Just like regular real-world relationships, online relationships need tending, to grow over time. Here are some quick growing tips.

1. Take time and make time. Does your online date get in touch with you regularly? Do you do the same? Neglecting virtual meetings can be considered abuse or neglect, so treat each other's time with respect. If it's lacking, might mean time to move on.

2. Communication needs to 'feel' right for both of you. If one of you is too pushy about meeting, for instance, that can give off bad vibes. So don't rush. Take time to learn more about each other and develop trust.

3. Respect each others privacy. Don't share personal email addresses or digital photos online, for example, if your online date sent you the information in confidence.

4. Share special online and offline fun times. Online, send greeting cards, links to favorite places to upload digital photos of your favorite pet, download music and video clips, post on favorite forums of interest. Offline, if you're exchanging addresses or post office boxes, send print greeting cards and postcards, small items from your area (like a key chain with your state bird).

Tend your online relationship. Water it with care and over time it can sprout and grow.

More Popular Online Dating Activities

A couple of popular online activities are sharing recipes and bidding at auctions. And both of these easily fit well into online dating opportunities, one of the most popular online activities for singles today.

To help many dates get better acquainted online, here's what potential cyber-dates do.

Sharing Recipes,People get tired talking about the weather. So a popular subject to turn to is food. Sharing favorite foods and recipes helps break the ice and even forms friendships over culinary skills, or lack of and tastes. Search your favorite search engine for 'free recipes' to share. Take photos of your culinary creations and share them with your date, too.

Bidding at Auctions EBay auctions sell nearly anything and everything! So surf around and enter searches like the dates you were in middle school. Share cool memorabilia photos of old games and toys from when you were a child or when your parents or grandparents were little; The Dating Game, Oscar Mayer wiener whistles, The Partridge Family Album, Bobby Sherman's Album, 45's and more.

Online dating can be an educational and fun experience. So learn more about each other and have fun while you're at it. Take a cyber-stroll down memory lane together and see what's cooking.