Some tips for your husband:
- Get some absolute high-quality pictures. Pictures really can be a deal-breaker so make them the absolute best that you can.
- Message LOTS of people, especially people in your area, even if just for friendship at first.
- Set your searches to filter only "People Online in the Last Week"
The problem with free dating sites is that you get a lot of people sign up and forget all about their profiles. Of all those who ARE active, you've got all sorts of walls to break though - in addition girls receive a lot more "attention" (messages, winks, smiles and all the other features that allow some form of communication that's not actual text) with online dating, so there's always the chance that your message gets lost among all the "Hi hw r u?" messages that get sent out (and some of them get worse!).
So assume she's actually got to the stage where she's seen your message and read it (which as I've described above is already a bit of luck). Unless it's concise and you have a very clear "call-to-action" then the chances are she'll read it and think "I'll reply to this later". Obviously life is busy and internet dating is generally fairly low priority so the reply (often) never happens. So keep your messages fairly short (about a paragraph is good), show her that you've read and understood her profile (e.g. if she says no married guys, then don't message her!) - and say specifically what you like about her profile. Don't be vague or general, otherwise it looks like a copy & paste job.
The call-to-action is basically you giving her a hook to respond on. You essentially tell her what to do next (e.g. ask a question or simply "message me back").
The point is, you want to make it as easy as possible for a woman to get into contact with you, as an online dating potential match, you're pretty far down on her priorities, which makes sense when you think about it. So think about the first message simply as a way of getting her to message you back. Small, manageable steps
If you think there's some compatibility, push to meet up early - there are some people online who want to meet people to chat online with. If you want to chat online loads, then that's cool, but if you want to actually MEET women in real life, then push for the meet early. You lose nothing by asking - if they can't make it, or they're not ready then you can keep chatting until you know each other a little better, and ask again, but the fact is, text is dry - real human communication is so much more than the words.
One thing I often say in actual messages is (paraphrased) "It's cool to see that we're on the same page about loads of stuff! Anyway, I know this might come accross as forward, but you never really know who you're talking to until you meet each other in person, so if you've got 15/20 minutes free on X date I'd love to grab a coffee/beer/icecream/whatever with you. It's cool if you've got other plans, but I figure it's a nice, low-pressure way to see if we click as people rather than just over messages." Essentially you'll never get any chemistry over chat messages, there's just so much of the communication lost! The point is to keep it low-pressure just to see if the two of you click. Obviously this only works if the two of you live nearby! If you're further away there will have to be more talking online before a meet, but the meet would be longer.
So to sum up:
1. Get some great pictures as well as your profile
2. Message a lot of people - getting a low response rate is NORMAL, so don't take it personally, keep sending the messages and you'll get more results
3. Keep the messages short, ensure that she knows you've read her profile and end with a question or call to action
4. If you like them, and it seems they like you, try and meet up soon.
But the main point to remember is this:
The purpose of an online dating site is to meet people in real life. Don't get caught in the trap of chatting endlessly online - in a 15 minute date I can get a pretty good idea whether or not I'm going to enjoy this person's company or not.
Good luck