I have to push back on Beverly a bit here. i would put the setup above almost everything else when it comes to first online.
Nobody warns you that first online depends so heavily on how much of it is real. Once I stopped worrying about the profile quality, first online got a lot simpler.
Concretely, for first online:
- keep the first message to two or three lines when it comes to first online
- rewrite your opener if nothing lands in a week on the first online side
- run one platform properly instead of five badly specifically for first online
- budget a solid month before deciding anything about first online
The part people underrate about first online is the hit rate. If how quickly you get going is not sorted, first online will not go anywhere.
I judge first online almost entirely on the hit rate now.
What decided it for me with first online was the signal-to-noise ratio.
Happy to expand on any part of first online dating site in history if it helps.