Great question! Sorry that I'm just now seeing it though. I have actually come up with a model for online dating. I have shared this model with others who excel with online dating and they find the steps to be accurate as well.
It's a mix of the M3 model and different theories. So here is the 5 step model. I talked about it a bit in my online dating workshop this summer, and then on my blog.
It's an audio file that's about 53 minutes if you want to listen.
http://www.jsmooth.org/Documents/OnlineWorkshop.wav
be patient when downloading.
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1. Prepare
2. Open
3. Attract/Establish Rapport
4. Escalate Comfort
5. Setup a Date
Prepare - includes writing a profile, taking pictures, planning what DHV spikes are going in the profile for the dating site or networking site. Gathering openers you are going to use. And then scouting out the girls profile.
Open - pretty self explanatory. If she starts responding back we have something to work with. If not then wait a while and try again. If two times no responses then move on.
Attract/Establish Rapport. This is the biggest phase of online game. You are basically telling your stories and encouraging her to tell her stories by asking open ended questions. You emailed her or poker her, she knows you interested so there is no need to hide that.
During these stories you are going to pepper in the DHV spikes. These need to be true stories about you and congruent with who you are or she'll see through it.
Anyways, in her stories you are going to ground yourself in her reality with common points. Without comfort you won't be able to get an IM address or a phone number, let alone a date later.
Escalate Comfort. You are going to continue a lot of comfort building. THis can take place in a few emails back and forth, sometimes and hour or so of IM, or talking on the phone. Each new level of contact with the girl is a new comfort level. Email - IM - Phone - Date. We have to make her comfortable enough with us that she'll give us this info and know she can hang with us. BUT we have to pepper in push/pull and attraction spikes through the conversation so we don't get LJBF'd.
If the repsonses are flowing fast via email, and you have great conversation going on. Then try for a phone number then! If it's not as good or you're not sure then go to IM first. This way you can take a real time approach to conveying your personality.
*Be careful of negs and false disqualifiers. It's okay to use them but they can easily be taken wrongly online. The reason for this is she can't see the "way" you say them and know they're playful. For this reason use smileys or emoticons when you can so it has a more playful tone.
Setup a Date. Final step and self explanatory.
That's my methodology in a nutshell!
Hope it helps,
Jon