Adjectives are your friends. What sounds prettier: “brown hair,” or “rich mahogany-brown tresses?” Make your personal ad as illustrative as possible. Find creative ways to describe yourself. If you need help, take a poll among family and friends about what they think are your best features, and list those, using words that’ll help the reader envision you in more vivid detail. You don’t have a nice smile; you have a “megawatt grin that can light up any room.” See what I mean?
Pay Attenshun to Spellign & Grammer
Didn’t that heading just stick out like a sore thumb? I was making a point. It might be the most basic of rules, but it’s also one of the most important tools for making a great first impression: be scrupulous about using proper grammar, spelling, and punctuation. Nothing can make you look ignorant and uneducated faster than a poorly edited personal. Spell things out (“and” instead of “&” for example). And whatever you do, don’t revert to chat-speak – it’s never acceptable to write sentences such as, “R U the one 4 me?” unless you’re about fourteen years old. Proofread your personal when you’re finished with it, then have someone else do it for good measure if you’re not entirely sure that you haven’t overlooked anything.
Have One Helluva Headline
Even before a potential mate sees your personal ad, he or she sees the headline. That means it has to be one great attention-grabber. According to the experts at online dating site Cherish.com, “The key to a great headline is to capture something unique about you without saying a lot of words. Are you a scuba diving buff? Why not write ‘Search sunken ships and lost treasures with me!’ Do you love NASCAR? How about ‘Take a turn around the bend on Race Day with yours truly.’” Your headline should be a sentence that makes the reader want to know more about you. Play on people’s natural curiosity by writing it in the form of a question or a riddle, so that they have to click on your personal to find out the answer. Or make the reader laugh – I once saw a personal ad with the headline “Click Here for a Million Dollars.”