How to write a bio that gets matches
Struggling to get matches? Before blaming the algorithm, look at your own bio. It is the one lever entirely in your hands — and it is exactly where most profiles fall apart.
Here is a method you can use straight away.
1. The basic rule: show, don’t tell
Bad: «I love travelling.»
Good: «I just got back from thirty-eight days walking a long trail; I still walk an hour before work.»
The second sentence is specific. It gives someone a handle («what was the trail like?»), it reveals a trait, and it filters in the right direction.
The rule: if half the users on the app could copy your sentence, delete it.
2. Seven clichés to cut
- «I love the sea and going out»
- «Simple and genuine»
- «I enjoy the good things in life»
- «Not looking for anything casual»
- «Quality over quantity»
- «Family comes first»
- «Just ask»
Why these hurt you: they rule nobody out. And the point of a good bio, oddly enough, is to push away the people who don’t fit, so that the ones who do become visible.
3. Structure: four to six lines
A good bio fits in four to six lines. Beyond that, people scroll past.
- Line 1: something concrete you are doing right now — a project, a habit, a recent discovery.
- Line 2: your work or your main interest, said like a human being, not like a job application.
- Line 3: something funny, a bit of distance from yourself.
- Line 4: what you are looking for, precisely — not «a serious relationship», but «someone who can argue without raising their voice and read on the sofa on a rainy Sunday».
- Optional: a small challenge or an opening question.
- Optional: one line you won’t cross — the filter the app doesn’t set for you.
4. Two examples that work
Six months ago I put a pottery wheel in the garage. I have discovered that I am terrible at it and that it calms me down more than meditation ever did.
By day I work with data. In the evening I run in the park and watch films with subtitles.
I’m looking for someone who knows why they like what they like. Bonus points if you can explain why your favourite director is overrated.
No long distance — I don’t have the reserves for it.
I left university certain I would write the program that changed the world. I’m a consultant now and I learn guitar in the evenings — humbler.
Three things that make me laugh: old stand-up, cats slipping on wooden floors, and my own attempts at Thai food.
I’m looking for something serious — no rush, but real. Someone who can keep a conversation going until dessert without glancing at their phone.
5. Apps don’t like empty profiles
Today’s algorithms recognise a thin bio and show it less often. An empty bio costs you twice: fewer matches when you are seen, and fewer chances of being seen at all.
On Mad2Moi, what counts is both the length of the description and the presence of distinctive words: concrete interests, values, a trait that stands out.
6. Speaking to the reader, or not
A small detail that changes everything: addressing the reader directly («if you’re reading this, say yes to…») works far better than distant phrasing or talking about yourself in the third person.
Good: «If you have ever assembled a wardrobe by the instructions at one in the morning, we’ll get along.»
Bad: «Sarah, 35, likes DIY and good food.»
7. Photos and bio are one piece
Your bio should talk to your photos. If there is a summit shot, name the next mountain. If you are posing with an instrument, say what you play and when.
A profile whose photos and text contradict each other — «I value simplicity» next to a picture in a dinner jacket on a yacht — breeds suspicion.
In practice
- Write your bio in ten minutes, without endless polishing. What’s alive wins.
- Get two friends to read it; they will tell you whether it convinces or sounds like a cliché.
- Revise after a week: if nothing comes back, the problem is usually the bio or the main photo, not the content of your messages.
On Mad2Moi you can change your description at any time from your profile settings; every change goes through moderation.
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