đĄ Key Insights: * Prominent placement matters: On sites like PlentyOfFish and MillionaireMatch, headlines appear prominently in search results, making them critical first-impression elements. * Avoid common headline mistakes: Steer clear of generic greetings ("Hey"), obvious statements ("Looking for someone"), overly specific requirements, sexually explicit content, creepy terminology, desperate tones, and overly romantic clichĂ©s. * Create curiosity with incomplete stories: Headlines like "It all started when the Russian police invaded our hotel..." compel viewers to click your profile to learn more. * Use strategic punctuation: Ellipses (...) and question marks create a conversational tone and imply there's more to discover in your profile. * Borrow proven marketing tactics: Corporate taglines work because they're memorable and effectiveâadapt concepts like Apple's "Think Different" to showcase your personality. * Reference shared interests: Movie quotes, song lyrics, or book references can instantly connect you with women who share your tastes. * Inject humor when possible: Funny headlines like "Willing to lie about how we met" or "Free 30-Day Trial" stand out from the crowd and show personality. * Experiment and refine: Different headlines work for different audiencesâtesting various approaches helps you find what attracts your ideal matches. Coming up with a catchy dating headline stressing you out? For sites like PlentyOfFish [/pof-ultimate-guide/] and MillionaireMatch [/millionairematch] that use dating headlines, you've likely noticed they get prominent placement in search results. So a bad headline in your profile could mean she never reads the rest of it. THE PURPOSE OF YOUR DATING HEADLINE AND WHERE IT SHOWS UP VIDA's dating experts have been in the online dating trenches for over a decade - since 2009, to be exact. We've logged hundreds of thousands of hours on all the most popular dating apps, scrolling through profiles, sending messages, and arranging dates for the guys who use our service. With all that firsthand experience under our belts, we can say this definitively: Your dating headline is one of the first things on your profile that sets you apart from all the local guys you're in competition with. In fact, on some websites, itâs one of the first things a woman sees in her search results. So if youâre interested in optimizing your profile and getting her attention right off the bat, a catchy dating headline is absolutely essential to piquing a womanâs interest and getting her to click on your profile instead of the other guyâs. On POF and MillionaireMatch, headlines are almost impossible to miss, so yours needs to make a good first impression. Hereâs what search results look like on MillionaireMatch: See how that headline jumps out? Itâs the same on POF: Now weâre not going to make any snarky comment about these headlines. (But seriously, theyâre awful, donât use them). We just want you to see where they are and what they look like. If youâre not totally boring (and weâre guessing you arenât), you want something more interesting than just some variant of âhello.â But you probably arenât sure how to distill your entire personality into one phrase or sentence. First, let's start with what to avoid saying... STAY AWAY FROM THESE DATING HEADLINES Because the purpose of a headline is to get a woman interested, the worst thing you can do is be boring or one-dimensional. Below are some mistakes to avoid (and, sadly, actual headlines weâve seen). THE HEY/HI/HELLO HEADLINE Donât use some form of greeting. It is boring. It is lame. And believe us, everyone else thought of it first. THE CAPTAIN OBVIOUS HEADLINE You might in fact be a âSouthern gentleman looking for my cowgirl,â but â DUH. Thatâs why youâre on a dating site: because youâre looking to meet a woman. You might as well have said âIâm on here because I want to meet womenâ or âSingle and Ready to Mingle.â Use this rule of thumb: if itâs been printed on a mass-produced t-shirt, you might want to avoid it. THE MOST SPECIAL SNOWFLAKE HEADLINE Itâs great that youâre a vegan, a Jehovahâs Witness, a CrossFit enthusiast, and a CEO who only dates models. But if your headline is going to advertise how âuniqueâ you are â and how strict your parameters for the perfect woman can be â then donât expect to get many responses. âVegan biker and techie looking for blonde, in shape, environmentally conscious gluten-free artistâ isnât exactly going to reel âem all in. This is just a more annoying, particular variant of The Captain Obvious.  THE âIT AINâT EASY BEINâ SLEAZYâ HEADLINE Please donât include the phrase âDTFâ (or any of its variants) anywhere in your online dating profile. Your headline isnât the place to advertise that youâre only in the market for a friend with benefits. Keep it classy. If youâre not looking for something serious, thatâs fine. But youâll get better results if you keep the vibe on the up-and-up. THE CREEPY MCCREEPERSON HEADLINE You may think it absolutely hilarious to say that youâre âLooking For My Next Victimâ or to advertise yourself as âThe Original Ladykiller.â But trust us â you never want to use words like âvictimâ or âkillâ in your dating headline. Not even if you think itâs the funniest of all funny jokes. Youâll see much better ways to differentiate yourself with your headline in a bit. THE SADSACK HEADLINE Please donât represent yourself as a desperate loser burdened by years of baggage. You may well be âReady to Try One Last Timeâ (ouch) âLooking for someone to love meâ (yikes) or âBack on here⊠third timeâs the charmâ (oy) ⊠but think about the message youâre sending. The message youâre sending with headlines like these is that youâre unhappy, weighed down with tons of issues, and resigned to a sad fate of online dating. You may hate being single, but your online dating profile is not the place to advertise how depressed you are over this state of affairs. A better place to do that is on Facebook đ THE DIE-HARD ROMANTIC HEADLINE You may think that women will be swayed by your romanticism. But just because she liked The Notebook doesnât mean she wants to live in it. âAre you The One,â âLooking For Ms. Right,â âSearching for my Soulmateâ and âLove like thereâs no tomorrowâ are lame dating headlines. Do you really want the first impression you give to be that of a weeping, overly romantic saddo? CATCHY DATING HEADLINES THAT WORK Now that weâve told you what not to do, check out these helpful tips on how to market yourself successfully with your dating headline. First, think about what women want. Someone interesting, successful, cool and masculine and maybe a little dangerous. In other words, someone she'll want to know more about. Youâre not going to get a woman to fall desperately in love with you using only a headline, but you can definitely intrigue her. And the best way to do that is to create curiosity. Here are some ways to get her attention using a catchy profile headline. THE âHMMMâ HEADLINE Use your headline space to start an interesting or outlandish-sounding story. But donât finish it. Make her click over to your profile in hopes of knowing more. If you want to seem intriguing or mysterious, try to create a sense of adventure and international hijinks around yourself. What about ⊠* âIâll never do THAT againâŠâ * âIt all started when the Russian police invaded our hotelâŠâ * âIt only took 12 hours to end up in that Bahamian prisonâŠâ Now, this outlandish strategy works best on a woman who is seeking a little bit of a bad-boy, so if thatâs not your style, try doing this⊠THE WELL-PUNCTUATED HEADLINE Though the ideas above were all a little âout-there,â they all had one thing in common: the ellipses. This is an effective way to âtrail offâ and make a woman come to your profile so she can hear the rest. Itâs also effective to phrase your headline as a question. After all, the woman will then want to either know or provide the answer. Either way, ellipses and question marks make it seem like youâre having a conversation â without you even having to say anything directly. So if youâre not into the bad-boy thing, what about something like ⊠* âAdventure wanted⊠inquire withinâ * âFun? Single? Normal?â The former invites a woman to send you a message while the latter jokingly invites a woman to drop you a line if she is all of the above. THE CORPORATE TAGLINE HEADLINE Thereâs a reason Don Draper makes a million dollars and breaks a million hearts. He is good at what he does, which is selling things. If you canât think of an effective way to sell yourself, steal someone elseâs great idea. * âBuilt like a rockâ worked for Chevy, and suggests power and strength. * âOnce you pop, you just canât stopâ sounds just a tad naughty, but it was a highly effective way to sell more Pringles and makes your personality sound interesting and addictive. * âThink Differentâ helped build the Apple empire â thereâs no reason it canât work for you. THE âGET THE REFERENCE?â HEADLINE If youâre not comfortable using a corporate tagline, try referring to interests that might be mutual. * âYou talking to me?â is a classic movie reference, which attracts fellow cinephiles. Then again, Taxi Driver might not be the worldâs âsafestâ movie to reference đ * âFirst we take Manhattan, then we take Berlinâ offers an intriguing glimpse into a life of international adventure, and references one of the best songwriters of our time. Referring to your favorite thinkers, films, books, and songs can help build commonality with a woman. Plus it makes you sound pretty clever and well spoken.  THE INVERTED CLICHĂ HEADLINE We all know the phrase âwhen life gives you lemons, make lemonade.â But lemonade (and lemonade vodka, for the wild ones among you) is played out. If youâre into entertaining, why not go with something like: * âWhen life hands you lemons, squeeze them over some scallops and have everyone over for brunch.â * When life hands you lemons, squeeze them into the eye of your enemy and make a quick getaway.â This can work with even the most fulsome of clichĂ©s. THE âMAKE HER THINKâ HEADLINE If youâre trying to paint yourself as someone cool, innovative, badass, then write a headline that invites her into your world. What about ⊠* âBreaking free from the status quoâ * â9-5 refugee on the run from boringâ * âLetâs throw a dart at a mapâ Try a headline that suggests action, innovation, freedom, originality, and/or movement. Action words like ârun,â âthrow,â and âbreak free,â can go a long way in making you seem like a guy on the move.  THE âMAKE HER LAUGHâ HEADLINE Humor is subjective, of course. But if you can make her chuckle, youâve got it made. What about something like ⊠* âMagic 8-Ball Says: Definitelyâ * âWilling to lie about how we metâ * âMy mom says Iâm awesomeâ * âFree 30 Day Trialâ? These donât necessarily work for everybody, but theyâre cute, funny ideas to get you started on your journey to a perfect dating headline. DON'T BE AFRAID TO EXPERIMENT! Choosing the perfect catchy dating headline can be tough. But itâs okay to experiment! Try out a couple. Play with them a little. What works for one guy wonât necessarily work for his neighbor. And thatâs fine. After all, youâre trying to attract the women YOU find attractive. Thereâs a catchy dating headline out there for everyone and VIDA wants to help you maximize your potential. Remember our donâts: donât be boring, creepy, desperate, or sleazy ⊠and our doâs: do be funny, active, intriguing, or slightly mysterious. And above all, spell everything right. Thereâs nothing less sexy than a misspelled headline or profile. If youâre still having problems thinking up a great headline that encapsulates you, try our profile writing services, which takes all the work out of it for you. [/our-process/] Regardless of the headlines or tactics you choose, just have fun with it.