The Go-To Guide for Online Dating: Tips to Rock the Apps
Whether you’re only starting out with online dating or it’s not your first rodeo at all, you can make your experience better with our expert guide to online dating.
Getting Started: Find Your Perfect Dating App
The first step to online dating is not choosing the potential partner, but selecting the right dating app.
Don’t underestimate the importance of this decision. With the multitude of options out there, you can find an app that is designed specifically for your needs.
Here is what to keep in mind when you’re scrolling through the dating apps’ selection.
What’s the vibe?
Evaluate the general vibe of the dating app.
- Do you like the design?
- What are they talking about and pointing out?
For instance, there are apps that target casual sex seekers, apps that are super friendly to different sexualities, or their polar opposites – apps that are very conservative.
If there is a blog linked to the dating app, such as the one you’re currently reading, browse through the articles that they post. This will give you a good idea of their goals, values, and the clients they’re looking to attract.
Surely, you can find love anywhere, but why not start with the place that is calling your name?
Set the intentions
The choice of the dating app you’ll make will be heavily linked to the intention you set for your online dating endeavor. If you’re looking for mindful dating, for instance, it probably makes no sense to download apps that are made for finding one-night stands.
Tip: Don’t let having to set your intentions put you off of online dating. You absolutely don’t have to know what you want and what kind of person you’re looking for to start swiping through potential candidates. If you’re really struggling right now, define what is NOT for you 100%. It’s usually easier for us to define the absolute show-stoppers. Knowing them, it will be a walk in the park to narrow down the dating app pool.
Build a Profile That Pops
The dating market is not too different from any other market. We are expected to present ourselves in the best light possible and show our good sides to find the perfect match.
So how does one build a dating profile that rocks?
Here is everything you need to know about how to write a dating profile.
- Make it yours. Don’t try to copy someone else. Get inspiration from others, but make sure it will give strangers online a good representation of who you are and what they can expect from you. It may be tempting to pretend to be someone you’re not but it makes little sense. After all, you want someone to fall in love with you, and not the version of you that doesn’t exist in real life.
- Highlight your interests and lifestyle. Online dating provides endless profiles to anyone looking for a new romance. Users can scroll through hundreds of dating app profiles, and it’s helpful to both of you to identify whether or not you have something in common right away.
- Choose flattering photos but don’t cheat. Altering your images to the point that the real you and the photos you’ve uploaded are completely different people makes no sense. Unless you want to keep your relationship purely online, the other person will eventually find out your little trick.
How to Start Conversations Like a Pro and Keep Things Real
To text or not to text? Here are the dating tips for online dating that will help you kickstart the conversation that can lead to a great romance.
- Craft a killer opening line. Think of something that you can repurpose for multiple chats, but also incorporate what you see in the person’s profile.
- Lead with a person's interests. Not many people are actually good listeners or pay attention to what others write about themselves in the dating app bio.
- Use humor to break the ice. Try to be witty and light-hearted, but avoid risque or derogatory humor. You can be more adventurous with your jokes down the line, but first, get to know the person and what they deem funny.
- Spot red flags and avoid the drama. Don’t disregard weird and toxic vibes, and evacuate the chat whenever something like that comes up. Surely you wouldn’t want to waste your time on meaningless drama with a person you don’t even fully know yet. Better invest this time in someone who’s fun and matches your energy.
- Balance flirty and casual vibes. A little flirty party never killed nobody. Spice up the chat a bit, but don’t push your sexy agenda too hard, or else you risk scaring the person off.
Final tip: Know when to take things from text to IRL
Don’t marinade your chat too long if you click with the other person. While suggesting meeting in real life too soon will look weird, taking too long to pop the ‘let’s meet somewhere and chat’ question is equally not good. If you like them, and they like you, – why not take it to the next step?
Building a Real Connection Online
Here are the best online dating tips for building and maintaining a real connection without actually meeting the person you’re talking to.
- Keep the conversation consistent and fun. Don’t disappear for days and weeks or ignore their messages. You wouldn’t like it if someone did this to you, would you?
- Show genuine interest without overdoing it. It’s crucial for your future relationship to be interested in each other, but if you become too intense with your interest, you may actually scare the other person off.
- Build trust without being too pushy. Similarly to showing genuine interest, you need to build trust, but do it carefully. Share little bits and bobs here and there. Support the person if they’re sharing something important. Offer help, and stay open to them helping you out. Avoid lying and pretending, and try to be honest even if you think it won’t show you in the best light.
Safety First: Online Dating Tips for Secure and Happy Experience
Whether you’re a man or a woman, your safety may be at risk when you’re dating online.
The internet is wonderful. It’s given humanity more than we could ever hope for. Unfortunately, it’s also opened the door to all sorts of schemes and threats that you need to watch out for.
But worry not, here are the tried and tested online dating tips to keep your online dating experience strictly positive.
- Less is more. Don’t add too much personal data to the elements of your profile that will be visible to other users. Avoid using your full government name, exact location, and listing email addresses or phone numbers out in the open.
- Careful with photos. There are many ways creeps can find where you live and hang out. One of them is via the photos you post. If you’re uploading photos from your home, make sure you can’t see the view outside the window, your front door, or other distinguishable details of your house. Same with your office building.
- Sharing is not always caring. Once you start chatting away with hot singles, they may fish for your personal information too. While many will do it purely out of curiosity or to plan a future date and be considerate, some will do so for the wrong reasons. Refrain from sharing things in your dating chat, and be on your guard for the first couple of dates too.
- Ghost the creepers. The beauty of online dating is that you can block people you don’t like and never hear from them again. If something’s off with how they talk to you, you can address it and try and work out the issue. Or you can block them. It’s always an option, especially if the other person is being obnoxious. You shouldn’t be rude to everyone, but there’s absolutely no need to tolerate BS from random strangers.
The dos and don’ts of online dating culture
We’ve already shared a lot of valuable information and dating online tips, but let’s do a rapid-fire on the do’s and don’ts of online dating.
The do’s of online dating
Here’s what you can do to have the best time when dating online, and create the most wholesome experience for everyone you chat with.
- Be honest in your profile and when you’re chatting with your matches.
- Choose photos that make sense: high-quality and with you clearly visible.
- Share your intentions openly. It’s okay if you’re only after sex, but don’t trick people who want serious relationships.
- Ask them open-ended questions and show interest. Otherwise, why chat with them at all?
- Be patient. It takes time to find your perfect match. And when you do, it will take time to build a meaningful connection.
- Remember to stay safe: don’t share personal information and meet in public places.
- Trust your intuition, you’ll feel if something is wrong.
- Have fun, joke around, laugh, and take yourself less seriously.
- Stay open-minded to people’s choices, lifestyles, and values. You will be pleasantly surprised how deep of a bond you can form with someone who isn’t perfect on paper.
The don’ts of online dating
There are things you shouldn’t do when dating online. Here are the most critical ones.
- Pretend to be someone you’re not and hope for the best.
- Only upload photos where people can’t see your face, or photos with a bunch of other people. We know you’re the least attractive one if you do it.
- Give out too much information about yourself too early.
- Overthink everything you say and every text you receive from your matches.
- Rush to discuss serious things too early on. Let your chats be lighthearted and fun for a while.
- Ignore red flags and obvious incompatibilities.
- Play games. Hard-to-get and other mind games are not cool and not fair.
- Disregard people only because of their looks.
- Treat people badly just because you don’t know them in real life.
Avoid making these common mistakes of online dating and you’ll have a wonderful time.
Making the Most of Your Online Dating Experience
Before we sign off, let’s go over a few more online dating tips that will set you up for success and help you make the most of the experience.
- Stay chill and enjoy the process. You’re in it for a good time and to, hopefully, find someone special. Don’t treat online dating like you would a serious corporate job.
- Say Yes more to trying new things. For instance, if you’ve never had a Zoom date, don’t disregard it immediately. Agree to the experience, share your concerns, take a chance, and take it from there.
- Be open to people with different backgrounds. Don’t stick exclusively to people who look, sound, and think like you. Not only is it incredibly boring, but you’ll also be missing out on lots of wonderful matches.
- Know when to take a break. Don’t get too caught up in the world of online dating apps. Take breaks, mix and match online chats with real-life conversations, and close the app any time you feel overwhelmed. Dating should be fun, not stressful.
This is it for dating advice for today. We’re hoping that you’ll implement some of the things we shared, and have only the best online dating experience.
