First impressions matter, especially when they aren’t in person. When the first thing a woman sees of you are those pictures you upload to the dating site and what little information you can fit in those maddeningly small boxes on the profile, how you’re coming off to her really counts. For that reason, you’re probably tempted to lie a little to make yourself stand out against all the other guys on the site vying for her attention. It’s alright, don’t worry. Every man and woman out there who has ever put a profile up on a dating site has lied at one point.

To make it really convincing and make it so that your lies aren’t found out the minute you meet her in person, you need to focus not so much on lying, but stretching the truth. Yes, there is a difference. Lying is completely omitting any shred of truth, whereas stretching the truth is taking aspects of something that’s true and just…modifying it a bit. It’s easy to see the difference now, right?

Small Lies Are Alright

Stretching the truth about small, almost insignificant little things is alright. White lies, so to speak, are perfectly fine on your profile. Things like the last time you went on a date, how often you go to the gym (as long as your body type somewhat supports this) and how many relationships you’ve had in the past are areas where strict honesty really isn’t necessary. Those are things that, unless she starts digging extensively into your past (she won’t), she won’t be able to figure out if they’re actually lies or not.

The things you shouldn’t lie about are the big things: what you do for a living, how close you live to her, and what you’re looking for in a relationship. Those are things that will lead to major issues down the road in your relationship should it come to light that you weren’t entirely truthful about them. It’s more trouble than it’s worth to lie in those cases, so be honest.

“Lying” with Pictures

Whatever you do, don’t use fake pictures. Women will see right through that, and some will even do a reverse-image search for the picture and find out if it’s fake. They’ll be so upset that you lied, it won’t matter how great your profile sounds. They won’t talk to you anymore. Though, making your pictures look as good as possible still counts. Don’t’ listen to what other men might tell you. Using Photoshop on your pictures is not lying. There’s no shame in wanting to make yourself look good, and unless you’re a photographer, you probably don’t have professional-grade equipment to take a picture that really highlights all of your best assets. Take a picture and then put it in Photoshop; adjust the lighting and the shadows and fix any blemishes you might have on your face. There are tutorials for this online, so a quick search can yield quite a few results on how to make you look great.