Are you interested in online dating but you are too scared because of the horror stories you have heard? Going out to nightclubs or bars can be dangerous because you never know who you are going to meet. As with these venues, the Internet can be just as dangerous if you do not follow the basic rules. Here are a few tips for online dating that will help you make your experience safer:
Keep Your Identity Secret
When embarking on online dating, or communicate with people in any chat room, it is always a good idea to keep your identity to yourself, and use an appropriate nickname instead.
Use a Prepaid Cell Number
Keeping your identity a secret means that you should also avoid listing your landline number or a contract cell number on your profile. Rather use a prepaid cell number, which is more anonymous and will offer some degree of protection.
Open a New E-Mail Account
Instead of using your work or personal e-mail address, it is always a good idea to use an e-mail account that is specially opened for online dating purposes. Once again, your e-mail address should not contain your real name, but rather your nickname.
Use a Subscription-based or Reputable Dating Service
Be wary of open chat rooms for singles as these are often not moderated and can easily be monitored by stalkers or fraudsters looking for soft victims. Subscription-based or reputable dating services are used by people who are serious about dating, and the vetting processes involved help to create a more secure environment.
Research Your Prospective Date
It is not uncommon for one person to use more than one dating service in an attempt to widen the net. Use various search engines to look up the profile of the person that you are interested in. Remember, you can never have too much information.
Trust Your Instincts
If you feel unsure about the person that you just met online, then end communication with this person before it goes any further.
Never rush into any situation
Always take your time before starting a new relationship with anyone. You should only move on when you feel comfortable. If you feel pressured into meeting this person or to divulge personal information, then rather pull out and move on to someone else.
Seeing Is Not Always Believing
If your prospective date sends you a photograph, ask for another two. Unfortunately, there are people who use misleading photographs and misrepresent themselves. If they are using a photograph belonging to someone else, it is highly unlikely that they would have two other photographs of that person.
Report Abuse
All reputable online dating services have a function where you can report abusive people. In addition to protecting yourself against this person, you are also preventing someone else from being victimized.
Keep a Friend Informed
If your online relationship has moved to a level where a personal meeting is required, then it is imperative to let at least one friend and one family member know where you are going to meet.
By following these simple safety tips for online dating, you will be creating a safer environment in which you can get to meet new people.
Until Next Time,
Phil
Meet Market Adventures Dating Expert
phil@meetmarketadventures.com
Emails and letter writing are two very different things. The latter, as it turns out, is a dying art form. It’s something that few people care about and fewer people actually take part in. What happened is that people got confused into believing that emails replaced letter writing. This simply isn’t the case. Emails and letter writing have very little in common.
Forget the fact that emails are integral parts of our day to day work lives, this distinction is a huge deal because so many of us actively meet other singles and build relationships via email exchanges. If we aren’t all on the same page with this, and we’re not, things can get ugly, and they do. Email writers be warned, you can easily do the wrong thing. You can easily irritate people. There really should be a course in this.
Firstly, realize that emails are conversational rather than formal. This is especially the case when the email is social related. That said, even business emails sound conversational, but the conversation would sound formal, of course.
What an email is not is long winded. Letter writing was grand back in its day, with letters stretching on for pages and pages. With emails this is not how it is supposed to work. Firstly, most of us are stuck with awful screens that aren’t easy on the eyes for reading and reading. And reading. Secondly, we all get a lot of emails and tend to like to brush through them.
The point is to get to the point. Write your emails to be as brief as possible. If it’s a social email, and if it’s an email to someone on a dating site, a couple paragraphs will be fine. If you go on for more than two hundred words though, the person you are sending it to will stop reading.
What are your email pet peeves? Add a comment by clicking the link below and let us know your thoughts on all of this. If there are things about emails you wish everyone would do to make the experience better for you, jot that down.
Until Next Time,
Phil
Meet Market Adventures Dating Expert
phil@meetmarketadventures.com
Emoticons are those little non-face faces that we make with our punctuation while writing emails and instant messages. A lot of software translates them into little yellow happy faces or pouty faces or whatever, but the original idea of emoticons are still recognizable. Still lost? :-) is happy, :-( is sad, and :’( is crying. You can even wink… ;-) , and feel free to write any of this backwards (-:
The generation that first grew up on emoticons are now older and wiser, and are established in the world of adults. They are running businesses, working in politics and practicing law. Some of them can’t help but use these things in their everyday writing, even when it is supposed to be professional emails. This annoys many of you out there, but there is still a large school of opinion that says these things are essential.
Unlike letter writing, and very unlike business letter writing, emails and instant messages are very conversational in tone. That’s a key distinction that many people haven’t grasped yet. The problem with this, however, is that when we write in a conversational tone, we forget that we aren’t actually having an oral conversation. We lose track of our own sarcasm, and often don’t’ realize how open ended certain statements can be.
This is where the emoticon is meant to rescue us. It allows us to show when we are joking around, when a neutral statement is meant to be a positive or negative, and when we acknowledge something there are simply no words for. While we could ideally train anyone and everyone to write clearer emails and instant messages, it’s just not likely going to happen. So, emoticons are a needed rescue tool.
What’s your opinion on emoticons? Are they something you use in everyday messaging, are you out of control with them or do you despise every one you see? Add a comment below to let us know your thoughts. Feel free to punctuate it any way you wish.
Until Next Time,
Phil
Meet Market Adventures Dating Expert
phil@meetmarketadventures.com
Unfortunately, there are still some people that believe any form of online dating can only be catered to those that are shy, ugly, or do not have any type of socializing skills. Whether or not this might have been true in the past, it is far from the truth in the present.
If you think about it, just as the Internet’s growing popularity has formed other acceptable ways of socializing through social network sites such as Facebook, MySpace, different forums, or any other place people like to congregate in groups online, the same has happened with online dating. You will find extremely beautiful people, ugly people, very sociable people, unsociable people, shy people, and charismatic people, just as you would in any bar, club, or other real life social situation.
This is important to acknowledge because if you still think otherwise, you might be stopping yourself from finding a potentially great partner through online dating.
In fact, online dating has become so popular and accepted amongst the population, that sites are able to offer it free and depend totally on advertising revenue. This is due to the high masses of people that sign up as members. So if you think about it, all in all, there are more advantages than disadvantages when it comes to online dating.
I think the only real obstacle that you are faced with is being new to the scene. In other words, because you might not be used to the search tools and other communication tools that are within the membership panel of these free online dating sites, you might find yourself feeling a bit overwhelmed in making that first step. However, once you do get a taste of what the online dating sites have to offer, you will wonder why you never jumped on earlier.
Free online dating is probably one of the most powerful concepts currently. If you think about it, you are able to get the exact same type of features that pay to use dating sites offer, and never have to pay a cent. Also, just as you are able to find specific dating sites that cater to serious daters and those that are just looking for a little fling, the same can be achieved with free online dating sites.
My advice is this:
Spend less time on wondering if you will be looking like a fool joining one of these sites and rather use that energy to go online, do your research on a great free online dating site, and then take it from there. Just by doing this research alone, you will realize how many people are actually involved in the online dating scene. We are not talking about thousands of singles. We are talking about millions of singles worldwide that use online dating as a medium for finding that perfect partner. Once you become a member of one of these free online dating sites, you will understand just why so many people have flocked to this dating medium.
Until Next Time,
Phil
Meet Market Adventures Dating Expert
phil@meetmarketadventures.com
While free online dating can be extremely powerful, considering that you do not have to pay a cent in order to enjoy their full service, the one thing that you will be faced with is a lot of competition. This is especially true with some of the popular free online dating sites. While in one way it is good, because you will not have a shortage of potential partners to search through, on the other hand things can become quite challenging when you are faced with competition.
Because of this, the last thing you want to do is create a profile that does nothing more than turn people off. This type of first impression can be a huge obstacle when you are trying to compete amongst the mass.
The good news is that many of the common mistakes can be very easy to fix. It is generally the mistakes that people are not aware of that tends to be the most devastating. Here are two common mistakes that many new members make, and should avoid at all costs:
Avoid the temptation of not uploading a photo of yourself. There are two reasons why you never want to do this. The first reason is because most members are taught to avoid people that do not include a true photo of themselves, as they might be scammers. So, while you might not be uploading a photo simply because you are shy, or because you are scared that maybe one of your friends will see you in one of these free online dating sites, other people will see you as a scammer. This is the last thing you want as a reputation when dating online. The second reason why this can be bad is because it makes people wonder why you are afraid of showing yourself. Is it due to lack of confidence? Are you ugly? These are the kind of questions that other online members will be thinking. From what you can see, they are all negative questions.
The second mistake many newcomers make is by unintentionally sounding negative when they write their profile. Because they feel insecure or unsure of the whole dating online scene, they tend to think this out aloud as they go about writing their profile. One example of this is when they say something like, “oh my God, I can’t believe I’m doing this, it feels corny”. Without you realizing it, you are actually insulting all other online dating members, because you are telling them without realizing it that they are all corny. This type of unintentional negative writing will do nothing more than turn people off, as well as give you a bad name. So, before you can even begin to get anywhere, you have already lost the race.
When it comes to online dating, you are still mixing with real people, just in a virtual world. Therefore, just as you would have to promote yourself in a real life situation with other people, the same goes with free online dating. The only difference is that you will not be able to show any type of body language or facial expression as you go about doing this. Also, every word that gets written and posted will stick and becomes very difficult to erase if you make the wrong impression. So make sure you get it right from the beginning.
Until Next Time,
Phil
Meet Market Adventures Dating Expert
phil@meetmarketadventures.com
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