Percy's Personals

How to Stand Out in Internet Ads

The number one rule for standing out in Internet ads is that there is no one rule that will guarantee special attention in all personal ad environments. In other words, you really have to look at where you are going to post your ad to, and try to make a rational prediction that the things you do to try to get noticed will work in the context of all the other ads, and with the various idiosyncracies of each individual personals site. This is the "bottom line".

The old adage "just be yourself" is important and works to a degree, however there are many features about yourself that can and will be lost if you don't take some precautions. When people browse or search Internet personals, they are usually presented with a long list of subject headers for personal ads to peruse. These headers consist merely of a few words, and are quite often the one and only shot you will have to entice a person to visit your full personal ad to find out more about you. Because yours will usually be in the company of many other subject headings, and because people tend to read very quickly or just scan on the Internet, you've got do everything you can to ensure these few words grab the attention of every set of eyes. Here are a few tips for you to follow:

Techniques for Standing Out in Personal Ads

Determine exactly how many characters you can use for the ad title. If it doesn't say anywhere, then look at some of the ads and see what the longest one is and count the number of letters and spaces. You will probably find at least one that is cut off because the person exceeded the limit. See how dorky that looks? That is what you want to avoid, unless of course, you think this is the best way to express who you really are!
Don't waste this valuable space by stating the obvious. These are some actual titles that squander opportunities in this way: "Single female looking for single male," "In search of friend... possibly more," "Hello." Needless to say, these ads get lost in the vast sea of non-descriptive ads, and their authors in all likelihood remain lonely people.
Use the subject lines to describe unique qualities about yourself, your interests, or for what you want in a person. Be specific. A good real-life example is: "Want to do stuff? Cafes, Foreign films, Dancing..."
Use CAPITAL LETTERS in strategic locations to attract the eye, and to highlight a word or short phrase that is unique to you. This is an old marketing ploy, and it works! Notice how the words "CAPITAL LETTERS" stand out, and imagine how this would work in the midst of a sea of ads. One caution however, DO NOT CAPITIZE EVERY WORD IN YOUR TITLE !!!! This is known as "shouting", and make you look either like a very naive Internet user, or as a person with an offensively brusk attitude.
Be positive. Most people will not be intrigued by negative attitudes or emotional baggage. "Looking for a heart healer" is NOT a positive way to introduce yourself to people (this is an actual subject line).
Is spelling important? Well, yes, and no. Spelling, which will be one of the relatively few clues about who you are that will come across through a short ad. If you take correct spelling and grammatical usage seriously, and you would like your potential mate to as well, then you should communicate this by ensuring that your ad is dictionary-perfect. On the other hand, if you are a very free spirit, you *may* wish to intentionally communicate this by being a little more lax about perfect spelling, split infinitives and the like. You may even want to go so far as typing in all lower case, as is done in much informal electronic communication these days. If you think this best represents your personality and atitudes, bear in mind that there is always the danger that someone, even someone potentially compatible with you, might prejudge you and assume you are not be the brightest bulb in the chandelier, if you know what I mean. To be truly safe, it is probably best to ensure that at least most of your spelling is correct, and look for other devices to express your free-spiritedness!

Percy's Personal Picks:

FriendFinder - Possibly the largest all-purpose online personals site, designed to help you meet others for romance, dating, friendship and more. Sign up in 3 simple steps!
Adult FriendFinder - The largest Adult Personals site, with over 10,000,000 registered members and thousands of sexy photos. If you are interesed primarily in discreet sexual experiences, this is THE site. Adults only.
eHarmony - A unique and highly effective relationship building service based on an in-depth survey and scientific matching technology.

Yahoo! Personals - Another huge online dating service!

Other Percy Passion Pointers: