TIPS FOR THE LONELY ONLINE MALE =============================== Hello again. First off, I'm hardly an expert although I've got a lot of experience with being online...and lonely a lot of the time. You don't need to be a guy to read this and even so these tips aren't truly suited for everyone either. But perhaps some of my own insights and experiences might save you a little heartache or help you to be calm about being single/lonely until someone who can see how special you are happens into your life. OK, now I'm aiming to do this so that it sounds witty but parts of it are going to sound a little skeptical maybe. I am a romantic at heart, I believe in possibilities, and I'm fairly optimistic without being sunny and overly-sappy. So hopefully my tone in here doesn't rub you the wrong way at any point. These tips are targetted for the type of guy who finds himself either getting dumped out of the blue. Or maybe you have both love to give & social anxiety cancelling each other out so you've never had a meaningful past relationship yet...I've got friends in that boat so it's nothing to be ashamed of here. Or maybe you're even a bit like me, what women refer to as "an acquired taste". Whatever the core reason, it doesn't matter too much at this stage, so strap yourself in and here we go... Personal Ads. Posting an ad online isn't for everyone, however it can be an excellent source of rewarding conversation if done right. Don't pin all of your hopes on a posted ad either, you might not find your ideal woman this way (although that is possible if you're extremely fortunate), but if you follow my advice you'll improve your chances of that. I hate to admit it, but there's too many people online who are jaded or shallow or believe that since there's "plenty of fish in the sea" that they'll find something better by passing you up. So to weed out as many as those people as possible, you're going to have to be honest in your ad, the more the better...short of admitting anything like living with your parents. Just kidding. But if you're open and honest in your ad, then you improve your chances of finding someone genuinely interested in talking to you. The downside is that you'll feel vulnerable in doing this, and if no one at all replies to your ad after a week you're going to feel bad about it, but just leave the ad sitting there if you can since some interested woman may stumble across it and take a chance on emailing you about it. If not, then wait a couple of months or something and then write another ad from scratch or post it on a different site or something. You have nothing to lose since nobody in their right mind is going to write you an email just to make fun of you about your ad. Once again, ads aren't for everyone and personally I'm one of those guys that can barely stand the anxiety of writing one every couple of years. Ugh...but that's just me, so you should have a much easier time of it. Chatting. This is what most guys try first but it has its own ups and downs. What you're looking for out of the conversation will affect the chatroom you choose as well as your approach. If you're logging on and your ultimate goal is to pop online and find some quick cybersex then you're only going to get yourself hurt or disappointed. Meaningless cybersex with a random chat partner might feel good for a few hours while you're online with them, but once you part ways the lonliness will return stronger than before by the time you wake up the next morning. Also, it's nearly impossible to turn online sex into love and caring online since those things grow from rapport and friendship and not from one-night-stands. Besides, if you walk into the room and you're trying to be nice and some woman pounces you out of the blue, there's a possibility it's another guy, so be careful until you spend some time getting to know the person, even if it's just a couple of hours of conversation. Besides if you/they initiate cybersex early on in getting to know them, then it sends the message that you/they do it often and it means nothing special...so avoid that no matter how long it's been for you. If you're online just for an orgasm, then it's much more safe emotionally to just go surfing for porn, so get it out of your system and then slip into the chatrooms AFTER you're finished with the porn. Now you've just entered the chatroom. Be subtle. Don't be one of the guys walking in and saying, "are there any hot women who wanna chat?" Guys like that are a dime a dozen and you'll see one pop in every few minutes if you don't believe me. Instead, what you want to do is "catch the wave"...you'll see either a flood or a trickle of messages going by in the room, so start casually by commenting on something. You can start off by stretching and making a comment about the weather being good/bad, or something you're doing today, what's in your glass beside the computer, some plans for a movie...things like that make good openers. But don't expect a response, just be happy when you start getting responses. Also you can try replying to any messages you see people talking about, sometimes that works. Give it a whirl...there, you're not so lonely now are you? Cracking jokes works wonders, too, and you can be the life of the party if this is your strong suit. Now if you're interested in female companionship, then take an interest when you see a lady saying something in the room. For goodness sakes though, don't fake it...they'll see through it and you'll just feel frustrated when your hidden motives fail. So just enjoy the conversation and see where things go, don't expect miracles on the first couple of chats. We're aiming to have them shouting the equivalent of "NORM!!!" like in the TV show Cheers whenever you enter the chatroom. The more time you spend in a given room or on a given site, you'll start recognizing "regulars", the people that spend a lot of their time chatting there. Regulars tend to be the most stable sources of good conversation and if you log on at various times, you'll find regulars from each timezone that you can befriend. This is the online equivalent of hanging out and will get rid of that lonliness until that special someone comes along. Mature chatting. I'm not sure exactly what else to call this section, this is very strange advice and only a tiny percentage of guys will try or benefit from this. But let's suppose you've tried chatrooms and you want to speak to a woman but have a hard time getting or maintaining their attention or you're just having a hard time in the conversation because nobody is replying to you. My advice here is very specific, I've done this before many times, so if you're the right type of guy this will chase away the lonliness as well. Log onto an adult site that has a woman with a webcam there. You'll find some free sites around if you look. Now, you're not logging onto them in order to start touching yourself, this is about finding a woman to chat with. On the free sites especially, the lady in question is chatting and teasing a bit to entice you to spend money by ordering a membership for the deeper areas of the site or else to spend money to get her into a private session. So all she sees all day long is "Show us your tits! ASSSSSSSS!!! Bend over! Show me your toes, dammit! Blow me a kiss! Make me cum!!!" and other knuckle-dragging phrases. So keep your pants on or else if you get too excited you'l start becoming sexually aggressive just like the rest of the guys in the room. You can still watch her if you like and express appreciation or even flatter her, but your true goal in being here is to chat with her and to see if you can say something that will cause her to smile as a result and to respond to you. This is VERY good for the self-esteem and cures the lonely blues. Also, if a naked or semi-dressed woman can find you amusing and you see their face light up on their webcam because you made their dull day more fun by being nice, then surely you've got to see that you're not such a bad guy after all. So just chat with them like you would with someone that you bumped into, try to forget they're naked, try talking about anything interesting (besides sex) and you'll soon find them opening up to you a bit. Don't overstay your welcome though, so when you feel like you've been there for too long then tell them goodbye and do something else for a while, then check back in again with them later. If they recognize you and are happy to see you later in their shift then it means you made a good impression and they'll start looking forward to seeing more of you...ummmm no pun intended. You haven't made her a friend exactly, but things are friendly enough and as well as perking up her day, you also find yourself feeling better and smiling more. You can feel free to tell her about your failed lovelife, but try not to make a habit of it or else she'll quickly get tired of hearing you always talking about how being single sucks. Try it though, even once or twice, you'll be amazed with what you get out of it. I suppose if it doesn't work out for you as planned then at the very least you could sit there and try for that orgasm while watching the video feed, but the choice is yours. Personally, I always felt better about myself after chatting like this. If you find it makes you feel worse, then try something else and come back to this idea again in the future. Music. Your choice of music and the types of movies and games you choose to have fun with are going to affect your mood. Being lonely and renting a romantic comedy is just going to bum you out. Likewise, listening to a lot of female artists signing about how they've been hurt and are still looking for Mister Right is just going to wreak havoc with your emotions. You can find some good, lively music perhaps that might make you feel less depressed and lonely. You can also take the popular road of getting into angst bands or heavy metal...I've spent many nights with Linkin Park, Nine Inch Nails, Papa Roach, Metallica, Kiss, and hey tons of good bands that aren't actively romantic in their music. If you have sufficient privacy at home, you can plug in a microphone even and sing karaoke-style along with your favourite music. This may sound lame, but hearing your own voice integrated into the music like that can make you feel like you're a part of something...even if you're totally off-key you can still have fun and laugh at how goofy you sound. I've used this method of cheering myself up before, and while not as effective against those lonesome feelings, it can still boost your mood a little bit and get some frustration out of your system. Hmmmm, I could keep handing out advice like this for hours but you're probably tired of reading by now so I'll just wrap it up and post it. I've had some very successful past relationships, but unfortunately since I have trouble finding a woman truly interested in me, I've had to chalk up a lot of experience in how to remain positive and not to feel lonely even though I'm most often alone. I hope to continue this sometime since I still feel like I'm only scratching the surface so far. I hope I helped even a little bit and hopefully everything works out for you. Take care.