Your guide to online dating with Swoon

The thought of finding that special someone can be a bit of a scary one. We've taken the time to put together a bunch of great tips and interesting articles on how to get the most out of dating. Remember to check this section every now and again as we're constantly adding to it, so bookmark this page now...

Why you should start online dating

The online dating community is huge - you've heard all about it, might have dipped your toe in the water but you're most likely in one of two groups: the 'it's for desperate people, but I'm still single' group, or the 'I have/haven't tried it but think 'why not it's worth a go' group. Whichever one you are sat in, there are some great advantages to online dating, so read on and start feeling positive about your dating search source!

So you have created your online profile, the hardest part out of the way. But don't forget it will need a spring clean once in a while, now that's out of the way you need to start looking at your search options. You can set your search criteria to be generic, save it as your generic criteria and then start weeding out the key bits that are important to you. One of the great advantages of online dating is that you can be picky! So if you want to date a member that doesn't smoke, occasionally drinks and is interested in having children - that could be one of your saved searches that you revisit. By going through your search options, and revising your criteria you'll start to learn what type of person you are looking for and you should see a common theme!

In a lot of the profiles, the other member will have submitted a photo, so you can also start painting a picture of who they really are from their photo and profile about that person. If there is something that intrigues you within their details, bite the bullet and send a message or a wink. What is the worst that can happen - they don't respond. You haven't done anything other than send them a short message, so what do you really have to lose - you never know, they could be 'the one'!

Creating a good profile and writing your first message are hard tasks but without effort and time invested you can’t expect to reap the rewards of online dating (see also our article “What makes a great online profile?”).  By writing your messages online you get to review, check for grammatical errors and use that all important spell checker!  There is nothing worse than receiving a message that’s badly written, full of errors or in text speak.  We all make mistakes and the odd typo shouldn’t kill a budding relationship, but errors are made when we are excited, in a hurry or nervous so it’s well worth taking an extra few minutes to check what you have written. It shows attention to detail and says a lot about you as a person and how you want come across to someone.

It’s great being able to write to someone when you want to, but having said that don’t bombard them with messages, especially if they haven’t written back.  As a rule of thumb, it’s ok to send someone two messages, even without a response from them, but as you can see if they have read the message you sent, if there is no response by the second message, move on.  There are plenty of people who will respond to you, and when they do you’ll get a great feeling and may want to concentrate on them for a while.

With loads of success stories from our thousands of members it's no wonder more and more people are turning to the internet to find their perfect match. With a bit of time, effort and patience and with our great guides you can be sure to make the most out of online dating. We all know someone who has found success in online dating so why don't you give it a go today and meet your perfect partner!