I am a believer in data. It's what I do in my day job. I collect data, I scrub it, I parse and categorize it, I analyze it, then I create charts and slides to visualize and explain it. A lot of other people analyze data for a living, and in this post, I'll point out some ways that data scientists have found that can help you land better dates.
If you're like most gay men, you have an online profile on a dating website or app. And you've seen other guy's profiles. Some profiles obviously took more effort than others; some are little more than a grainy (headless/scenery) pic (if there is even a pic at all) with a single line of text. Frankly, I wonder why guys like that bother.
A good place to start looking for information on how to hack your online profile is OkCupid's blog OkTrends. Here are a few relevant posts:
The 4 Big Myths of Profile Pictures
Is a face pic a must? Is it better to smile or not? Should you look into the camera or not? Here are the answers!
Your Looks and Your Inbox
Do you think you're cute? If not, how many messages do you think cute guys get on average compared to not-so-cute ones? Maybe that's why he didn't answer. Could it be his Inbox is filled with messages just like yours?
Don't Be Ugly By Accident
How to make your pics pop! So more guys message you. Then you get more dates!
For something a bit more recent, look at Wired's recent article on building a good profile.
Some people have taken the idea of using data to optimize their profile to the point where they've written about their experiences and given talks on them. Amy Webb, for instance, gave a TED talk a year ago about her experiences. More recently, the Guardian in the UK had an article about the algorithms behind online dating websites that purport to help you find matches. An interesting read even if you don't believe in the relevance of data algorithms to dating.
The bottom line is: if you're going to use online dating as your main means of landing dates (or hook-ups), it's simply good sense to take more care creating a profile so that it actually gets you the attention you want.
If you're too lazy to do all that, you could just go speed dating and actually meet guys in person. Of course, the two are not mutually exclusive! Optimize your profile AND go speed dating to maximize your chances of finding someone you can really connect with!
