If you can’t figure out what to say in a personal ad? WHY would you hire someone else to do it for you? Perhaps that would be misleading? No?

Creating a successful personal ad has always been an art, but these days, more people are making it their business. Late last year, online date site Match.com (www.match.com) began offering “profile assistance” starting at $29.95. Match says a survey of single people found that they were turned off by two particular flaws in personal ads they read: talking about exes, and poor spelling and grammar. For extra hand-holding, Match has telephone advisers, who charge from 85 cents to $4.50 per minute.

Isn’t there a survival of the fittest natural selection of dating rule being violated here?

I’ve been there. I did the online thing and felt that I was able to accurately portray myself. I feel that the people I met, equally matched my smarts and wits. But for one, who was one of those emailing geniuses and a dud on the phone. I gave him a chance in person, because sadly, I felt sort of sorry for him and assumed that I was being harsh, he was a *nice enough* guy. Yeah, thankfully…that ended and I got self-confidence.

Online dating, in my view, is no different than meeting in the real world. In the real world, unless you make it onto one of those fix me into a metrosexual reality dating shows, no one tells you what to say to the nice man at the bar when he asks you what your favorite sex scene in a movie is…and I think, if you make it that far in the real world, you obviously already have some sort of connection which led to such a flirtatious question, assuming that using that as an opening line would most likely get you slapped by most women. (Which again, if that is your goal, more power to you.)

Just my three cents, go throw them in a wishing well and hope for an online match or something.

Someone call my bluff if you think I am being too harsh.

And another thing, the most important, that FIRST email you send to the person…do you hire people to hold your typing hands? No. So you just wasted all that money anyhow.

Personally, if you copied your form letter that match.com guru penned and it’s the only thing that comes my way–I would DELETE. I don’t care how perfect you sounded…I’m not a form letter girl. I wanted someone to take a wee bit of time to make a personal effort to get my time. However, I’m sure there are matches out there who wouldn’t care. Who knows. I guess I am being an arrogant, cynical bitch. Take me as I am. Love me or leave me. BUT don’t pretend to be someone you aren’t that is soooooooooooo unattractive. But perhaps, maybe I am the only one out there who thinks this way…otherwise, there wouldn’t be such a demand for profile-spinners. Hmmm. Depressing thought.