Advantages

There are a number of favorable chances

• You can make some great friends with whom you can stay with

and show you the local sites while travelling. This can make for

a cheap holiday.

• You will have a much wider range of people to choose from,

greatly increasing your chances of finding the right one.

• Because the two of you will have gotten to know each other pretty

well before taking such a big step, the chances of it working out

can be potentially higher.

• Because you have both gone to so much trouble to meet each

other, you are not as likely to ‘nit pick’ and find faults with the

other person. This is what typically happens when you just meet

someone from around the corner where they are a dime a dozen.

In general though, stay well clear of long distance virtual

relationships unless you are experienced at this sort of thing, and

know exactly what you are doing. You are setting yourself up for a

big fall should it not work out. There is also the possibility of the

person simply vanishing of the face of the Internet, it happens, and

it’s common.

Remember that long distance relationships don’t work at the best

of times even for married couples and those in long-term

Work Email

Never underestimate when and were you can meet people using


the Internet. It doesn’t always have to be via the Internet chat rooms

and personal sites as such. It can just as easily be randomly via your

email at work - emailing customers, clients, work colleagues, etc.

If someone sounds nice then why not try sending a nice ‘thank

you’ email to someone who has helped you out. While you are at it,

try flirting a bit to see if you get a reciprocal response. Obviously it

will be difficult to find out much, if any information about them

initially, but why not take a chance and ask them out for lunch?

If you have their mobile number then how about sending an SMS message? You never know where it might lead.

Documentation Tips

Here are some practical documentation tips to keep the serious


Internet dater ahead of the game.
 
• Make a printout of every profile that you respond to, otherwise
 
you will forget who they are when they email back a week later.


By which time they could have removed or changed their profile.

• Make a note of the email address of every person you respond

to. Writing it on the profile printout is a convenient way.

• When sending a ‘message’ to someone via an Internet dating

site (instead of direct by email), makes sure that you put their

username in there somewhere. That way you will be able to track

who they are when they reply (from the original message text, if

any), as the email address will be unfamiliar to you.

• Save a copy of their picture locally, it might come in handy later.

• Make a printout of, or at least store in a separate email folder,

every email that you send and receive to each person. This way

you can quickly read up on the email history of that person just

before your meet.

• By all means make a complete ‘Dossier’ on each and every

person. It might seem like a lot of effort, but it may come in

extremely handy. People are impressed when you remember

every little detail about them.

• Save all your chat text. People are more willing to give out

information in a chat room, and it’s to your benefit to keep it,

you won’t be able to remember it all. Most chat programs like

ICQ will have an option to save your entire chat session as a text

file. Keep these text files stored in a unique directory for easy

retrieval, or print them out

• Keep a hard copy of every profile you create of yourself.

• Keep a written track of your profile name (handle), user name,

and password for every site that you are member of. A serious

Internet dater will be a member of several sites and/or have

more than one profile. I still get email from sites I don’t even

remember joining many years ago.

• Once you get someone’s phone number and address, write it on

their profile printout. You never know when you might lose your

‘little black email book’.

• Keep notes of how the date went as soon as you get home. Odds are

you won’t remember much about them after a few other blind dates.

Disadvantages of Staying Anonymous

Yes there are disadvantages to staying anonymous, so it’s in your


best interests to weigh up the pros and cons. Generally it’s ok for
 
girls to remain anonymous, but for guys it’s a big decision that could


seriously decrease your chances.

The major disadvantage is that it looks like you have something

to hide. Not everyone you meet will understand if you don’t want to

tell them your real first name or give them a phone number. You

may of course have a genuine reason for hiding your identity, but

trying to explain that to someone who has never met you is not

going to be easy.

Even the simple act of having a Hotmail or Yahoo! address is

enough to raise the suspicions of some people. Obviously they have

no idea of the benefits, but that’s how they think. Generally you

won’t be at any disadvantage by using an anonymous address as

long as you appear genuine and don’t try to hide anything.