Your online dating service will give you anywhere form 1000 to 2000 characters to tell other singles what makes you tick. This is enough space for you to share things such as your hobbies, interests, religion and other general facts.

Before starting the narrative, remember that brevity is the soul of wit and a picture is worth a thousand words. Your picture is one the most important parts of your profile. Very often you will find singles on your site that have posted a great profile with no pictures. The first thing one would think is that this person may not think that they are attractive enough to grab someone’s attention. Some people that were not blessed with beauty have to use their intelligence and wit to make their mark.

The biggest excuse for not posting a photo in  personal ads is that you do not want anyone you know to recognize you. What you must know is that there are thousands of other singles posting their profiles and pictures on your sites and other sites. That basically leaves you with a ten to one ratio of someone that you know coming across your picture. So what if they do? Are you ashamed for looking for love? Do have any idea how many people have actually found true love this way?

Another justification for singles not putting a picture on their profile is that they don’t have a digital camera or scanner. This is a sorry excuse because you can go to a print shop and pay very little money to have your pictures scanned onto a disk. If you don’t have a digital camera by now, you may want to invest.  This is very useful because you can take multiple pictures and then choose the best one to post on the web.

You are more or less setting yourself up for failure before you even get the chance to meet someone by not posting a picture. You will increase your chances of being contacted immensely by posting a photo.

There is actually an option on most services that allows member to search profiles with photos only. Almost all members will use this choice. As you know, there has to be some initial physical attraction before things go any further.  No, it doesn't mean that you should doubt what is written in a personals ad, but you trust the person more if you see his or eyes (at least on the photo). Some people are able to look into someone’s eyes, at the surroundings in the picture, or their smile and tell a lot about them.

Beware people that have posted pictures that are taken from a far and that aren‘t clear. Another issue is people posting pictures that are not recent. Some people are desperate to find love and will take any extreme to grab the attention of other singles.

In addition and most scary of all, is someone posting a picture that isn’t even them. Are you shocked? Trust me when I tell you that this happens. Be prepared. Its difficult to say how often such situations occur. But even if you get in such a situation only once, it will be quite enough. Don’t let it discourage you from posting your picture or looking at others. Just be leery, but still have a good time finding love.