12 Zoosk Tips: Signup, Profiles & First Message (2024)

Want some Zoosktips for setting up a profile and landing a date on this dating website or app? We’ve got all the information right here at your fingertips.

Silicon Valley entrepreneurs Shayan Zadeh and Alex Mehr founded Zoosk in 2007, and it’s now one of the most popular names in the dating industry. With more than 38 million active members available in over 80 countries and 25 languages, Zoosk has earned its good reputation. The forward-thinking brand is also one of the first dating websites to launch a dating app version — which has been downloaded 30 million times from the App Store and Google Play.

Zoosk is a great place to flirt, mingle, and build confidence. Plus, with a little luck and the right skills, you can even meet someone special here. Whether you want to take your profile to the next level, write a killer first message, or meet like-minded people more efficiently, we have some simple tips to make your online dating experience the best it can be.

Signup | Profile | Message

It all begins with the signup, of course. Since Zoosk is integrated with Facebook and other social media platforms, it will only take you a few seconds to create your new dating profile. If you don’t have a Facebook account, or don’t want to use it, you can join the good old-fashioned way by putting in your details yourself. Either way, these are the three steps you’ll take.

1. Go to the Homepage or Download the App

There are two ways to get Zoosk — go to the homepage and fill out the fields on the right-hand side, or go to the App Store or Google Play on your phone or tablet. The former is good if you prefer dating from your desktop, while the latter is good if you prefer handheld dating and dating on the go.

2. Register for a Free Account

No matter if you register for Zoosk via desktop or mobile, you’re automatically given a free account that will last a lifetime. Zoosk does have paid accounts (as low as $12.49 a month), and you can opt into one if you want by going to your account settings.

Below is a snippet of what you can expect on Zoosk:

Zoosk

★★★★★

4.7/5.0

Zoosk

4.7/5.0

About this rating

Our team of editors and writers draw from their industry expertise to calculate dating platform ratings based on a variety of criteria that impact the modern dating experience. We looked at popular platforms and analyzed important factors, including:

Active membership

Pricing and affordability

Filters and communication tools

Profile verification

Customer support

Our rating and review system is independent of commission rates, and any platforms we partner with do not have a say in their scores.

See Our Review »

Amber Brooks Editor-in-Chief

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Our Experts Say: “Zoosk is integrated with social media sites, like Facebook and Google+, so it's very popular with singles on the go...” Full Review »

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User Base	Gender Ratio	Popularity (Visits/Mo.)	Today's Deal
All Singles*	48%* 52%*	28.9 Million*	Start Zoosk for FREE

As you can see, Zoosk is a fast-paced and socially savvy dating website that’s open to singles of all genders, sexual orientations, ethnicities, religions, cultures, and backgrounds. You can find whatever you’re looking for as well: hookups, dates, relationships, or marriage. The only limitation, if we’d even call it that, is you have to be at least 18 to join the fun.

3. Answer the Questions Honestly

More than half of people fib on their dating profiles — and you don’t want to be one of them. A lie or a small exaggeration can become a major roadblock in the dating scene (you’ll have to come clean eventually, or your date could find out and get pissed). Be truthful about your qualities, characteristics, hobbies, career, current relationship status, lifestyle — all of it. After all, you want to find a potential partner who likes you for you, right?

Another reason you want to be completely honest is Zoosk uses this information to suggest matches the site believes are the most compatible. If you’re adding zeroes to your salary or subtracting years from your age, your potential matches will not line up with who you really are and what you really want.

Your dating profile is like a welcome mat for your dating life — it’s one of the first things people will see, and it sets the tone right away. Zoosk makes it easy to create a profile that showcases your wants and needs and what you’re about, but here are five tips you should keep in mind just to make sure you have all your bases covered.

4. Keep the Grammar & Spelling Mistakes to a Minimum

We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again and again — having grammar or spelling errors in your profile and messages can be some of the worst things you could do in online dating. Even one misplaced comma or one misspelled word means you’re 14% less likely to get a response. So do a quick proofread before you post anything on Zoosk.

Our favorite grammar and spelling resources include Grammarly, SnappyWords, and the Hemingway app, and they’re free!

5. Upload Different Kinds of Photos

Zoosk allows free members to upload several photos to their profiles, so add as many as you can and try to mix them up. You wouldn’t be impressed if the person you were checking out only had one pic or two headshots, right? Do your best to impress by going beyond the bathroom selfie and sharing pictures of you doing fun activities, travelling the world, hanging out with your dog, or just looking cool.

You’ll want to include a range of interesting photos that’ll showcase who you are and provide topics for conversation. If you have a pet, post a photo of you two together. If you’ve gone skydiving and have a crazy photo from that day, include it. If you have a full-body shot of you on the beach, don’t leave it out. If you have a nice portrait, show it off.

You’ll want to avoid some photos, though, such as selfies, group shots, photos where you clearly cropped out your ex.

6. Mention Specifics That Are Unique to You

While you’re being honest about yourself in your profile, you should also add more details to facts and comments that could come off as generic. Zoosk gives you enough room to do so!

For outdoor lovers, write about why you love the outdoors and your top activities (e.g., “my dad always took me camping, so I try to do that every few months.”). For music buffs, talk about the best show you’ve ever seen and if you play an instrument (e.g., “I first heard the Beatles when I was 15, and I wanted to be George Harrison so bad that I got a guitar and practiced ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’ every night.”).

The point is not to make blanket statements like “I love to travel,” “Going to the movies is my favorite thing to do,” or “I’m a workout junkie.” You’ve got to give people the WHY if you want them to respond to you or reach out on their own.

7. Avoid Making It Sound Like a List of Demands

Half of your Zoosk profile is about you, and the other half is about the type of person you’re interested in. Having preferences is a must if you want to have success online, but be careful about going too far. It’s not like you’re trying to come off demanding by mentioning your likes and dealbreakers, but people don’t know that.

Most people only take one-tenth of a second to form an opinion about a person they just met, online or offline, so you have to do what you can to make it a good opinion.

The best way to make a good impression online is to leave out the surface-level stuff and focus on the deeper things that really matter to you. At the end of the day, ask yourself if it’s a big deal that a future date or partner is over 5’5″ when you prefer shorter girls, likes sports instead of the arts, or has short hair but you’re into long hair. You’ll probably find that it’s not a big deal. Then ask yourself if it’s a big deal if he or she is also vegetarian, Christian, or wants children. You might find that those are bigger deals.

8. Don’t Let It Get Stale

Even though Zoosk will deliver matches to you every day, your dating profile isn’t something you should set and forget like a crockpot. Keeping it fresh will attract new singles to you, and it’ll help you appear higher in search results. All you have to do is swap out a photo, add some more information to your Story section, or tweak your parameters a little bit (adding more miles to your ideal distance, widening your ideal age range, etc.). Try doing this once a week and see how things change for you.

If your profile is like your home’s welcome mat, then your first message to a match is like your home’s colors and decorations (yes, I’m still sticking with this metaphor). The paint, artwork, furniture, flowers, etc. you choose to use will give people a better idea of who you are. What you choose to say in a first message will do the same.

9. Do Your Research

Unless your goal is to send as many messages as you can, we’d highly recommend not looking at people’s main profile photo, deciding they’re hot, and then sending a “Hey, love your photo!” It’s doubtful that it’ll get you anywhere.

If you want responses that’ll lead somewhere, you’re better off doing your research about the person (it only takes a minute or two to read their profile), looking for something that catches your eye, and bringing that up in the message. The why is equally important here. Why did you like their photo? “Saw the pic of you on the water in Hawaii. I’m an avid surfer as well! You prefer longboards?” Why does it matter to you that they’re Buddhist? “I studied abroad in China during college, and that’s where I discovered Buddhism. How did you get into it?” And so on.

10. Be Sincere

I think it’s safe to say most people are pretty much over sleazy pick-up lines. Now, there are ones that aren’t sleazy and that work. Whether you want to use a pick-up line or not, the main point is to be authentic in your message. Like Linus’ pumpkin patch, you want there to be “nothing but sincerity as far as the eye can see.”

If you’re nervous, admit it (“Pick-up lines make me get all awkward, but here goes…”). If you don’t know what to say, that’s what you say (“I’m honestly not quite sure what to say, but I was really drawn to your profile, especially your love of volunteering. What’s your favorite charity?”).

11. Throw a Little Humor in There

Humor is an attractive quality

, and science has shown that even using the word “funny” in online dating is a great thing to do. And it’s not just coming out and saying “I’m a funny guy (or girl).” It could even be something like “I’m not Kevin Hart funny, but I do have this one story about the time I…” Find the humor that works for you — it could be sarcasm, self-deprecating, commentary, or anything else.

12. Exude Confidence

Another quality research has found to be helpful in online dating is confidence. It’s OK to love who you are, where you’re at in life, and the achievements you’ve had.

However, you do want to watch out for confidence turning into cockiness. Think “I’m the only one in my family who went to college — PhD from Harvard, in fact. Now I’m making more than any of them combined.” vs. “No one in my family was able to go to college, so I worked really hard to get my degree and make them proud. I see you studied psych, too. Where did you go?”

13. End It With a Question

You’ll notice most of the examples in this section have a question at the end, and that’s not an accident. Simply telling someone you like their profile or think they’re pretty or handsome doesn’t make them want to respond. If they do respond, it might just be a “Thanks!” And then you’re stuck having to come up with another conversation starter.

Ending your messages with a call to action is a great way to get a meaningful conversation going. It’s a three part process: 1) Mention something you saw in their profile. 2) Make the connection between that and yourself with specifics. 3) Ask them something else about themselves.

Here’s an example: Hey there, I’m so impressed by your travel photos! I’ve always wanted to see the Eiffel Tower — did you enjoy your trip?

Zoosk is a streamlined dating site and app, so it really doesn’t take that much effort on your end to have a good time and make a lot of connections. However, that doesn’t mean a perfect match is guaranteed. Singles have to make sure they’re optimizing their dating profile, actively seeking compatible profiles, and sending messages that will lead to good conversations and dates.

The Zoosk tips in this article can help you do all that in more, so you can go into every new potential match with confidence. Just remember to be authentic and treat everyone with respect, and you should do just fine. Now get out there and practice, practice, practice!