Dear Tamar,

I am not receiving any interest from men on 100hookup.  I sent out 8 e-cards and not one response.  My friend suggested that I change my age on the website and perhaps men would be less reluctant to reach out to me. I am determined to leave my correct age because I wouldn’t want to meet someone that opposed to my age without knowing me.  I am pretty, bright, own a business, and happy with my life.  What gives?

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Dear What Gives,

I agree with your friend about keeping your true age on your profile. You would be better off having your friend critique your photos and profile answers or sending me your profile name for me to give you an Extreme Profile Makeover. In the meantime, make sure you talk about being “young at heart” or “looking and feeling younger than [your] age” in your profile to combat the age issue and concern about reluctance from men.

Then, try some other techniques instead of relying on e-cards. Make sure you are viewing your prospects regularly so that they know you are interested, add them to your Favorites list, and then possibly initiate an email conversation. Again, you may not get a response but it may not be personal — it could be that the person is not a paid member and can’t read their messages. The only way to combat this is by playing the numbers game, meaning the more prospects you have the better the chance you will receive emails and responses.

100hookuprs are not shy about sharing their opinions — and the strongest and most popular one I get is about age. Check out a few of the emails I’ve received:

“I, at age 57, have had mostly older people (by 10 years) reach out to me. Even when I expressed that was too old because it was a different generation, a man lied and said he was 67. When I met him, he admitted to being 77. Don’t people ( I know women lie too) realize that once a lie is admitted you can’t start a relationship  with trust?”

“Tamar have you checked out the wishes of many men who qualify as one foot in the grave and one foot in a nursing home? Somehow I think these men have not looked in a mirror for at least forty years. When I see a 76-year-old gentleman looking for a woman 20-40, it gets me very nervous. The problem is these men have an overinflated idea of their looks and an underinflated idea of their age.”

I will advise this until I’m blue in the face: don’t lie about your age if you are serious about meeting someone because they will find out your real age eventually — so why fib about it to begin with? Just like the first 100hookupr above wrote, starting off with a lie is not a great way to build a successful relationship. That said, your preferred age range is just as important.

A ten-year gap is a general rule of thumb, but of course there are exceptions to that. If you are looking for someone more than twenty years older or younger than you, then I strongly encourage you to rethink what it is you are truly looking for in a partner and in a relationship.  

Apparently there’s this new “trend” of men lying about their age! And not just by a year or two, but by four or five years! Even one year is bad, but putting yourself in a different bracket (late 30s vs early 30s) is inexcusable and unforgivable. What’s the point? If you meet someone you like, you’re just going to have to come clean eventually… and then what is she going to think of you knowing that you lied?!

A woman won’t care how old you are if you are a quality guy, but she will care if you aren’t honest! There’s no reason to fudge about your age; be confident that your personality and character will outshine your age.

Dear Tamar,

I listed my correct age when I filled out my 100hookup profile, but I see that many men only want to meet women who are younger than them.  I don’t see why women should have to “settle” for much older men while men date much younger women.  Perhaps I should have lied about my age in filling my profile. Any suggestions?

Dear Age UN-Listed,

I don’t endorse lying about your age (or much else) but I get this question time and time again from women in their 30’s to women in their 80’s. I know it’s a problem and it has been for centuries… and it’s not fair. If you were to meet a man at a party then he wouldn’t know your age until he asked, but on 100hookup it’s not only one of the first things he sees but he can actually set his search preferences in such a way to eliminate women his own age!

So this is my advice to you — put your true age and then search for the men you are interested in. Look at their profiles and they will see that you did so. Send a flirt and even a message letting him know that although you may not fall into his preferred age range that you hope he’ll take a look.

And my advice to the men — age discrimination will only make you miss out on lots of fabulous women. Broaden your horizons and consider women even a couple of years older than you. It can’t hurt, right?