While we have strong opinions about the people we interact with at home or at work, you may be surprised to learn that people find it quite difficult to describe themselves. Describing yourself on paper is especially important when it comes to creating your online dating profile or profiles on matchmaking sites.

You are not only expected to describe yourself, but to do so in such a way as to attract the right people to show interest or respond positively when you reach the people you are interested in.

These are some of the 4 common mistakes to avoid when describing yourself.

1. Play your own trumpet

The purpose of your online profile is to describe your personality, lifestyle, interests, and expectations. The idea is to sound like a real human being with an emphasis on sounding genuine. Avoid filling your profile with adjectives or trying to project an exaggerated view of who you are. Nobody likes people who take themselves too seriously. Even if you truly are God’s gift to mankind, project a little humility when you write about yourself.

2. Hit yourself

While humility is always appreciated, there is no need to berate yourself in an attempt to sound genuine. Mentioning every little physical flaw, personality quirk, family problem (even if it’s just a passing reference), fears or frustrations, past failings, and failed relationships should definitely be avoided. It doesn’t make sense to reject people sharing an unbalanced view of all the things that didn’t work out in your life.

3. Focusing too much on your material possessions

Even though the world around you is materialistic and money attracts people, control your urge to show off your wealth. Having a profile picture with your fancy supercar in the background or on your Million Dollar yacht sends all the wrong signals and will likely attract people who may be more interested in your wealth. If you’re rich, you don’t need to mention it through your profile picture or in your profile writing. You always have the option of evaluating people based on the criteria offered by the matchmaking or dating site you may be using if you are interested in dating or marriage with people of similar social status.

4. Not paying attention to spelling and grammar

When writing about yourself, pay attention to spelling and grammar. Having a well-written, coherent profile that is free of spelling and grammatical errors is a fundamental requirement for creating a good first impression. That’s not all, filling your profile description with jargon, acronyms, truncated words will convey to people that you are not a serious person worth responding to.

Start treating your online profile seriously and invest time and effort to avoid these common mistakes if you are serious about creating an attractive online profile for dating or marriage.