Last week I tried something for the first time. After posting Part 2 on my blog I had a thought. Have you noticed how women often look a lot better in photos than they do in person? Well of course the skilled hands of a photographer make all the difference in the world sooo...
I happened to know someone who takes pictures for a living. I traded him a brief photo shoot for some dating advice and decided to experiment. For the first time ever, I posted a real photo of myself in the Craigslist personals.
If you've read my earlier blog posts you already know that I strongly discourage this for many different reasons. First off unless you are exceptionally good looking, you are putting your cards on the table before she gets to know you. No matter how cool a guy you are, if a woman decides that she's not attracted to you based on looks you are in for a steep climb my friends. Secondly, you risk having people that you know thinking that you are desperate for a date. As far as that goes I could care less and so should you but you may have other things to consider like your employer, clergy or maybe a wife or girlfriend (shame on you, lol) finding out. That could make ones life difficult especially if you are married. Third and most important in my opinion is the fact that you are kind of limited as far as multiple posts go. I doubt you will get many replies if they notice that you are spamming CL.
So all that considered, here's what I did. First I got a really flattering picture of myself. Remember I am basically an average looking guy. Next I did some touching up. Hey women do it all the time on their Facebook pages so why shouldn't we? There's a pretty cool photo editing site that is free where you can upload and fix your photos without having to get a damned college degree to use it like you would with photoshop. (Okay I'm not that smart either.) The site is called picnik.com. Check it out. They have a $5 per month memebership that lets you get some cool advanced editing features too.
So after I had removed some wrinkles, gave myself a bit of a tan and softened the image my results were amazing. I looked like I could have been in a magazine! I was still quite recognizably myself though and wanted to remain anonymous. Posting in another location seemed like the best way to test my results without having any of my small town friends find me. I chose two distant cities and posted two of my better ads...
What happened next will surprise you. I will tell you next week so now lets talk about what to do on the second date... HAHA, just kidding! I won't do that to you this time.
I got two real responses within a few hours along with the usual amount of spam. One was actually kind of rude. I used my "Requirement" ad and the response I got was from someone who felt that I should basically lower my standards and not be so shallow. "After all it's what is on the inside that counts." Uhuh, hmmm... I got lucky and easily cross referenced her email to the FB account of one very chunky, very homely single girl from Dallas. What a surprise eh?
The second response, from a different ad, was from a very cute girl next door type from Ohio. She took the time to answer all of my questions and write in great detail about herself including the fact that she was 5'9" and did not play basketball. I had mentioned liking tall girls in the ad. Wow, I'm looking at her pic right now. If only I wasn't so far away...
But alas, I am not setting out to break any hearts. I pulled the ads right away. My experiment had gone far enough. I know what I am capable of.
Anyhow for whatever it's worth I hope that you find this information helpful in your search(s). Get a great photo of yourself, follow my guidelines for posting and I am confident that you will see some results. Feel free to write me about your experiences and if you consent to it I will post some of them here.
