Adam Sinicki When you use personal ads or dating websites you are sometimes forced to promote yourself romantically in much the same way a business might promote their products or their services. Most of these services for instance allow you to write some kind of headline, much like a headline in a newspaper story, and with this short headline it is your job to make yourself sound attractive and interesting, while being honest and catching the attention of someone skimming through many similar headings. It’s a tall order and it can be a challenge, so here we’ll look at a few examples and how to write a good headline.
Humour and Originality
When you go about writing your dating headline there are a few things you need to take into consideration. For instance it is crucial that your headline be witty and fun without being overly cheesy or crass. You don’t want to sound like you’re quoting something from Blind Date or a sitcom. So no ‘I’ve got the moves to make you swoon’ or anything else that sounds like a slogan.
What you do want to do though is to be honest and different. Things like ‘Pick me! Pick me!’ are clever and amusing but have been overdone and don’t say anything about you. However something like ‘You with cat who loves reading… you found me!’, or ‘Looking for someone to snowboarding with (and to do other stuff)’ are unique, amusing and speak about who you are. They won’t get as many answers perhaps as they are quite specific – but then your intention here isn’t to get a high quantity of responses, but a good quality. Being funny and original makes you stand out, and being very original right away tells people who you are. Certainly avoid clichés such as ‘I might be the one you are looking for’ – unless you want to spice it up somehow in an unexpected way such as ‘I might be the one you are looking for… because I ROCK’.
Describing Yourself
Some people will choose to describe themselves in their headline but this can be rather perilous. ‘Thirty year old bank manager wants to get to know you’ for instance is fine as it just says who you are (but perhaps places too much emphasis on your career) whereas ‘Thirty year old rugby player with degree wants to meet intelligent woman’ can make you sound a bit pretentious and full of yourself. At the same time people can read into the subtext of your statements so that ‘Bubbly and fun gal wants to get to know you’ reads as ‘I’m not attractive but I make up for it by being ‘kerazeee’. Really not attractive. Only describe things then that are factual and that are integral to your personality – otherwise save this information for underneath.
What Are You Looking For?
Another tendency is to put what you are looking for in your headline and this can be things like ‘friendship and love’ or ‘sex and fun times’. Again this is risky as you don’t want to come across as too needy or as too shallow. If you are only looking for a ‘f*ck buddy’ or a friend then state this, but otherwise assume that it’s just a regular relationship. At the same time try and work this into your witty heading so that you have ‘looking for friendship with someone who is nonetheless hot and smart’ – rather than a very bland ’30 year old man looking for love’.
Who Are You Looking For?
Lastly, you might want to tell people who you are looking for as well – for instance you might want to mention right away in your heading what your age range is ‘Fun guy (if I say so myself) looking for 20-30 year olds’ for instance. What you don’t want to do is be too picky so that you look shallow so no ’23-24 year olds’ or to be too ambitious so that you look like you haven’t got a clue. ‘Balding 50 year old looking for 18-25 year old blonde’ for instance won’t get you very far.
You should also avoid negativity such as ‘No naggers thanks’ or ‘No one over 11 stone’. This makes you look somewhat sexist, is somewhat cruel and suggests you have emotional baggage and are a bit bitter. None of these things are exactly attractive and you will make a much better impression by being positive and saying what you do want – sometimes this will rule people out anyway.