Hi.  I'm a subscriber to a popular online personals website.  I'm 23,
heterosexual, male, of normal height, attractive, and living in the
Northeast.  What should I expect the response rate to be for emails
that I send to prospective matches ?

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Clarification of Question by bill0917-ga on 20 May 2006 08:54 PDT

In response to sonoritygenius-ga:  The website I've been using is
Yahoo! Personals.  Does that help?  You can ignore the fact that I
said "attractive."  Let's just say there's nothing wrong or deformed
about my appearance, so I'm at least, "normal" or "average."  Does
this help at all?  I'm not looking for too academic of an answer. 
Even a rough guestimate would suffice.

In response to jack_of_few_trades-ga: thanks, I think those were good
points of advice, which I believe I was applying.

You assume yourself to be attractive.
Others may have varying opinions - affecting whether they contact you or not.

it all depends on the person viewing your profile and their interests.

I doubt a researcher can find the exact probability unless given the
site and # of subscribers and their demographics..etc etc..

P.S. Matching sites just get richer ;)

The response rate will increase with the following:

1) Contacting women who are likely to want to meet a guy like you.
    --Read what they're looking for, does your profile and email
suggest that you are the right kind of guy?

2) Contacting woman close to your town.

3) An email that shows that you read their profile thouroughly.
    --Pick out specifics in their profile that interest you.  Mention
why they grabbed your attention and ask questions related to things
they say about themselves.

4) A creative email.
    --Don't just say "Hi, you seem great.  Write back if you're
interested"... that won't win many gal's hearts.

5) A snazzy profile.
    --Make yourself stand out.  Why would they reply to you when 5
other guys with similar profiles wrote to them this week?

6) If you're on a site that requires the person to be a member to
reply to your email then send them an email address to contact you on,
that way even non-members can reply to you

That will increase your response rate, but of course many will still
not be interested or take the time to respond for whatever reason. 
Best of luck out there!