Online dating and checking out the competition.

Early in my career, I had a lunchtime swim with a colleague. As we headed back to our offices she said, “I checked you out and your body’s not bad”. I screeched, “You checked me out? Ugh…when?” “When you were showering”, she replied. She then she turned down the hall and left me standing there partly horrified and mentally polarized.

On one hand, I was just told that I had a decent body. Awesome! On the other hand, I was also just told that my colleague not only saw me naked, she gave me the once-over.

I ran behind her and said “You checked me out when I was naked?” “Well…duh”, she replied (back when duh was as popular as the word transparency is today). “Ewwww! You’re not supposed to look!” I screeched. “Everyone looks”, she replied while maintaining the “duh” expression on her face.

tv.gawker.com

Since then, I’ve discovered that she’s right. Everyone looks. The furtive urinal glance by men is an undeniable fact of life even though men deny it, which I suppose, means it’s not undeniable…hummm…anyway, I’m confusing myself. The point is that everyone looks.

What in the world could this possibly
have to do with online dating?

Whether you’re at a party, pool, urinal,
or an online dating site, it’s important
to check out the competition. Before you post your dating profile and your profile photo, I strongly suggest you see what’s out there first. That way you can not only avoid making their same mistakes, you can avoid doing anything similar to them altogether. It’s essential that you be different so that you can stand out.

Do you know what worst words are in advertising (besides “I don’t like your ideas” and “Kate! You said what to the client!!”)? They are: “Can I have an ad just like this one?”

Every advertising person has heard those dreaded words from clients who naively think that if an ad is working for a competitor, they can just copy it and it will work for them too. It won’t. In fact, your ad will simply make people think of your competitor. Worse still, if it’s a good ad, people will think of your competitor in a positive way. Not the best competitive strategy, right?

So, the lesson is this: check out the competition and make sure that you don’t do what they’re doing. The best way to be unique is through the use of anecdotes (I’ll cover this further in an upcoming blog). It’s truly the surest way not to sound like everyone else.

Also, while you’re checking out the competition, check it out in the same way that your ideal match is doing it. Here’s what I mean: if you’re a woman looking for a guy, then check out all the women he’d be checking in one sitting. Most people read about 20 profiles at a time. That’s a lot of reading and, usually, a lot of reading the same old thing. So I urge you to do your best to entertain, engage and surprise your reader. Be the life of the party – that’s what a dating site is. It’s a virtual singles party and, too often, it’s as boring as an episode of Family Jewels. Seriously, I thought Gene creepy Simmons was dull, but his family makes me want to will myself into a coma. Ugh.

So before competing online, enjoy the guilty pleasure of who and what you’re up against. Scan other profiles – and scan many at one time. Better still, spare yourself all the trouble and hire me – a professional ad writer and marketing expert to write your online dating profile for you.

Check out the online dating samples of my work. Better still, go straight to the personality quiz. It costs nothing to do, but will help you uncover some of your unique traits, which is the first step in writing an online dating profile that stands out.

If you like the blogs, then I think you’ll like the tweets. Would love to see you on Facebook too.