Whether you’re new to online dating or you’ve been at it for awhile, there are some common practices you should follow to ensure you’re making the best impression. You may not know where to start or you might just not be getting the responses you’d like, so starting out strong or even trying a new approach may help you meet the woman you’ve been looking for.

Honesty Is the Best Policy

Meeting people online may seem like a good opportunity to reinvent yourself and maybe falsify a few aspects of your life to seem more interesting since the person on the other end can’t see you. While fudging the truth might make you feel more confident and draw more online attention to yourself, it can come back to bite you if you ever want to meet the woman you’ve been talking to or start a serious relationship.

Using misleading photos or claiming to have an important job title with a large salary could be very awkward to try explaining when you go out on your first date and she realizes you aren’t who you say you are. Your best bet is to be yourself and make a strong connection with someone who wants to meet the real you.

Honesty regarding your expectations is very important as well. You can save a lot of heartache and hurt feelings for both parties if you’re clear about your thoughts on dating a single parent, a divorcee, or someone who smokes or drinks. You don’t need to make a big red warning sign to post at the front of your profile, but gently putting your requirements out there will weed out the people you just won’t be compatible with.

Quality over Quantity

Rather than sending out a mass e-mail to every woman you find attractive, take the time to read through their profiles and determine first if you think they’d be a good match for you. If so, send a personal message and add some tidbits in there that show you’ve read her profile and have taken a sincere interest. Sending her something that is easy to respond too, for example asking her questions regarding something you’ve seen in her profile, could make a response more likely.

If At First You Don’t Succeed, Try, Try Again

With online dating, you’re not always going to get a positive response from someone you message. Don’t let interactions like this discourage you. The best approach is to show your interest, but avoid sending e-mail after e-mail if she doesn’t reply back. The beauty of online dating is that the possibilities are endless, so while one woman may not be interested, you have the opportunity to meet many more who may be.