The Great Girl’s Guide to Online Dating Part 4
So, after reading the first three parts of this article, are you getting more eager for online dating? Here’s a brief thumbnail guide for you so you can dip a toe in the water safely and easily.
HOW TO GET STARTED
Write a profile that grabs attention, to show what a great girl you are.
Remember, guys are very visual, so you’ll need to post recent pictures of yourself. If you’re at all self conscious about your figure, go for the head shots. Make sure that you don’t post any group photos either. It may tell people who you are, and what you care about, but like I said, guys are very visual, and you want them to focus on YOU.
When you do put up your profile, try to be fun and interesting and uniquely memorable, without seeming like a nut job.
While communicating with the men you meet on line, try not to be too quirky, personal, or rude. We recommend setting up a special email account from one of the free services like yahoo or hotmail so nothing personal can be gleaned about you from,say, your work email address (pretty much a bad idea to ever use your business email for personal stuff anyway).
Online courtesy means answering your emails promptly. If you’re going to be out of town, or away from a computer for any length of time, there should a vacation setting that will put your matches on hold.
Try to be open-minded about what you see in terms of photos, and what they write. Sure, you might wish for a man with the writing eloquence of an Ernest Hemingway, but just remember he was gay and preferred the company of grizzly bears to people.
Keep all your communications light and friendly. Never convey anything online that you wouldn’t be happy for everyone in the world to know.
If the man or men you are communicating with express an interest in talking on the phone, decide for yourself, but don’t stay on for too long–save something for the next time.
If you do take it all the way to the level of actually meeting in real life, make sure you take all the correct safety precautions. We suggest starting out with coffee, a lunch, rather than a dinner date. Whatever plans you have, no game playing–common courtesy means being on time for a pre-arranged meeting. You should know what each other looks like from the online photos, but it’s good to confirm on the day and say something about what you think you’ll be wearing.
Don’t just not turn up. It is extremely rude and hurtful-they are probably just as nervous as you are, if not more so. If you get there, and the person turns out to be someone you really don’t want to see again, that’s fine too. Be honest without being hurtful. The whole point of dating is to explore your options, not jump in with both feet no matter what warning signs you might have cautioning you that this guy is not the one.
Finally, is there really such a thing as ‘the one’? Well, we don’t just have ONE friend, do we? So be open to the possibility that there are a lot of great guys out there that you could have a really nice time dating and getting to know, without adding the stress of some sort of standard of imaginary perfection to live up to.
Above all, when you are online dating, be yourself, the great girl you are, and your great guy should be just a click away.
4 parts, 1665 words
