Succeed On Ourtime

Senior Dating

7 Expert Tips: How to Succeed On OurTime (2024)

Hayley Matthews

Written by: Hayley Matthews

Hayley Matthews

Hayley has over 10 years of experience overseeing content strategy, social media engagement, and article opportunities. She has also written hundreds of informational and entertaining blog posts. Her work has appeared in numerous publications, including Bustle, Cosmo, the Huffington Post, AskMen, and Entrepreneur. When she's not writing about dating news, relationship advice, or her fantasy love affair with Leonardo DiCaprio, she enjoys listening to The Beatles, watching Harry Potter reruns, and drinking IPAs.

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Edited by: Lillian Castro

Lillian Castro

Lillian Guevara-Castro brings more than 30 years of journalism experience to ensure DatingAdvice articles have been edited for overall clarity, accuracy, and reader engagement. She has worked at The Atlanta Journal and Constitution, The Gwinnett Daily News, and The Gainesville Sun covering lifestyle topics.

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Not only is online dating fun, but it’s also pretty simple, especially on a streamlined site like OurTime, which is one of the most successful senior dating sites around. You’ve got matches sent to you every day, a ton of communication options, advice articles galore, and 24/7 customer support to help you if something comes up.

However, there are a couple of things you can do to make the online dating experience even more successful and enjoyable. To have the most success possible on OurTime, follow these seven tips from our experts.

1. Take Your Time Filling Out Your Profile

I know you may be in a hurry to meet someone, but you don’t want to rush through the signup process. Your dating profile represents you, so you want it to be really good. Of course, it’s easy to select your religion and height in the drop-down menu, but you’re also going to fill out sections like “I’d Just Like to Add,” and answer personality questions like “Are you romantic?” Really think about your answers and try to be as specific as you can in our OurTime profile.

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If you type the first thing that comes to your mind, you’ll probably regret it when you go to look at your profile later. Then you’ll end up wasting time because you’ll have to rewrite everything. When you sign up to OurTime, spend a few minutes, at least, thinking about who you are and what you want, and the best answers will come out naturally.

2. Be Honest, Specific & Succinct in Your Descriptions

Studies show that almost half of online daters exaggerate or flat-out lie on their profiles — don’t be one of those people. It doesn’t help you out in any way. You’ll end up hurting someone, and you can’t keep up the lie forever. Imagine how you would feel if you became interested in a match only to find out they lied about their occupation, family life, or interests.

In addition to being truthful, you want to be specific, which will help you stand out from the crowd. Don’t just say what you like to do — say why you like to do those things. For example, “I’ve always loved fishing because me and my grandpa would do that every Sunday.” Be careful not to ramble on, though, because you risk losing people’s attention.

3. Upload a Variety of Photos

Variety is the spice of life, as they say, so the more unique photos you can include in your profile, the better. At the very minimum, have one headshot, one full-body shot, and one action shot (e.g., you participating in a hobby or cuddling with a pet). That way, people can see your face, your silhouette, and what your passions are.

Photo of a woman taking a selfie

The standard suggestion for your profile is one of your face, one of your figure, and one of you doing something active.

Adding a main profile photo will get you exponentially more attention — just think about how much attention you’ll get by adding a handful of different photos. You can even upload photos from Facebook, so it’s easy to update your profile with your favorite pics.

4. Search for Matches On Your Own

OurTime picks out potential dates for you, but you can increase your chances of finding that special someone by doing some browsing on your own. I mean, why not, right? It’s fun, it’s easy, and it’s totally customizable. You can search by gender, age range, zip code, activity, new members, members who are online, username, keywords, as well as by who’s viewed your profile, favorited you, liked a photo, flirted with you, or sent you a gift.

Online dating is so convenient that you can kind of do it on autopilot, but don’t forget to take the wheel every now and then. That leads us to our next tip:

5. Initiate Contact

Take a chance every now and then and send the first message to a match instead of waiting for them to do it. They’ll love the initiative, and you’ll feel so proud of yourself. Even if you’re shy, like I am, you’ve got to be vulnerable and put yourself out there in dating and relationships sometimes. It’s the only way you’ll truly connect with someone.

Photo of a woman on a laptop

Taking matters into your own hands, such as sending someone the first message, will increase your chances of finding a good match.

Initiating contact can also come in the form of viewing profiles, favoriting members, liking photos, and sending flirts and virtual gifts. Your crush will see that you’ve done that, and maybe it’ll encourage him or her to send you a message.

6. Write Unique Messages, Not Copycat Ones

Speaking of initiating contact, if you’re going to send the first message to a match, you should make sure it’s totally different than any other first message you’ve sent. It’s the right thing to do, and you’re more likely to get a response if you don’t sound like a broken record.

Reference something from their profile that catches your eye and is unique to them (e.g., they volunteer at a homeless shelter on the weekends). They’ll appreciate you for actually reading their profile and bringing up a detail from it in your message. It could be something as simple as “Hey, I noticed you like volunteering as well. What’s your favorite charity to help?”

7. Download the App for Even More Convenience

Photo of the OurTime app

OurTime’s free app makes the dating process even easier.

OurTime is available for free via iTunes and Google Play, so you really should consider downloading the app.

With it, you can find dates no matter where you are or what you’re doing.

Riding the bus to work? You can still browse through singles. In line at Starbucks? You can still edit your profile. Walking the dog? You can still flirt online.

Having a drink at a bar? You can still reply to messages. You get the picture, but the point is utilizing the mobile and desktop version will do wonders for you.

With These Tips, You’ll Meet All Your Goals On OurTime

Online dating has improved our lives in so many ways, and it just keeps getting better and better. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do everything you can to attract attention and meet your relationship goals. It’s already smooth sailing on OurTime, and you’ll get yourself one step closer to that ideal match by getting more involved, too.

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