Online dating is very popular.  It is a great way to meet women.  Making that first contact, though, can be intimidating.

Here are some great tips for making that first contact with a woman:

1. Use good grammar and spelling. Spelling errors and bad grammar are huge turn offs and can often tell a woman that you may not be too intelligent.  Everyone has spell check, so use it.  Also, punctuation is key if you want to understand what you are saying.  You try reading a paragraph without punctuation and see if you like it.

2. Don’t start out by saying how pretty she is or that she looks hot. Physical comments really don’t flatter.

3.  Don’t be afraid to be a goof ball with your greeting. If you can come up with a catchy greeting, she will be more likely to keep reading the rest of the message instead of hitting delete.

4.  Keep it to the site.  Don’t try to get her to IM you or email you off the site.  Many women see this as a bad sign and will delete your email without responding.

5.  Mention things from her profile. This lets her know you actually read her profile and that you are interested in her for a reason other than the way she looks or that you are not just mass emailing all the women you can.

These tips are all great things to keep in mind when composing that first email.  A woman who gets a well-written email from someone who seems to genuinely want to get to know her will respond in a positive manner.  Don’t turn her off by sending an email that is ill composed and generic.