Creating and Testing Tinder Openers

She swiped right because she was attracted, now show her you’re worth talking to

For every online dating opener I come up with that consistently generates responses, there are probably about three to five that I’ve thrown out due to poor response rates. But going through that trial and error is the only way to get to the openers that do work well.

So, over the last week, I came up with three new openers and sent each one to 10 different matches on Tinder to see how they’d fare.

1. I am running a parody campaign for Donald Trump

Result: 4/10 responses

This one didn’t go over too well. With the way The Donald has berated women over the years, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that evoking his name didn’t work.

2. I’m a homeless catfisher

It’s always a good sign when they play along.

I guess she was visiting the U.S., because now Tinder says she’s 4,000 miles away. Even though the opener didn’t quite land, the fact that she followed up with four messages is a good sign. (The peanut butter comment refers to a line in my Tinder bio).

Result: 5/10 responses?

A little better in terms of response rate, but the quality of responses left something to be desired.

3. Quotes from The Notebook

Result: 4/10 responses

This one also had a poor showing. Some of the quotes from the book sound more like Kathy Bates’s character in Misery rather than Ryan Gosling’s character.

On a more traditional online dating site or app, such as OkCupid, a good response rate is about 30 percent; however, since Tinder users have to swipe right on each other before being able to message, response rates are usually much higher.

Always create messages that you think are compelling, or you are interested in hearing responses to; even if they don’t work, at least you have the self-amusement aspect. You can’t judge yourself based on how a sample of Tinder matches react, whether good or bad.