Having met online, my wife and I are often asked to critique friends online profiles. While a personal profile is by definition personal, there are several things that come up again and again.

So many profiles begin with the same lament: I never thought I would have to resort to online dating. I'm sure people put this to try and make themselves stand out from the crowd, but how it actually reads is "I always thought I was better than those losers who use online dating". Now I'm no expert, but calling your target audience losers is probably not the best way to attract a mate. 

Trite statements like "I like going out, but also like staying in too" really don't help. All you have done is lumped yourself in with the 99% of the population who are neither agoraphobic nor chronically claustrophobic. When talking about what you like be specific, do you like clubs more than pubs? If you like the cinema what kind of films do you like? Be wary of the word "good", good food, good film, good times are all essentially meaningless in a profile as they are too subjective: my good food may be fish and chips, yours may be coq au vin.

Yes you read that right, accentuate the negative. That's not to say you should make a list of your flaws - allow your future partner the fun of finding those out themself - instead include things that you don't like. That my sound like bad advice, but remember you are writing a profile to find someone compatible with you, not marketing a new dog food. Often shared dislikes can be as attractive as shared likes, and in many cases are more likely to develop conversation, which brings me too...

So someone has viewed your profile and they find you witty, charming and attractive and they want to send you a message. But wait! They are stuck for words, maybe they are not a gifted writer, or perhaps they are just overcome with desire, who knows, but either way they have nothing to say. Fortunately you have left a handy hook in your profile, a little throw away line for our poor blocked suitor, something as simple as "I have a strange love for cuttle fish that I wont go into right now", or "don't get me started on Peter Andre". The purpose of these comments is to give people a quick and easy way to strike up conversation, all they have to do is ask you the question you are asking them to ask.

I hope these tips are useful as they seemed to work for me (mind you I am fantastically handsome and a dazzling conversationalist so that may help too). Good luck with your search!