I'm a patient guy and online dating is just a numbers game. for example, if I message 100 women and I go on a date with one, that's a win for me. I focus on the one that said yes, not the 99 that said no.

I also increased my chances by making sure I stood out from all other messages they were receiving. I always thought of what common messages they were getting and tried to ignore that. instead, I focus a lot more on humor and / or something on their profile that others might have missed or not paid attention to.

examples that got me dates:

• on a profile that had the headline: princess peach looking for her mario, I made a joke about being more like toad than mario because I'm a fungi to be around.
• on a profile with the name 'miss sassypants', I messaged her expressing disappointment that she wasn't wearing any pants in any of her pictures. (it was shorts or bikinis)

so, while I wasn't shelling out tons of generic messages, I was getting quite a lot of responses for the number I was putting out. even if they were rejections, I considered it a win because they took the time to reply instead of ignoring.

after that, it was all about letting my charisma and conversational skills shine through. not all conversations lead to dates, but that's ok.