Competition is intense in the online dating world, and selling yourself requires a winning profile that is both attention-grabbing as well as authentic.  When registering with a dating site, an online profile is a prospective partner’s window to the user’s soul and makes or breaks a potential date.  Much like a job interview, dating candidates must sell their personalities to their readers to ensure a high number of quality responses.  When registering for an online dating site, remember to:

Be Honest – Any amount of exaggeration or lying will surely come back to haunt you.  You may be genuinely interested in another member and the prospective partner will be able to call you on your lies after a few dates. 

Be Positive – A bright and bubbly personality shines through the lines.  Avoid mentioning any likes, dislikes, or pickiness in the description part of your personality, unless specifically solicited by the dating site.  And even when you do mention a dislike, balance it with something positive, such as, “I’m not so crazy about eating Italian for dinner, but a fine après-dinner gelato goes down very nicely.” 

Be Original – No one wants to read a bland and blah profile.  Quantify the abstract with concrete and real examples.  Give your reader a clear picture of who you are and what you truly like.  Instead of saying, “I enjoy watching foreign films,” say, “I always love checking out foreign French dramas such as…” Be memorable in your reader’s eyes to guarantee genuine interest.

While there are a variety of online dating sites out there to choose from – traditional sites like Match.com, niche sites like Parship, free sites like Plentyoffish.com, and even sites for the affluent and famous like the original Sugar Daddie – all reputable dating sites have a few things in common:

1.    If a site is reputable, it will have a security and privacy policy. Registering members will be required to agree to terms of service and the site will take action against anyone who is found in break of those terms by removing and/or barring them from the site. There may also be data protection registrars and strict password systems designed to protect member accounts.

2.    Most reputable sites are well aware of the problems people have with stalkers and harassers and provide a means to protect users from them. This can include the ability to block another member from communication with you without worry about repercussions. If a site penalises a user for blocking, the site is not reputable and should be avoided.

3.    Quality online dating sites usually provide onsite email for protection and privacy purposes. Messages are sent and received from a protected inbox/sent box and never your real email address.

4.    While more for facilitation of communication rather than privacy, good online dating sites provide a means for real-time chat via instant messaging or chat rooms which use ‘screen names’ to help keep who you are private until you are ready to reveal it.

My wife’s new phone came today and because she isn’t that technologically minded she asked me to set it up. I though while I was at it I would write a quick review.

Looks and design:

As with many of the latest mobile phones on the market nowadays, the Samsung Galaxy S is styled similar to the iPhone with its curved back design and minimalist front; at a glance you could be mistaken for thinking it’s an iPhone, but all in all a nicely styled phone.

The Samsung Galaxy S has a huge 4 inch touchscreen AMOLED display and I have to say that this is the nicest mobile phone screen I have ever seen, way better than my HTC Magic screen and even the iPhone 3GS screen; I haven’t seen the iPhone 4’s screen yet, but it may be better than that.

Usability:

The Galaxy S runs the Google Android operating system, which is fully customisable depending on your requirements and you can also download other applications and games from the Android Market. The screen is very responsive and opening multiple applications is simple and easy without any lag.

Being quite a responsive screen I found texting a little frustrating as my fingers are quite big and hitting the wrong letter is easy if you’ve got your fingers even slightly wrong.

The 5 megapixel camera takes decent enough pictures, but as with every mobile phone they are not as good as a dedicated digital camera.

The Samsung Galaxy S also has a multimedia player, 3G and Wi-Fi connectivity and 16GB of internal memory; there is also a microSD card slot that can take up to 32GB, which will be plenty for all your music and data.

All in all the Samsung Galaxy S is a great phone and is bound to rival even the iPhone 4 because of its screen and contract options; my wife got the handset for free and pays £25 per month with 6 months free and 400 minutes, 300 texts.

I’ve bought myself a new laptop for when I go on business trips; it’s got an 18.4” screen and a blu-ray player for watching movies on and is powerful enough for me to do my work on. Although I mainly stay in Travelodge’s or Premier Inn hotels which have internet access, I find it slow and inconsistent so have decided to get myself a cheap mobile broadband deal.

I’ve been comparing mobile broadband packages for a while now and being a competitive sector there are lots of great deals on offer. I’m currently looking at a 3 Mobile Broadband package that has a 5GB download limit and up to 7.2Mbps connection speed. You also get a free USB dongle modem that plugs straight into your laptop or computer and all for just £15 per month.

I’m sure the mobile broadband dongle would come in handy when I’m not at work as well, because the kids could use it when they visit friend’s houses or use it in the car when we go to see my family. I remember my first broadband package cost £30 per month and was only 2Mbps, how things have changed over the last few years.

My wife has recently got into playing online bingo, mainly because her friends have also started and they can chat to one another online. They have chosen Ladies.888.com as you can get a £25 welcome bonus for depositing just £10, but if you don’t want to deposit any money you will get £5 for just registering.

As you can expect the Ladies.888.com interface is geared towards women with lots of pink and white boxes, but men can also join and you usually see a few men in the chat area.

Now I’m all for my wife chatting to her friends and playing a bit of bingo, but the laptop is now being high jacked all night . I don’t mind that much anyway because I can watch the football in peace and always use the PC if I need too.

She hasn’t won so far but will keep you posted when she does.

I’m in the market for a new mobile phone and since the new iPhone 4 was unveiled last week I have to say I’m tempted. The design is as usual simple yet iconic and the range of new features is enough to make anyone’s mouth water.

The iPhone 4 has a screen resolution of 640 x 960, which is four times better than the iPhone 3GS and has toughened glass on the front as well as the back; Apple state that this new glass is 30 times stronger than plastic, so should make the device highly durable.

The iPhone 4 also boasts a 5 megapixel camera with LED flash, which can also record video up to 720p at 30 fps and a front mounted camera is also built-in giving the device video calling capabilities that Apple call FaceTime.

The iPhone 4 is available for pre-order now, £499 for the 16GB version and £599 for the 32GB version and will start shipping on the 24th June.

Whether I will end up getting one will depend on what contracts there are, but I will definitely be going down to my local shop to try it out when its released.

I have been playing online poker for some time now, mainly playing for fun but have recently started playing for real money. It’s amazing how much more nervous you get when you are playing for real money because every move counts and you really have to know when to bet and when to fold.

I’m still learning so limit myself to putting just £20 a month in my 888.com account and once this has gone I go back to playing for fun. I have won a couple of hands so far, but hopefully when I get a bit more experience I will win a few more.

It will be interesting to see what happens in the World Series of Poker which starts on Friday in Las Vegas, with the likes of the super talented 21 year old Annette Obrestad and most would say the man to beat Phil Ivey taking part to win this coveted crown.

My sister-in-law came round last night asking me to help her with her online dating profile picture as I have a decent camera and a bit of knowledge about photography. I took a few pictures of her, loaded them onto the computer and cropped them to size.

Uploading the pictures was easy and fast, but it did get me thinking about the do’s and don’ts of choosing the right profile picture. This is what I’ve come up with to help all you potential online daters:

Do:
1.    Use a photo that you like. Even if your friends think it’s amazing, if you don’t like it you’ll be tempted to downplay it and/or make negative and apologetic responses.

2.    Use something recent. Keep it to within the last nine months – 18 months at most. Using an old photograph is like lying.

3.    Use a good head shot. Save action photos for the “more photos of me” section. Make sure your photograph is clear, well-lit, and presents your head and shoulders (neck up shots may look as if you’re trying to hide something).

4.    Smile! A smiling photograph always wins over a non-smiling one – there simply is nothing more appealing than a smiling face.

Don’t:
1.    Use a glamour shot. It’s not real and while it may get you noticed, it’s going to be a real let down if/when you finally meet face-to-face.

2.    Use poor quality photos – blurred, yellowed, too dark photos make it seem as if you don’t really care.

3.    Wear hats or sunglasses and avoid photographs with too much hair in your face. These things give the impression you’re trying to hide something.

4.    Show too much flesh. It may get you attention, but is that really the kind of attention you want?

5.    Wear too much makeup.

Well my £2 free bet from The Sun came up trumps in the Grand National on Saturday. I Choose Don’t Push it early on in the Morning and got it at 20/1 which wasn’t great as a mate got it for 40/1. Anyway i knew that McCoy was desperate for a win, so i knew he wasn’t on a donkey. You didn’t really hear much about Don’t push it until the end. Connor Castle did worry me slightly as he stayed out in the lead for quite a while, if he hadn’t gone wide on the canal turn would it of been different.

Don’t push it seemed to be around 5th but just not mentioned by any commentator. It wasn’t until the 2nd time round on canal turn where Tony McCoy started to up the ante a little even though there was a slight mistake. I think Black Apalachi was push slightly too soon. When the big 4 separated you could see that Don’t Push It would clearly get the win.

Global warming is a concept that many of us are now familiar with, whether it’s from surfing online, TV or Radio news reports, or from conversations with family & friends. Over the past few years, there’s been a massive amount of press surrounding the issue and a lot debate still surrounds the subject. So should you be concerned? Is your future and that of your family in really in big trouble if the predictions are true?

There is a major school of thought that argues that global warming is a self fulfilling prophecy. They say that if we pay attention to it now we may just save ourselves and the planet from the worst effects but if we don’t address the issues now then we are only lining up more problems for ourselves in the future. Although the big international businesses often work with energy consultants specially set up to advise companies on cutting carbon emissions, doing your bit as an individual doesn’t have to take a great deal of effort or money. It just needs a slightly different mindset. There is a great deal – perhaps a little too much – emphasis placed on the importance of energy efficient systems and vehicles but there are lots of little and more everyday ways to help.

In order to do your bit to prevent global warming, start by having a look how your home is run. For example, many households leave their TV and Sky boxes on standby when they could easily be turned off. PCs, mobile phone chargers and radios could also be turned off at the wall when not in use. This is also an excellent way to save more on your energy bills. Lowering the amount of electricity being used is also very simple, as it involves just turning off lights or any other electrical appliance in the home when you don’t need them to be on or you have left the room. Another way you can help is by making sure your heating thermostat is not turned up too high so enjoy the comfort of wearing a jumper and woolly socks instead. This little step – just turning down the heating by a degree or two – will have a positive impact on the dangerous emissions coming from your home.

Changing from old standard light bulbs to new energy efficient ones can also help especially if you can use the more energy efficient ones all over the house. Many traditional light bulbs need to be replaced frequently, but energy efficient ones last for at least a year or two without needing to be replaced. Energy efficient lightbulbs are a bit pricier but savings will soon be made as they do not need to be replaced so often. If you rent your home, ask your landlord or landlady to fix any drafty windows or doors and discuss the possibility of upgrading any old heating or electrical appliances.

As for transport, investing in a new hybrid or energy efficient car isn’t necessary in order to change the way you get from A to B (and they aren’t that cheap either). You could try walking for short journeys, sharing a car for longer journeys and of course there is always public transport. Did you know that just be cutting out three car journeys a week you could be helping in the fight against global warming? So, become your own energy consultant and do your bit for the planet, however small.