Online dating has quickly become the number one choice for singles to meet people to date. The online dating industry has been continually growing in popularity and for good reason. If you are on the fence about whether to try out online dating as a way to find romance, consider these five positive reasons why using an online dating service might be a good choice for you.

1. Greater Choice
A single utilizing an online dating service has a better choice of potential matches than a single using more traditional dating methods like the local bar or coffee shop. With online dating you are allowed to browse through several profiles looking for that special someone. When you head to the corner coffee shop you only have a chance of meeting a handful of single people, and sometimes never meet anyone at all. With online dating you have greatly increased your chances of finding someone interesting.

2. Get What You Want
Many online dating services allow you to search through profiles based on certain key phrases or through a filtering process. By only looking through profiles that have the word “Christian” or “sports fan” in them, you have an increased chance in finding someone that shares your views and interests and eliminated those that don’t. When you meet a man or woman at a bar, you have no way of telling right off the bat if they are Christian or Atheist, a San Diego Charger’s fan or if they think that football is a violent sport. By using search functions and filtering on online dating services to identify profiles of potential matches, you can eliminate the time spent looking through profiles of people that do not share your interests.

3. Personal Info Can Stay Private
A great thing about online dating is its anonymity. When initiating contact with someone you have been attracted to online, you don’t have to give out any personal information…not even your email address. You can take time to really get to know a person before giving out personal information like your phone number, unlike other forms of meeting people. If you meet someone at a singles spot, you are forced to give away your phone number in order to keep in contact, even if you have just met the person and don’t know enough about him or her to know if they have good intentions.

4. Fears and Embarrassment Can Be Reduced
If you decide to contact someone though email you can take the time to really plan out what you want to say to that person with online dating. If you see someone across the room and try to approach them, sometimes nerves and embarrassment can get the best of you. You may have planned out what you were going to say, but when you approach it all gets flustered coming out of your mouth. With online dating you can sit down and think about your email, read it over a couple times, and send it knowing that you have expressed yourself to the best of your ability. The social awkwardness that can come with approaching someone on the fly in person is virtually eliminated.

5. It’s a One on One Experience
At a bar, club, coffee shop, or other traditional singles meeting place, it is almost impossible to make a personal connection with someone you are interested in. There is active competition for attention at these social gatherings and a one on one interaction can be very hard to come by. With online dating it is personal right from the beginning. You communicate one on one in a private email conversation with the person you are interested in and are able to form a personal connection right off the bat, rather than compete in a room full of other single guys and gals all out for the same goal.

For singles fed up with the traditional dating scene, and looking for a change, online dating may be the way to go. You can meet more people with similar interests without sharing personal information and, once you find the perfect profile, you can form an immediate personal connection. It is certainly worth a try.

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Kim Lance is the Associate Publisher of Online Dating Magazine, an Internet publication covering online dating through news, reviews, experiences, interviews, and articles.

This article is copyright and may not be republished. Used with permission.

By Kim Lance, Associate Publisher of Online Dating Magazine

New to the online dating scene? Well, believe it or not, online dating can be just as competitive, if not more so, than traditional dating. Don’t let that discourage you, however. Many people have found a date, and often marriage, through online dating services. There are tips and strategies that can help you get your profile noticed over your competition. Here are three strategic steps you can take that can give your profile the look and feel it needs to attract the kind of people you would love to meet.

Tip 1: Pick the Perfect Profile Photo
Your photo is one of the most important factors that will attract people to your profile. First and foremost, make sure you have a recent picture. Sure that picture of you in the bikini while on college spring break back in 1995 may be cute, but when your date meets you expecting you to look like you did in college, your date will be disappointed. This can create mistrust and cause your date to feel upset and deceived. This is never a good thing when trying to start a relationship.

Also, pick a photo that will show off your best features. Make sure you are wearing a friendly smile, it will be much more inviting than a serious pose or, obviously, a frown. Always avoid photos where you are with another person, or, worse yet, you have chopped the other person out of the photo, only to leave behind a mysterious arm. Your date may be confused by which person is actually you or wonder who the “mysterious arm” belongs to.

Tip 2: Use Your Username to Reveal Your Interests
You may think your username is just your way to log in to your online dating service, but this isn’t the case. Your username is one of the first things that someone will read about you and a good username can mean the difference between a profile view and a profile pass up. A common technique is to go with the traditional anonymous username like “Jenny321” but why miss out on a key opportunity to catch someone’s attention or reveal a bit about yourself?

Make your username original and make it say a little something about your personality. Pick “SweetSinger” as your username if your hobby is singing or “DodgersDude” if your an avid Dodgers fan looking for company. Your clever username will not only share a little bit about your personality or interests, but can also attract people with the same interests. But be careful not to give the wrong impression. Just because you interpret the username “FunLovin” to mean you love to have fun, the person viewing your profile may think “FunLovin” means you are looking for some fun lovin’, if you know what I mean.

Tip 3: Don’t Say It, Prove It! And Be Specific
When developing your profile description, you may be tempted to write something like “I’m funny and smart with a good sense of humor.” This is simply a boring list of adjectives… the same adjectives that are showing up on thousands of other profiles. If you want your profile to really stand out, you need to describe yourself through specifics.

Instead of saying you are “funny” or have a “good sense of humor”, make your profile funny. Crack a couple of tasteful jokes or relate a funny incident. This will prove to your viewer what sort of sense of humor you have. If your sense of humor is attractive to that viewer, they will contact you. Rather than just stating that you are “smart”, list your favorite books or your interests that would prove to your viewer how smart you are. This will also give your viewer some specific examples that he or she will be able to relate to directly.

Remember, just because you have a profile up, doesn’t necessarily mean you will immediately get responses. These three tips will certainly help, but play around with the contents of your profile until you start getting the results you want. If no one is responding to your list of interests, put up some new ones. Switch your photos every once in a while to see what sort of response you receive. As you experiment with your online dating profile, you will hopefully begin to find the responses you have been looking for.

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Kim Lance is the Associate Publisher of Online Dating Magazine, an Internet publication covering online dating through news, reviews, experiences, interviews, and articles.

This article is copyright and may not be republished. Used with permission.