To make your email stand out among the others, think up an interesting subject line. After all, your online love interest might get a lot of messages in a day so your subject line has to be an attention grabber. Ideally, try to base it on something you both have in common.
Keep your first email short but informative. I’ve had emails sent to me that said “Hi. How are you?” or, “Hi. Tell me about yourself.” I find that uncommunicative and lazy. Don’t simply cut and paste a generic message or a tired line like “what’s a nice person like you doing in a place like this?” – oh please. There’s old and there’s hip/retro. That line is not retro. Be sincere. Be personal. Make an effort. Genuinely address your online love interest by making it obvious that you read their profile and have looked beyond their photo.
Basically, if you make contact, make the effort to communicate.
Remember to actually introduce yourself, give the person information about you and why you’re worth getting to know. That may be in the form of a shared hobby, interest or viewpoint.
That said; don’t feel that you need to divulge your life story either. An email that’s too long is time consuming and presumes you’re worth spending the time on. Truth is, your online love interest needs to be convinced of that first.
Finally, give them something to respond to. Maybe you can end your email with a question that they can actually enjoy responding to. It could be with respect to their profile or an interesting topic in the news. Or, quite simply, you can say “I look forward to hearing from you”. Whatever you do, leave with a good feeling, an interest, and a reason to reply.
