Internet Dating Conference Highlights [video]

According to Internet Dating Conference organizer Marc Lesnick, the industry is happy. Over 250 online dating executives attended the 8th annual iDate show at the SLS Hotel in Beverly Hills, where the subject was focused on mobile dating.

I had the opportunity to interview Robinne Burrell, Director of Mobile Products at Match.com; Mark Brooks, editor of Online Personals Watch; Monica Ohara, Director of Marketing for SpeedDate, and Joel Simkhai, founder of Grindr about their mobile dating services.

Julie Spira is an online dating expert and bestselling author of The Perils of Cyber-Dating: Confessions of a Hopeful Romantic Looking for Love Online. Visit her at CyberDatingExpert.com and facebook.com/CyberDatingExpert

To Kiss, or Not to Kiss – First Date Rules [video]

The question came up in our He said, She Said video on YourTango on whether you should kiss or not on the first date. As Dr. Adam Sheck and I duke it out,  I think I kiss isn’t mandatory on a first date to get to a second date. However, if you do engage in an exciting kiss and you feel some chemistry with your date, let them know you enjoyed it and make sure to put a second date on the calendar.

Share your thoughts and comments and like us at facebook.com/cyberdatingexpert for more dating advice.

Weekly Flirt – Summer of Love Edition

Click here and let the flirting begin>>>

The Cyber Dating Expert Looking for Love Online Summer Contest

Looking for love online this summer? We’re thrilled to announce the Cyber-Dating Expert Summer Love promotion where we’ve teamed up with Match to provide one lucky winner with a signature Irresistible Dating Profile from online dating expert Julie Spira, along with a 3-month free membership to Match.com.

To participate in the contest, participants are requested to LIKE the Cyber-Dating Expert facebook page at facebook.com/CyberDatingExpert and post their funniest or worst dating story ever on the facebook wall.

Five additional winners will be selected and will receive an autographed copy of the bestseller, The Perils of Cyber-Dating: Confessions of a Hopeful Romantic Looking for Love Online. Think about your funniest Internet date and share it with us on Facebook for your chance to win.

*Contestants must be 18 years of age or older and reside in the United States. No profanity will be accepted and inappropriate wall posts will be removed with the contestant disqualified. The contest starts on June 20, 2011 and ends on July 3, 2011. Winners will be selected by Cyber-Dating Expert, LLC. and announced on July 5, 2011 on Facebook and Twitter.

Where to Find Love Online this Father’s Day

Just in time for Father’s Day, our friends at Match.com have come up with their Top 10 list of single dads looking for love online in three popular categories. [See infographic below]

Foodie-Dads: The online dating site polled their members and found that those men who are happy in the kitchen can be found in Scottsdale, Seattle, San Francisco, Portland and Boise.

Do-It-Yourself Dads: You won’t have to head to Home Depot alone if you’re in Spokane, Boise, Vancouver, Sarasota, or Toledo.

Sports-Crazed Dads: If you’re ready to fall for a sports fanatic or at least cheer him on, you’ll be the most successful in two cities in Arizona, Milwaukee, and Charlotte, to name a few.

When’s the most popular time for single dads to log on to look for love? According to Match’s members, early in the morning. Most men sign on from 6am – 9am, over coffee and a newspaper before they get ready for their busy day. Whitney Casey, Match.com’s relationship insider and author of The Man Plan says it’s because their testosterone level is the highest when they wake up.

The best news is that single dads are really interested in meeting women with children. With 30% of Match’s male members being single dads, newly divorced and single women with children should be able to fill their date card. Match reports that single dads are 56% more likely to email single moms than men without children. How are you planning on celebrating Father’s Day this year?

Julie Spira is an online dating expert and author of the bestseller, The Perils of Cyber-Dating: Confessions of a Hopeful Romantic Looking for Love Online. She creates irresistible profiles and coaches singles on the dating scene. Like her at Facebook.com/CyberDatingExpert.

Cyber Love Song of the Week – Can’t Get Enough of Your Love Baby

Happy Music Monday. Enjoy our Cyber Love Song of the Week from Barry White — a true romantic and sexy classic tune, “Can’t Get Enough of Your Love Baby.”

Celebrities Unite at 10th Annual Chrysalis Butterfly Ball

Rebecca Gayheart and Eric Dane

The color of the evening was purple as much of Hollywood  joined together to raise over $1 million at the 10th annual Chrysalis Butterfly Ball.

Tom Arnold, emceed the event and took a moment to mention that we were  just a stone’s throw away from Arnold Schwarzenegger’s home. He added, “He won’t be making fun of who I’m sleeping with anymore.”

Honorees included Scott Stuber, producer of The Break-Up starring Vince Vaughan, WME Entertainment’s Richard Weitz, and Olivia Wilde from House and The O.C. .

Attendees of the star-studded event included Ashley Greene, Jason Bateman, Eric Dane and Rebecca Gayheart-Dane, John Favreau, L.L. Cool J, Whitney Cummings, and Matt Lanter.

Dana Walden, event co-chair and chairman of Twentieth Century Fox Television was enthusiastic about breaking their fundraising record by  surpassing the $1 million mark.” She told the sold-out crowd, “If you want to get something done, give it to a busy person,” as she praised the Chrysalis event committee for their hard work and efforts for the cause.

Chrysalis helps change lives of the homeless in Los Angles by helping them get jobs. They serve 3500 people every year. To date, the organization has raised $7 million for the homeless.

After the awards ceremony, there was an after-party on the Brentwood estate, where they served Sprinkles cupcakes.

To make a donation or to learn more about how you can help, visit ChangeLives.org

Matt Lanter

Julie Spira and Noelle Scaggs

Vince Vaughan and Chrysalis CEO Matt Loranger

Tom Arnold

Dream Circus Performer

Ashley Greene

5 Ways to Botox Your Online Dating Profile

If you’ve suddenly become single  or have an online dating profile that’s over a year old, guess what? Chances are your profile is as outdated as your resume from 10-years ago, which is still sitting in a drawer.  If this sounds familiar, it’s time for your dating profile to be reviewed and get a digital facelift.

My friend Lisa Johnson-Mandel, author of Career Comeback talks about ‘How to Botox your resume.’ I was a recent guest on her television show, “This Week in Careers,” where I realized that her strategies for resume revisions would also apply to Internet dating. Hence, I decided it’s time for me to share some tips on how to “botox” your online dating profile.  I promise it will be painless and won’t break the bank.

This doesn’t mean that you need to make an appointment with your cosmetic dermatologist for expensive injections, but it does mean that some of your wording, especially keeping an outdated screen name, may send a message to your perspective dates that you’ve been on the site too long. He or she may quickly move onto a fresher and more appealing profile. Lisa provides tips that I highly recommend on how to look younger in a job interview. I’ll take it a step further for matters of the heart.

It’s a competitive digital landscape and you must appear as the fresh new face to get noticed. Here are some tips to Botox and refresh your online dating profile.

1. Screen name revision. If your screen name included your age such as Ken53 and your date of birth on your profile indicates that you’re 56, it will appear that you hadn’t been successful in finding love online for three years. Even if your two-year relationship just ended and you’re back again as a new profile, take the age off completely, especially if it’s inaccurate.
2. Discard the glamour shots. We all know that nothing is more important than your profile photos. If you invested in glamour shots years ago, it’s time to toss them away, along with the “big hair” look. Replace them with more natural activity photos that are represented on your Facebook or social networking sites. If your online dating profile photos don’t look anything like your current Facebook photos, your perspective date will find out quickly and will be turned off, or possibly even walk out on the date. 
3. Update your wardrobe. Any photos showing clothing with padded shoulders or last year’s trendy styles should be deleted from your profile. Get rid of the little black dress and add some new photos with bright colors that will help your profile photo stand out from the thousands of thumbnails in his or her search. Confidence is in. Sexy is out. Photos of men with bare chests or women with too much cleavage may result in getting more views of your profile, but it doesn’t mean you’ll find the man or woman of your dreams. Leave the lingerie shots for the bedroom, not for mass advertising on your Internet dating profile.
4. Toss out confusing photos. If you are seen with a mustache and beard in one photo and are clean-shaven in others, it will confuse the person viewing your profile. Toss out the outdated photos for your current look to avoid disappointment. This applies to hair color as well. If you were brunette in the fall, auburn in the spring, and blonde in the summer, make sure you only post photos with one hair color–your present one.
5. Delete any reference to your children’s ages. If your kids were 8, 10, and 12 when you wrote your first profile and they’re now driving age, you and your profile will appear outdated. Mention your three terrific kids in your profile, but don’t provide details of their dates, weddings, or graduations. You can always talk about that on the phone, in an email, or in person.

Other tips to keep your profile on the top of a search include changing the order of your photos and add new ones, periodically update your screen name and your bio description, and log on daily to show that you’re active and are serious about meeting someone.

For more help in creating your irresistible online dating profile, contact us at CyberDatingExpert.com and we’ll work with you to personalize your experience and help you while looking for love online.

Julie Spira is a leading online dating expert and author of the bestseller, The Perils of Cyber-Dating: Confessions of a Hopeful Romantic Looking for Love Online. Like her at Facebook.com/CyberDatingExpert and follow her at Twitter.com/JulieSpira

Cyber Love Story of the Week – Jesse and Curtis

On the one-year anniversary of the online dating site Cupidtino, where Apple enthusiasts, find each other, we’re happy to share one of their success stories, Jesse and Curtis.

Jesse, a woman from Northern California had initially emailed Curtis when he was in Palm Springs, CA. She noticed he was in the military and asked him what there was to do in Palm Springs in her initial email. After a few weeks, Jesse gave Curtis her personal email address so they could communicate off the site. He asked for her phone number and began communicating with her regularly.

Their first date was at a Starbucks, where they met in the middle with their MacBooks in tow. They continued their date for the weekend wine tasting, visiting Hearst Castle, and their love affair began.

After eight months from when they first started communicating, including the time when Curtis was stationed in Japan, he was discharged and moved to Silicon Valley to be with his sweetheart.

Congratulations to Jesse and Curtis, our Cyber Love Story of the Week, who kept their love of Apple at the top of the list while looking for love online and didn’t let distance get in the way. And of course, congratulations to Cupidtino on celebrating their one-year anniversary as an Internet dating site.

Do you have an online dating story to share?

Read More Cyber Love Stories>>>

How to Forgive a Cheater [VIDEO]

In our continuing “He Says, She Says” video dating and relationship advice series on YourTango, Charles J. Orlando and I tackle the subject of infidelity in a relationship. Should you forgive or walk away? Is there a difference between a one-night stand and an ongoing affair? I invite you to share your comments on this painful subject.

If you like this video, share it with your friends and chime in with your comments.