Do you want to improve your dating profile? Making sure you always look your best when you leave the house and appearing fun and positive are great ways to attract someone when you’re out on the town.

But what about when you’re trying to connect with someone on a dating website?  Say, a certain website that connects British men with the women who love them?

Well, it all boils down to your profile and your picture.  And based on some of the feedback we’ve been getting, not all of our users are putting their best foot forward.  We thought we would put together some easy-to-follow (we hope) tips for creating a great dating profile.

The Picture

This is always tricky.  How many photos should I post?  Which photo looks the best?  Do I have any photos where I look halfway decent and am also sober?  Does that matter?

Well, regardless of the answers to all these questions, first thing’s first: POST A PHOTO.  No one is going to talk to a faceless profile.  No matter what poetry you craft for the About Me section, it will be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to get someone to contact you without a picture.  And if they do, the first thing they’re going to ask is, “Can you send me a picture?”  So make sure you have something up.  Plus, you won’t appear in search results on DBG unless you have a profile photo, so it’s critically important for our site.

Now that we have that covered, what kind of photo should you post?  It is super important to post a picture that accurately shows what you look like.  Right now.  At this very moment in time.  You may be thinking, “Gee, thanks a lot.  That’s totally new information that I haven’t heard a billion times before.”  And you’re right, sarcastic user, you have heard it over and over again.  And that’s because people still don’t do it.  Sure, you looked great three years ago, and you’re totally going to look like that again any day now, but the fact of the matter is, even if you used to look like this:

 

 

If you now look like this:

 

Don’t use the first picture as your profile picture!  (Sorry Jared Leto – we think you’re super hot no matter how rock hard your abs are.)

Other things to avoid?

No sunglasses

You look great Kim, but your eyes?!  Where are your eyes?!

 

Don’t upload group shots.  You may look great in that picture of you and your friends at the beach, but how will anyone know which bikini-clad girl is you?

I wanna be your friend, JenA789, but I don’t know which one you are!

 

Avoid blurry shots where you are far away from the camera or ones in which your face is hidden by a shadow.

This could be Rpatz or the weird guy from the gas station.

 

And finally, make sure your picture is the right size.

This helps no one.

 

The Words

Ah, the words.  The meat of your profile.  The thing that will sweet talk potential partners into making that first move and contacting you.  The words should flow out of you as easily as breath as your fingers move effortlessly over the keyboard.  Wait, what?  Not so much, huh?

Don’t worry, we’ve been there.  We know it can be hard to sit down and write a paragraph or two about yourself that not only captures the essence of you, but that also doesn’t make you sound like a huge dork.  So what’s a DBG user to do?

First of all, and most importantly, FILL OUT YOUR PROFILE.  Having a blank or near-blank profile is just as bad as not uploading a profile picture.  No one is going to try to contact you because no one will know anything about you.

DBG makes it pretty easy for you, too.  Almost your entire profile can be completed by making selections from drop down menus, so you don’t need to worry about being creative or coming up with witty answers.  The only part that requires you to really think and exert some effort is the “My Description” section.  Now, we totally understand that this can be daunting, but it is very important that you at least write something.

But where to start?  Why not include some information about some, or all, if you’re ambitious, of the following:

• Your hobbies
• Your career, if it’s important to you
• What you like to do most in your free time
• Describe your favorite thing about yourself
• Talk about what’s most important to you
• Explain what you’re looking for in a partner
• Talk about your goals for the future
• Tell us how your friends would describe you

Hopefully that can get you started.  And now that you’ve embarked on the “Describe Yourself” journey, let’s talk about what NOT to do.

• Don’t be negative about yourself.  No one likes a Negative Nancy.
• Don’t try too hard.  Your profile doesn’t need to be non-stop jokes and witticisms.  Just be yourself.
• Don’t worry about other people making fun of what you write.  Someone who makes fun of your dating profile isn’t someone you want to date, anyway.  And trust us – we’ve seen a lot of profiles and it’s pretty hard to write something that will get you mocked.
• Don’t get heavy.  Save revelations about your childhood traumas, horrific previous relationships, and OCD tendencies for later on down the road.
• Don’t be vague.  Everyone thinks they have a great sense of humor, and hey, they probably do.  But if your more of a 30 Rock kind of gal, and his favorite movie is Dumb and Dumber, you may have a problem.  Rather than listing traits, describe what you like to do.  So, “I’m really laidback” can become “I love to just hang out in my best friend’s backyard and drink a few beers.”
• Don’t include your personal contact information in your profile!  We do our best to ensure your safety on this site and we of course remove any people who are causing problems for any of our users.  But to avoid any potential issues, protect yourself and don’t post an email address or phone number in your profile.  After you’ve talked to someone for a while through the site and feel comfortable with your love interest, it’s ok to take things onto email or Skype or talk on the phone.

There you have it, folks!  Now the only thing left to do is to log on and fill out that profile!  We know you’ll do a great job.

Anything we missed?  Let us know in the comments.