The other day, as I was leaving the office, I walked past a person who I had never seen before. We were walking toward each other, and we both smiled. I was left thinking about this beautiful, radiant person for several minutes after we had “met”.

When it comes to dating, online or traditional, we all strive to make the best impression possible. How excellent would it be to be able to make the impression that the woman at work made on me, on people you are interested in dating? It is possible, and I have studied the research to put together hints to help you to do just that.

This woman was not someone you wanted to know because she was super-model beautiful. As a matter of fact, she was quite overweight by traditional standards, and was pretty, but not striking. What was striking about her was the radiance, warmth, and put-together, comfortable in her own skin confidence that she projected.

Lets look at the facts: according to research, a person will judge you in 8-30 seconds. This is not long enough for you to impress them with your superior intelligence or stand-up-comedic stylings. Basically they look at you and make up their minds. There has been a great deal of formal and informal research published on the subject, and the consensus is that there are certain traits that most of us consider to be positive and certain traits we consider to be negative on first impression – useful information if you want to attract a potential dating partner. Remember, this information can also be applied in the creation of your online dating profile, which will be making a first impression for you!

The Good
When most of us meet a person, we notice the following positive traits:

• Fitness and attire – we are shallow to our cores, and looks ARE important. Not to say that a person has to look like a supermodel, but a put-together, comfortable but clean and attractive look will be more, well, attractive.

• Warmth, sincerity, humour – qualities that make a date more fun!

• Creativity and imagination – they make us more interesting and not quite “the same”

• Body language – good posture, standing up straight and sitting not quite straight all communicate confidence and competence

• Conversational Skills – true, these come into play later, but they will be important once you get past the first 30 seconds

• Kindness

• Aspiration and success – most of us want to date someone who is going somewhere.

The Bad

• A person who is self-centered - just no fun on that first date!

• Closed minded/judgmental people – these people are just unattractive

• Poor manners - leave us all with a bad taste in our mouths

• Poor conversational skills

• Negative life attitude

• Lack of education

• Immaturity (being immature is not the same as being boyishly, or girlishly charming)

• Lacking an opinion

• Lacking integrity

• Whining/complaining

• Shallow

• Only interested in sex

• Power games/manipulation

• Materialistic

Now that you know the principals of a good first impression, be sure to apply them to your online dating profile. Click here for more tips on creating a personals profile that stands out.

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contributed by Jerri-Lynne Cameron