With a gamut of free dating websites out there you’d be forgiven for thinking there should not be any single people left in the world, however with around 50 million people claiming to be single on Facebook it seems many are still finding advertising themselves on a dating site seems desperate:

Love on line demographics

“I don’t normally do this kind of thing”

She says innocently, meeting the man with the red carnation she just met online.

Many single people try their luck on Facebook chat and with 5,000 friends on my own Facebook profile, not my page; I get a fair few young ladies appearing on text box saying Hi. Hey I am not George Clooney in the furthest stretch of the imagination, but I am proud of the fact I am an Internet marketing teacher and I teach companies in UK and Thailand how to get more out of Facebook and Twitter, so it is more design than my good looks I promise you!

Dating is much like business it’s all about rapport and giving of the right first impression, so here are my top tips and how to improve your chances of finding love online:

First and of pivotal importance is your profile photo, it amazes me how people expect to meet someone nice with a lousy profile photo. If you went to a high class, expensive dating agency, the first thing they do is get a photographic portfolio of you and make the very best of your snapshots to attract suitors.

Ladies; a full size photo of you is a must, in a dress /skirt. Not too short, you are looking for a boyfriend, not a customer, or maybe you are looking for financial gain I have different rates for that marketing! Reason being is so that any possible suitors can see what shape you are, a distinguished gent for example is probably not looking for a size zero model, so an honest reflection of your body size will attract the right people and save you so much time!

Gents Close up of face will endear you to the ladies. Woman can read so much in a face.

In both instances, make an effort to look happy for Pete’s sake, misery loves company, and bees follow the brightest flowers! Make sure it is a solo shot, the dog, cat; budgie is ok if you are strictly looking for a pet lover. Or your 15 kids, don’t worry you can tell them later, it’s ‘you’ first and foremost!

Men; try to avoid pics of you with the two Latvian pole dancers you met on Holiday!

Any pictures of ladies in bars with huge beers or five empty glasses of wine does not help.

A smiling friendly photo in a relaxed setting will help, and try to resize your photo to 180x 540 pixels (Facebook maximum size) great slimming shot for ladies! piknic.com and Gimp are free downloads for resizing photos.

Don’t put ‘it’s complicated’ in relationship; people will think you are complicated and not easy going!

Put some info on your wall Facebook has many interests and take your time over these you may meet a lovely chap and find out later you love Eric Satie’s classical overtures and he loves Meatloaf’s heavy metal wailing, that has all the recipe of a lovely evening!

Take the time to look at the movies and books they have stated in their interests, and look to see what business they do. Build up a picture before saying ‘HI’ Nothing is as dull as when you get that HI when you have been posting for months about your Polar expedition for charity, and you are using Facebook in your tent at the North Pole in minus 28 when the  next line is;

“Where are you from?” or

“What do you do now?”

Language is not an excuse, many  ladies will use this tact of Hi where, what, without looking to see anything about the guy! It says where you are now, what you do for a living, all about you, so read all about the person first a;

“Hi I see you are in California on the beach, what’s the surf like?”

Is an intro that is going to be hard to ignore!

To end on a more sober note with 750 million people on Facebook, people do sometimes end up meeting people who are not who they claim to be, I am certain it’s a miniscule number of people, however remember safety first.

Never, ever go on a date from a social networking site without telling anyone, and always go with a friend, any suitor should not have any problem with a chaperone for the first time!

Have fun, find love and be safe people!