Whether it's your tagline, headline, username or the body of your profile, avoiding clichés is a must. Clichés are boring and old. People get sick of reading the same thing too many times.

In addition, clichés fail to explain anything. Saying you are a people-person doesn't say all that much. Do you enjoy interacting with all different types of people or are you just trying to say you are outgoing?

Here are some clichés and their alternatives:

Cliché: I know how to treat a woman.

Alternative: I'm very considerate and generous. I like to give compliments and praise people for their skills.

Cliché: I like to make people happy.

Alternative: I enjoy planning surprises and giving compliments.

Cliché: I like long walks on the beach.

Alternative: I enjoy walking and the outdoors—especially the beach.

Creativity and originality are effective methods of combating clichés in profiles. Using more original vocabulary is another way to avoid clichés. Instead of "looking for", use "seeking." Or, instead of "enjoys playing basketball," write "enjoys dribbling, shooting and scoring points on the basketball court."

Now that you have an idea, remember to avoid using these sorts of phrases in your profile. Try to think differently and be creative. Dating personals need to be unique in order to attract people. Profiles with the same dull phrases will be skipped over.

Originality and details make for a great profile. When people are searching and reading through online personals, uniqueness will catch their attention.

Some tips for being original include:

• Showcase the unique things about you. Are you into spelunking or merengue? People grow intrigued in people that seem interesting.
• Use unique phrasing. Jazz up your language with different verbs, adjectives and nouns. You can always use a thesaurus to help you out.
• Include things like: If I were a meal, I'd be a … While some of these might seem cheesy, they can be a great tool for creating originality in your profile. Just choose one that relates to one of your interests and explain why you'd be that person or object. For example, "If I were an animal, I'd be a crane because they are graceful and possess unique beauty."

For descriptions:

• Include details. Don't simply say, "I am nice." Instead say, "I am caring, because I volunteer 10 hours a week at an animal shelter."
• Avoid things like: "My friends say I look like a rock star." Or, "People always say I should be a model." It just doesn't sound believable. Instead say, "I resemble a rock star because of my clothing style, hairstyle and attitude."
• Pick interesting descriptions. Instead of, "I am fun," say, "I am always looking for adventure, for example I like cliff jumping and skydiving."

In order to have a great dating profile, you need to ensure grammatical and spelling accuracy. People are turned off by typos, lack of punctuation and other errors that can be easily avoided.

Try these tricks:

• Type your profile out before posting it online. Word processing programs will highlight spelling errors and most point out grammatical errors.
• Read your profile out loud. This will not only help you catch silly errors, but also allow you to catch overused phrases or words. Overused phrases and words hinder any and all personals.
• Have a friend or family member read your profile. Many times, we miss glaring mistakes because we read our own work very fast. Having a friend or relative look over your profile will help you recognize and correct errors you missed.
• Double check common words and contractions. Make sure you use "their" or "there" in the right context. The same goes with "your" and "you're."
• Use punctuation. Profiles that run on and on with no periods or commas look stupid and are intimidating to read.
• Use capitalization. As with not using punctuation, profiles without capitalization look unintelligent.
• Check every section of your profile for errors.

Headlines and taglines are essential for all profiles. Like a newspaper headline, it's what people will see and read first. When someone is searching through free personals and profiles, a headline can draw them in or send them away. Selecting a great headline is extremely important.

A headline or tagline is a way to promote yourself in a few words and convince people to read further by checking out your profile. Some ideas to consider when creating a headline or tagline include:

• Be Creative. Writing "Hi, My name is…" is boring and has been done countless times.
• Choose something intriguing. Mystery sparks curiosity, which will lead people to your profile.
• Be catchy. Use unique adjectives and verbs to create a catchy headline. For example, "This Dancing Girl is Ready To Salsa with a Jazzy Man."
• Avoid sounding desperate.
• Be optimistic in your headline. No one wants an Eeyore who is constantly grumbling about everything.
• Check your headline and tagline repeatedly. Make sure it's free of typos and misspellings.
• Check to see where your headline gets cutoff. If only a certain number of characters for your headline fit, "I'm really open-minded and friendly," can turn into "I'm really open."

Consider the style of your profile. If you want your profile to stand out from other single personals, you need to get creative.

Some good ideas for changing the style of your profile, and therefore standing out from other personals, is to try something different in the body of your profile. For example, you could use bulleted lists instead of just writing paragraphs. A good way to do this is to write, "I consider myself:" and then list each answer next to a bullet. If your online dating site doesn't allow for much structural change in your profile, simply use an asterisk and separate each one by hitting enter.

Or, you can separate bodies of information with blank lines. When a profile looks too long, people aren't going to read it. Put some brief background information in one paragraph, then add a space and have a paragraph about your interests and so on. You can even incorporate the list idea into this method, as well.

Just make sure that whatever stylistic changes you make, that they are sophisticated. A profile that is too flashy or busy is unappealing to the eye. Don't use lines of strange symbols or use excessive hearts made by using the number three and the less than arrow.