Title: Is Online Dating Effective? Word Count: 621 Summary: Discover the TRUE meaning of Online Dating and why it’s the hottest phenomenon in 21st century relationship since sliced bread, the coming down of the Berlin Wall, and the end of the old fashioned match making days! Keywords: dating, online dating, love, romance Article Body: Online Dating is not a last resort for social misfits. It is an excellent tool for those who lead busy lives, deal with a lot of shyness issues, or just want to expand their horizons. First you should decide what you main objective is for dating online. Is it just for friendship or only to have someone to talk to? Are you looking for a short term relationship to get you through a rough spot or are you searching for a long-tem, lasting bond? Are you only looking for casual dating with many guy/girls? After determining your objects, the next thing you should do is write a personal ad that makes your profile stand out among many. It should be creative with a different spark and should never sound desperate. Use romantic imagery and humor. The next thing is uploading your picture. This picture is the most important one so choose wisely. Don’t choose the one that you think makes you look the prettiest/most handsome but the one where you look the happiest. A great smile melts hearts and minds. In later pictures you post, choose ones that show you enjoying the things you love to do like sailing, camping, reading, dancing, playing an instrument. OK. Now you are ready to start Online Dating but wait. There’s more you need to know. When you send an email to answer an ad, always include something personal that indicates that you have read the person’s profile and don’t just drool all over the picture. Always be funny, creative, different, and try to appear approachable. If you are answering multiple ads, for goodness sake, do not use copy/paste. Make each letter original. When you get a reply the relationship has begun. Proceed wisely and with caution. Online Dating can work for you. As a matter of fact… Online Dating is Popular! The explosion of Internet Dating is amazing. It has gained popularity at unprecedented speed. The reason for its popularity is that it works and it fits into our busy lives. We all work at least 40 hours each week; some of us work many more hours than 40, just to make a living. Add commute time, preparation time and there just isn’t a lot of time left for social time except for weekends…at least we hope we have weekends off. Hence, we turn to the Internet like we do for so many things. We use the Internet to shop for “stuff”. We no longer have the time to visit brick and mortar stores so we go online to find the things we need. We pay our bills online because we just simply do not have the time to write out paper checks, put them in paper envelopes, lick stamps and go to the post office. That’s just the facts of life of the 21st century. We use the Internet for everything else… why not for our social needs? It doesn’t make much sense to think that the love of our lives is going to walk through the door of a bar we just happen to be at on any given night. That’s what I call a long shot. Doesn’t it make a lot more sense and much better use of our time and resources to be able to go through hundreds of profiles and pictures in a single evening than to leave one of the most major of life’s decisions to chance? It does… it really does. If you haven’t yet joined an Online Dating site, you should certainly consider doing so and as soon as possible. (ASAP) give your social life a good kick-start and start enjoying dating again.