Are you a guy, what's your secret?
Yes, male. Secret, I have none. 90 percent of the time I message first since that's often the rule of thumb for any dating website. OKCupid does ask you to send out five messages at the start, so you'll have a few gals doing just that but won't do as much afterward.
Make your profile fun, light and entertaining to read. Don't bore them with the details, excite them with humor since most girls will go to an attractive funny guy over an attractive guy they have nothing in common with, even with the latter is better looking.
You should often change your profile up, even on a daily basis since OKCupid will make you easier to find in search results if you are active. Change your profile pic up at least once a week, should a girl that overlooked you the first time find your second picture better. Everytime I change a photo or profile info, I'll often get 5-8 visitors in that day with 2-3 of them giving messages back (should I determine them interesting enough to chat with).
OKCupid has sent me that message "members think you are good looking" or whatever and that my search results would see effect. Received that 3-4 times last year.
Also, ladies love dogs. It's an easy ice-breaker if you have a picture of a dog. Don't know much about cat photos, but I am sure that would ease them into a common subject, too.
Lastly, don't post too many photos. Make it 5-8 photos at max that all differ, but don't go to 10. You don't want to show that you take the website too seriously.
Jason Raize '75 - '04 said:
So many of my matches would be willing to have sex on the first date. Classy
There's a reason why the stereotype for Okcupid members is that they are looking to hook-up rather than 'date' and aimed at the younger demographics. Match and EHarmony is often said to be more for serious relationships. JDate and others are more niche.
lucario said:
Members can quote this to find my profile, if anyone's still looking to critique or a "what do to"/"what not to do". I have been successful (2 messages/day all unsolicited, never sent a message first, 75 views/week), but my matches are starting to get really fucking weird so YMMV I guess.
Not to burst your bubble, but out of the 20 dates I have had, every girl I have asked have told me they don't message first and if they did, it was either to say something clever or because OKCupid told them to. There hasn't been one girl who hasn't been offended by OkCupid with terrible messages from dudes, so many of the gals I still talk to and go on dates with after our first date have quit the website after being run off the website by crude dudes. Heck, many of the profiles I've read have the ladies stating "Even if I visit your profile, that doesn't mean I am interested or will message first; I'm either too shy or I am not interested."
Oddly enough, even though I have it blocked so guys can't search for me, I have had a gay fella send me a message on behalf of his gal-friend who thought I was hot, but didn't want to join the website herself. The gal and I still go out on dates at least once a month when we find time for each other while her guy friend quit the website after finding his boyfriend. What I heard from him was that he messaged just as much, if not more, than heterosexual males and received messages all the time, too.