Make a list. Score your dates. Market yourself wisely. Find your needle.

Good profiles mentioned characteristics that would probably be true for all of us, such as: I want someone who will make me laugh. About Me sections with fewer than a hundred words tend to be clearly popular. Short profiles that express just enough information to pique someone's interest work best.

Popular women use positive, optimistic language in their online profiles, not buzzwords like future thinker. Here are the ten most often used words I found: easy-going, love, laugh, laid-back, optimistic, outgoing, fun, down-to-earth, pleasure, adventure.

Most people don't wear glasses in the U.S., and we're not conditioned to finding men and women who wear glasses sexy. If you need your glasses to see, find a good optometrist who can outfit you with a great frame, thin lenses, and a high-quality anti-reflective coating.

If you want true love and a long-lasting marriage, you need to start by figuring out what makes you happy.

If you're trying to cast the widest possible net to attract the largest selection of men or women, the last thing you should do is to start listing your income, political views, and the like. Avoid mentioning specific comedians, shows, or movies unless those are top-tier attributes on your list.

The goal of online dating is to get offline as quickly as possible.

It's an old, established rule, but golden hour lighting is ideal because the first and last hours of sunlight are diffuse and warm. For that reason, women with photos taken outside during those hours tended to look great.

Peak hours for sending a first email through the online dating system tended to be during work (eleven A.M. to four P.M.) and then just after dinner (seven P.M. to nine P.M.). I did have a few women send me a first message after eleven P.M. Those who did had an 82 percent chance of coming from a profile that had too many words.

Use between three and five photos in your gallery. Galleries with more photos are more competitive, but after five they seem to pass a point of saturation and diminishing return.