6. Never leave your food or beverages unattended.  Powerful new drugs exist that can make you prey to the other person's wishes and hardly recall anything in the morning.  If you start to feel ill, insist on calling a friend or taking a cab if you are too ill to drive home.

7. Don’t give out your home address to this person on the first meeting.   Don’t give out your phone number if you are uncomfortable.  

8. Be most careful when the chemistry or comfort level is highest. That is when many women throw caution to the wind. Don't do it.   Don't drink alcohol or limit yourself to one drink.  Always stay in control.

9. Get a cell phone and have it with you and handy.    Have change and at least $20 with you--preferably in a pocket or your bra. Just in case your purse is lifted.   

10. Think Ahead.  Know in advance where police and fire stations are so you know where you can get help if needed.  If your date follows you, make sure to drive to the nearest police station.  Anticipate some snags, and pre-plan your response.

11. If going to another town to meet your online friend, arrange for your own car and a hotel room. Do not disclose the name of your hotel, and never allow your date to make the arrangements for you. Rent a car at the airport and drive directly to your hotel. Call your date from the hotel or meet at the location you have already agreed to. If the location seems inappropriate or unsafe, go back to your hotel.

An important lesson: You may think this advice is overly cautious.  But it never hurts to be careful.   I have had one member that wrote me to take her off of the matchmaking system because she was accosted on a first meeting as she was getting into her car.   He was walking her to her car. She was a smart cookie , managed to get this man off of her, get his license plate and call the police.  This was someone with several years of karate experience that came in handy.  

Males:                     

1. Many females are careful about meeting a stranger.   Think about it, if it was your sister, would you want her meeting some guy she doesn't know.    Be understanding.   And don't be pushy.

2. Do not talk about ANYTHING related to sex.   Do NOT touch her other than shaking her hand upon meeting or upon departure.     Talking about sex, anything that has sexual connotations, or touching beyond a welcome handshake may make her feel uncomfortable.    

3. Don't ask a lot of personal information on the first meeting.

4. Read the female section above and think about the female you are meeting as if she was your sister.  Would you want her to feel uncomfortable?

5. Don't drink too much, be loud, obnoxious or use foul language.   This can paint you into being an angry and out of control person and may end your date quickly.  

Don't put too much pressure on yourself or the person you are meeting for the first time.
Planning a first meeting that's too long is a recipe for failure. Don't plan an entire day together and stay away from Friday and Saturday night meetings.   Keep it to an hour or two.   If things go well, there will be plenty of other opportunities to go out for a Saturday night date, and eventually on an all-day hike or spend hours antiquing through the countryside. 

Keep it light: Stay away from any intense issues or conversations. Don't interrogate your date, but do use this time as an opportunity to learn a bit more. Keep in mind, however, that many guys are more expressive in email than in person. If Motor mouth Mike  turns out to be the strong, silent type in person, it doesn't necessarily spell disaster. You might have to work a little harder to draw him out in person. But if he refuses to answer questions, or his behavior makes you at all uncomfortable, take that as a red flag and remove yourself from the situation.

Have fun. Remember to smile. People are perceived as more attractive when they are having a good time. Some of the top ways of making a good first impression are showing: warmth, a sense of humor, imagination, confidence, success, fitness, individuality, body language, conversational ability, creativity and kindness. You may not be a perfect 10 in all of those, but you can certainly make sure the areas you are strong in shine. And that's good advice not just for the dating world but for your whole life.  Don't be a know it all, and don't talk about things that are of no interest to the person you are meeting.    If you bore them, you may never see them again.

Caller ID   Some singles will use caller ID to acquire your telephone number without your permission. Scenario: you are out with friends when a guy approaches and says, "I'd really like to talk to you sometime. Call me if you ever feel like it."  He hands you his phone number.   Using caller ID, some single can get your phone number--even someone you might never give that number.      Now you would have never given him your home or  work number because you always have guys call a voice mail or your smart ring first for safety. But some lonely night you pick up the phone and call him.     He has caller ID and now he has your phone number.    Once he has your phone number, he might be able to get your address.     And once he has your address, he could hurt you.    Always press *67 before you call to disable his/her caller ID.    Or better yet, call the phone company and see if you can have caller ID permanently made "anonymous."  

Next: Red Flags

 The best places to meet people on the net today:  

American Singles Jump Start Your Love Life at American Singles with Free access to over 10 million profiles. Membership includes matching, instant messaging, tease, email and more. Singles can both post a personal profile and search other profiles without charge.

Match.com is the world's biggest online dating and personals site. View Photos of More than 15 million singles. FULL ACCESS to all the features of Match, including searching for singles, matching, and anonymous email.  More than twice as many marriages compared with any other site. More than 60,000 new people across six continents register on the Match every day. Exclusive Match Technology finds your most promising matches.  Save Time:   Venus delivers new Matches and Search profiles directly to your inbox. Check out the Match.com 3 Day Free Trial

Find Romance with Yahoo! Personals Yahoo Personals, is the second largest and one of the most popular personals services with over 10 million singles. Try Yahoo! Personals Premier's advanced searching and matching FREE. It's easy. All you need to do is complete a profile and to take the Yahoo! Personals Premier Relationship Test. Then you'll be able to Search and Match for a Relationship Fit rating with other Premier users

Fall In Love For All The Right Reasons Matching based on 35 years of research on successful relationships and marriages, and it is the only site that brings singles together using a scientifically-proven set of 29 compatibility principles.. Eharmony is an outgrowth of the general principles on marriage and relationships outlined by Dr. Neil Clark Warren in his books, seminars and clinical practice. Check out his books: Finding the Love of Your Life and How to Know if Someone is Worth Pursuing in Two Dates or Less.

Matchmaker has the world's largest database of singles and is one of the few services that offers a FREE TRIAL where you can use a majority of the features before you decide to join.  The FREE TRIAL lasts for a few weeks which gives you ample opportunity to see why they have the largest number of quality singles in your area.  This is the closest you will find to an dating service.  Old profiles are scrubbed from the system monthly.  (This is important.....why waste your time looking at old personals and people who come and go to never come back and check their mail?)  This is the most up to date system on the net.  If you live in a city with more than a million people, you will find the largest database of singles by city.  They have been successful at generating a large database because they have concentrated on "city sites".   This system has the most complete matching available with over 40 matching questions, an essay, anonymous email within the system and chat rooms.

Friendfinder as one of the largest Personals databases with over 5 million members! They have some unique features such as voice messaging and attaching a video to your ad. The site includes  anonymous email, active chat rooms, relationship magazine, cupid email reports, member browsing and searches. Targeted to singles looking for love, romance, and marriage. Find a date tonight at Friendfinder

Young Single Professionals   Meet other single professionals.  Programmers, Consultants, Project Manager, Doctors, Attorneys, Accountants, Architects, Engineers, Geologists, Business Owners, and hundreds of other professionals.  Free to browse.  Check it out!