Since no replies yet, I'll start by sharing some of my personal experiences, and hopefully more people can jump in.
If you're not already getting likes just from the simple act of existing (meaning create a profile and doing nothing else), which probably applies to the majority of us I would venture, then you obviously need to put a little effort in, which will involve sending messages. And I think this is where the time investment kicks in, as well. You want a message that is going to stand out from all the hundreds of 'hey's and 'what up, girl's.
The most common advice you find in the mainstream online is to comment on something about her profile besides her looks, because she's already getting plenty of comments in that area. So rather than sending generic greetings I would read their profiles and try to find something to comment on, whether it be a shared interest or maybe asking a question about something she said. The success rate of this method was a lot higher of course, but it was much more time consuming.
Another thing I tried was neg hits, thinking with all the simps on there a strategy like this would stand out more. I'm not ruling this out. I did get one response but it went nowhere, probably due to other factors that I may or may not have had any control over. A girl was saying that she was looking for a nice guy. I simply said 'I call bull**** on the nice guy comment'.
She responded 'Oh yeah? You don't know me, Sir.'
So I responded ' I don't, but I know enough. I've also seen it in practice. We're all told to be 'nice guys', and I was that guy in my past relationships. I put them on a pedestal, was attentive to all their needs and would pretty much do whatever they wanted without ever asking for anything. They got bored, lost respect for me and stopped desiring me like they did. But I learned. I'm not saying a guy should be an *******. Big difference between just being a 'nice guy' and treating someone right. Often times what people think they want and what actually makes them happy are two different things '
She said
'I see what you’re saying and I get it…
In my case, having been through divorce, and a lot of ****, I now know what I want and I know what I don’t want. I’ve grown, I’m a lot older and wiser than when I dated in the past. I made sure to include that I like nice guys because I truly do. I am a nice person myself and I’d like that in someone I’m involved with.'
Then I said
'It's kind of funny to me though because the last woman I dated said almost the exact same thing. But you're right, I don't know you. Maybe you really are a rare woman who knows what she wants
Why do you think your previous relationships failed?'
No response after that. I don't know if her interest level just wasn't high and she was simply defending herself from my perceived attack and then moved on or if I blew it with what I said.
I used to have long hair and I've cut my hair short, partly because it's starting to thin and doesn't look as good anymore. I think it looks better and I've updated my profile pics.
I'm 5'7 1/2" but I had my height listed as 5'8" thinking it not a bad thing to round up. I've since brought it up to 5'9" lol.
I've shortened the description in my profile to leave more to the imagination and try to keep a little mystery to it.
I'm currently a Team Lead but interviewing for computer-aided drafting jobs, so I changed my occupation to 'Engineering' to play it up a little bit.
I can't say that any of these things have made a huge difference yet. I'd like advice on how to create an effective profile and pics, as well as anything anyone might notice about things I've tried that I could improve on.