Then you pop to the top of the list... hence the emails/messages when you logon.  

I've found that Recently Active is a good barometer of how good an SB lead might be... if the girl is frequently active on the site then she's thinking about a new SD. If she hasn't logged in in 4 or 5 days or more, then either her interest is waning, she's not finding anyone she likes, or she's not really that serious about finding an SD to begin with.

You can control things like showing your online/offline status and suppress notifications to SB's when you view their profile.  NOTE: These might only be available to premium members (can someone confirm, please?).  

One of the key drivers for getting viewed/favorited/messaged is your recent/current online time frame. So you should expect (and I always see) more views/favoriting/messaging when you are online or have been in the last 1 to 72 hours.  

Still don't get why some random girl in Florida or out of the US would favorite me when I'm on the West Coast of the US.  Not even willing to consider flying (her or me) across state borders, let alone internationally.

I don't know what else to call it, but when I log onto SA from my PC the first screen I see is a collection of 12 SB profiles to click on.  I can choose from  
    PREMIUM MEMBERS
    FEATURED MEMBERS
    COLLEGE MEMBERS
and each choice gives me a screen with 12 pictures.  I don't know how these choices are selected.  But I figure they will get more attention than normal if they appear on one of these Front Pages.  I think it's the same for the SBs when they log on.  If your picture shows up on one of these Front Pages you are going to be noticed a lot for a while.

I only buy VIP a month at a time....in the last week of my VIP I ALWAYS receive LOTS of hits....then I let my VIP lapse for several days and usually receive another flurry of hits during that time....when I sign up for VIP a few days later I receive LOTS more hits for several days....so obviously SA is FEATURING my profile at those times because they know it spurs activity which will induce me to reinstate my VIP status in order to respond to ladies that have expressed interest.
Also...letting my VIP lapse for several days brings my " average " cost of a monthly VIP down to approx the 3 month rate

Courtesy of Princess the SA sleuth! LOLz:

So the uni and I are in the throes of a breakup (cue in Phil Colin's song: in the air tonight!) which will perhaps be a story reserved for a later day. Suffice to say that like most of these SBs, complacency has set in, I have to pay plus do all the work with diminishing gratification and satisfaction, plus she's been caught red handed (unbeknown to her) communicating with a buddy SD. Enough for now!

In any case, I went ahead and created a fresh ID a couple of days ago during which I miraculously grew an inch taller and also two years younger; plus I moved to another area of the town if you catch my drift chiefs As soon as this profile hit the runway (still in non-paid status) I received a whole host of messages (mind you, no pics whatsoever as I am going to be working on some new ones for this ID) and having been blessed with a fooquing photographic and elephant memory, I recognized a few of them from my last merry-go-round in August under the old ID! DANG you Brandon Wade (the weasel who owns the site).

The talent level looks thin so most likely i will not be going Premium this side of the C-Day just because I feel that I will be getting some truly mercenary moochers, but by the same token, I could be losing a few good chances to catch one or two who are on rebound (well, am I not too?). Well, fooque it! I'll wait till mid Jan to go VIP. I will be using this dead time zone opportunity to weed through the losers from the last stint to put a few on immediate block list before I go live in 17!