Creating your dating profile
Your profile is your first point of contact with any other member, so it is important that it makes a great first impression! Having a fully-featured and interesting profile makes it more likely for people to contact you, and when they do it's easier for them to strike up the conversation as they will know more about your likes and interests.
It is easy to create your profile, all it takes is a little time. This guide will help you to understand the information you can add, and ways to make your profile catch the eye of other members. Click on your 'profile' tab in the page navigation and follow the steps below to get up to speed in no time.
1The 'ice breaker'
The first thing people will read on your profile is your 'About me' section, this is your chance to break the ice and share some personal information about yourself, your likes and dislikes, and things about your personality. As we are a disabled dating focused commnunity, the great thing is there's no need to explain your disability here. Go ahead and click 'Edit' beside the 'About me' heading (see below)
Write your introduction in the box that appears, once you are happy with it click 'Update info' to save the changes.
A positive tone is best, try to focus on positive aspects of yourself and your life - express the things that you like doing, any hobbies that you enjoy etc. It's good to also mention favourite places to go, food you like, music and film tastes - the general things that people may then find you have common.
Keep in mind that people will not necessarily want to spend too long reading your introduction, a shorter interesting read will go down better than a lengthy tome.
Above all, be genuine an honest in what you write - you want someone to take a liking to who you are, not some fictional character loosely based upon yourself.
Tip:
Share enough to interest people, but keep some back so that you still have things left to talk about once you do begin chatting with other members!
2Would love to meet...
You are here to find that special someone, but just who exactly will they be? We all have in mind the person we would like to meet, and the 'Tell us about your match' section is where you get to express the type of person you are looking to make contact with.
Talk in terms of the qualities of your ideal person - should they be light-hearted? Intellectual? Mention the things that you would like to have in common - if you love the outdoors, then say that your match should like spending time outside enjoying nature.
This is entered and saved in the same way as we did the about me section above, except you click the 'Edit' link next to the 'About my match' heading.
Tip:
Avoid mentioning specific physical traits or setting too narrow an age range, it's better not to put such limits on things as you never know who you may miss out on!
3Say Cheese!
It's a bit of a cliche, but a picture really does speak a thousand words. Your profile picture is very important to helping other members to decide whether to contact you, so it is highly recommended that you upload at least one picture of yourself.
Having a photo in your profile shows that you are serious about your online dating adventure, if you skip this step then don't be surprised if our members skip over your profile!
To upload a photo of yourself, click the link below the gray photo box which reads 'Upload photos & videos' (yes, you can put a video up too if you would like!).
Next, click 'Choose' on the file choice field - this will open up the file browser on your computer. Navigate to the folder that has your photo in, then select the photo and confirm.
The next option (Access Type) sets the control on who can view the photo you just selected, you have the following options:
- Public - This means that any member can view this photo when looking at your profile, it may also show on our members feature on the homepage, which is viewable by all visitors to our site.
- Private - If someone wishes to view the photo, they must first request your permission. You will then be able to either grant or deny them access to view.
- For favourites -People who you add to your 'Favourites' list will have access to view, but for other members it will be the same as private.
Now simply click 'upload' and you will see your new image uploads, and is set as your profile image. The 'Default' option on the upload page allows you to set a different photo as your main profile image should you wish to update this.
Tip:
Smile! It may seem obvious, but a lot of people miss the opportunity to make a great impression with a smile in their profile photo. It makes you seem happier, more friendly and approachable - all things that help to get members to get in contact with you. So no dreary passport photos allowed!
4Details, details...
So now you have a great intro, some details on what type of person you would like to meet, and a wonderful profile picture. If someone is past all of this it means that are interested - so it's time to give them some more specific details. This is where the 'Characteristics' section comes into play.
Click 'Edit' next to the 'Characteristics' heading and you will see the list changes to a number of selection inputs:
This makes it quick and easy for you to set your information on various characteristics from your hair colour through to your education and even pet ownership. A few clicks is all it takes to fill these details out, then click 'Update info' to save.
Tip:
These are all optional, only fill out the ones that you feel comfortable to share and which are important to you (i.e. if you have children and want your potential dates to be accepting of that, then it's best to fill in that field so they know up front).
It's good to share enough about yourself so that people can get an understanding of who you are, and generally the more you put in, the more you will get out.
If you have followed these steps then you should now have a profile that is interesting and engaging, putting you well on your way to finding someone special.
Keep in mind that a fresh and up to date profile will work best for you, so it's good to upload new photos often (if you have been somewhere interesting, share a few snaps for example) and freshen up your 'about me' section from time to time.
Browsing other people's profiles will give you insight into what makes a good one, remember that you can edit yours at any time to give it some extra polish.