Kind of paradoxically, men are very open minded or very even handed with their votes of women.

I know that shorter messages are better in terms of reply rate. The optimal length is something like 50 characters. Characters, not words.

Going to a site with more users seems obviously better to me, but at the same time, having a bland, middle of the road profile with bland, middle of the road pictures seems like a bad strategy to me.

Women are much more discriminating. I think both types of people are equally interested in having an attractive partner. But women essentially give the thumbs up to only half as many guys as guys giving the thumbs up to women.

Dudes have been making up stuff about themselves probably since there have been dudes.

Use correct grammar and punctuation. Do not use net speak, like WOT, W-O-T or U. Those messages get a lot lower reply rate.

Text is, in some ways, on the way out, unfortunately. There are dating sites now that are just pictures.