Prevention of Online Dating Disasters

Online dating is surely an easy and convenient way to befriend people from around the world. But for all its convenience, online dating does not provide you with the assurance that everyone you meet on the website will show interest in you.

In fact, the people you meet may not even be honest about themselves. In several instances, people who claimed to be young turned out to be middle-aged crones. These are true stories that mar the reputation of online dating sites.

People in online dating communities are all looking for a date, and have their own set ideas about whom they want to date. Just as you do, these people too have their own choice of partner, and may not reply immediately to your private message, if you send them any. It is possible that you will face a polite declination, may be even a rude refusal; if you are lucky, you will receive a positive response.

Online dating differs from conventional dating in several ways, and you must keep that in mind. When you begin dating someone online, you are not actually going to meet the person. You will only ‘talk’ with them in chat rooms, and have a live talk, if you avail of a video conferencing facility.

Your profile on the online dating website is what makes the first impression on anyone who stops by it and shows any interest in you. Because of this, it is imperative that your profile appear interesting and attractive. If a profile is not interesting enough, it may disinterest a potential partner and discourage him from making any further moves towards meeting you. Some common mistakes that people make, and which you should avoid, are given below:

• Do not use clichéd lines and tags that make your profile commonplace among all the others that crowd the website. Originality and creativity go a long way in catching a potential partner’s eye. Run of the mill statements on your profile will make it appear monotonous and dreary, reducing the number of ‘hits’ you get, and thus decreasing the possibility of finding a good date.
• Avoid grammatical and lexical errors in your profile statements like the plague. If you come across as someone who cannot even spell correctly, you will not be given a second look by a visitor to your profile. Proofread your profile repeatedly to check for any mistakes, and repost your profile if you find even the tiniest error.
• Profiles have a little box that invites you to write a descriptive piece about yourself. Unimaginative people simply plagiarize other people’s profiles, changing minute details to make it appear ever so slightly personal. Avoid such tactics. This box is a place for you to put your best foot forward; do not make it dull by using others’ ideas. Describe yourself as creatively as you can, and make sure you express your best facets as originally as you can, so that potential dates know the real you.

Knowing these tips, you can avoid making such blunders and yet garner attention for yourself on the dating website. Originality will get you more attention than anything else will.

A glaring error that people make is while chatting up people in the dating website’s chat rooms. Chat etiquette is something people have almost no clue of, and often try to pick up people using clichéd, old pick-up lines. Starting a conversation with a simple ‘hi’ or ‘hello’ is better than trying to act too smart. Introductions that are not flashy make for better conversations.

Keeping the topic of conversation common, yet interesting is also crucial. Talk about something that interests the person you are chatting to, so that both of you can talk freely and intelligently.

If, however, you find that you cannot talk about something that the other person likes, then you know that there is no real common ground between the two of you. In such situations, it is better to end the conversation there and then, albeit politely, and search for someone with more common interests.

There is no rule that forces you to continue talking to someone with whom you have almost nothing in common. You do not have to like the first person you talk to on chat. There are more people on the site, and you are free to find someone else who shares your hobbies and interests.

If things are not interesting enough for both people involved, things will soon get monotonous.

Another common mistake that can make your online dating experience a recipe for disaster is fixing up a personal meeting early in the online relationship. This should be avoided. If you feel that you are not yet familiar enough with the person, it is best that you wait some more time before agreeing to a meeting in person. Agree to a conventional date only when you are comfortable with the person.

It is also better that you are aware of people who join online dating community only for monetary reasons. This makes it doubly imperative that you know the person you are about to meet very well before you agree to a conventional date.

Keeping these things in mind will make your online dating experience an enjoyable one, and ensure that it does not turn into a disaster you wish you had avoided.