You have finally made the move from traditional dating to dating online. No more waiting in fancy restaurants, no more having to be on your best behavior at all times, no more suits and fancy dresses. You can wear your PJs, sit in the comfort of your home and speak to whomever you want to. As easy as that – right? Well, not quite.

Joining an online dating website does make life a little less complicated and getting to meet people with the same interests as you gets a lot easier. However, you do have to make similar efforts to impress the other person as you would in a traditional date. And the drawback here is you have to do so through the written word. When you meet someone in person, it is a lot easier to speak to them and charm them. However, in online dating, all you are allowed as an introduction is a dating profile. It is therefore, very important that you learn to write your profile in such a manner as to make it stand out amidst the hundreds of other profiles.

A typical dating profile consists of some very basic stuff like your online user name, a subject line and then some personal information. Interestingly enough each one of these areas can be used very effectively to give yourself a very distinct personality without revealing too much about yourself.

To begin with, your dating user name is no ordinary user name. Use it to convey what you feel strongly about, perhaps your work or some other activity. Give it some thought and come up with something that is different and exciting.

Next comes the subject line. Though you will have not enough space to write anything substantial here, you still have one more chance to sell yourself as a person who is different from the rest. Make a short list of adjectives that can best describe you and use them to make you sound positive, full of energy and very interesting.

Next comes the actual profile writing part. Many believe this is the most important and hence the toughest part of joining an online dating website. Do not be in a hurry to fill it out on day one. Impressions once made cannot be easily undone. The very first thing you have to remember is that you have to stay honest and frank. Never lie about your age, your job or your waistline. You are looking for a life-long commitment here and it is not a good idea to start it based on lies. Try to make your description about yourself as accurate and still as flattering as possible. At all times, emphasize your personality, your zest for life and your need to share the good things in life with someone. If there is someone genuinely interested in you, he or she will contact you, no matter what your waistline. If you can upload a photo, ask a professional to take a good, flattering photo of yourself which you can put up on the website.

So, while writing up a dating profile is an important task, as you can see, it is not as complicated as you feared. Follow the tips we mentioned above and you can look forward to a busy and happy dating life.

Most online dating services are now becoming highly professional in their approach, especially the ones that charge some fees for their services. Many lay down fairly stringent membership rules and even perform background checks. They try to check if the person becoming a member is truly single and if he or she possesses any kind of criminal record. Despite all these precautions taken by the dating service, it is also the responsibility of the members enrolling into the service to take some safety measures while dating online. Let us provide you with a quick checklist that you can use to safeguard yourself.

When you first join an online dating website, you may feel very assured about the amount of flexibility and privacy the service offers. However, once you decide to take your relationship to the next level and meet your date in person, you may need to take some extra precautions. You may be very comfortable speaking to this person and he or she may sound extremely genuine. However, it is very easy to get carried away while chatting online and one should always keep the following guidelines in mind before agreeing to meet the person face to face.

1.    Never give away too many personal details like where you live, or names of your children, where they study or where you work in the very first few meetings. Provide only as much details as are necessary to get to know each other. Once you are convinced of the person’s genuineness, you can slowly divulge some more details.

2.    Trust your intuition – if it is telling you that something is wrong, there probably is. Use your common sense to get out of an uncomfortable situation.

3.    Take everything the other person is saying with a pinch of salt. Don’t worry – there is nothing wrong with you. It is perfectly all right to be wary of strangers.

4.    Ask whatever questions you need, to make yourself feel comfortable with the other person – note their responses to your questions. The answers as well as their body language will speak volumes.

5.    Do not rush into things. Take your time, get to know this person and make sure you are absolutely comfortable with him or her.

6.    If you do decide to go on an actual date with a person you have met online, then let your meetings take place in a public place and do not give your address right away.

7.    Before going out on a date, inform at least one more person about whom you are meeting, where you are meeting and leave the number of your phone as well as that of the place with this friend.

8.    Either take your own car or else arrange for your transport. This way you can be sure that you have a definite way of getting back home, no matter how the date turns out.

9.    Stay grounded no matter how wonderful you think the date is turning out to be. If you feel something is too good to be true, it almost always is. Trust your intuition again and give yourself more time to be convinced about this new relationship.

You have finally decided to take the plunge and join an online dating website. You are highly enthusiastic to begin with; you go through a dozen profiles everyday and every weekend you try to set up a conversation with someone, but to no avail. After a few such fruitless attempts, you are beginning to lose hope and are wondering if there could be something you could do that would help you find your ideal match. Absolutely – here are a few tips that should help you find success when you date online.

. Work on your dating profile: When you date online, you do not have to be worried about looking your absolute best but you have to worry about your profile sounding the absolute best. Consider how much time you spend on each profile and then imagine someone else reading yours in that much time. Have you written clearly enough and sufficiently enough to make an impression? Follow the guidelines given below for writing up a good dating profile.

. Your profile has to be impressive enough but also honest and frank. Do not boast about being able to write sonnets because you think it will impress the girls when you find it hard to answer in anything other than monosyllables.

. Do mention what is different about you – mention a few details that will set you apart from the rest.

. When you mention hobbies, mention genuine hobbies and give more details about what you like to do as part of your hobby. If you like reading, mention the latest book you have read and why you liked it.

. Give as many details as you think necessary but do not overdo it. Just provide enough to grab the other person’s attention and make him or her want to start a conversation with you.

. Not many people like to go in for dates with faceless people. A name associated with a face is bound to be considered more trustworthy. In fact, most online dating sites claim that by merely including your photo with your profile, you increase the chances of positive replies by more than 50%. If you are unhappy with the way you look, the solution is not to post a photo of a younger you or a leaner you. Remember the truth is bound to come out at some point. Instead, spend some money and get a professional to take a good, hopefully flattering picture of you that you can then put up.

. While you may be a naturally shy person, remember the advantage of online dating is the complete privacy it affords you. Do not be shy about looking up too many profiles else how will you able to make the right choice? Make a short list of people you think share common interests with you and invite them for conversations, either over email or in chat rooms. Remember, an invitation to chat is just that – it does mean a date. Only if things go well and the two of you hit it off, you may want to consider going on an actual date.

By following the tips given above, you will certainly increase your chances of finding the ideal match for you through online dating.

Online dating gives you the freedom to choose whom you would like to have a conversation with and the flexibility of doing so from the comfort of your home. You can browse though hundreds of profiles to see which one matches your personality and only then proceed by sending the person a message. Traditionally, you would have had to go out on a few dates before you could understand whether or not the two of you are compatible – in online dating, all it takes is a quick look at the listed profiles. Also, for naturally shy people, online dating is an excellent way of opening up and starting a friendship.

Despite all these advantages, online dating also has its disadvantages and pressures of its own. When you meet your date in person, it is easier to be witty, thoughtful, flirtatious and to impress the other person with your charm. In online dating, the only means of communication open to you is the written word and you will have to manage all the above in the dating message that you send. This obviously means that you have to give sufficient thought to the way you want to word you first online dating message.

First of all, it is very important that you send a clear message that you are interested in this person. Just as you would in your first date, let them know how impressed you are by the interests listed in the profile and how quite a few of them match your very own. Try to state this as matter of fact as possible without going overboard. Remember since you are still an unknown to the other person, there is always a real danger of you coming off as a creep. Convey very clearly what it is about this person that first grabbed your attention, give a few more details about yourself and suggest to him or her, the possibility of going out on a date.

Online dating brings with it the danger of dating a complete stranger, who in the beginning may even remain faceless. While you certainly have plenty of choice and will be able to immediately know whether the other person’s interests match yours, you also do not really now how the other person is going to behave when out on a date. Remember the person you are trying to date will also be having similar doubts. It is therefore important that your message reflects your thinking and your personality as much as possible. If you are an introvert and find it difficult to strike conversations with the opposite sex, getting someone else to write pages and pages of romantic poetry for you will do you no good. Stick to being who you are, stay honest and tell him or her frankly what kind of a person you are. Chances are things will work out better when you are honest than trying to impress someone being who you are not.

Remember, online dating has just made dating technologically advanced and more convenient but the basic rules of dating still apply.