ATLANTA — If you are looking for a "prince," scratch Thomas Spravka off your list.
"If I see, `Princess looking for a prince,' I stop right there," said Spravka, a member of Yahoo Personals, an online dating site.
ATLANTA — If you are looking for a "prince," scratch Thomas Spravka off your list.
"If I see, `Princess looking for a prince,' I stop right there," said Spravka, a member of Yahoo Personals, an online dating site.
An online personal ad declaring, "I can go from jeans to a black dress," won't wow him either.
"I mean, really, who cares?" said Spravka, a 47-year-old single photographer who wades through cliche-laden personals in his search for The One.
As online dating quickly expands into a modern-day scene that attracts millions of singles, a new cottage industry has sprung up to help those learning the ropes.
For $59.99, you can hire an adviser from PersonalsTrainer.com to do a "complete tuneup" of your personal ad. The advisers, who include a former writer from HBO's "Sex and the City" and radio relationship therapist Judy Kuriansky, stomp out cliches and spice up generic gab, delivering the redo within three days.
"I think a lot of people are really fabulous as people but are not necessarily as writers," said Aury Wallington, the former "Sex" writer.
Date.com and 50 other online dating sites have teamed up with 2-year-old ProfileDoctor.com to provide a makeover within 48 hours for $28. Advertising copywriter Brian Hicks runs the weeklyscore.com dating-advice site for men, under the name Jack Conway. E-cyrano.com offers online-dating coaching sessions. And in Atlanta, Michael Law of theprofileproject.com owns a business devoted to snapping pictures for online personals aimed at giving singles a more polished and glam look. Photo shoots start at $100.
Picking the right photo
"I am big into the online dating thing -- and I noticed there weren't a lot of good photos. They were blurry [and had] bad lighting," said 35-year-old Law. "And [singles] don't pick good photos of themselves. Men are famous for not picking appropriate photos. They will pick a photo of themselves at a wedding because they think they look good -- but then it looks like it's a photo of them at their own wedding."
Last year, Americans spent $396 million on online personals, according to Jupiter Research. By 2009, Americans are expected to dole out $623 million per year on online personals. Rewriting gurus claim they can improve someone's number of responses in the face of increasing competition. Online dating sites list millions of single people from around the world. Match.com displays more than 100,000 singles from Atlanta alone.
"People want to show range, but you know what? That tells you nothing," said David Evans, 35, who launched ProfileDoctor.com about two years ago.
Rewriters suggest being specific -- mention your favorite food or restaurant, your favorite TV program, details that provide a larger window into your personality. In Evans' own online profile, he calls himself, a "Jetta-driving Democrat who likes NPR."
Big turnoffs
A March 2003 Match survey of single people found they were turned off by two particular mistakes: talk about ex-mates, and poor spelling and grammar. Other common flaws include negative comments and revealing too much personal information or writing about risky topics, such as sex.
Mary White, a member of Match.com, won't dawdle on any profile that includes a photograph of a man without a shirt or any profile with grammatical errors.
But White admits to having to make changes to her own online profile. She got rid of "I hate sports" and now says, "The Braves and Falcons are fun to watch, but only live."
Since then, the number of men writing to her is way up -- as many as five a day.
Kathleen Irby, a 34-year-old Atlanta single, approaches her online personal as a take-it-or-leave-it proposition. Does she exercise? Nope. Her daily diet? Junk food junkie. And her favorite thing to do? Eat peanut butter out of the jar with a spoon.
In less than two weeks, her Match.com profile has been beeping with more than 100 flirty e-mails coming her way.
"And so many people bring up the peanut butter," she said. "And no, I didn't say I travel like everyone else. I've been to Portugal once. That doesn't mean that I travel."
She also knows the online photo helps.
Michael Lasky, co-author of "Online Dating for Dummies," also believes a good photograph can go a long way.
"Spending 50 to 75 bucks on a photo is a good investment," Lasky said.
Lasky recommends singles ask a friend or someone of the opposite sex to critique their online personal.
Spravka changed his user name in the headline thomasseat25a to "Happiness within the Journey."
He is also open to refining his personal but won't be paying for any help.
"I think it's a rip-off," he said.
And Irby plans on keeping hers just the way it is.
"I know it sounds smart [alecky] but at least it sounds like me," she said.