Free Online Dating - Why Pay
For Online Personals When
You Can Get Them For Free?

There are loads of opportunities to place Online Dating Ads on the Internet - for free! I'm amazed myself at how many millions of single people are running ads all over the Internet - without paying a dime. And you can too!

Here's some Online Dating Advice to get your Internet Romance going in style!

Let's start with an Internet search using the popular search engine from Google. Search on Google under the term "free online personals" (without the quotes) and take a look at the variety you're presented with. Over a million websites show up on my search!

The trick is not to be so consumed with all the possibilities that you lose track of your objective - which is to meet Real-Live-People!

After your Google Search - and I've searched under the keywords Free Online Personals - you might want to continue your advertising strategy by choosing, from among the thousands of Free Online Dating Services, those who have members which are closest to home.

Step one: Decide where you'd like to meet someone. Are you open to meeting singles from all across the country? Or would you prefer to meet someone closer to home? If you'll consider starting a long-distance romance (and there may be good reasons why it's even better if it's long distance!) then write that down on your Online Dating planning sheet.

Step two: Once you've decided where your future dating partners can live, then look at your "Free Online Personals" Search Engine Results (Google, Yahoo, or MSN would be good places to start) and bookmark all of the free Online Dating Sites which include members in your target areas.

Step three: By now you should have at least 10 to 20 free online dating sites on your list. Prepare yourself to start advertising by getting some photos of yourself - and preferably flattering ones - which you can post on each dating site you choose. I advise you not to use very old photos - and any pictures more than five years old count as "old" ones in my book. Use flattering photos, yes - but misleading photos - no! Subscribe to the notion of "Truth in Advertising." There's nothing worse than meeting someone after months of correspondence only to realize that your pen pal has aged by more than 10 years - and has grown a huge donut around their waistline too!

Step four: Decide upon your criteria for match selection. How old can your dating partners be - i.e., what age range will you accept? This is entirely a personal decision, but keep in mind that some people deduct five to ten years from their true age when writing their online dating profiles! I don't recommend that you do this too, but let your conscience be your guide. When you make contact with people for online dating, be sure to confirm their true age as one of your very first questions!

Other criteria you may consider are your future partner's location, level of education, if they're a smoker or drinker, if they have kids and if so how many, their occupations (and are they even employed?) and perhaps even their hobbies and other interests too. As a side note, be on the lookout for emails from foreign countries - you might not want to sponsor someone to come here and get a Green Card at your expense. (Or you may - just think about it - that's all!).

There are some who will advise you to construct a very long list of your match criteria, with the reasoning that the more specific you are in visualizing who you want, the better your chances will be of actually meeting someone who fits the bill. For whatever it's worth, my opinion is to do just the opposite! People with long lists of requirements often stay single for a very, very long time. Better to use just a short list of prerequisites, and let your heart be your guide from there!

Step five: Start writing your online dating ads. I've been writing Online Personals for more than 15 years and I've written (and read) thousands of them! My advice - based on experience - is to be creative, have fun, and don't come across as demanding. Longer ads work better in my experience than shorter ones. And by "longer" I'm talking about a 300 to 500 word ad - as opposed to a 15 to 30 word ad. If you don't think it's possible to write such a long ad - and especially if you believe that no one will even read an ad that long - believe me, I can tell you from experience that it just isn't so. Anyone who is single and interested in you will read almost anything you write (short of a novel the size of War and Peace!).

Step six: Write a handful of "Reply Letters" which you'll send to anyone who writes to you. I don't advocate using Form Letters only, but having some standard paragraphs at your disposal will provide a nice starting point for many of your replies. Naturally, you should personalize them quite a bit too. If you get a fair number of replies to your ads (and I've received more than two thousand letters from some of mine) then you'll be glad you took the time to produce a few carefully written templates.

Step seven: Put a chart together of (1) the websites you submitted your ads to (2) when your ads ran (3) which ad or ads you published and (4) keep a folder on your computer of all of your replies - including the photos you received from your respondents too!

The Internet Dating Strategy I've just outlined for you is a practical and effective way to get started. If you take your Online Dating campaign seriously, you'll find that you'll have plenty of men or women to choose from!