Believe it or not, online dating today is a $2 billion industry, and 1 in 5 relationships these days began online. Being deeply interested in human psychology and a hustler by nature and after hearing numerous complaints by my guy friends about not getting enough matches on online dating app Tinder, I wondered if I could ‘hack’ Tinder to try and get more matches, both in quality and quantity.

This Tinder hack got me 100 plus matches in less than 9 days, more Tinder dates than you’ll ever go on.

A picture of me upfront on my Tinder profile just as everyone else would mathematically give me a 50:50 chance.

Realistically speaking, an average male hardly generates 1–2 matches a day. Data suggests that right swipes are even rarer, at less than 2%, for the average Indian male. Tinder is, at its most basic level, a game where the cards are stacked in favour of spectacularly good-looking, photogenic men.

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Step 1: I defined my first win as getting the girl to spend at least 3–4 seconds more on my pic than she would otherwise.

This mimics one of the central concepts of marketing and sales. I could have done what every guy does and posted a picture of me. Instead, since I’m good with words and deep thinking, I posted a quirky note and tried to keep it conversational and genuine.

Step 2: I searched online for what women generally look for, and sought to re-assure them beforehand that I was all that they were looking for, and more.

Smart, intelligent and sweet are supposedly the characteristics women most look for in men. I ended the second picture with another call to action as the prospect, at each stage must know what is expected of him/her. I asked the girl to swipe right and to agree to a coffee if I looked anything like a nice person. Prospects need to be kept informed at all times regarding the ‘why’ of what they are doing, and by telling them that I was relatively new in the city and presumably without friends, I gave them another reason to say yes.

Step 3: Now that expectations of physical beauty have been significantly lowered, any average looking Joe should realistically hit the bull’s eye.

The quantity of my matches went up like crazy and much more importantly, as did the quality. a vast majority of these women initiated the conversations themselves which as we men all know, NEVER happens. Some even said that this was the first time that they felt they couldn’t actually resist texting a guy!

Then there are certain tips you can keep in mind to follow as rules of thumb.

Photo: Stay away from group pics and brightly-lit pics with you smiling genuinely into the camera should do very well indeed.

Bios: Since I’m a very casual and fun-loving guy, I tried being funny in my bio as well, as a reflection of my personality. This gives you the upper hand pretty early from where on, you don’t even have to try and impress the girl unlike what usually ensues.

Warning: The best Tinder hack still remains spectacularly good looks.

b’All Images Courtesy:xc2xa0′

So this was basically how I changed the game in my favour by turning around the conversation in the prospect’s head from: “An above-average looking, normal guy,” (swipes left in a flash) to “Oooh, here’s something different. A smart, successful guy with a cute face. And, funny. Yes, definitely funny. Coffee? Hell, I’d marry him!”

Get cracking and try it out.

The article was originally published here | Masthead Source: theverge.com