Editing your profile? Think before you edit!

Lately, I've been getting a lot of "profile editing" requests. This isn't a bad thing (please keep them coming...), but when I recieve a profile, I always ask some very important questions.

The questions are: How is your profile doing? And what results do you want to change?

I'd say, about 90% of the time, people usually admit that they really haven't left their profile up long enough for them to answer these questions.

I usually respond by telling them to let it run a little longer as-is, and write back if they're unhappy with something.

The amazing thing is? They usually don't. Which makes me think that they didn't need the help after all.

The fact is, a lot of people are looking to build the "perfect profile". I'm convinced that the "perfect profile" is a mythical beast. It only HAS to be good enough to get enough of the right people to initiate communication.

And, sometimes, we can be our own harshest critics. I can think of a lot of ways in which my profile might be technically flawed. But I'm getting women who live 3 hours away to open communication. To me... that's the sign of a good profile. And my inner critic must be wrong.

Even worse - when you edit a profile, you usually do a number of bad things. You make it more generic. More formal. Less natural. More like you're "trying hard" to get a response. And, usually, you'll end up with a worse profile in the end.

So, if you feel you need to make changes - know what you want to change. Save your "old" version. Only test one thing at a time.

And relax. People are less critical than you think.