHarmony members.

If you are reading this post and would like more information on the dating service eHarmony, check out our in depth review.

Update #1: As of August 7 the site is still down. Hopefully someone from the Unofficial eHarmony Blog can comment on this story and give us an update when things should get back to normal.

Update #2: As of August 8 the blog is back online, sort of. They seem to be having some display and template issues.