If you’re looking to make the change from traditional dating apps to sugar platforms, you might benefit from some tips to convert your profile to sugar dating!
In this article, we’ll talk about catering your profile to your new target audience, learning how to talk to potential partners, and other differences to keep in mind while you make the transition!
Understanding the Key Differences Between Dating Apps and Sugar Dating
If you’ve become jaded or bored of dating apps, the good news is, that you’re about to enter a whole new dating world! Some of the differences may surprise you:
- The gender breakdown tends to be swapped. On traditional dating apps, women are typically bombarded with matches while men struggle to outcompete other guys on the platform. This is, in part, due to the gender breakdown on these sites, which attract more men than women. In sugar dating, on the other hand, this dynamic tends to be reversed, in that there are fewer sugar daddies than sugar babies. This means that women-identifying sugar babies may need to be more proactive in making connections than they would be used to on Tinder or Hinge.
- People on sugar dating apps get right to the point. Traditional dating usually includes a courtship process in which things like intimacy, future planning, and merging of families and social groups happen over a long period of time. Sugar dating, on the other hand, is direct and efficient. Each person is encouraged to state what they’re looking for at the very beginning and come to an agreement about whether they want to move forward. This conversation may include expectations for physical gifts, favors, emotional support, attendance at certain events, experiences, and more.
- Sugar dating apps often have a pay structure. In order to weed out bots, scammers, or salt daddies, sugar dating sites may offer paid features such as messaging and video call plans. Sugar babies usually do not have to pay for these kinds of services.
Motivation for Transitioning to Sugar Dating
If you’re looking for how to convert your profile for sugar dating, you probably already have an idea in your mind of potential benefits. But, there’s a long list of reasons why people switch from dating apps to sugar dating that you might not have considered!
- It can be more time-efficient. If you’re someone who struggles to see the point in spending weeks in the talking stage only to find out you don’t actually have chemistry with someone, you might find the efficiency of sugaring refreshing. In sugar dating, you can not only shorten the getting-to-know-you phase but also cut out the parts of a romantic relationship that you don’t enjoy.
- You can say goodbye to the dating games. In sugaring, there’s no need to play complicated emotional games like waiting to text back or playing hard-to-get.
- Sugaring can help your career. If you’re a sugar baby looking to make connections in your field or have someone successful look over your resume, you can find a sugar daddy who’s happy to help!
- It can feel less stressful than traditional dating. In sugaring, you don’t have to deal with many of the more stressful aspects of a romantic relationship, such as meeting the family or planning a future together.
- Sugaring can help you build other important life skills. Traditional dating can often leave you feeling vulnerable and self-conscious, whereas sugaring can help you practice valuable life skills such as negotiation, clear communication, and boundary-setting.
Setting Personal Goals for Sugar Dating
When transitioning from traditional dating to sugar dating, it can be helpful to have personal goals. Some common ones for sugar babies can include:
- Wanting more financial stability or independence (be as specific with this goal as possible, such as paying off certain debts or buying your own home!)
- Enjoying experiences that you wouldn’t be able to afford on your own, such as fine dining, wine tastings, luxury brand shopping, horseback riding, etc.
- Travel plans, either to nearby destinations or abroad
- Self-improvement goals, such as hiring a personal trainer, career coach, stylist, or mental health professional
- More free time to enjoy your hobbies, such as a craft, sport, time with friends and family, etc.
Increasing Profile Visibility
In order to meet your personal goals through sugaring, you’ll want to make sure that your profile allows you to shine on whatever platform you choose!
Selecting Appealing Photos
One of the most intimidating parts of putting together a sugar dating profile for many people is photo selection! But don’t sweat it! Here are a few tips for choosing the right photos for your profile:
- High quality & good lighting. Most smartphones these days have a good-quality camera, so take advantage! And consider taking your pictures in the early morning or around sunset to get that golden glow.
- Authentic pictures. Using face-altering filters can be off-putting and seen as disingenuous. So, stick with filter-free photos.
- No group photos. Your sugar partner wants to see you! So, make sure that your photos are not group pictures.
- Make sure you’re at ease. Even if you don’t feel entirely comfortable taking pictures, you’ll want to find a way to be comfortable and confident in your photos. That might mean planning a fun photoshoot with a friend or taking many pictures until you start to relax and feel more comfortable in front of the camera.
- Thoughtful setting. Bathroom selfies and elevator pictures may be cute for dating apps, but they generally don’t perform well on sugaring sites. You’ll have better luck with pictures that showcase you out in the world, such as at the beach, having brunch, or doing an outdoor activity you love.
Effective Profile Descriptions
Like on dating apps, your profile descriptions can play a big role in whether a potential partner feels compelled to learn more about you. So, here are a few tricks to making a lasting first impression:
- Stay positive, always. A sugar daddy won’t want to spend time with someone whose profile is full of negative comments such as “no salt daddies,” “no in-person dates” or “don’t waste my time.” That’s not to say that you shouldn’t state what you’re looking for, but consider how you can do so in a positive light with phrases like, “looking for a genuine connection” and “interested in an online relationship.”
- Focus more on what you can offer. You can hint at some of your non-negotiables in a sugar relationship, but remember that you can iron out the smaller details in your chat. Instead, focus more of your writing on what you can offer a sugar partner such as, “I’m a thoughtful, drama-free travel partner” or “I’m happy to make your work mixers more exciting.”
- Let your sense of humor shine through. A good sense of humor is a huge selling point to a sugar partner, so don’t hide it in your writing!
- End with a call to action. Finally, you’ll want to round out your sugar dating profile with a clear directive. You can say something like, “My inbox is waiting!” or “Let’s start planning our first date.”
Establishing Clear Expectations
On a dating app, you might not have thought about how to set clear expectations. But this is an essential part of sugaring. Luckily, you don’t have to go into this part blind. Here are some ways to set expectations.
Defining Relationship Goals
The first part of setting expectations and boundaries will be to talk about what you envision for a successful sugar relationship. You can start this conversation with phrases like:
- “I’m looking for a sugar partner who can meet once a week for an in-person date like a dinner or wine tasting. What does your availability look like?”
- “I’m interested in an online-only arrangement that would include things like video call dates, daily texting, and maybe a spicy photoshoot a few times per month. Are you looking for something similar?”
- “I’ve been dreaming about traveling more this year. What are your thoughts on travel? Is there anywhere that’s on your must-see list?”
As you can see, this part of the negotiation phase doesn’t have to be so business-like. Making it into a friendly conversation while still stating your desires is a great starting point.
Communication Style and Preferences
One other thing that many people find frustrating about dating apps is that it can be difficult to talk about communication style expectations. One person may text more than the other, leading to things like communication fatigue and eventual ghosting.
But in sugaring, you can feel comfortable bringing up how often you expect to talk to one another! In fact, you should factor in communication as part of the arrangement to avoid things like burnout and disappointment. You might introduce the conversation by saying something like:
- “I want to let you know that I can’t be on my phone at my day job so if I don’t text back between 9 and 5, I promise I’m not ignoring you!”
- “I know you’re pretty busy, so I wanted to ask how frequent you’d like our communication to be? I’m happy to send a couple of texts/photos per day or we can just talk to set up our next date.”
Enhancing Engagement Strategies (i.e. Boosting Your Success Beyond the First Message!)
It’s one thing to make yourself stand out on your sugaring profile, but how can you be sure that your initial sparks stay lit? It may feel a bit different than you may be used to on dating apps:
Initiating Conversations
One of the things that you may find most difficult about shifting from dating apps to sugaring apps is learning how to make the first move. This is especially true for women who may be accustomed to receiving many more matches than they can keep up with. But, as we mentioned, because there tend to be more sugar babies than sugar daddies, you’ll want to get comfortable with jumpstarting the conversation!
The biggest thing to keep in mind is that you’ll want to start with something more interesting than “hi.” Remember that sugar daddies may pay for messaging, so they won’t be tempted to respond to generic messages. Instead, you might start off saying something like, “Hey, I noticed from your profile pic that you’re an outdoorsy person. Do you have any hiking recommendations?”
Maintaining Interest
Maintaining interest will also challenge you to go out on a limb and put effort into the conversation. Here are a few considerations for keeping conversations going:
- Ask follow-up questions. Your partner will appreciate you showing interest in their life by probing deeper. Of course, you might want to say something like, “No pressure to talk about this if you don’t want to, but I’d love to hear more about…”
- Share details of your everyday life. Your sugar partner may enjoy getting a glimpse into your everyday goings-on, whether you’re cooking dinner or taking the dog for a walk. Even better if you could include little connections such as, “This made me think of you…” or “This is just like what we were talking about before!”
- Keep it flirty and suggestive but not explicit. Don’t overdo it with the spicy conversations so that you don’t oversaturate your partner. Instead, keep things playful and fun to keep them wanting more.
- Don’t get too heavy. Even though emotional intimacy may be a part of your arrangement, you don’t want your conversations to always revolve around heavy, dark topics. If you feel like the conversation has been sitting in a serious place for too long, consider introducing a fun conversation starter.
Reviewing and Refining Profiles
One thing that dating app profiles and sugar dating profiles have in common is that they’re not set in stone! So, you don’t have to worry about getting it exactly perfect the first time around. And, even if you’re very happy with your profile, it’s still a good idea to go back every once in a while and update it. Here are a few ways to keep your profile successful over time:
- Try out different taglines.
- Update your pictures as you change your hairstyle or upgrade your wardrobe.
- Have a friend look over your grammar, spelling, and writing style.
- Work in some current jokes or references, such as “Looking for a sugar daddy to help me cheer the [insert football team] into the playoffs” or “Cuffing season is upon us. If you don’t know what that means, I’ll be happy to show you ;)”.
Conclusion
As sugaring becomes a more popular alternative to traditional dating apps, we can be sure that more people will be looking for ways to convert their profile to sugar dating. So, don’t be shy about making the change; it could lead to great things!
