Laura and Alan

"His interests were similar so I contacted him. I thought, 'You can never have too many friends.'"

By Laura, Ontario, Canada

I found that at 49 years old unless you can meet someone through work it's hard to meet someone. I wasn't able to meet anyone through work, church, or friends. And, a lot of people are already married.

I had heard about online personals services and had tried quite a few of them. Yahoo! Canada Personals is my favorite because you can search by distance. Also, I like how detailed the search criteria are here and it's really easy to use. To be able to search by distance is great and the other search criteria are great too.

About finding my match

I was using Yahoo! Canada Personals for three months before I met Allan from New York. When I read his profile, his interests were similar so I contacted him. I thought, "You can never have too many friends." He asked me what I was looking for in a relationship. I said, "Till death do us part." And he said, "Me too!"

About our fist date

I wasn't nervous at all. I thought, "what the heck?" He brought me a beautiful bouquet of long-stem roses and they lasted two weeks! He says they lasted so long, because our relationship will last. We had breakfast, and talked about our kids and family. I was really impressed with him. He is soft and openhearted and our values are the same.

About our plans for the future

We've been together for 14 months we are planning to get married but are just waiting for Allan to retire. We haven't decided where we are going to live yet.

Yahoo! Personals Success Tips

Time for a warm-up: Consider rewriting your profile intro to make it sizzle. Experiment with words such as flirt, passion, cuddly, romantic, huggable, vibrant, enticing, spicy and alluring.

Chat it up: Talk for a long time on email and the phone before you meet in person. It makes a difference because you'll feel like old friends getting together for a reunion and you won't be prone to making snap judgments about the other person.

Use Icebreakers, they're a nice way to let someone know you're interested!

Discover what matters most: Online dating is all about choice. Look beyond a person's words and appearance to find out what they're really matters them. Compare their interests with yours. Friendships and relationships grow and thrive based on what you have in common as well as what you don't.