in: Dating & Relationships

How to Spring Clean Your Online Profile

Everything needs a Spring clean—even your online profile. Kahshanna Evans shares tips & tricks to spruce up your online self!


Cuffing season is finally over and a wave of optimistic, single candidates are flocking to online dating sites.

You and your single friends have worked long and hard to manifest an abundance of choices for companionship and, with a long winter out of the way, your time is now. 

To your own surprise you’ve become somewhat of an expert at the intuitive process of bookmarking conscious singles with like minds.

If its still a little quiet, here are a few frightful online profile choices to avoid.

As a rule of thumb, a good online profile has clear, well-curated photos to reflect body, mind and, hopefully, spirit you are hoping to share with a special someone.

Subtleties within online profile photos that demonstrate lifestyle, personality and values are reflected in each image and help differentiate your profile.

If you are certain there are no good photos of you, take the time to grab that friend who has the gift of social media and a great camera phone and give this the attention it deserves.

Professional photographers often take several meticulous shots because they have raised the bar so why not follow their lead. Once you do have that treasured set of photos keep in mind that cropping is a dating skill must-have.  

Your images are worth spending the time to properly format.

When you’re ready keep this in mind: always consider the background.

There’s nothing like seeing a ¾ of a perfect stranger with a disheveled half-made bed in a messy bedroom in the background with mini blinds that look like cats play on them to scare away prospects.

Seriously.

If you want to be that person, because its funny, it likely means you may be more committed to hiding behind humor than taking ownership of worrying you aren’t enough.

Running neck and neck for the worst profile photos choice are posting zoom lens selfies and posting photos that look nothing like you.

Photos should be current—not a digital biopic of how cute you were 15 years ago.

If you look like your own son or daughter in your photos—decrease the year range so people can authentically know who they’ll be meeting. It’s a singles courtesy to post photos that are not more than 5 years old.  Save the adolescent you-at-your-hottest photos for after you know each other because it’s just not cool to dupe anyone into meeting up with you.

That is a major yet avoidable party foul—don’t do it.

Don’t let grainy photos bring you down.

If you happen to be one of those people that are unbound to contemporary devices and the internet, it’s worth a trip to the library to upload quality, cropped photos that represent you well.

More often than not grainy signifies you won’t put in the effort.

It screams fixer-upper—is that really the message you want a love interest to think of when they come across your photos?

Which person are you in that group photo are you exactly?

You’ve come this far in the online dating process, do you really want to confuse the person looking through your profile hoping for a perfect match with group photos of all of your pals?

An eye for discernment goes really far here.

Five people that look similar can set up unreal expectations and invite comparison—if you can’t resist sharing group photos of yourself with your besties, be sure to have other clear photos that feature you.

After all, you’re not fixing them up on dates.

 

The couples photo on the single profile is counterintuitive.

You’re answered a zillion questions to describe yourself and gone through all of the measures to have social options and hopefully enrich your life.

Why post photos that look like you are already romantically involved on a conscious dating site? Does your stunning yoga teacher or good looking stranger from that awesome trip you once took really need representation on your online dating profile? 

Sometimes a mystery can be good but this seems like a recipe for disaster.

There is a no ex photo rule for online profiles, including and especially photos where there has clearly been someone special cropped out, or worse—cut in half.

 

Kids on dating sites?

If you are lucky enough to have children while you open your life to a second chance at love, when it comes to photos, discreet is chic.

Being upfront about a preexisting family is outstanding and necessary, but posting a photo of your kids with a proposed date about visiting a graveyard comes across as a little more than eerie. 

Even if you can blame the algorhythms of the website, its important to understand where the images show up and what it says about you.

There are creepers out there, so if you’re going to post your kiddos, be mindful and safe.

 

Be ready to match physiques or await the wild card—a muscle for a muscle.

Don’t be that person who has uploaded one selfie that is literally the top of the head to the bottom of the chin.

While we all feel compelled to avoid being criticized for things we can’t readily change about how our bodies look the general rule for is a muscle for a muscle.  

You may get that dream Tai-kwon-do instructor even though you haven’t hit the gym in a few years, but fair is fair, if you’re serious you’ll find a way to show your wares in the spirit of meeting the one.

If you’re not ready to share photos that represent you how will you be ready to share yourself? 

Love is exposing.

 

The photos of oversized tropical mixed drinks have to go.  Sorry.

You loved that corporate mixer photo from the time you thought you lost your job and instead got a promotion and a raise at the company Cinco De Mayo party complete with margaritas large enough for a small koi to swim in.

No matter how great the memory, does that photo with you teetering, looking sweaty with palm trees in the background and half closed eyes really tell your story?

Consider this: a good online dating profile is an article, not a book. Save some of the nutty photos for after you get more acquainted—not every kooky photo needs to make the cut.

[NOTE:if you’re all set to apply this know-how to your own profile, and are ready for conscious, like-minded individuals you really want to meet, try MeetMindful for free today—the fastest growing dating site for conscious singles.]

Profiles threaten to expose us, but love does that anyway.

Grainy, blurry photos and strange humor hurt more than help. Your balding head and beard, round hips or gangly arms are perfect for the right person whether its your first chance or you are rebuilding love.

Grab your photo apps and device and trust yourself. 

Rough the rugged online profile terrain and capture your best well lit, hi rez you in front of a hip wall or solid background.

Snap shots until you get what you came for, nothing less will do—whether it takes a day, a week or a month of trying, celebrate with a good bottle of wine when you’re done.

 

[image: via Pixabay]

About the Author:

Kahshanna Evans

Years of experience in the entertainment, fashion, film and tv world as on-camera talent combined with a decade of exploring energy healing traditions to include Shamanic Healing, Reiki, Voice Dialogue and Yoga helped me sink my narrative, branding and media chops into my boutique media hub Kissing Lions Public Relations. I am also the proud author of a screenplay about the resilience of of the human spirit entitled Amani and have been published as an author in My Angel Diary 2014 (Hay House UK, short story), OM Times (poem), UrbanOracle , NYC Pulse and Complete Balance. For inspiration, I’m on Facebook, Twitter and HERE.

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