I've been meeting women using text-only ads since before the WWW, before the dial-up BBS days, all the way back to newspaper singles ads in the '80s. I'm closing successfully on CL to this day.

Here's what I've learned during decades of dating using only text ads (no picture.)

This concerns the period between ad writing and first meeting; all the TRP-recommended prepreparation of yourself beforehand and management afterward applies the same. My love life model is a main LTR girlfriend and a rotation of long-term plates, so it might not be calibrated for those seeking a high turnover of new plates. I'm willing to play the long game, which I find has brought me more durable and crash-resistant, less slutty plates than those which faster methods filter through.

When to use text-only ads First off, if you're getting your fill of high SMV women from standard approach and game, you probably don't want or need text-only game. It's not a substitute for building your in-person approach skills, but like a passive investment, it can really supplement your other activities.

• You might be outright cheating, or openly polyamorous with your partners but upholding a community front, but you don't want your face out there.
• Shyness, lack of confidence in your appearance, a dry spell; its another way to get yourself a toe in the marketplace, just don't neglect other channels.
• Several different searches running at the same time, offering variety and A/B testing of your mating strategy ideas and theories.

What DOESN'T work

• Short, generic ad One paragraph or less of boring stats and cliches, just like X dozen other ads she's seen today. You won't build enough interest to get a response with average text AND no picture.

• Ad Oneitis Running one ad till it expires before starting another is like serial monogamy. CL is a numbers game, you'll want several different ads running concurrently.

• Too forward about sex I can't tell you how many times and ways I've seen and been told, "I chose YOU because you were one of the few who didn't go straight to talking about sex!" You could be her personal ideal Chad Thundercock and she'd lump you in with all the others. In text game, going right to sex talk will work great for you over in M4M, but most women will ghost on you as soon as you start. Aim for a noncomittal public meeting ASAP, and start the escalation clock then, not when you first started chatting online.

• Too much attention before first meeting For text-only meeting, I recommend a more lenient schedule than regular online dating, and I have closed with women many weeks after first contact due to logistics. That said, there are LOTS of time bandits and validation seekers online that never intend to deliver, so try for a face to face meeting sooner than later, and throttle back communication with those who are good prospects but delaying. Texting for weeks/months, only to nope out on first sight, sucks.

Ad strategy CL is a numbers game. You want to run several ads concurrently, but keep the personae congruent with the same basic traits and preferences mentioned each time the ads roll over and are modified. There are regulars who will notice and start flagging off ALL of your ads if you're doing dumb things like posting all your different ads on the same day, or becoming blantly inconsistent when updating a given online persona. On the flip side, see if someone sends the same response to two or more rather different ads you're running; another channel of information.

• To anonymize, dither the particulars a bit, such as minus 0-3 inches, +/- 3 years. Stagger these ads over a several-week rotation. Be mindful of your local traffic, in big cities with busy personals sections this is easy; in small locales with a few ads posted a week it is impossible. Have a couple of different personae, have a few different "products" on the market at any given time. Think of yourself as an ad-man, selling the same product to very specific segments of the market in a very competitive area.

• I've found success with being VERY detailed and specific about what I'm looking for, and getting a small number of good self-preselected responses; rather than a short vague ad hoping to snare maximum responses without regard to matching well, which gets terrible matches if any at all. Invest some time in crafting good ads, modify and update these but save every version, and once you have a few for each persona, rotate them instead of reposting the same version every time they roll over. Detailed ads have a "long tail" of responses, sometimes long enough to have forgotten the particular ad; this never happens with short generic ads and they're often strong matches. 3-6 paragraphs is a sweet spot for length.

• A good ad catches the reader's attention with a scintillating opening, and is broken up into good paragraphs with headers or openers that entice the reader to continue. It will also include a call to action. Principles of marketing and advertising apply to marketing yourself too. Look at some of the mens' ads you are competing with; the bar isn't that high honestly, but with no picture, you need your words to smile, dance, and sing to her from the screen.

• Run some A/B testing, not only to refine your ads, but to test the validity and predictive value of your RP ideas and theories. Run a Chad Thundercock ad along with a Billy Beta Comfort ad, see how many respond, and what types to each. For example: "Strong arms to hold you all night" vs "Want to cuddle all night." I've tried marketing to a LOT of demographics over the decade, with some interesting results. Single moms, nerdy, chubby girls may emerge as willing plates, but don't assume you can market to them for easy pickings; nobody tolerates their SMV problems being appealed to, whatever these may be. Market your strengths in true RP style, but with an eye on what your customer wants. Variants of "Wants to cuddle" have probably gotten me invited into more fun beds than everything else combined.

• Beating Ad Oneitis by running several ads concurrently really harnesses the power of no-picture ads. You can also prearrange and stratify day and night plates by marketing different personae. "000 Freeway morning commuter, GET OFF at the XXX Exit" "Ride my bicycle built for two at the beach" "Love camping and hiking, watching the sunset together" "Go see a live band together" "Winter nights are for cuddling" "Sass me again like that and I might have to spank you" "College girl seeking mature part time boyfriend" all running in staggered rotation will provide an interesting mix of dates and new plates, mostly spread out evenly but with occasional storms of responses at once.

From contact to meeting

• First of all, learn to recognize bot responses, and NEVER click on links in an email. Have antivirus software in place, and preferably a cheap lappy for opening images; you're going to need to do this and I've gotten computer viruses, though never an STI yet.

• Send 1 or 2 good pictures with your first response; insist she send at least one by the second response; usually they send one initially though. Have a good canned first and second response, adding relevant info about her cleanly into the flow of it. There is a LOT of attrition before the meet stage, don't rewrite the Magna Carta from scratch for each first response.

• Undersell and overdeliver on your looks, in your writing and your pictures. The time to really WOW her is at first meeting.

• Expect people to want to email a LOT at first; you want to try to commit to a public meeting early on, THEN establish and enforce a text for logistics only rule. Its better to have a very brief face to face meeting in a very safe public place early on even if there's no chance of escalating to a longer date on the spot. I find this is more likely to lead to eventual closing with less wasted texting time overall than waiting for a longer, more potentially private date but later.

Whether you're cheating or openly polyamorous, experimenting/researching or just hedging your bets, shy/paranoid/up to no or too much good; whatever your reason it IS possible to meet women and sleep with them starting with text only, no pictures. It takes more patience and adjusted techniques to become effective and efficient at it, but in the age of Tinder it can still open bedroom doors for you.