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Blast from the Past: 7 Things A Guy Needs to Know About Picking An Online Dating Profile Picture

It’s the Friday before the Labor Day Weekend and it seems like half the US has started their long weekends early. Not me. I’m working today. Sort of.

Today’s (rerun) post came to mind as I clicked on a totally hysterical email from one of the online services (who shall remain nameless, under the ‘if you can’t say anything nice’ rule). This particular company has been sending me emails for a while, asking me to join (me and every other single blogger on the planet, I suspect). So I did. But then I took a quick look at their male members. OMG. The pictures were ridiculous. We’re talking monstrous.

But I didn’t cancel right away (wasn’t costing anything). And every day they send me an email with new, monstrous pics. Now, I’m sure some of these are actually decent guys. And some of them might actually be OK looking IRL. But the pictures are pathetic. Really and truly pathetic. Which leads me to this…

7 Things A Guy Needs to Know About Picking An Online Dating Profile Picture

With that in mind, here are a few things that I think every guy should know before he hits that upload button.

It’s best to have more than one picture. Two is enough, 8 is too many. At least one of them should show your face in close up.
Use recent pictures. Women want to know what you look like now, not 2 years ago.
Remember to smile. I won’t reply to a guy if he’s not smiling in at least one of his pics.
The pictures that guys take in front of the mirror are usually pretty creepy. Don’t do it. It’s easy enough to take a picture of yourself w/o the mirror. Better yet, ask a female friend to take a picture of you. She’ll make sure you look your best.
It’s not a good idea to include a picture of yourself without your shirt on (even if you have a hot bod) unless you’re seeking a strictly sexual relationship.
Take off your freakin sunglasses. We know you’re cool. The headshots with the sunglasses are anything but.
Show a little restraint – don’t use a “boy with toy*” shot.

*boy with toy shots are the ones with guys in sportscars, or skydiving, scuba diving, sailing, flying a small plane etc.

Click here to see the original post with comments (some of which are very amusing).

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