by Monica Who

Created on: January 13, 2009

Online dating is a phenomenon that has grown strong in the new millennium and continues to stay strong. More and more people are looking for love on the internet, and they're finding it too! My husband found me on the social networking site, Facebook.com, and we chatted and dated online before I relocated to Finland to marry him. We didn't meet on a dating site, but a lot of people are meeting and finding love on singles profiles online.

After you've set up profiles online and are waiting to receive emails from interested singles in your area, you really need to take some time to think about your dating style. For instance, how many dates does it take you to decide if you want to have a relationship with someone? If you make that decision after three to seven good dates, do you communicate your wishes for a more serious relationship to your partner? Or are you more of a passive dater, who sits back and lets the other person direct the flow of the relationship because you're scared that if you ask for what you really want, you would send your partner running the in the opposite direction?

I believe that it's absolutely vital that you express your intentions and expectations very early on when you first realize that you're sure you want to have a relationship with this person. Misunderstandings and miscommunication are impossible to avoid when you're cautiously trying to avoid discussing the relationship directly in the beginning.

"If you can't talk about the relationship you want to have with the person you're in a relationship with, then you're not in much of a relationship." Monica Who

Spend some time thinking about your personal dating style and how long it usually takes you to discover if you want to continue a relationship with a new person. If you have never fallen in love before, then you need to think of what length of time is reasonable for developing a strong emotional bond with someone, and you should consider how quickly you became friends with the people who are close to you in your life right now. Falling in love is a deeply romantic experience, but I haven't met anyone who is genuinely in love with their partner and doesn't also consider their partner their friend, so the way you make friends is going to be very similar to the way you fall in love.

Start a journal or private blog at the beginning of a new dating experience. Define for yourself how long it should reasonably take you to reach a decision about this person. Perhaps you will set six weeks

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