In her bestselling book "Mr. Right, Right Now, How a Smart Woman Can Land Her Dream Man in 6 Weeks," author E. Jean Carroll lists 119 great places to meet eligible men. Her list includes #9 Mountain Bike Trails, #28 NASCAR races, #41 yacht clubs, #64 guitar class, #85 Home Depot, #95 cooking class and #115 weddings. Her Number One #1 way to meet men is online dating sites. She says that online dating is now cool, something that smart couples brag about to their friends, and is the most effective way to meet your future husband.
In the book Jean provides a set of sensible rules for online dating.
Her Rule #1 of online dating is, "Put Up a Peachy Picture." She advises 'hiring a professional makeup artist and spend an afternoon having a friend take pictures of you.' This is excellent advice, if you and your skilled photographer friend have the time. If not, the next best thing is to have your non-professional photo subtly enhanced so that it looks professional.
Jean's Rule #2 is "Create a Bewitching Screen Name." Unless you are looking for "sex sixty or seventy times a day with dozens of strapping young rakes," she advises against screen names like Miss Behavin, Boobalicious or The Naughty Professor. For the ordinary woman, she recommends references to poetic or literary characters like "Lady-Chat-Early" and "HalleBerryTwin."
Rule #3 of online dating is to spin a story for your profile. Instead of merely describing yourself, write a few sentences about something that happened to you and how you responded to it. A real-life example from the book: "I love behind the scenes of movies. I walked onto the set of Julia Roberts' new movie and the director walked over and thanked me 'for smiling at (him) so dimly.' Made my week!" A guy reading this figures out that you are eye-catching, spontaneous, bright and witty, without your having said any of those words.
Let's return to Rule #1, the one that Jean says is the most important, "Put Up a Peachy Picture." According to the book, "It takes less than 2 seconds for a man to suck in every detail of your hair, your clothes, your shape, your style, your status, your walk. Men absolutely lose their brains over novelty and beauty. 'The [first] impression is anchored,' says Dr. Frank Bernieri, the Harvard Ph.D. world's leading authority on the subject. When a guy sees an attractive woman, he wants to find her interesting. He wants to discover she's intelligent." Guys can't help themselves when they see an attractive woman, or an attractive photo of a woman. In fact, later when they meet her in person they don't even care if she doesn't look exactly like her photo. They were hooked by the first impression, and they stay hooked.
Every photo of "beautiful people" that you see in a magazine has been retouched. In the frozen time of a camera flash, actual people just do not look that perfect. They have skin blemishes, their eyes are not even and fully open, the angle of the light makes their noses look too long. The stars all have their photos retouched, and for online dating sites you should also. Many companies do photo retouching, to correct the minor problems in a snapshot and transform it into a professional portrait. Retouching can remove blemishes, smooth skin, eliminate crow's feet, correct color balance and even make you a little slimmer.
So go ahead and sign up with an online dating company, or several. Submit a nice, enhanced photo of yourself. As soon as you do, you have taken the big #1 step toward "Landing Your Dream Man in 6 Weeks."
The author: M. Lynn Abernathy is the owner and manager of http://399Retouch.com
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