The pursuit for happiness goes online.

Digital Age has changed the way all of us do things. Most of us spend a minimum of 2-3 hours daily on the internet. With the introduction of broadband, the usage of Internet has surged by many folds. Information highways connecting everyone; everywhere. With just a few clicks, we can find out the weather for the next few days, read the news, pay bills, buy stuffs and even find our life partners. The internet has bridged the gap between people. Everyone is connected some how via social networks such as Facebook. Hence, it's not unusual some of may use the virtual world to find our other half.

Most singles no longer want to be match made by their parents as it is deemed old fashion. Arranged marriage only exist in certain part of the world. With increasingly busy work schedule, most people especially city dwellers use online dating as a viable solution to find their mates. The golden question is; Does Online Dating work?

Online dating is a virtual world for all singles with similar objective, which is to meet some one to date and hopefully become soul mate. The first key to a successful online dating is having a great profiles picture and description. Profile picture is a very important element in online dating. It could be the deciding factor if your message will be responded or decline. Good profile pictures for men and women are not the same. Below are some statistic you should take note in order to have a successful and fun online dating:

1) A study finds women get 60% more attention if photo is taken indoors.
2) Men get 19% more attention if theirs is taken outside.
3) Full-body photos boost both sexes success by 203%.
4) Men get 8% fewer messages if they put up selfie.
5) Writing using :-) smileys gets 13% more responses - but :) gets 66% fewer.
6) Talking about kids and exes gets men more messages but women fewer.
7) A full-body image will boost both sexes' messages by an average 203%. Meanwhile women should aim to take their pictures indoors, as this gets them 60% more messages. Men on the other hand get 19% more messages if their pictures are taken outside.
8) Posing with animals or your best friends might seem cute but it actually reduces your popularity by 5% and 42% respectively - for both sexes.

In addition to a good profile, online dating is definitely a number game. Many singles got discourage after not getting any response. According to a study by social scientists, with increasing number of choices provided by online dating sites, online daters become picky. This scenario is called paradox of choice whereby increasing options decrease satisfaction. Both single women and men tend to dismiss any individual with the slightest imperfection. Having such huge choices in online dating sites, many singles tend to browse through profiles speedily choosing surface characteristics instead of more detail personality traits hidden in the profiles. Online daters should instead take their time going through the details of the profiles to find out the personality traits of the person to make the connection.

There are also many who complain on the number of fake profiles and scammers in online dating sites. Free sites are flooded with scammers trying to steal critical information out of you. Hence, for serious daters, paid sites are better option. Most paid dating sites have moderator to weed out fake profiles. They provide better customer service to assist any complaint lodged by their members. In addition, some paid sites have voice and video webcam features. Such features reduce the number of fake profiles by many times. It protects the member from scammers.

In conclusion, the success of online dating really depends on you; having a great profile, not being too picky and certainly using the correct dating site. Soul mate searching in the pursuit for happiness has gone virtual. While old school courting are sill effective but not many of us have the time to be spent at bars or cafe just to find a date. The number of date to dollar ratio is certainly higher with dating sites. With online date, you don't have to spend money on drinks, tit bits and taxi.

(This article is an extract from http://www.perfectcasualdate.com)