From Contra Costa Times
How to write an online dating profile
By Jessica Yadegaran
FIVE YEARS AGO, Tiffany Garcia spotted Matt Weber's profile on Match.com. It was the humor and honesty in Weber's profile that stood out from the others, she says.
"It wasn't too self-promoting," says Garcia, 35, who married Weber last year. The couple lives in San Jose. As Garcia recalls, Weber spoke of his love of being a dad and how he doesn't like meeting people in bars. "People have a certain need to brand themselves, and his was more authentic and genuine."
Last April, Match.com reported that one in five couples meet online, surpassing church and bars as a way to find a partner. Writing a profile to catch someone's eye is akin to dressing up for a singles party: You want to make a good first impression. So if you don't already know how to look good on the computer screen, it may be time you learned....
If you really want to stand out, you might want to spend less time crafting that immortal prose and more on snapping and posting dynamite photos. They are the most important element when it comes to getting clicks, according to Andrew Fiore, a researcher in UC Berkeley's School of Information. Spira says good photos are just as important to women as men....
Fiore, of UC Berkeley, calls attention to a 2008 Harvard report by Michael Norton that explored the trade-offs between specificity and ambiguity in online dating profiles.
The study proved, contrary to what you'd expect, that acquiring more information about others actually leads, on average, to less liking.
"Theoretically, being less specific allows people to fill in the blanks according to their imaginations," Fiore says....
This story also appeared in the San Jose Mercury News.