All About Online Personals

Networking or Not? All About Online Personals

You may have stumbled across it, at one time or another: a small box of text on a website, with someone's contact information in it, along with a few pictures. The personals section of the classified ads have moved online, so don't be surprised.

In fact, you may be giving your own information and participating in online personal services already and not know it!

What are online personals? Think about your usual ads, but twisted into an equation that involves the sum of online dating, social networking, and networking for business, and you have the definition of today's Online Personals. People, more and more, are offering their services, skills, and mere presence through online channels.

To fully understand what online personals are and how they operate, take note of the following:

• Online personals, whether they are notices advertising someone’s badly needed skills in carpentry, or someone’s beauty, are advertising. They are a way of marketing oneself, and are not necessarily content.

What does this imply? It simply means that people are advertising themselves, and are most likely expounding (and exaggerating!) their assets while downplaying (or totally ignoring!) their liabilities. If you are looking for someone to either fix your plumbing or go out with you on a date, online personals may give you a better-than-actual picture of reality.

• People pay to post their ads in online personals. This means that such communities can contain the most desperate, or the most ego-driven people on the planet.

This simply means that you should not only avoid taking online personals at face value – it also means that you should be wary of those posting on online personals. If they have money to spend on simply advertising and marketing themselves, they may be one of either two things: insanely rich, or financed by someone who would like to sell you merchandise in ways that range from honest to completely corrupt.

• People pay to view a person’s contact information. This means that if you want to join an online personals community, some people will have complete access to all your information. They will be able to email you, to know where you live and how to contact you, and where to find you. On the other hand, some other people will not have access to such information because they are not willing to pay the hefty fees.

What does this mean for you? If you are hoping to offer yourself for hire, or for dating, then you can reach only a limited number of people – and not all of them may be interested in you or your services.

• Online personals are not just for dating. They can unite people from the same religion, or with the same beliefs. Not all of them are paying, either, which makes communities larger, more diverse – and often fraught with peril. Some people may employ online personals services only to sell real estate, and bug you at all hours to buy a bit of land with all your savings. Other people may use online personals to boost their sagging self esteem, and may constantly solicit compliments from you.

On the other hand, some people have met their perfect match through online personals. There is a vast number of online personals services available, and not all of them are evil, or good. You just have to be picky when choosing a service you would like to use; and you have to be careful when responding to an online personal.

Whatever your choice, whether you feel online personals are for you, or a nuisance, they’re surely here to stay. If you can’t beat it, join it, as the adage says – or ignore it, click that browser window closed, and stick to traditional, time-tested methods of getting dates, or getting hired.