Just yesterday we posted news of the upcoming marriage of two Zoosk users, Cleo and Bradley, from the beautiful state of Georgia. There’s a lot of love in Georgia, because today we have another Georgia romance to share. Nikita and Ryan met on Zoosk earlier this year and have been going steady ever since.

Ryan and I met on Zoosk a week before St.Patrick’s day and talked for hours and hours for a few days and decided to meet up and have seen each other every weekend since. Come July 17 we will have our 4 month anniversary. Things are going great and I think I may have found the person I’ve been waiting for. Thanks Zoosk! -Nikita from Georgia

Congrats Nikita and Ryan! We’re thrilled that you found one another on Zoosk. Do you have a Zoosk success story to share? If so, send us a summary of how you met your partner on Zoosk, along with a photo of the two of you, to success [at] zoosk [dot] com because we’d love to announce the good news!

What makes a successful online dating profile? At a recent Zoosk event in NYC, we caught up with Laurie Davis, online dating coach and founder of eFlirtExpert, to get the skinny on what makes a particular online dating profile stand out among the rest. Watch ZooskTV and learn!

Produced and directed by Juliette Tang.
Edited by Gairo Cuevas.
Music: “Follow” by R2D2, protected by a Creative Commons attribution license.

At a recent Zoosk event, we caught up with Debra Goldstein and Oliva Baniuszewicz, authors of Flirtexting: How to Text Your Way into his Heart. They give Zoosk their inside scoop on text message flirting! Here are the tips they offer on the art of texting, flirting, and the BPT – otherwise known as the “best possible text”!

Produced and directed by Juliette Tang
Edited by Gairo Cuevas
Appearances by Debra and Olivia of Flirtexting (TM).

Dating can be a bit stressful, but there is no need to freak out! Stay in control of your post-date emotions; don’t let those emotions control you! Watch this parochial video – first of its series, yay! – on how to NOT have a post-date heart attack, lovingly presented by Zoosk. <3

Written, directed, and narrated by Juliette Tang.
Edited by Earl Joseph Gonzales.

Zoosk congratulates another successful couple who met on our site!

Mike and I met on Zoosk in July 2008 and have been so happy! We have a wonderful 10 month old son, and he is the best thing we had ever done. We started talking through Zoosk, moved onto MSN, and then we then had a 3 hour phone call the same night. We met two days later, and the rest is history. We hit it off as soon as we met and love spending every minute together with our son. We are so happy and would like to thank Zoosk. If it wasn’t or you guys we wouldn’t be as happy as we are today. THANK YOU!!
-Danielle from the United Kingdom

Congratulations Danielle and Mike! Do you or someone you know have a Zoosk success story to share? Send your story to met [at] zoosk [dot] com! We’d love to share your happiness!

Yay for another Zoosk.com success story!

Congratulations Tiana and Daniel from Columbus, Ohio, for finding each other on Zoosk! Without further ado, behold their adorable love story, sent to us from lovely Tiana herself:

I met my dream man (and hopefully one day my husband) here on Zoosk on Christmas Eve, 2009. I had just gotten out of a 3-year relationship with my daughter’s father and decided to see what Zoosk was about! So I set up my profile and started to get winks and messages. I saw Daniel’s profile and was instantly attracted to him!  He had no shirt on and was covered in tattoos (and tattoos are really hot to me)!

The only problem was that I didn’t know if he would be interested in dating a black woman with two kids, knowing that he had no kids and that I was 4 years older. But I decided to leave him a message and I told him that I thought he was hot and that I loved his ink!  Well the next day, Christmas, I checked my messages and didn’t expect to hear anything from him. But there it was! A message from Daniel telling me that he thought I was a sexy chocolate mama! So that made me smile, of course.

So we started chatting on Facebook. Daniel told me wasn’t looking for a relationship at that time because he himself had also just gotten out of a three-year relationship too.  Neither of us had been involved with anyone for 8 months. He was more looking for a friend and I was okay with that. Since this was over the Christmas holidays, Daniel was in Tennessee at the time visiting family, while I was in Ohio. He told me that he would be coming back to Ohio within a week. He left me his number, but I didn’t call right away. When I finally called, his voice was amazing! We talked on the phone for 2 hours that night, and the next night we talked for 4 hours!

When we finally met, over a week later, our first date was great and simple, just drinks and laughing. Our second date was two days after my 34th birthday, and Daniel showed up with a huge bouquet of the most beautiful flowers I had ever seen! He was such a gentleman! He opened the car door and the restaurant door for me and was just great (and he is still doing that)! Soon his family started wondering who he was spending so much time with and coming home with smiles! So about 3 weeks later (and several home-cooked meals from me) I met his family. His dad took about 12 of us out for dinner and it has been amazing!

Daniel decided that I was wife material on Valentine’s Day! Our relationship is wonderful, so much so that one of my coworkers is already planning OUR WEDDING! I am so glad that I got on Zoosk and met Daniel and his wonderful family! They have welcomed me and my kids into their home, as my family did to Daniel.

And to think it all started with me loving his tattoos and having the courage to tell such a hot younger guy that I loved his ink!  Thank you Zoosk!

-Tiana W. from Columbus, Ohio

In her approach to dating Daniel, Tiana did a lot of things right:

(1) She says that she had “courage” enough to talk to Daniel, and that’s how their relationship started. Zoosk girls, let’s give Tiana a round of high-fives for making the first move.

(2) Daniel and Tiana chatted online first, before talking on the phone, and then they talked on the phone for a while before meeting in real life. It’s a good idea to take things slow in online dating and to make sure you actually have interest in someone before you meet in real life. Getting to know someone online also helps build momentum and excitement once you do meet IRL.

(3) Tiana was willing to let her relationship happen naturally. Both Tiana and Daniel had just gotten out of long-term relationships, so they kept things between them low-key at first. What started as friendship turned into love, and with love, it’s good to be patient and let things unfold naturally. Good things happen to those who wait.

So, Congrats Tiana and Daniel! You’re inspiring to us all. Send us your wedding pictures

PS: If you have a Zoosk success story you’d like to share about finding true love online, send it over to met [at] zoosk [dot] com and we’d love to feature your story on our blog! Best of luck, Zooskers! <3

Editing is your friend when it comes to online dating.

One of the most important aspects of online dating is composing the perfect letter. Your words are the key to someone’s heart. Last week, Matt received a letter from Julie. They have much in common, including a love of cats. He likes her a lot and wants to impress her with a response. But he has some initial trouble writing back. Luckily, he overcomes the obstacle through editing carefully! Watch as Matt edits his way from an awkward, semi-creepy message to one that is cute, smart, and sure to charm!

PS: Watch Julie’s original video to Matt, Part I, here. Watch more videos about online dating, love, and Zoosk, at ZooskTV!

Written and directed by Juliette Tang
Shot and edited by Earl Joseph Gonzales

Music: Wolfgang Amedeus Mozart – Marriage of Figaro (0:25-1:21), Gioachino Rossini – Largo Al Factotum [The Barber of Seville] (1:17-2:07), Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky – Romeo and Juliet Overture (2:03-2:11), Felix Mandelssohn – Symphony No. 4 in a Major ‘Italian’, Op. 90 (2:07-2:23), Franz Liszt – Hungarian Rhapsody No. 4 in E- flat Major (2:21-2:36), Wolfgang Amedeus Mozart – Marriage of Figaro (2:33-3:06). All public domain recordings via Wikipedia Sound/List and MusOpen. No rights reserved.

Another Zoosk.com online dating success story!

We’d like to extend an enormous congrats to Anne and Harry from West Lothian, UK! Anne found love on Zoosk and her online dating success story is adorable. Here’s what Anne had to say:

Hi! Just a short story about finding my love. I would never have believed it would happen to me! And in just the matter of a wink! This goes to show that it CAN happen… I was very lucky to find the love of my life in just a few days. He just winked back at me and that was the start of a beautiful love story for us. And he lived 140 miles away… but we love everything about each other and even like same food and also same dislikes. We could not believe it has happened and we both are very happy to tell our story and to let other people on Zoosk know that it can happen to them. Thank you all at Zoosk for bringing us together!

Sincerely,
Anne and Harry from West Lothian, UK

Congratulations Anne! Congratulations Harry! Zoosk loves receiving stories of couples successfully meeting on our site. Have you met your loved one on Zoosk? Send your success story to met [at] zoosk [dot] com and we’ll happily share it! Yippee!

Today we’d like to share the incredibly romantic success story between two Zooskers, Dave and Maria, who met on Zoosk last year and are getting married this upcoming October, on the anniversary of Dave’s parents. Congratulations Dave and Maria! We wish you all the happiness in the world!

I’ve been holding off on sending my success story because our story is still being written, but here goes: our story thus far.

I met Maria on Zoosk back in June of 2009. She had seen my profile many times, but had passed me up because of the considerable distance between us. I live in the southern suburbs of Philadelphia and she lives in the Bronx. However, she said my warm, big smile kept her coming back. Finally she sent me a wink and being a polite guy, I flirted back. Well the fireworks began almost immediately! We chatted and giggled and shared intimate details as if we’d been longtime, close friends for decades! Then, when I bought a webcam, we flirted “face to face” and had even more fun! We decided to view our unconventional, online contact as an advantage that allowed us to get to really know each other on deeper, strong levels without the steamy, physical aspect getting in the way and clouding things. We felt like we were 18th-century lovers corresponding by mail.

Well, it worked. We forged an unbreakable bond and fondness before we even met in person and then, once we got in the same room, our relationship exploded and flourished into the crazy, passionate romance we now share. I asked Maria to marry me on New Year’s eve 2009/2010 and she said “Of course!” She know wears the ring my maternal grandfather gave to my grandmother upon their engagement in 1928. Maria says she would not trade it for a million dollar ring and a million dollars. Maria is a high quality person.

I am scheduled to move to New York in June and our wedding is planned for Saturday, October 16th, 2010. The day after my parent’s anniversary (wed in 1949 and still going strong) and the day before my own birthday. Meeting Maria has completely changed my life into something so much better than I ever dared to wish upon a star for. I love her and will never let her go. And we have Zoosk to thank!

-Dave Beaver

Happy tidings, Dave and Maria. If any of you readers have a success story you’d like to share, send it to success [at] zoosk [dot] com and we’d love to feature it on our blog! Happiness should be shared, and we want to share yours.

George Miller, a famous psychology professor from Princeton University, determined the human mind can only remember about seven pieces of information. This can’t be right. When it comes to romance and dating, I can only remember three. It could be my ADD. It’s also likely that, as a long time bachelor now married, I have only gained three pieces of insight from some slowly wrought trial and error.  Remember how they say men mature slowly? Yeah, they forgot to mention the learning curve never ends. So here’s my 2 cents:

• Faith: I had a long career as a single man (with varying degrees of success and failure—okay, failure). And when I think about why many of my relationships fizzled it’s because I lacked one thing: faith in the relationship—and more importantly, faith in myself (i.e. “why would someone want to love me?”).   What does faith really mean? Part of it means accepting that life is unsettled, messy and unfinished. Embrace the surprises that life has to offer, and focus on just reinforcing the bond with your loved one. Don’t let fear of the unknown stunt your efforts. Know that real love can endure anything you throw at it. That’s faith.  If you love them, believe in it, and be okay with not being able to control every aspect of your romantic destiny.

• Judgment:  Faith is meaningless if you’re dating someone you know is bad for you; someone who has no interest in really working to be happy, or, especially, someone who’s just dating you for sex to fill a lonely void. To be in a successful relationship you have to really believe that you deserve it. If you do, you will attract someone who wants the same thing. Yes, it’s easier said then done. And it requires, in some cases, years of patience and fine-tuned discrimination. But never give your heart to someone you know doesn’t want to be in a relationship.  You’ll only be hurting both of you. If they say “I’m only going to hurt you in the end” believe them–they will. And you’re no Dr. Phil, so don’t try to reform them.

• Forgiveness: My own relationship with my wife is kind of easy. I adore her. Does she annoy me sometimes? Hell, yeah! But I always let the love between us take charge. And that means not holding onto things that will only fester down the road. Love should always be the reference point. I ask myself: “Would I rather be right, or happy?” Being right is great if you’re a mathematician, but not if you’re a lover.  This doesn’t mean I roll over every time. If I’m upset I deal with it. But again, let the love absorb the mistakes you both make—and never hold on to anger because it will only  be toxic. If you accept people are fallible then you understand the most important thing in the world: yourself.

About Jod Kaftan: A long recovering bachelor (some would say “lout”) who decided to make the leap and marry the girl he loved, Jod Kaftan is still figuring it all out–if only he’d follow his own advice. Jod is a contributing editor at the LA Times Magazine. He  has contributed to Rolling Stone, Salon, The Los Angeles Times and the New York Times. Follow Jod on Twitter at Jodspeed!