Your profile needs to be an accurate reflection of who you really are. Your pictures need to be recent and have you clearly in them, your profile needs to explore who you really are and you should also be honest about what you’re looking for. That being said, there may be ways to improve your profile so that you can increase the amount of email responses you’re getting. I’m not suggesting you lie in any way, shape or form. You can accomplish a great deal and improve your overall profile performance by just being a little selective with what you choose to include. Focus your attention and you can be sure to capture the interest of a greater number of people!

Your profile will say a lot about you but it can never say everything – nor should it. We’re all much too complex to be expressed in the short space provided by dating sites. Instead, what you should do is focus your efforts on a few subjects and write to them. You can give a better example of the way you think and feel by concentrating on just a handful of areas. Here is a 50 word example of a profile that lacks focus"

I like to read mystery novels, write and go camping on weekends. I love to travel and have a soft spot for pets and children. I am a software engineer during the day and a TV fanatic at night. I also like going to the movies or dance clubs.

Here is a better use for those 50 words. I've taken out a bunch of information and concentrated on one subject alone.

I love going camping on weekends. I usually leave the city by 5pm Friday and two hours later I’m setting up my tent under a huge pine tree. I have a favorite park that I go to that is really quiet and offers a great view of the night sky.

Or…

Traveling is the most exciting thing I do. I love booking a week off but not planning until the week before. I’ve been many places but my favorite has been Whistler, BC, in winter. There’s something about the snow outside and roaring fire inside that I can’t get enough of!

The first example I gave says a lot but really nothing at all. You aren’t a list of activities. Who you are is what you think and enjoy about them. Worry less about quantity when trying to appeal to a broad audience and work on depth and quality.

Determining which areas you should focus on in your profile is easy. Get a piece of paper or word processing program and make a list of everything that interests you. Think about which activities you take part in, what you do for work, what you do for fun, what you believe in or anything else that comes to mind. Now take that list and order them with the ones most important to you at the top of the pile. Next, take that same list and reoranize them with what you think others will find as the most interesting activities or beliefs at the top. That might mean watching your video game addiction or stamp-collecting habit plummet from number one down to the bottom of the heap, but it’s for a good cause. Look at which items share top priority on both lists and write about them. Remember, just because your life is made up of various parts doesn't mean you need to include them all. Use your profile space to share the most interesting and you're sure to hook more connections!

If writing about your interests seems like a lost cause, you can try writing about the small things. Write about waking up in the morning – what you do, what you enjoy and what it would be like with someone special beside you. Write about your work – what your days are like, what you do, what funny things happen while at work and how you might see this new person fitting into your work day. You can write about your family, how you interact, what you do when you’re together and what it might be like for that special person to fit into your life with them. Write about your future if you can imagine it, but remember to keep a narrow focus. You want to write a lot about a little. That way you know you’re saying something and not just creating another list. Maintain your focus and draw people into your life in detail. It will create a fuller picture for them to imagine what being with you might be like.

More options are everything when it comes to dating. You can have the most open to you when you focus on subjects that appeal to a wide array of people. Concentrate on a few and make them really special and you’ll soon find that more emails are finding their way into your inbox than there were before!