The Internet has ADD, or can at least cause it. With people’s attention spans being reduced to pointing and clicking in a matter of seconds, sometimes something as simple as a nickname or title is enough to either make you swoon or keep clicking until the offending name/person is out of your sight. Dating sites are for better or worse a prime example of the Internet’s ability to provide instant gratification and even a profile title will have a bearing on getting responses. Let’s start with the basics and go over how to come up with an eye-catching profile title.

In case you are unfamiliar with this topic, I’ll give you a refresher. When one is searching for a special someone on a dating site, the search engine will generally post 10-15 different people with similar profiles. Usually the first thing that one sees is the profile photo, the name, the title and a small amount of personal details. The importance of the image is probably pretty obvious, but the profile title is almost always the very first thing that anyone reads. This is your first chance to impress other singles with what you write, and while many people will often overlook this detail when they see the picture, it’s still a crucial part of your first chance to affect the outcome of an online meeting.

Try to be somewhat original when you dream up specific profile titles. There’s nothing that will have people clicking on the forward button more than something as trite as “Looking for Mr Right” or “Out for love”. The title doesn’t have to be a masterpiece of ingenuity, but it should try to be something witty or entertaining enough to catch the roving eyes of singles. This is not to imply that people with incredibly boring profile titles are incredibly boring people, but the chances of anybody slowing down long enough to discover an interesting person is reduced with an unremarkable opening line.

You should also try to tailor your profile title to match the kind of responses you want. If you’re mostly looking for casual sex then a crude pun might be amusing, but you should avoid blatantly sexual titles if you’re looking for more serious dating material. It would be a shame to receive dozens of emails from creepy people based solely on a poorly crafted double entendre.

I realize this might be redundant advice, but try to remember to spell-check and edit the title before posting. If you can’t be bothered to spell the word “the” correctly, for example, it often reflects poorly on your profile. It’s a very small thing, but you would be surprised by the frequency of people who appear to be allergic to editing. Also try to avoid unnecessary abbreviations, like using “4” instead of “four” or “U” instead of “you” unless you’re doing something truly clever. There is no need to treat your profile title the same way that you’d treat a personalized license plate. Again, this is a minor thing but it will greatly improve your chances of responses if you take a little bit of time and try to be perfectionist.

Profile titles may be teeny tiny components of the whole profile, but they do make enough of an impression to hook people in. Take an extra five minutes to make an interesting title and you’ll be surprised by the amount of responses.