Online Dating

I found a press release that announces the partnership of DatingHeadshots and Honesty Online to be a little over the top. In the first sentence they compare Justin Timberlake being sexy to the two dating companies new partnership. 😲

What the two companies are now offering is a complete Verification Package. On the photo side you get a professional photographer and a photo shoot. Government ID is checked to ensure the person who ordered the photos is the one at the photo shoot. Afterwards the person can then complete the Honesty Online verification process. This process uses information from your past to verify the person's identity by asking you multiple choice questions. A more thorough background, job and education check can also be completed at an additional cost.

This is an ideal merger of these two services, having your photos and background information being verified together. Plus, with the photos you get recent professional shots that helps give a strong first impression. Unfortunately I went to both sites and could not find any additional information on this partnership or service. I have a feeling it may be more money than people are willing to spend. It is also unclear on the Honesty Online website which dating sites use their services. I know they have a Facebook application but, it does me no good to get a verification package if I can't show myself as being verified on my favorite dating site.

A survey at a UK dating site for single moms and dads found that 92 percent of single parents prefer to date other single parents. 500 members participated in the survey with which the majority listed the reason for their answer being, they have more in common with someone who has similar responsibilities and time commitments.

For the full press release, visit PRWeb and for a list of dating sites for single parents, check out our Single Parents Dating category.

Spark Networks Jewish dating site called JDate got a nice bit of publicity in The New York Times last week. The paper publish an article about a JDater's success story in their Fashion & Style section.

After a 13 year marriage, a 48 year old man named Ron James decided to get right back into dating. In the same month as his divorce he joined JDate.com. In the beginning months, every night for 2 or 3 hours he searched for woman between the ages of 30 and 50, and who lived within 50 miles of his apartment. He kept his profile full of energy but not head strong. In 18 months Ron emailed between 500 and 600 women, in which he dated almost 50 of them. This many dates was expense since, he had to pay for the date and usually commute an hour into New York City. This was all done on a modest salary. What Ron ended up doing to save money was stacking first meet dates. Every other Sunday he would have dates with as many as 3 women. He kept the date times spread apart and at different locations so he could "retain some sense of integrity".

Online entertainment is increasingly moving to mobile devices. You can find dating sites, social networks, music and TV all on your phone now days.

According to the trade association Mobile Entertainment Forum, the global mobile entertainment industry is now worth some $32 billion dollars.

Revenue is expected to rise in 2010 another 28 percent to almost $41 billion. The top earning industries for cell phone companies from Britain are music, social networking, text chatting and news alerts.

For more on the story, visit Reuters. For dating sites that you can visit on your cell phone, check out our Mobile Phone Dating category.

So you’ve done some brainstorming (see Story), and come up with a ton of useful information about you and your ideal match. Now that you’ve got this information, you need to use it to create the first draft of your dating profile.

“First draft? Oh no! Is this like English class?”

Oh yes, it is. But in English class, your only motivation was getting a good grade. (Or maybe just a passing grade, depending on your style!) This is a much higher stakes activity – if you do this the quick and easy way, you’ll end up getting very few dates. Do it the right way and you’re on your way to meeting the love of your life!

Grab your brainstorming page and take a look at the side about you. Decide on two or three things about yourself that you’d like to feature in your profile. For example, if I were writing a profile for myself I’d feature BUSINESS OWNER and WRITER.

Your profile does not have to tell your whole story! Resist the temptation to list every hobby, every activity, every facet of your personality. Think of your profile as the back cover of your autobiography: it only needs to give enough information to intrigue someone into picking it up and giving it a shot!

Once you’ve decided what you want to feature about yourself, start thinking about sentences you could write, using the information from your brainstorming map. Again, don’t worry about being perfect – this is a rough draft.

I might write:

• I started my own business a couple years ago to help people find love through online dating.
• I love to write. It doesn’t even feel like work most of the time.
• It’s great to be my own boss.
• It’s awesome when my clients come back later to tell me that their profile worked and they got lots of dates and met someone special!
• Having a business is stressful at times, but I love it.

Do the same process for the paragraph about your ideal match. Remember, you want to paint the picture of the kind of person you want to meet.

I might write:

• My match is the kind of guy who describes himself as a geek.
• He’s the kind of guy who doesn’t mind being a kid sometime and going out for mini-golf and ice cream.
• He loves cats (or at least loves my cats!).
• He’s educated, either school of life or higher education.

Once you’ve gotten your rough draft together, the only thing left to do is write the final, polished version and come up with a great headline! Are you ready?

One of the toughest parts about online dating is writing your profile. So many people stare at the blinking cursor on the screen and have absolutely no idea where to start. No wonder so many online dating profiles begin with variations on a theme!

“I don’t know what I should write here...”

“I don’t even know why I’m doing this...”

“What should I tell you about myself?”

These are not the first impressions you want to be making on your potential matches! (Especially if you’re a man – remember, confidence is very sexy and there is nothing sexy about those three sample introductions!) How can you get your brain jumpstarted into profile writing mode? Easy! Brainstorm.

Grab a piece of unlined paper and a pencil or pen. (Seriously, we’re going to go old-school here, and you’ll see why in a second.) It’s important that it’s unlined paper because we’re not going to be making a list or anything linear for this exercise.

Draw a circle in the center of the paper and put your name in it. Now, start thinking about the things you are and do. For example, I’d put a lines out from my name and write things like “WRITER,” “GEEK,” “COACH,” “BUSINESS OWNER.”

Now, branch out from those into ideas about those items. For me, branching out from “WRITER” would be “love language,” “love to read,” “copywriting,” “short fiction,” “creative non-fiction,” “blogging,” and “dating profiles.”

Once you’ve filled in all the good stuff about you, flip it over and do the same for your ideal mate. Brainstorm up what you’d like as far as physical attributes, personality, and activities. Don’t censor yourself – just jot things down as they pop into your mind and move on to the next idea.

Got it all out? Sit back and take a look at what you have – a paper full of awesome ideas to use in your dating profile! Now you don’t have to start with “I’m not sure what I should write here.” You have tons of things to write about both yourself and your ideal match. So now what? How do you take this information and make it into an awesome profile that gets attention? Stay tuned for my next article to learn how!

Image from Brycej's Flickr page.