Captain Bob's Dating Tips...a man's point of view

Hey there, it's Captain Bob with a little guide to surviving dating on the internet. The first installment of my little guide is the online world of Craigslist. Craigslist is a large classified networking website that provides free online advertisements. These advertisements range from ads about jobs to internships, housing and even personals.

Now that we've gotten the introduction to Craigslist out of the way, it's time to get down to finding a date. The many personals page of CL appeals to any sexual orientation out there. However, navigating it and finding someone worthy of your contact can be very treacherous. The first clues begins with the ads title. A lot of spam ads can be thrown out just on their title alone.

Some titles include:

On the women seeking men side; On the men seeking women side;


"BEST RACK EVER" "Generous man looking for a needy
":) HOT, FUN, WILD" ($$$) girl
"I have herpes" " End of world sex"
" Tired of going to prostitutes

If you decide to post an ad about yourself and you want to be successful, Captain Bob urges you to stay away from the types of titles you see above at all costs. The opposite sex will be reviewing your posts with questions like these in mind,

"is this ad from a real person?"
"is he or she just looking for sex?"
" can i relate to the poster?"

Believe it or not, the threads title usually answers these questions almost immediately.

Another tip on titles is the location part of the ad. Look for a specific town or zip code. Spam ads will usually use the general area of the Craigslist page. For example, if an ad uses Western Mass instead of specific towns such as Springfield or Chicopee then most likely it's a spam ad.

Granted, that shouldn't be a deal breaker, it's just something to keep in mind.
Once you have weeded through the titles, hopefully you have found a few worthy of investigation. This next one brings us to the meat of the ad, try avoiding all short and vague ads. Anything under three lines is a good rule to follow. How can you get to know someone in three lines or less? For the meat of the post, stick to rule number three, "can i relate to the poster?", it's mostly common sense. Don't reply to an ad that's looking for a Dominate or Submissive if you aren't into the BDSM scene.



1) The ad should be longer than three lines
2) Avoid ads with really bad grammer, spelling mistakes or weird characters
3) Avoid any ad with a link to another website, even Myspace (save the links for
personal contacts.
4) In the age of Photoshop, take photos at face value. Do they match up reasonably
with the ads posting age? Not to mention if you have seen the same photo to
another post advertising different things.

However, don't be afraid of taking chances. Say a woman posted that she is looking for a man who's just out of her age range....if you share the same interests as her, keep it in mind that age is just a number. If you feel that you fit what she's looking for send a response and plead your case.

You can trust Captain Bob, i'm speaking from experience.

To wrap it all up, Captain Bob recommends that you trust your gut, use common sense and Discretion when looking for love online.