4 Ways to Improve Your Online Dating Experience

By Abiola Abrams, syndicated from Yahoo Shine

Online dating is as fun as you allow it to be. The great thing about e-dating is that you can weed people out before taking the time to know them and then realizing that you’re too different. Your profile is the way that your potential happily ever after or lust at first sight gets to meet you.

Having a strong profile is the same as looking presentable at a job interview or first date. You may be a wonderful person, but we can only judge what’s in front of us.

Four reasons you’re not getting quality approaches:

Reason #4. Which one is you again?

The only thing worse than having no photo is a dating profile pic that looks like a group Facebook photo. Look, it’s you and your five BFFs! You’re all brunette, drunk and carrying red cups. Whose job is it to figure out which one is you?

Snapshots of you and your kids are adorable, but intimidating. Why are dates meeting your kids before they’ve even met you? Maybe it’s your niece or godson. This sounds harsh but at this point no one cares. If you include zany costume pics, please have some every day ones as well.

Keep it clean and keep it you. Have more than one photo because anyone can look great for The Best Shot Of Their Lives. A lovely face shot plus a full length photo is just courtesy. If every photo cuts off at the neck you look like you’re hiding something. Yes, it is superficial but before you meet someone you want to see what their body looks like.

Reason #3. Your profile is empty.

Okay, so your prospective partners have just answered 5,683 questions and you’ve answered… none? If your profile is a ghost town then you have no online personality. What are people hoping to match with? Take the time and make the effort.

If you don’t care enough to say, “here’s who I am,” why should anyone else care to meet you? A bunch of blank spaces say that you’re a blank.

Reason #2. You live in Rio de Janeiro.

Rio is fab. I look forward to visiting it at some point in the very near future. However, meeting someone who currently lives there is not the way I plan to go about it. Contact only your local matches.

One of my besties got into a great dating site correspondence with a guy who claimed to live in NYC, where she currently lives. When pressed he admitted that he really lived in Florida but visits NYC often to see his family. Really?

Reason #1. Lies, lies, and more lies.

People lie online about everything from their height and weight to their ages and careers. The great thing about this age of transparency is that everything is checkable. Most people on dating sites are looking forward to meeting in person. If you claim to be 5’10″ and you’re only 5’7″ that will be apparent when you do eventually meet up.

No baiting and switching. If you’re overweight just check off “a few extra pounds.” It’s all good. You don’t need everyone to like you; just “the one.” If you’re unclear about exactly how tall you are or how much you weigh, please check before posting fallacies.

Photos that are five years old are also a lie. You may feel like the same person but you don’t want to walk up looking like the older sister or brother of the person in your pics. Post photos which were taken within a six month time span.

Happy Dating!

Passionate Living Lifestyle Expert Abiola Abrams is the founder of the award-winning Passionista Playbook blog & video series at AbiolaTV.com. Her debut novel Dare is a   hip hop love story. Watch her no nonsense advice on the CW’s “Bill Cunningham Show.” Contact Abiola to get coached on living with juicy, fearless, passion!