I've also added 'internet dating' to my repertoir over the last 6 months and generally agree with the points above. Some observations of my own are:
1). If you don't get both a photograph and a phone number within about 5 emails of your first contact with a girl - "NEXT". The longer you postpone talking and meeting the girl the less successful any date is gonna be. You'll both have unrealistic ideas about what the other person is like, this can make actually meeting them a disappointing experience.
One girl I was corresponding with refused to give me her phone number after 3 weeks of emails but eventually after about 2 months she did. We had some great emails going on and we seemed to hit it off - until we met over dinner (see the point below about why this also was bad) and there was no "chemistry" between us. I thought she was gonna be one thing but she was another (and I'm sure she felt a similar way).
2).
Email girls who don't post pictures. Many girls are very pretty but are afraid their friends will see them. 99% of the time, they'll send you a pic in a private email if you ask them to.
This is very true. Also, girls who post their pics receive many, many more responses to their ads. Only about 20% of the girls who had their pics posted replied to my emails, but for girls without pics I had a hit rate of nearly 80%.
3). Check out the profiles posted by other guys - then make sure yours is nothing like them. Be very casual and especially try to give the impression that you don't at all need a woman in your life - but that it'd be nice anyway.
4). More than half of the girls will not write much about themselves in their profile beyond "
I like music, going out dancing, romantic dinners and the beach. I also like going to the movies and curling up on the couch to watch a video ". Don't bother emailing these girls. I actually managed to date a few who had profiles like this and they are very boring people. But I guess that all depends on what you're looking for.
5). I ended up asking the girls I dated what it was about my first contact that caught their eye (on average these girls had got 30-50 responses to their ad in the first week) and they all said "Oh I don't know but you should have seen some of the losers spout to me their whole life story in the very first message." So I guess don't do that.
6).
ALWAYS meet for coffee or something very simple on the first date. You NEVER KNOW what you are going to get into
.
This also is golden advice. Never do dinner or movies as a first meeting. I ended up always meeting during my lunch hour, therefore there was always a defined maximum time limit of the date of 1 hour. You'll know within 10 minutes if you ever want to see this person again anyway.
7). In the age group of women I was contacting 24-30, most claimed to be sick of drunk guys at bars picking them up and that their friends were all in LTRs so had fewer chances to get out to meet guys anyway. They were not desperate losers (although they are certainly there to be found on the 'net) and many were pretty damned hot.
WORST EXPERIENCE
=======================
The one and only time I met up with with a girl for dinner (again don't do this) who I'd never seen a picture of. She had described her body type as "athletic". I had images in my mind of someone lithe like a runner or swimmer. She turned out to be a field hockey player with the body of an East German shot putter. Athletic - yes, overweight - yes, attractive - no. Then she talked of nothing but herself, named to me every single one of her friends and family - then used the names throughout conversation all thru dinner - like I really cared or remembered that Adrian was her brother and not her room-mate of 6 years ago
, and then expected me to pay for her at the end.
BEST EXPERIENCE
=======================
Meeting
lots of girls I would never have met without this medium. It really is good for getting dating and conversational practice without having to go through the stress of making approaches and getting the digits.
