Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Lessons 4-5

Lesson number four: Have a catchy title. I have posted the exact same ad multiple times and got zero or ten replies. Why? Think about a restaurant. What does the sign on the outside of the building say? Having never eaten there before does the sign make you want to go inside? Does it remind you of another place that you have eaten before? Well if that other place was good then you are more likely to give it a shot. But if that other restaurant was awful then you probably will look somewhere else for dinner.

This does mean that there is a certain amount of luck involved. Let's say that you are Italian. If you put "Italian..." in your title, then women with a preference for Italian men will be more likely to read your ad. But let's say that her last boyfriend was Italian and they broke up on bad terms. Maybe right now she has decided not to date another Italian guy. Now if you know women the way that I do, you already realize that what she's thinking at any particular moment does not guarantee that she will not do something completely contrary to it in the near future.

So how do we make this a win-win proposition and not miss out on the girls who might have a preference for Italian men? It's simple.

Lesson number five: Post multiple ads with different titles. While some sites have filters to prevent this from happening, it is easy enough to make a few changes here and there which will allow you to reach a much larger audience. In the online world, your title is your first impression. Make it (or them) a good one(s)!

Monday, November 24, 2008

Responses to my personal ads

I haven't changed anything other than the phone numbers to protect the girls' identities. Some of them aren't the best writers as you can see from the spelling errors but you get the idea:

"....I couldn't agree more! Tell me more about you!"

"I fit your pre-requisites..so shall we proceed?"

"Hello! I agree with everything you said below except I feel I'm
pretty cool girl and ready to take chances - so here I go. Michelle
555.6452. If you are interested I can send you a picture as well."

"Thank you for your sharing a bit about yourself. It's interesting how you can tell a little more about a person just by the way they write. I'm not a school teacher, but I appreciate someone who writes in full sentences, can spell and use good grammar. Watch me spell something wrong now that I've said that. :-) ..."

"hi i just wanted to say that you have a sweet ad on here. i wanted to know how old u are? Im 32. i will attach my current pic for u. Send me one back please."

"Hi,
I can just imagine what kind of response you got. It takes a while to sort
out all the spam and junk to get to the actual people on here.
A little about me: Tall, single, relatively happy with my life. I have a
job rather than a career, but I enjoy it well enough. Educated, and love to
have fun - that IS what personal time is for, after all.
Photo attached, waiting for yours."

"WELLi DON'T EAT STEAKbut I can make an omelet friends first n people do ten to project what they want onto someone.I'm thinking u may be a Virgo? talking on the phone may be better 4 going into things. I'm going to bed now' 555-7736 afternoon is good or evening,"

These are just some of the ones that came through this past weekend. My mailbox is literally exploding.