How can I appear more masculine?

Growing up, I never learnt anything about dating or being seen as attractive, and I feel as though my biggest pitfall is not appearing masculine enough to women.

Physically speaking, things are great. I am tall, very good looking, and have crafted an impressive physique for myself over the years.

The problem I find, however, and this has been confirmed by my friends, is that my naturally chatty, cheerful, jokey personality quickly turns me into a potential friend in the mind of the women I am getting to know, as opposed to a potential boyfriend. I have even been told by a female friend that I do not come off as someone who would make a woman feel protected, which she said is very important from a woman’s point of view when it comes to attraction.

My approach is to always be myself, which means that when I talk to women I ask questions about them, laugh if I find something funny, say whatever I want to say, and be open and honest about my life experiences and feelings. This has not proved to be a good approach at all, for whatever reason.

I notice that of many couples I see day to day, the man appears to be someone who is expressionless, barely speaks whilst they are walking together, and appears very aloof. In spite of this, the woman is apparently very attracted to him. Is this the way I need to be? I really dislike the idea of trying to be someone other than who I am, but frankly I’m utterly sick of not being seen as boyfriend material, and of constantly being seen as a “good friend” but nothing more, so if I need to change my personality to be successful then I’m up for it.

What can I do to appear more masculine in a non-physical sense? I have the physical side nailed, but in terms of my personality I feel at a loss. Is it all about being quiet and stoical? To me, that just sounds like being boring, but if it’s necessary then I suppose I need to do it. What else should a man do to appear more appealing and masculine?

EDIT: To clarify, this post is also born from an experience I had of meeting a young woman, instantly feeling a strong attraction towards her, getting to know her over the course of many months, laughing with her, having deep conversations, meeting up with her frequently, texting for hours, only to be told that she only saw me as a friend when I finally worked up the nerve to tell her how I felt about her. I was beyond shocked given that everything had screamed to me that we were practically a couple in all but name, and I think that my lack of masculinity was likely the reason for her lack of attraction, in spite of everything else that appeared to be in my favour.