How Long Does a Boost Last on Plenty of Fish?

Each Boost lasts 30 minutes. For that half hour POF puts you ahead of everyone else in Meet Me while potential matches are online, and POF says a Boost can bring you many times your usual views and likes. You start one from the Boost icon on Meet Me, and you can Boost several times a day using credits bought one at a time or in packs.

Normally you take your place in the line of people POF shows in Meet Me. A Boost moves you to the front for 30 minutes, at a time when the women seeing you are on the app right then.

That second part matters. A like from a woman who is online now can turn into a match and a conversation within minutes. A like from a woman who saw you yesterday and will not open the app again until next week is much slower to turn into anything.

When the half hour ends, you go back to being shown the ordinary way. What matters then is how well you follow up on the likes and matches that came in.

Since a Boost shows you to people who are online, the time you start it decides who sees you.

Pick a time when the women you want are likely to be free and on their phones. For most people that means an evening after work or a relaxed weekend, rather than the middle of a workday when nobody has time to look.

Think about where you are, too. A Boost started at home on a quiet evening, when you can reply right away, is worth far more than one started just before you walk into a meeting.

POF lets you Boost several times in one day, and it is tempting to fire them off one after another. That is usually a waste of credits.

A Boost does best after you have been away from the app for a while, when a lot of the women online have not seen you yet. Run a second one straight after the first and the app has fewer fresh people to show you. Many of the women online have already seen you, liked you or passed on you during the first half hour.

If you want more than one Boost in a day, space them out. One in the early evening and one later, or one on a weekday and one on the weekend, will reach more new women than two in a row.

A Boost is a burst of attention, and attention fades if nobody answers it.

Keep the app open for the half hour. When a woman likes you, look at her page and like her back if you are interested. When a match comes in, write to her while she is still online. A message she gets with her phone in her hand is far more likely to get a reply than one she finds the next morning under everything else.

Keep those first messages short. One real detail from her page, a line about it, and a question she can answer quickly will do more than a paragraph.

Use the half hour yourself as well. You are on the app anyway, so like the women in Meet Me you would be glad to hear from. Any of them who like you back while your Boost is still running can turn into a conversation the same evening.

A Boost puts more women in front of your photos. It does nothing to the photos themselves.

If your photos and your written section already get you some likes, a Boost gives you more of them in a short window, and that can be well worth the credit. If they get you almost nothing, a Boost shows more women a page that is not working, and you get more of almost nothing. Multiplying zero still gives zero.

So Boost after the basics are right. Lead with a clear photo of your face in good light, cut any picture you would describe as just okay, and write a few lines about yourself that give a woman something to ask about.

Test it the simple way. Pick an evening, note how many likes and matches you usually get in half an hour, then Boost at the same time on a similar evening and compare.

If the Boost brings a clear jump, and some of those matches turn into real conversations, it is doing its job, and a Boost now and then is worth the money. If the numbers barely move, save your credits and put the effort into your photos instead. Try it both ways, keep what works, and cut what does not.