I am a woman who confidently once boasted: “Over my dead body, will I ever join a dating website.” Cut to today where I am proudly surfing both OkCupid and HowAboutWe for my next date.
From a girl who thinks she’s too cool
I am a woman who confidently once boasted: “Over my dead body, will I ever join a dating website.” Cut to today where I am proudly surfing both OkCupid and HowAboutWe for my next date.
Let me just preface this by saying I have no trouble getting a date. However, the last thing I usually want to do after work and spin class on a Wednesday night is shower, get dressed and reapply makeup to go out for an hour of drinking. The secret for me was to figure out how to make online dating work for me. If you know how to efficiently navigate the waters of the online dating pool, you’ll find a copious supply of eligible bachelors that are, how do I put this… smokin’ hot.
Not only that, they are the plaid-shirt-wearing, self-deprecating, hysterical, down-to-earth men you’ve always wanted to date but never knew where to find. We know online dating can be overwhelming. So if you’re a girl who thinks she could be too good for online dating, then use these five easy tips for how to successfully navigate your way through these uncharted waters.
Research
Do your research on which site is right for you and stick to those. At Flirtexting, we’ve tried about 40 of the top dating websites and our top recommendations for the ambitious, hard-to-catch, career-oriented women are Match, OkCupid, Sparkology, HowAboutWe and Ivydate. Stick to those and you’ll be fine.
Learn to filter
Know how to quickly weed out the duds from the studs. About 90 percent of guys say the same thing in their dating profiles: “I’m a down-to-earth, successful, good-looking guy who loves to laugh and is looking for a girl to settle down with. This is my first time online dating but I’m over the bar scene and my friends said I should check it out. If you love to get dressed up in heels but can just as easily hang in a dive-bar, shoot me a message.”
While this may sound endearing the first or second time you read it, by the 100th time it becomes less genuine and clear that this particular guy is in it for the short term, not the long. Look for profiles where guys tell you stories about their weekend or their family, or that make lists about what they’re into. Typically guys who put a little more thought into their profiles are the ones who are there for the right reasons.
The right settings
Set your settings to receive the least amount of notifications and emails as possible on any given day. A girl as fabulous as you will be bombarded with emails from every guy who comes across your profile. Save yourself the trouble of having to declutter your inbox from starry-eyed hopefuls, and go to your inbox on the dating website when you’re ready to see which potential suitors have left word they have fallen in love and need to meet you immediately.
Test the waters
You could skip steps one to three and go straight to the good stuff with DatingShotgun.com — a weekly email featuring the five hottest bachelors from the top dating websites today. This no-strings-attached email is for girls who have thought about online dating but want to test the waters out first with no commitment. It’s Gilt Groupe meets The Bachelor for dating.
Look past the photos
Don’t choose guys based on their photos. As it turns out, guys aren’t as awesome as women are at selecting the perfect profile picture highlighting all the right curves and hiding all the wrong ones. Because of this, often times women pass over a good thing because they haven’t spent time looking over their profile descriptions. Once you’ve read a couple of dozen profiles, you will start to pick up fairly quickly which guys are gems, but just a little rough around the edges.
More on online dating
The day I learned my boyfriend was still on Match.com
What’s a cloud lover and why do they keep you single?
5 Crazy dating apps
via What’s New http://www.sheknows.com/love-and-sex/articles/986485/the-cool-girls-guide-to-dating-online (author unknown)
