Blog Posts by Dan Juan

So I did ask out Kate again. And she did reply, which was exciting. We arranged to meet up the following week. Brilliant.

In the meantime, I was still in the midst of a few conversations with other girls on the dating site. I wasn't too bothered, I was sure none of them would be as nice as Kate. But I logged on occasionally when I received a message or a wink, just to see who was checking me out.

Whenever I did this - whether it was early before work, on Sunday lunchtime or after I'd got in from the pub — one thing was constant: Kate was 'online'.

Lovestruck, like most dating websites, has a function that shows you whenever someone is logged in. It means they're chatting, or perusing, or stalking someone. And Kate, it seemed, was doing at least one of these things regularly.

Since our date, I'd been online less. Not just because I'd found someone I liked but also because she'd know whenever I logged on. If you meet someone and you get on well, it doesn't give out the best signal when

My main beef with online dating sites is not that they're creepy or uncool or expensive. It's not even that they're rammed with fat weirdos and potential axe murderers. It's more simple than that: it's because I don't believe the girl of my dreams is on there.

I met about seven girls the last time I did online dating. They were all nice enough, a couple of them I continued seeing for a few weeks, but there was always something about them I didn't like. Either they were annoying, or clingy, or shapeless, or Tories. Whatever it was, they were imperfect - perhaps that's why they were touting themselves online in the first place — and it meant the experience was ultimately futile.

As such, I had little expectation when I turned up to meet Kate — the first date I arranged on the latest singleton supermarket I've joined, 'Lovestruck'. This website, I was encouraged to read in its tagline, is 'where busy professionals click'. I consider myself a busy professional, if you strip out the Yuppie

I just got a call from Ryan, a friend I have known for many years.

"What are you up to Dan?" he asks.

"I'm about to write my dating column for this week."

"What's it about?"

"Not sure yet... any ideas?"

Ryan ponders for a few seconds then says: "What about race?"

"Are you trying to get me the sack? Bloody terrible suggestion," I respond, disgusted.

He laughs. I think I know what he's driving at.

"You're saying that because you only fancy Asian girls, right?" I ask.

"Basically, yes," he says.

For as long as I have known Ryan, he has been obsessed with oriental women. His current girlfriend is Japanese, as were his previous two. And maybe there is something in this, I wonder. White men are seemingly fascinated with ladies from the Far East, it's a well-known phenomenon. So, although this seems like slightly risky ground, I decide to interview him. Why are you obsessed with Asian girls Ryan? Why? What's so special about them?

And these were the 10 reasons he gave me…

Appearance
"They are

About a year ago, I briefly signed up to an online dating site and revealed the results in this column. One year later I am still single, so I'm doing it again on a different website offering supposedly different methods of helping me have sex. I'll let you know how that goes. But in the meantime here are 10 online dating rules I've quickly been reminded of since my return...

1. Nine out of 10 approaches will be ignored
I presume everyone does the same thing when they join a dating website: Trawl through to find the best-looking people and then contact them. The problem is, because these grinning sorts are deluged with messages, they have the luxury of being very selective with their responses.

2. Carpet-bomb
You need the same strategy as applying for jobs or cold-calling pensioners: Cast the net wide and don't be fazed by rejection. Carpet bombing is described on Wikipedia as "a large aerial bombing done in a progressive manner to inflict damage in every part of a selected area of

So apparently Jennifer Aniston is taking a year off work to dedicate time to her new relationship with a guy called Justin Theroux, with whom she is 'extremely happy'.

That's a heart-warming tale, I think. Or is it weird?

I suppose it's one of the luxuries of being a wealthy celebrity that you can afford to stop working at any time to concentrate on something else, like love or surfing or going to rehab. Most of us need to fit romance in to our normal lives. Otherwise we'd be blissfully loved up but malnourished.

Above: Jennifer and Justin at the MTV Movie Awards after party in June.

Maybe if I'd spent more time listening to my last girlfriend's problems instead of going to work, we'd still be together now. Or perhaps if my ex-ex-girlfriend had dedicated entire days to making me spaghetti Bolognese, I wouldn't have lost interest in her.

[See also: How to find your perfect love match]

Jen clearly subscribes to the theory that quality time together is the key to a successful love life.

I recently saw a news story about a dating website for beautiful people being hacked, resulting in lots of ugly singletons signing up and subsequently being booted off once the technical glitch was fixed.

It seemed like a shameless publicity stunt. Anyway, I decided to give them more free publicity by attempting to sign up to the site myself and date a beautiful person — just to see what would happen.

After uploading a photo, I was told I should wait for my application to be judged and that only successful applicants were allowed to browse the site. In other words: Not only can ugly people not join, they can't even look.

At least a hungry tramp can stand at the window of Yo Sushi gazing in, but this was a gated community where residents wanted to be safe from the ogres outside.

Days went past and I heard nothing. Naturally, I feared the worst. Namely, that even the best existing photo of me was not deemed attractive. I was a peripheral ogre. Then, almost a week later, I got an email

Dating is good because you get to to meet new people and possibly have sex with them. But at what price? I have no qualms about spending money on girls I like but I've been on various dates with girls I have no particular affection for, and the cost adds up.

Plus there is an economy crunch or whatever it's called. So here are 10 ways to have fun with a new lover without breaking the bank...

Sporting contest
Give a competitive edge to your date and demand a duel in something like tennis, or chess, or Monopoly.

Pros: Games and sports are fun and you it's also a chance to show off a special talent. I, for example, was unbeaten at Monopoly between the ages of six and 23.
Cons: Some people don't like losing; could get ugly.
Cost: Under £5 each.

Busking
Make beautiful music together — literally. Or even terrible music — it doesn't really matter as long as you've got a hat (for the spare change, not to wear). Some guitar skills are normally required but not necessarily; I've seen

The worst thing about going on lots of dates is the sheer predictability. More than 94 per cent* of first dates take place in either a pub or a restaurant and it's difficult to break the monotony.

Inviting someone to your house doesn't work either because you just sound like a pervert. There are other alternatives though…

Shopping
Girls love shopping, and men also need to go shopping sometimes. So this is perfect, especially if the man needs to buy something, like new jeans.

Pros: It's always helpful to get opinions on 50% reduced jeans from a member of the opposite sex.
Cons: You may have to make it clear that inviting someone on a shopping date doesn't mean you are actually going to buy them stuff.

[See also: 10 relationship and dating deal breakers]

Zoo
It is great to look at animals as they do things. The widest range of species live in the zoo but you could also try a city farm or an owl sanctuary like Alan Partridge.

Pros: Enjoying and smiling at the animals shows your