If it feels like you’ve been using an online dating site forever, and you want to smash your mobile phone or computer into pieces every time you log on, then you may be suffering from an illness.
That illness is crapprofilephotoitis.
Let’s face it, when you use a dating site you scroll through looking for faces you’re attracted to. The first, last and only thing you judge on is the appearance of the profile photo (if you are sitting there saying “I don’t” then you’re in denial).
If one catches your eye, you might read a great profile title, but generally you will just click straight through to the profile to see if there are more photos.
You see, the problem is we humans are shallow. When you walk into a bar, you immediately scan for people you like and visually filter almost everyone in the place in or out of the reckoning in a matter of seconds.
And it’s the same online. Don’t believe the propaganda, especially from women, that personality counts. That’s a load of crap.
So if you’ve been using an online dating site such as plenty of fish for what seems like your entire natural life, it might be time to acknowledge your profile photos are a bit rubbish.
But don’t worry, there is help at hand. In this article we are going to go through some of the key online dating profile photo tips that will help you quickly turn things around to find the man or woman who has actually been out there all the time. They just haven’t been able to see how lovely you are because of your rubbish profile photos.
Why Is A Good Online Dating Profile Photo So Important?
As you’ve already said, people are visual. They like people they fancy. First impressions also count. If someone is covered in tattoos, or just looks a bit “skanky”, then you going to walk away. Unless you’re also “skanky” of course.
The truth is you can learn an awful lot about someone just by seeing a photo of them. It allows you to quickly judge if they share some of the same values of you, through the way they dress, what is being depicted in the photo, whether they smile, or if the look like they might be cold, or arrogant, or smiley, or…dumb.
You’re Out Of My League
Like it or hate it, some people are just more ugly than you, or better looking than you. If you look like you’ve fallen from the top to the bottom of the ugly tree, then do you really expect to get lucky by going for the beautiful people at the top of the tree?
It’s harsh, but it’s the truth. People tend to pair up with people who look about the same as them in terms of their physical beauty. So it’s important to understand that to attract the right sort of people to date, you have to present yourself in the right way in you profile photo’s.
So What Makes A Terrible Profile Photo?
The first thing, which you would think is obvious, is that your profile images should show your face. This is especially important if it’s the photo you set as your main dating profile photo, the one people see as they scroll through the listings.
However, as some people out there are just completely stupid, or arrogant, this isn’t always the case.
I saw a profile on a dating site recently, where there was only one photo, and the lady on it was looking down with hair over her face. She looked like she could be attractive, but you couldn’t really tell. So I wondered if she was attractive, or if she was actually ugly and was trying to hide it.
So I contacted her and made polite chit chat for a while. I said she seemed lovely, but I was a little uncertain what she looked like, because her profile photo wasn’t very clear.
She went into orbit. She said it was really arrogant to ask for another photo, the one she had was perfectly clear. She said she was not going to jump through hoops for anyone, and if I could make a decision based on the photo she had then I could basically bugger off.
As well as seeing what a poisonous person she actually was, it highlighted to me how completely unaware she was of dating site reality. Namely, dating sites are about profile photos.
You wouldn’t walk into a club with your head hanging down and your hair over half your face, and expect to get some great looking guy to come and chat you, so why do expect that to happen on a dating site?
And it’s the same for guys. If your profile photo shows you smashed off your face, leaning on your mate in a busy club with your tongue out or doing a crappy selfie, then why are you surprised when you are on the site six months without a single lady contacting you?
Top Tips For Profile Photo Success
1.Keep your clothes on
You may have a great body but you really don’t need to show it off at this point. If you’re a guy, it just makes you look a bit thick. If you’re a girl and have a photo of yourself in a tiny going out dress, or provocative fancy dress outfit, you just send out the wrong signal, well unless you are looking for drooling perverts for sex of course.
2. Learn the difference between smouldering and stupid
You may think you’re serious profile photo makes you come across as smouldering, or intense and interesting. But unless you get it spot on you will just look stern, aggressive, or just a bit of a miserable git.
3. Make the photos about you, not other people
If you have ever looked at a profile photo on a dating site and wondered which person the profile actually belongs to, then you know what this is about. Creating confusion will make people click away.
Even worse, is to put a picture of you next you’re far more attractive friend. The only thing people think is how they wish the profile belonged your mate. Or your daughter.
And for crying out loud don’t edit an old photo of you with your ex. Cutting them out of a photo, to leave you leaning in with a loving grin on your face, just makes you look incredibly sad. New beginnings means new photos. Got it?
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4. Look like someone you’d like to meet and date
Choose photos that make you look approachable. Even if you are not smiling, look like you are thinking, or considering something interesting. An engaging photo will make people notice.
You may like riding horses, or dogs. But if every photo on your profile is you with your dog, who is going to want to meet you? They will think you’re going to bring the dog on the date.
5. Consider how your photos link your profile description
If you gave up smoking a year ago, and your profile says you are non-smoker, why on earth would you include a photo of yourself with a cigarette in your hand?
It creates confusion to have images that conflict with the message you are giving in your profile text. The whole thing will be viewed as a single information mix.
By creating confusion in the messages you send, you will make people less certain about striking up a conversation with you.
6. Stick to your best angles
Practice by taking photos of yourself from various angles to find your best sides. People can look radically different depending on the angle the photo was taken at.
Try to find an angle that makes you look the best you can, and reflects what you really look like. One of the biggest gripes people have about meeting people from dating sites is that they look nothing like their photo.
The reason for this is usually that the person has completely staged a photo, airbrushed out a few lines here and there, until they look nothing like the person in real life. Remember that a photo is a snapshot in time, a photo of you at one angle, in one moment. You need to take several photos from several angles, to reassure people you are who you say you are.
7. Don’t use photo shoot images
What I mean by this, is don’t use highly staged photo shoot images. If you want to get professional portrait shots of yourself done, then great. What we are talking about is stuff like boudoir shoots, or fancy dress shoots.
If you are an aspiring glamour model, fantastic. But putting those images on your profile will only attract one sort of bloke.
People like to see what you look like in the real world. So try to convey how you do look in the real world, but obviously a very neat and interesting version of yourself, not Sunday morning you.
Photo shoot images tend to be staged the point where unless you are model, you look a bit stiff, false and trying too hard.
Go And Change Your Dating Profile Photo Right Now!
So there you have it, in a nutshell. Some great tips to help you get more of the right people to view your dating profile and make contact.
Whether you are a man or woman on a dating site, following these easy dating profile photo tips will definitely get you more interaction with the people you would like to meet.
As a final bonus profile photo tip, one thing that people always forget to do is to spend time flicking through the profiles of their own sex before they create their profile. Doing this will allow you to see the pitfalls people fall into. The trends are usually obvious.
And it’s no different when it comes to profile photos, look at what people do and the mistakes they make, and then make sure that when it comes to creating your own dating profile photos that you don’t fall into the same traps.