Hi, I have taken the plunge into POF and liking the look of some of the girls on there!I have created a profile that is probably distinctly average, but here goes, and feel free to absolutely tear it apart if it's rubbish. Thanks:

I am a calm and quietly confident self-employed 25 year-old.
I'm looking for an open-minded, positive cute girl who must be aspirational and willing to try different things. Someone who will set no limits on what they want to achieve in life and who isn't willing to settle for mere averageness.

I stay active and like using the gym and swimming. The best swimming experience I had was with sharks in Thailand a few years ago - was quite pleased to get out alive after one thought it would swim at me! Next stop cage dive...?

The three books that have changed my life are Seneca: letters from a stoic; Yes Man; and, The Four Hour Work Week

Message me girls, don't be shy now

Hi DC203,

To me it sounds ok. But who reads that stuff? Seriously I met one lady from POF I had little idea what was in her profile nor did she in mine.She seems keen after meeting, a couple of emails, who knows

Have you contacted any girls yet? You must be proactive. Expect a long haul though. Do it for a while then decide if it's worth the effort. Remember get it to offline asap it saves a lot of hassle later on.

good luck

I've had 2 LTR's and a couple dates from there. all in all good. I usually just use it to try different openers I've been thinking up. kinda like an alpha test, before field-testing (beta testing). wouldn't spend too much time worrying about it

I would say a fair amount actually do. I seen a fair number of girls actually put their name in their profile so that they can see if the guy has read their profile or not. As these girls would know if the guy read their profile or not when he asks whats her name.

Cool, cheers for the advice. I'm gonna start messaging all the hot birds and see how it goes! Guessing it'll take a few months to become good at this stuff so gonna have to study pick-up like mad now.

Would you say pictures are by far the key with online dating?

Pics are somewhat important, but can always be misleading. chicks can put up pics from 2-3 years ago when they were a size 2, then you meet them and they look like they ate the last 2 people you messaged... My rule is assume that its the absolute best camera angle and lighting that they could have hoped for, and to add 20 lbs to any pic you see... very rarely will they look better in person. carpe diem

My experience has been the opposite. Maybe it is an age thing. Older women I think tend to be more grounded and jaded. I think they are more realistic so will not post a brilliant photo and post more natural ones. I don't think I've ever seen a glamour type photo from anyone over 30. With the few women I've met from online each , apart from one, has been better looking in reality than in their photo/s.

As for photos being the key to online dating? Probably. If you've read Styles guide to online gaming he suggests a good quality magazine type photo of yourself for social proofing and mystery.Avoid webcam stuff. For myself I have one photo in my profile and if they are interested i mail more, a variety of shots. Unfortunately my best close up shot of me smiling great is from a mobile but lower quality, colours muted etc. I wear glasses so do not use shots without them. Fuck it if they don't like your looks they don't like you. I have a feeling that a lot of girls cannot hack it re glasses and get put off, so I am considering going over to contacts simply for this and participate in sports more.

By the way to give an update. 2 days ago I mailed an interesting girl whose profile is on Swissfriends (yeah being in Switzerland is kind of crap but I'm looking at all ways of meeting online as one of them) She replied yesterday, i've done my reply provided photos and asked to move this offline to a real meeting. Got an email from her earlier this morning and she is wanting to meet too. I will work out the arrangements with her and hopefully in the next few days it'll be face to face. I must remember to put in a time constraint, keep it short and sweet, if she wants more we can always meet again