This, from a man who read about my services on Match.com:

Dear Evan,

If 99% of a persons profile is being valued on only 5 items: age, height, body type, photo and job title, then how is writing or improving the profile text going to make any difference other than the extra 1% that makes up a profile?

YK

I would normally have ignored this email because I don't think this gentleman was looking for a straight answer. But if you know me, and you know that a letter like this cuts to the very soul of my business, you know that I had to reply:

Dear YK,

You're making the assumption that 99% of a person's profile is valued on age, height, body type, photo and job title, which is a faulty premise.

Not that I disagree that those are all super important. In fact, if someone isn't attracted to your photo, they would have no interest in writing to you from the get-go.

However, if we can presume that someone IS attracted to your photo, then that person is forced to make a choice between the scores of people to whom they're attracted. And if I'm looking at two identical twins and one of them has a bland essay and the other has a phenomenal essay, it's not even a choice who's gonna get my attention.

Moral of the story is not that the other stuff you mentioned doesn't matter - it does, tremendously. Rather, we at E-Cyrano are firm believers that once you've got someone hooked with a photo, the essay is the document that actually gets people to start typing. With hundreds of customer testimonials, I have a feeling we're on to something...

Best,

Evan

And, with that, I give you this month's...