Did You Just Waste Time Getting New Tinder Photos? No.

Have you recently updated your Tinder photos? Did that result in the change you wanted? If you’re reading this, my guess is not. You put all that effort into… nothing.

Still the same zero matches.

When you’re starting, getting to any matches can seem like an impossible large mountain to climb. At least that’s how it felt to me in 2022 when I first really started working on my Tinder profile.

When you update your photos just to get the same zero matches, it feels like all that effort is just wasted. I’ve been there.

But I’ve also learned that no change in outcome isn’t the same as no progress. Here’s why.

Tinder is a threshold game

What I’ve learned, Tinder is ultimately a threshold game meaning that you get matches if you are above a certain level. The more you are above that line, the more matches you tend to get. Now, you can probably see that if you are starting and you aren’t yet over girls’ threshold, you will get no matches. Zero.

The important note here is that you can improve and still get zero matches. Looking at the illustration, if you improve but are still not above the threshold line for tons of girls, you’ll still not get matches.

This is one of the worst traps if you decide to stop here thinking nothing happened. Because no change doesn’t mean zero progress. You learned and polished your skills to get to the current level. Now you improve on those skills to create even better photos for a better profile.

There is no single threshold you need to cross

Even nowadays my efforts don’t always improve my results in a way I wanted. So, I still sometimes feel that my improvement efforts are wasted.

But that’s normal. The threshold you need to cross isn’t a single line on a range from fucking ugly to a movie model profile. The level is different for each girl and is based on what they prefer and appreciate.

What matters is whether you are above the threshold level for girls or not, not how you get above it. If you have ripped six pack abs, that often gets you above the threshold. But I personally don’t have abs (and probably can’t get ones due to loose skin from drastic weight loss). Instead, I make myself stand out with attractive style and great photo quality. Those improvements raise myself from an average introvert to an above average guy that is above many girls’ swipe threshold.

And it all boils down to a preference. Some girls require ripped abs. Some prefer a cute smile, or a teasing smirk, and don’t mind the looks otherwise. For some, you need to show tons of money. For some, cute animals or maybe nerdy hobby. A rave subculture. Conveyed BDSM undertone. A cool surfer boy.

You get the idea? Focus on improving yourself to above average in a few areas, portray your authentic self in an attractive fashion, and you will get matches with girls who enjoy being with you.

At the same time, this is why even if you do improve your profile to the max, you won’t match with all girls. Not all girls like ripped abs. And that’s OK. We should be authentic, so we find those who would enjoy being with us despite or even because of all our weirdness.

Takeaway

The main thing to take away from here is this. If you keep improving your profile consistently for a long time, you are essentially guaranteed to get results eventually. The hard part here is not knowing how to improve, because you can read e.g. my blog series on how to do that. The hard part is being OK with unnoticeable improvements until your skills are at a level that can create a good enough profile to get the results you want.