Single person.
Know who you are looking for and define the person in details. It is easier to define your ideal partner using the services of an online dating agency. Generally you will asked a number of multiple choice questions, making sure that nothing important is left out . Your success with online dating may to a greater extent depend on how well you know yourself, and how well you know who you are looking for. Be accurate and honest.
Professional matchmakers or an online dating agency work only with the information their members give them. They will, in due time, find a prospect that will match your wish list very closely. But one needs to be careful not to be too restrictive. If you have, for example too many entries under the 'must have' section you might be eliminating far too many people from your search and your search may take much longer.
If one chooses to use a lonely heart column type dating agency then one needs to prepare a specific wish list in sections of 'must have' and 'less important' and 'not important' for each topic like minimum and maximum age, height, sexual orientation, distance to travel, marital status, ethnic background, physique, looks, smoking and drinking habits, qualifications, attitude about children, religion, political views and many more.
When one starts mesasging, one may wonder which personal compatibility questions should be answered, which topics are best to avoid, and which are the tricky questions? There are certain topics which are best to steer clear of in your first few online dating messages, and do not try to find too much personal information too soon, or to push for a phone number, or a face to face meeting or a home address.
The tricky compatibility dating questions are usually make or break questions. These might be deal-breaker issues relating to attitudes about children, a previous marriage or a prior serious relationship.
Some online dating questions are tricky also for other reasons. For example, people often find it emotionally difficult to answer questions regarding custody of children. Sometimes the questions why a person was divorced or ended a long term relationship are difficult, simply because there are no straight forward answers. As to the likely future commitment to each other, the answers may not yet exist.
One needs to be patient. Rather than asking one straight head-on question, one needs to ask a number of softer, peripheral questions. These may be about coaching a children sport team, being on speaking terms with the ex, or how long one has been online dating etc.
Sometimes the type of matchmaking questions that are being asked during online dating e-mail exchanges would hardly ever be asked during a face to face conversation. This is mainly because most people would find it unacceptable to ask these questions at all.
