Online dating has become to the widely accepted approach to take when you want to meet someone, whether it’s for something casual or for a potential long-term relationship. Most people using these kinds of services have one of these two things in mind, and the approach to take, from the sites you use to how you approach people, differs depending on whether you and they are looking for something casual or are looking for someone they may potentially enter a proper relationship with.
If what you’re looking for is something serious, then obviously it is far more important to find someone who you have good chemistry with and who ticks all the right boxes in terms of what you want from a long-term partner, rather than simply looking for someone you are attracted to for a more casual fling. Here are some tips when you are looking for a long-term relationship using online dating or other matchmaking services.
Look in The Right Places
As you might expect, there are plenty of different ways to meet people online and some of them are geared towards people who are simply looking for fun hook-ups, whereas others are fully geared towards people looking for marriage. What you may want might be somewhere in-between, or you may want to choose a site which has a lot of people on it with all different kinds of requirements, such as OkCupid, and filter out people based on what they are looking for.
Just as you might not expect to find the love of your life at a nightclub, or somebody who is simply looking for a hook-up at church, you will not have much luck if you are looking for somebody with the same relationship goals as you in the wrong place.
Focus on One Person at a Time
If you are looking for casual dates, then it can be possible to see plenty of people at the same time. However, when you’re looking for something serious, it’s usually best to focus your attention on one person at a time. This is because things can get complicated if you meet or chat with multiple women and end up liking more than one of them. While this may seem like putting all your eggs in one basket, the idea is to chat with one person and arrange to meet them fairly early on in the process, and then if things don’t go well you can simply find another one to try things out with. Women who are looking for a long-term relationship will also appreciate knowing where they stand in terms of being the only person you are currently considering rather than one of a shortlist!
Use Features of Dating Sites to Spot Potential Deal Breakers Before Contact
Some people only really use criteria to find people based on location, age and other more obvious factors. After all, if you are looking for Boston dating, there is no point even browsing the profiles of people who live in Los Angeles. However, you can use the information that people give on dating sites for more than this. Some sites such as OkCupid ask their users a lot of questions and make the answers available to other users. This can allow you to identify people who have something you consider a deal breaker, for example, having very different views to you on how many children they want, before you even get involved in talking to or dating them. This can remove the need for a lot of awkward conversations and disappointment.
It is certainly possible to find good quality people online and while it might take a little more research and a little more effort in your conversations to find someone like this than to find someone who is merely suitable for a brief and casual fling, it will be worth it in the end.
