Online Dating Tips
Internet dating can be fun and achieving real love is possible. Unfortunately there are a number of shadows online where people can hide who they really are. Here’s a few dating tips to try and make sure that your online dating is safe, fun and you meet sincere people.
The major rule of online dating is to protect you. Don’t give any more than minimum personal information until you are comfortable giving more details.
Set up a free email account, unlinked in any way to your usual email. Once you have started correspondence with someone online, you may wish to reveal your other email address. Until then, using a “filter” will allow you to receive responses from potential partners, safe that you are anonymous until you decide otherwise.
Don’t put yourself on sale. By only responding to the advertisements placed by other members, you don’t have to give out information in a public area. You can share this in an introductory email to someone you write to.
Never, under any circumstances, reveal your home address/telephone number to anyone unless you are 100% sure that they are who they say they are. There are many decent people out there in Internet-land searching for love; unfortunately there are also a few who are not what they appear. If you own a domain name, and your domain listing gives your location details, you might like to withhold this information also.
Be honest about yourself at all times. Don’t exaggerate or minimise your assets/flaws
You’re not looking to win a popularity concert. You’re looking for a long-term relationship. That means that at some point in the future, the person to whom you’re writing will find out whether or not you’ve been telling the truth. This really is a important dating tip.
If someone’s advertisement catches your eye but there’s something in their criteria – perhaps they want a non-smoking partner, and you smoke – write to them and find out how flexible they are on the issue in question. Maybe it’s a small quirk and they’ll be happy to accommodate the habit if the rest of the chemistry adds up – but on the other hand, perhaps it’s one of their set in stone criteria in which case it’s far better to find out and move on before committing any more time.
Trust your instincts
Sometimes the words you read are all sounding great. They’re just what your heart wants to read. But at the same time, a little voice in your head may be telling you that there’s something not quite adding up about the person who’s writing them. Listen to that little voice. It could be a self-preservation mechanism kicking in, something inside you that doesn’t want you get any deeper in case you get hurt, but on the other hand, it could be your natural instincts telling you to step back from this person until you know a little bit more about them. Instincts are very seldom wrong.
If you have any little nagging seed of doubt in your mind about your online date, put the breaks on and speed up your detective work (see below).
Become A Detective
Is the person you are writing to telling you the truth? Is it the whole truth? That’s for you to try and find out. This can be time consuming, but it’s your future happiness that’s at stake here and it’s well worth your time.
Regular snail mail is a good way to start verifying information. This however means you giving out your address in return and so you will have to invest some trust into the proceedings at this point. Snail mail letters and photos can help to give some kind of reality to the person you are writing too online. You can see them in their own environment; does it match with the one they talk about to you?
Is the person you’re writing with the age that they claim to be? Try talking about things that you know someone of that age ought to remember from their childhood. There are a number of younger people out there on the Net who seem to derive pleasure from professing to be a good 15+ older than their actual adolescent age.
What message boards etc does your online date visit? Put their email through a search engine, such as google, and see what comes up. You may find that their tastes are a little more eclectic than they’ve let on, or you would like! Keep in mind that many people have multiple email addresses, keep a note of each email address that you get for your friend, and check each one carefully.
Does your friend have a website? Check out the domain information at a site such as …… Is the domain registered to the name your friend uses? Is it the address that you have for him/her?
Meet in Public
Once you’re confident that you know who you’re talking to, always keeping in mind that there are some people who will escape your scrutiny, arrange your first meeting in a public place when you are 100% sure there will be other people around.
Tell a few key people where you are going, and who you are meeting. It may seem melodramatic, but cautious doesn’t cost, but also leave a visible trail to find this person should the unthinkable happen once the relationship leaves cyber-safety and becomes a real time one.
Relax and Enjoy
So, you’ve read the dating tips and you’ve taken the precautions; now see how the dating goes. Who knows, the next person you hook up online could be the person of your dreams!
