Once you have established email communication with a person that you might want to date, it’s time to try flirting a little through email. Flirting through email can be a little tricky because it’s sometimes hard to pick up the context of words on a screen but if you practice a little you can get the hang of it.

The key to being flirtatious through email is to really let your sense of humor show through. If your email flirting is really well done, the other person will be charmed and intrigued and will want to know more about you.

Humor is attractive and lightens up the interaction. Using humor, you can deflect any potentially awkward questions and you can also show that you can laugh at yourself and are approachable.

When you add a flirtatious note to your emails, it’s important not to be overly provocative. Asking a slight offbeat question with a romantic overtone is more flirtatious than a blatant sexual innuendo.

The best online flirting is warm and personal and sincere. For example, if your potential date has mentioned in a previous email that he or she has a hidden passion for playing the guitar instead of saying that playing the guitar is an interesting hobby, say that you love it that he or she plays the guitar because the guitar is such a passionate instrument.

If you get stuck when you are trying to think of some appropriately flirtatious questions that you can ask in an email, try asking one of these questions:

• If you could take a date anywhere in the world, where would it be and why?

• What is the most romantic film you’ve ever seen?

• If you could only tell your date one thing about you to make them fall for you what would it be?

• What is your perfect date?

• What activities do you like to do on dates?

• What’s the most romantic story you’ve ever heard?

When you are communicating through email, there are certain rules of etiquette that you should follow, especially when you want to make a good impression. Writing a good email is important because it is usually what gives a new prospective date his or her first impression of you.

Here are some of the basic rules of email etiquette that you should follow when you are communicating by email:

• Use the same structure you would use for a letter

• Always use a spell check before you hit “send”

• Watch your grammar and punctuation

• Write in several small paragraphs instead of one large one

• Don’t request delivery and read receipts

• Keep your sentences short and to the point

• Write in text and not in HTML

• Don’t attach files unless the person you are emailing requested them

• Don’t keep sending emails if you don’t get a response right away

• Keep the tone of your writing warm but polite

• Don’t curse or swear

• Don’t use fancy fonts or insert pictures or animations

• Don’t use all capital letters

When you’re writing an email to someone on an online dating site, write it the same way you would write a business email. That will make a better impression than writing it the same way you would write an email to your best friend since high school.