You can find lots of information about how to write dating site profiles, and what sort of photos are the best to use. But there's one ingredient that people often give little thought to which can still be quite influential. That's your username.

I just learned about another niche dating site, probably one of the most unusual ones out there. (And that's saying something.)

It's for people with chronic diseases.

If you want to maximize your chances of success in online dating, then you should write the best profile possible. Of course, a small percentage of people find this very hard to do. Considering the hugeness of the online dating industry, that adds up to a lot of people! Which is why the profile generator ProfileWiz - which costs just under 5 dollars to use - could end up being a very big money spinner if it takes off.

Considering how popular online dating is these days, one would have thought that traditional offline personal matchmakers would be going out of business at an ever increasing rate. However, this has not happened at all. Actually, their turnover has actually increased.

There's a lot of excitement about cougars at the moment, with a national Miss Cougar competition being held. And there's a similar buzz surrounding tradies. (Clearly, we have sexual equality in this country!) Online dating site RSVP has been running a competition to find the most attractive one in the country. State heats are being held now, and the national finals will be held on the 24th of February.

Charmyne Palavi, who spilled the beans about the NRL's groupie culture, continues to draw media interest. Now it's because she and her young husband are planning to have a baby, with the help of her younger sister as a surrogate.

She seems to have a knack for pressing hot button issues and getting a lot of publicity as a result.  (She's also a cougar, so that helps lift her profile as well!)

The new comedy Cougar Town recently opened in Australia, winning the night's ratings. It was very heavily promoted. Obviously that had a bit to do with its success.

Still, it was up against some stiff competition, including shows that had already become established. So I think the high number of viewers watching the Courtney Cox comedy (1.3 million) was significant. It revealed that there is a widespread fascination with the whole phenomenon of "cougars". It will be interesting to see how long this lasts.

In another example of rise of predatory older women in western societies, there's now a contest to find "Miss Cougar Australia 2010". It's pretty much nationwide, with heats being held this month, and finals slated for June.

Cubs (younger men) will be among the judges. Which begs the question: will there be a competition for them in the future?

Somehow I don't think this will happen. Cougars are generating way too much buzz nowadays, and will be for quite some time.

A guy in Britain decided to document his dating experiences in a blog, and ended up getting thousands of readers. He's become so well known for it that the local paper has even written an article about him, launching a competition to find him a date for Valentine's Day!

It's ironic, since he started out writing about his struggle to find love and now - even though he's known to many, many more women (surely already desired by a few) - he's probably less likely to achieve his goal. That's because if he does end up in a monogamous relationship, then his claim to fame (his blog) has no reason to keep going!It's kind of a Catch 22.

The blog could also cause problems for the women he dates, since he's sure to write about them in the blog. (Although, I suppose some of them would probably find that a bit of an ego boost.)

Australian celebrity Naomi Robson is a very controversial figure. While she was working in TV she was involved in a number of incidents that generated a lot of ill-well towards her from others in the media.

Now, she's resurrecting her career on the web. But the controversy continues to follow her.

It makes you wonder why people hate her so much. There must be many other female TV  personalities who are easily as difficult to work with, vain and morally questionable. But their bad behaviour goes "under the radar", even though they are well known.

I think it's something to do with her particular kind of physical beauty, and slightly regal air. She stands out like a sore thumb among most female celebrities, who are usually wholesome and fresh "girl next door" types.

Anyway, it will be interesting to see how her web chat show goes. It does seem to be a canny move considering the growth of the internet. No one else seems to be doing anything similar, so she may well end up dominating the market.