Advice for Dating

Advice For Dating has often emphasized the importance of your online dating photo. And even more important, you should be the focus of your picture, not friends, or distracting accessories and backgrounds. 

However, there is one exception to the rule, take your online dating photo with your dog or puppy.

This will benefit your online dating experience in a few ways: 

1. Taking your photo with your dog may attract people who share the same interest with you. In particular, dog lovers!

2. People who own dogs are often perceived as warm, inviting and responsible. All great qualities when looking for someone to date.

3. Dogs are adorable and may help your photo stand out from the pack. Plus if a dog lover falls in love with your best friend, he or she may think they can get a two-for-one deal.

Do not use your pet photo for your main profile photo, only use a tightly cropped head shot. And don’t go overboard, one photo with your dog will do the trick. 

Sorry cat people, this tip only works for dogs. While many Advice For Dating bloggers are cat people, felines are often perceived as lonely and a little weird. This stereotype may be unfair, but unfortunately, it does exist. So leave your cat out.

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A relationship advisor for several popular online dating sites offers advice for dating on the cheap date ideas. With the global economy in a downturn, people are looking for less expensive ways to socialize. Here are a few of the suggestions for dates under $25:

“Be philanthropic and spend a couple of hours with your date running or walking in a 5K for charity. Breast Cancer organization like the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure still has 3 more races left this Fall and you and your date can either run or walk for a good cause. If you decide not to go out for coffee afterwards, you can take the $25 and donate it to the charity!”

These date ideas come from Avalanche LLC which operates several online dating sites that include date.com and matchmaker.com.

You can read the other 8 cheap date ideas here.

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Online dating is a great way to meet people who share your interests who you otherwise may never get to know. But along with perks and benefits of this reletivly new social matching system comes responsibility. You need to make sure whoever your are emailing, chatting or speaking with is being honest. Its not uncommon that people dating online are in relationships or married, Advice For Dating suggests using caution with someone who can only chat or talk on the phone late at night. 

When someone you are interacting with online can only chat during odd hours or late at night, it may be an indicator that he or she is in a relationship. They may be waiting for their significant other to go to bed before communicating.

This is not to say that all people who can only chat after hours are cheating, but there are a couple of things to keep in mind to help safeguard against this.

Make sure the person you are chatting with isn’t vague or changes the subject when talking about marital status. Its ok be up front and ask, “Are you married.”

Is the person overly vague about where he or she works or does for a living? Often men and women who cheat online don’t keep their secretive nature confined to relationship talk, fear that you may try to contact them at work and tip someone off can make online cheaters choose not to devolve much other information either. 

Take this Advice For Dating, if the person you are interacting with can only chat online or talk on the phone late at night, make sure he or she gives specific reasons why. Also, changing the subject when talking about relationships, family or work might be an indicator that person is in a relationship.

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The online dating website Match.com recently claimed it made its one billionth connection. The ‘connections include emails and winks that have been sent globally between Match members.

Match is based in Dallas, TX with offices worldwide including London, England. The dating service was founded in 1995 and has over 15 million members serving 12 different languages. 

Match is one of the most popular online dating sites and is subscription based. You can read more about Match 1Bs connection by clicking here.

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So you’ve checked out dozens of internet dating photos and profiles and you think you’ve found that perfect someone. Now all that’s left to do is send that all important, first email. Here are a few Advice For Dating tips on what to say to get the ball rolling:

1. Comment about their profile. Do they share the same love for a certain baseball team? Have they traveled some place you’ve been, or even, haven’t been but would like too? Are they into cooking–and you want to learn to cook–ask for tips? Find something in their profile you have in common and ask them a question about it.

2. See something interesting in their photo. Did they take a picture with a dog or cat?, and are you a dog or cat person? Did they take their photo in front of the Eiffel Tower and you’ve also wanted to go to paris? Ask them what it was like! If you can find details in photos that call attention to things you have in common, your potential date will really appreciate it. 

3. Don’t talk about yourself. Yes, you need to drop hints that you are interested in the same things, but you must sound more interested in them than with yourself. If you want a date, let them know they are attractive and that you find their profile interesting. Ask them questions or even advice? They will like that you find them knowledgeable.

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DatingDirect.com is offering psychometric testing as part of its new matching service.

Users will fill out a questionnaire that the dating site refers to as an “Affinity Test.” Then couples will be match based on the results of the test. 

The website claims that psychometric testing produces a more accurate match than traditional online dating sites. The website has also team of psychologists and relationship experts on standby to offer advice for dating.

The dating site is subscription based. You can read more on DatingDirect’s new testing method by clicking here.

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There are many reasons why some people who online date don’t post photos of themselves with their profile. But surveys and research have shown the following three reasons are the most prominent. 

1. Someone feels like they are unattractive. This is the most obvious reason but its also the biggest online dating misconception. Men who post a photo are 50% more likely to receive an email or date request than if they do not. For women, the number that number is 75%. 

This means if you’re a short, balding, fat man you have a much better chance of getting a date online than a tall, buff, long-haired adonis just as long as you simply post your photo. 

2. Afraid someone at work will see thier photo. Often times people worry that someone at their place of work will see their photo on an online dating site and blab about it to all their colleagues. But keep this in mind, if someone sees your photo on a dating site that means they are on an online dating site too.

And remember, online dating is now so common place and accepted by society as a way of meeting people, there is no reason to feel embarrassed.

3. They are already in a serious relationship. Studies have show that this is fairly common among those who don’t post photos. Someone who is in a relationship, or worse, married won’t post their photo for fear someone they know will see it and tell their significant other.

Our advice for dating is this, if you want to have a successful online dating experience always post a photo. And if you find someone online who sounds to good to be true and doesn’t post an internet dating photo, be cautious. 

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Dear Advice For Dating Readers, 

The online dating experts of Advice For Dating are going on a short hiatus. Blogging will resume on Oct. 15. Thank you for your continued readership and emails. 

See you in a couple weeks, 

The AFD Staff

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An AP article tells of Japan’s obsession with social networking sites and their odd desire to refrain from using their personal info. On wildly popular social sites like MySpace and Match, many Japanese refuse to use their real names or photos. Preferring to create a virtual-alter ego version of themselves.

“Welcome to Japan’s online social scene, where you’re unlikely to meet anyone you don’t know already. The early promises of a new, open social frontier, akin to the identity-centric world of Facebook and MySpace in the U.S., have been replaced by a realm where people stay safely within their circles of friends and few reveal themselves to strangers.”

When it comes to online dating sites, many Japanese don’t even post photos.

“On large matchmaking sites like Match.com the whole point is to open up and meet strangers. But fewer than half of Match’s paying members in Japan are willing to post their photos, compared with nearly all members in the U.S.”

What’s the deal with Japan’s pho social networking fixation? Read the rest of the AP story here.

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If you’ve been online dating for some time, you’ve probably received an email or two from someone you just aren’t interested in. Most people who get these emails simple don’t respond. This way of handling the rejection not only is not very polite, it can also be ineffective.

When you receive an email for an online dater you just are not interested in, Advice For Dating suggests you respond, be up front, and polite. Inform them you simply don’t think you are a good match, and wish them the best of luck in their ongoing dating search.

Not responding not only leaves the impression there is still a chance you’re interested, but simply isn’t very good online dating etiquette. If you emailed someone asking if they would like to meet-up, you would likely want to know one way or the other if they are interested.

Plus, if you don’t respond, you may very well keep getting invitations from them.

And don’t feel bad about rejecting someone. What’s great about online dating is that you have such a large pool of potential dates to choose from, if you turn someone down, its no big deal. There are plenty of other fish in the online dating sea for them to choose from. 

So take this Advice For Dating, when rejecting a request for a date, be honest, polite, and most importantly, respond. 

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