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When Eric Resnick started doing the online dating thing in his early 20s, his first few rendezvous were "tragically funny."
He didn't know how to communicate who he was. "I didn't know how to read profiles or present myself in the best way or make me look like myself," Resnick says.
His then-trials and errors, coupled with his successes, today serve as the methodology for his Orlando-based ProfileHelper.com, a business he's so busy running that he no longer has time to date.
How's that for irony?
It's OK, though, Resnick says. Many of his clients are no longer single, and that's what's important.
Around since June 2004, ProfileHelper is one of a number of Internet companies that help online daters enhance their profiles, whether it's the written portion or the photo. The dot-com's advisers - including Resnick, the lead adviser - make over or create clients' profiles, presenting online daters as their best selves.
For instance, if you emphasize a need for honesty in your profile, potential dates will think you were in a relationship with someone you couldn't trust and haven't gotten over it. That's a red flag in a profile, and ProfileHelper's advisers work to get rid of the red flags and, if possible, turn them into green flags.
"The best way to think of a profile is it's a movie trailer, it's not the movie. The trailer is supposed to give you just enough information that you want to buy a ticket," Resnick says.
And buy online daters do.
Eleven percent of adults who use the Internet - 16 million of them - have gone to an online dating site or something similar, according to a Pew Internet & American Life Project published in March of this year.
And two of the largest Internet dating sites, Match.com and Yahoo! Personals, boast 15 million and 10 million members respectively.
Online dating no longer has a stigma attached to it, Resnick says. "It's on 'Oprah' now. It's on a McDonald's commercial. It's mainstream."
So mainstream that if your profile isn't eye-catching, you may be overlooked altogether.
A clear, close-up photo is important for online daters, says Cristy Edwardes. "We live in a looks-oriented society, and the first thing anyone sees when browsing a dating site is your photo. If it doesn't stand out, people probably won't look at your profile."
Edwardes is the director of marketing for Look BetterOnline.com, a service designed to improve the quality of online photos. It was co-founded four years ago by a married couple who met through Matchmaker.com.
LookBetterOnline has a network of about 1,000 professional photographers in the United States and Canada who take pictures that are totally natural, not staged, Edwardes says. "They're really made to look natural and capture somebody's essence."
The company charges $129 for 12 pictures.
Dick Stevens, a portrait photographer who works out of his Venice home studio, has shot about 10 clients, most of them men, for LookBetterOnline.
The company asks its photographers to shoot clients against plain backgrounds and maybe take some outdoor shots with foliage in the background, Stevens says. His goal: to capture his clients' best look.
"I feel that you don't get a second chance to make that first impression, and that's why this is important," he says.
The move toward hiring professionals to improve profiles started a couple of years ago, says Mark Brooks, editor of OnlinePersonals Watch.com, a blog on which Brooks analyzes the industry.
The elements of a profile get people noticed, and it's worthwhile for them to have a compelling profile and a photograph that brings out the best in them. If they take the time and money to seek out professional services, Brooks says their responses should double.
ProfileHelper has a success rate of about 80 percent. That is, 80 percent of its clients get what they're looking for.
"We can write a profile for anyone that'll get them a date," Resnick says. "The goal is to help people get dates they don't want to end."
ProfileHelper has helped more than 3,000 clients, some of whom are married and many others who are in solid relationships. The company doesn't promise its clients they'll get dates or get married, but it guarantees to help them present themselves in an honest way.
It isn't about making its clients into something they're not, but about showing how great they truly are, Resnick says. It's about giving clients something that represents them, something they're proud of.
Most of ProfileHelper's clients are looking for someone special, and the site's advisers would rather write a profile to help them find a few potential partners than hundreds of first dates.
As Resnick puts it: "There's a lid for every pot."
Tiffany St. Martin, features writer, can be reached at 745-7080, Ext. 2035
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