1. Introduction

There’s already a lot out there on free online dating (I haven’t tried paid), and with that in mind I’ll try to keep this concise. Online is strangely similar to daygame in the directness of the approach, yet the two marketplaces operate according to completely different rules. The daygame market has huge, if oblivious, demand, and minimal supply. On the other hand, the internet’s great selling point – the lowering of approach anxiety to the point of non-existence – destroys it for those who most need to overcome such a barrier by saturating the market with supply.

2. Online Dating

I’m currently on OK Cupid. For the above noted reasons, I generally think it’s a sucker’s game for average-looking men like me in terms of effort expended vs reward. Fat bitches who in real life would let you cum on their face in a back alley on the first date as a bid to win commitment think they’re Princess Jasmine.

3. Single Girls Dating

While you may get a lot of success from doing tons of approaches, I don’t like the economics of it. There’s not a chance I’m going to spend hours every week cold-approaching women and thinking up lines based on some fucking cliché, faux-whimsical bullshit profile. (By my estimate, a majority of the women claim photography as an interest yet have a webcam shot as their profile pic.) I suspect there’s something deeply humiliating about receiving rejection after rejection online. On the streets, it only makes you stronger, it forces you to work on yourself. Online, you are being rejected on the basis of a photo and a pathetic self-evaluation.

4. Local Personals

Contrary to what I’ve said so far, I have, however, had a degree of limited success from minimum effort on OK Cupid. After my first analysis of the scene, I began recommending it to girls with whom I’m friends on the basis that they could engage with it passively, replying only to men they find attractive, and thereby expending minimal resources for a decent return. My strategy has been to apply this rule to myself. I spent an hour or so creating a mean profile description. It is catchy and full of dog whistles for a certain demographic, as well as general DHVs disguised as comments about my tastes. It is also full of disqualifiers – “I’m pretty fucking far from the perfect man”, “not marriage material”, etc. I don’t want to go into too much detail.

5. Find Love Online

The other thing I did was to spend a good amount of time on a profile pic. With a good photo, you do not need to be handsome to be attractive. Thus, I got a photo of myself done with a very shallow depth of field, in black and white and with high brightness and contrast. This turned my non-handsome mug into the brooding profile of a film noir hard-boiled detective.

6. Conclusion

So in all, I think I spend about two hours putting together a profile. Then I just sat back and waited. Women come to you. Not many, but enough: “I found your profile brutally honest”, said one. A couple of messages later, a date is set up. You’re not going to be rolling in the tang, but it’s a nice little earner on the side.