OK, it is not what it might sound like. You don’t date your computer when you say that you are dating online. There are real people involved somewhere in all that geeky-sounding term called online dating.

How do you do it? Well, you hook your computer to the internet (get some nerd to do it for you) and find a dating website review and choose a quality dating site or app. What is a dating website? IT IS A WEBSITE USED FOR DATING. That’s pretty much all I knew when I got involved in this stuff.

The reason I got into this stuff was because I kind of blew it with all the ladies in my small town XD. So I had to expand my reach. You know, make a fool of myself internationally this time. I have to confess now, that I am kind of an avid “dater”.

Not to brag, but I have gone on tonnes of dates and I always look for new and interesting people to date. I also went on tonnes of dating websites as well. They all kind of look the same. Think of them as Facebook but only for, like, the romance stuff.

Now there are different ways in which the dating websites attempt to make online dating happen. I am gonna be talking about this one website in particular called Hily.com and I am writing this Hily dating site review.

Why does a website even matter?

I am glad you asked! You are right in asking how does a website matter if all you need to do is go on a dating website and look for a “dateable” person. I mean, any and every website kind of has this feature; you make an account on it, look through profiles of interest and select the ones you find “dateable”. The website seems to be a passive medium in this whole process. Well, look here my naive friends, when you play football(or soccer :P), you want the ground to be trimmed and flat, don’t you? Or do you prefer playing in a ground full of potholes? It’s kind of like that. You need a nice playing field in the world of online dating. Some websites do a better job than others in this regard. Hily.com gives you a nice, level and smooth playing field.

OK OK! We get it! Tell us about Hily

Hily is an online dating website (if this term still confuses you, go read the first para). It has an app too which is working great so far on my android. So, you visit the website and jump through all the hoops which involves signing up to create an account. I will provide the details soon in this review.

Once you are all set, you are shown the profiles of other users to you. This is where the game begins. You can either “like” or “dislike” the profiles. Doesn’t seem like too much is going on right now, does it? Well, here comes the clever part.

You cannot send messages to the ladies until they “like” your profile too. Whaaat?! Yes, like in the real world, you need mutual interest in each other XD.

Guys, you are not shopping on Amazon by choosing a product off the shelves. There is a person involved here who, get this, may not be interested in you! The horror! Dont despair, yet, because this is your cue to spruce up your profile and raise your game.

Boys, online dating is competitive as heck. Get your game face on before heading into it.

Will Hily get me more dates?

The answer to that is “Yes” and “No”. It kind of depends on you. On hily, you are given a lot of tools for your dating arsenal. You have, different ways of beefing up your profile, setting preferences and a smooth interface for going through the profiles of other people.

Look at the picture above. You have got, like, two options for every profile, I think it’s difficult to get confused as to what you should be doing. You can also click on a profile to know more about the person. It kind of makes sense to know more about the person before you start dreaming about dating them.

Now, you may like as many profiles as you want. There is no limit (take that, Tinder!). But of course, the important thing would be if they like you back or not.

I know what you are thinking. Yes, I myself sifted through the profiles like a zombie liking most, if not all, of them hoping to get a “like” in return. It-might-take-a-while. What is the strategy here? So glad you asked! I call it “Like and Hope” -_-.

But if you do get a “like” back, it means that you have a “mutual like”. What next? You have unlocked the “message” mode of the website! You can send messages to that person. That’s pretty much it. It is now up to you as to how your interaction with the other person goes. Dont blow it now.

How to get started on Hily.com

1. Enter your basic information

2. Enter your birth date (I kinda feel that it should have been included in the first step)

3. Enter zip code

4. Upload Profile Picture

I think it should be pretty obvious what has to be done here. If not, dont worry, I got you. In the first step, you gotta enter details like your name, email id, etc. In the next step…OK, you should have gotten the idea by now. READ THE TEXT when signing up, you should be good then.

Got it…any advice for the newbies?

Once you are registered on Hily, go and get a couple of things straight. Look in the top-right corner. Do you see your profile pic? Good, then click the dots-like thing next to the pic. Then select “Settings”. Most of the fields you see would be very basic stuff. You are looking for these three options in particular:

• Status in relationship

• Type of relationship

• Purpose on the site

Click on the fields, select the option that applies to you and then you are done with the general settings. One more quick thing, go to the home page again, and click on the option “Set Filter”. You would see two options of interest here:

1. Set the gender, members of which you are seeking

2. Set the age range of the people you are seeking

This takes care of your profile in general. But let me tell you this. The game lies in the messaging part of hily. You might not get to see it for a while XD, but it pays to learn the tricks of the trade. Now, here’s where hily kind of lets you down.

You have all these wonderful options of uploading photos for the other person (the one that has “liked” you back) and send GIFs to them but there is no option for sending emojis or emoticons to them. That is kind of a bummer when you think about it.

I like chatting on Facebook messenger and half of my texting consists of emoticons and stickers. You know, it’s a better way of expressing yourself than just text (even though you might feel like a teenager who just hit puberty).

I hope the developers implement this option in the future. Moving on, the messaging interface is quite simple, keeping in spirit with the rest of the site. It has a tinder-like feel to it.

Since you don’t have emojis, make use of the regular characters to create your own emojis! Be creative! Believe me, the ladies will love that. There are many different websites that will show you how to create “ASCII emoticons”. That is just a fancy-looking term for what I am talking about.

Bottomline

Online dating is tough; don’t let anyone fool you into believing otherwise. Think of yourself as a lone hunter. Know your territory. And It helps if the territory is nice and straightforward. Hily is just that. Is that going to be enough? The simple answer is no. You need to have the right tools and also know how to use them effectively. If you are new to online dating, hily is definitely the place to start. So stay sharp and it just might lead to some good things ;).