How to Know When a Man is Interested
Bill on May 19th 2008 09:03 pm
The following post was guest blogged by Bill G. of Web Personals Online – an online dating and personals site that provides advice about using online personals effectively and successfully.
Is He Really Interested?
Women who use online personals have a number of hurdles to overcome to determine whether the responses they are receiving are from genuinely interested parties or from individuals who may not be as interested as they are in pursuing a relationship.
The following post will address some of the issues that women who are using online dating services must deal with and will also attempt to offer some insight on how to realize when a man is interested, as well as what guys are looking for when they respond to online personal ads placed by women.
From a Man's Point of View
From a man’s perspective, there is typically much more competition for the women at any given online dating site. This is because more men than women use online dating sites. The result is that women are often presented with two types of responses to their online dating ads.
The first kind of response they are likely to receive is the type from guys who just ‘play the numbers.’ These are men who figure that because there is so much competition they may as well respond to as many profiles as possible and hope that they receive some responses.
Women should be on the lookout for real short, terse, and somewhat generic responses to their personal ads and pay close attention to the content of the responses they receive to try to determine if the guy even took the time to read the woman’s profile.
One good idea for women who are joining an online dating site is to join with a friend and compare notes. For instance, if the woman and her friend are both receiving similar responses from the same male members this is a pretty good indication that these guys are just ‘playing the odds.’ Typically, these guys are more interested in casual encounters and may not be looking for anything more than a one-night stand.
Although there are exceptions, women should be very judicious in determining who they respond to.
When a Man is Interested
The second type of response a woman is likely to receive is from a man who may be genuinely interested in her and took the time to find out about her by reading her profile before responding to her online dating ad.
A man who is genuinely interested in meeting a woman at an online dating site for a potential relationship will be much more likely to read her entire profile and actually be interested in what she has to say. Women need to evaluate the responses they receive from men to determine if the response is from a guy who falls into this second group. The content of the response should be enough to determine if the guy actually falls into this second group.
Women should look for comments about specific items in her profile in the man’s response, which would indicate that he took the time to read her profile. Another positive sign that the response may be from a genuinely interested member is if there are questions related to the woman’s profile, personality, her hobbies, or interests that she mentioned in her ad.
If the guy is soliciting more information from her, this should indicate that there is genuine interest on his part. There is a much higher probability that if the man is from this second group that future communication could lead to something more. Men from this second group are typically more serious and selective.
When a Man Stops Calling
A common complaint from women who use online personals is that men they have met online sometimes stop communicating with them or that when things seem to be going well, the guy stops calling.
Typically if a guy is from the first group, he may be more interested in making a quick score. If the guy treats online dating like a numbers game, the woman who thinks he is genuinely interested in her may not realize that as soon as he receives a response from someone who he finds more attractive or potentially easier to seduce, he may drop her without warning or explanation.
Guys who are interested in pursuing a more serious relationship often provide longer responses, comment on specific items in the woman’s profile and ask questions that indicate they are interested in getting to know the woman on a deeper level.
By focusing on communicating with guys from the second group mentioned above, the success rate for women who use online dating sites should definitely improve and there should be less chance of a guy who seemed interested, at first, losing interest later on.
Don't miss a thing on Successful Online Dating! Subscribe to our RSS Feed.
Filed in Dating Advice / Tips, For Guys, Red Flags, Relationships | Comments (5)

























Well it's very easy to tell if a guy is really interested with a girl..For me, if I'm interested with my date, I will be calling her the following day to ask for another date again then do an everyday text asking her if she got a good rest/sleep, that's it…
Well, that was an interesting article but it didn't answer the question how to know when a man is interested! I've met one guy in real life after "meeting" online. We still email but it is hard to know if he is interested. He's shy and a Pisces, who are supposed to be notorious about not showing how they feel. I really like this guy but am starting to feel that he's a waste of time…like he just wants an email pal.
[...] [18] Sites you may be interested in » Time between Relationships Advice, Dating Online PersonalsHow to Tell If a Man is Interested in You | Successful Online Dating Tags > No Tags < This product is also listed in Society & Culture New Products Love [...]
Hi. I was emailing a guy on a dating website, whereby, he started emailing me first. We got talking and it turned out we had hobbies in common. Days went by and we started chatting online and then for the past three days he has stopped. He invited me to go to his sports club with him and as soon as I replied back, asking when he'd like to meet up just to let me know, I haven't heard back from him. I felt really disappointed. Would one suggest that he's not interested?
@Hi Rebecca - It's too bad he backed out on you, but unfortunately that's not uncommon. Some guys get cold feet when it comes down to actually meeting.
Whatever you do, don't blame yourself - it's obvious he has some kind of issue even though he was interested in you. Maybe he wasn't as ready as he thought he was to meet someone new.
The best thing to do is write him off and move on. He's not the right one for you - and you have plenty of other fish in the sea to check out!
Hang in there. I'm happy to say that there are lots of online dating success stories, and I hope you'll write back after you've found your true love!
Kay