One of the most important aspects of being successful on a free dating site is developing a profile that stands out. Of course, the main ingredient for any effective profile is a striking photograph. Below are some tips to help you choose the best profile for your free dating site profile.

Professional or Personal

When selecting a photo for your free dating site, the first step is to decide if you want a photo taken by a professional or one that you have taken yourself or someone else you know. The most important factor is your preference. While you will have to pay good money for quality photos from a professional, you will benefit from their lighting expertise and ability to take you at the best possible angle. However, personal photos are often more natural and allow more of your personality to show through.

Regardless of the choice you make, don’t turn to those professionals who will “glamorize” you for the photo shoot. You want to look as natural as possible.

Background considerations

When choosing a photo for your free dating site profile, you should also consider the background of any shot you consider using. Remember that your safety should be a top priority, so please do not take photos that may reveal your location, including the names of schools, landmarks, or anything similar.

You also don’t want to choose photos that include other people, even parts of other people. For one thing, you should never post someone’s photograph without their permission. More importantly, you don’t want to distract viewers from your image. This is a good reason why you should take new photos instead of relying on old ones.

Choose recent photos

One of the biggest ways people exaggerate photographic truth on a free dating site is by posting outdated photos. When nothing in the background can reveal the time of the photo, you may be able to fool a potential respondent with a photo from ten years ago. However, you will not be able to fool that person when you are offline. If you’re serious about dating offline, you should choose photos that show how you look today, even if it means sharing some of your flaws, like a few extra pounds or hair loss.

Limit

Although many profiles on a free dating site will allow you to upload a large number of photos, you should stick to just a couple. The maximum you use should always be around three. If you want people to see more of your images, direct them to a personal website. You should consider a headshot (from the shoulders up) for your main profile picture. Choose a full-length image for one of your other photos, and use the other to show something you like to do, like playing golf or collecting movies.