Writing a Knockout Online Dating Profile

Like everyone else these days, chances are that you too have jumped on board with the online dating trend. That’s amazing, because there are some crazy stories of how two people met on a dating app, went out and ended up together. You probably also have that one friend who always seems to be going on new dates, ends up having the most amazing time and meets some very interesting people.

On the other hand, you’re still confused about how to go ahead, now that you’ve signed up on a dating website or app. Honestly, you’re not the only one out there. It’s a very real struggle – portraying yourself as this woman who is attractive, interesting, successful and whatnot - essentially a modern-day goddess of some sort. Then there’s the matter of choosing a picture – does this show too much skin? Is this an awkward angle? Should you have one with your pet?

Believe it or not, even those with successful online dating profiles have dealt with all of these moments of self-doubt and constant dilemmas and decision making. It’s like creating a whole new character from scratch, only someone who happens to be you. On the bright side, the process of creating a killer online dating profile, as daunting as it seems (and is), is also a fun exercise in seeing yourself in a new way. After all, there’s only so much you can write about yourself without making it sound like a product catalogue, when you haven’t figured out what it is that actually makes you interesting.

This is absolutely the number one tip for writing a great online dating profile – knowing who you are, and what makes you fabulous.

Know Yourself

Sit down and think about what makes you interesting - you don’t always have to have something extraordinary on your list. Find something you’d be willing to talk about, with passion. It could be anything from your travel bucket list to the fact that you can mix up a mean cocktail, or that you love reading classic fiction. No one’s going to find you interesting unless you do yourself that favour. Not only will it give you something to write and talk about, it will also pump oodles of confidence into you for when you actually start talking to someone, or even better, end up on that amazing date.

Write Right

Sure, your profile doesn’t have to be a piece of short fiction, in terms of both, the length and the quality, but writing in SMS lingo (or typng lyk ths) is just not done. You might be the most interesting person on this planet, but what good is it if someone needs to read each sentence twice before they can make any sense of it?

Brevity is a thing of beauty. Break it up into short, catchy phrases rather than long paragraphs. Take the effort to write something more than just “hello” - that’s not going to get you anywhere.

Be Genuine

If you haven’t stepped outside your neighbourhood for weeks and your idea of travel is your daily commute to your workplace, or the gym, please spare the universe and don’t call yourself a “traveller”. You aren’t one. Nor are you sapiosexual because currently, every second person on every single dating app is one.

If the first step towards writing a great online dating profile was to know yourself, then the third is to keep yourself real. How would you feel if someone made themselves out to be a fitness freak when a walk around the park left them panting? You don’t have to pretend to be something you aren’t - if you’re plus-sized, there’s no reason to not specify that you have curves to die for. The one thing that works, without fail, every single time, is being confident. Not arrogant, maybe a little sassy, but confident, for sure. And you don’t have to wait until you start talking to someone - let your profile show how awesome you are.

Keep Something for Later

Mysterious is always sexy. There’s no counting all of the mysterious women who’ve inspired works of art. And no, this doesn’t mean writing nothing in your profile. The mystery needs to begin after someone’s read your profile, making them want to know more about you. A line or two about yourself is great - but that story about how you got drunk on a vacation once? Probably not necessary in the bio. Or the conversation either.

There are multiple ways of doing this right - for example, if you’re a foodie and a bit of an introvert, “food over people”, makes for an interesting way of saying this. Essentially, your bio needs to be something which the other person can use to initiate a conversation, and not the story of your life, as fascinating as it definitely is.

Picture Perfect

A good dating profile is incomplete without some great profile pictures - after all, when someone is reading about all that interesting stuff about you, they should see pictures to match. When it comes to choosing pictures, follow a couple of simple rules. One, have at least one picture where you’re looking good, aren’t pouting, don’t have sunglasses or dramatic makeup on. Two, this is a dating profile, not a fashion blog (and you have the same face in both pictures anyway), so keep all the changing-room photos to your phone.

Let your pictures speak - choose visuals that show your interests. Pictures of your travel, of you doing something you really enjoy (being passed out drunk doesn’t count) are all great, but it’s going to be difficult to spot you if you put up a photo with six other people, who also happen to be somewhat irrelevant to whoever is looking at it on a dating app.

Yes, a picture is worth a thousand words, but remember what this list said about keeping it short?

All you need is a look at yourself - who are you, and how you want yourself to come across as? The rest, then, is a simple matter of penning it all down, with crisp, short phrases, a few interesting tidbits about yourself and a sprinkling of humour - another tried-and-tested trick that makes any dating profile interesting. Put all of this together, and you’re all set to take that dating app by storm.