How to run a dating site - Guide part1

Thursday 4th, August 2011

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Online Dating Niche

Online dating niche has become one of the most profitable ways to make money on the internet. With growing popularity of online dating, people tend to spend not only time, but also money while browsing through thousands of profiles on dating sites. Did you know that:

Over 30% of Internet users are single?
The word "dating" is one of the most frequently searched term?
Online Dating websites generate over 1 billion of dollars per year in revenues (according to CNBC, January 15, 2003)

Usually, profitability of a niche goes hand in hand with the strength of competition, and online dating niche is no exception. But it is still possible to get your slice of the pie! This article will help you to avoid common mistakes when starting up a dating site as well as increase your chances of succeeding.

Competing with the giants

A common mistake that many people do is to start a general dating website trying to attract a wide range of singles simply from all over the world. One needs to understand that it has been done before and such sites already exist and have established a very strong position on the market. There is simply no way to win the competition with such giants as Prenty of Fish, or Match.com. Those sites have been around for a very long time and their databases of single users are huge and will continue to grow. In order to get your slice of the pie you need to think of targeting a smaller group of members. The more specific community you create your dating site for, the more chances you have of succeeding. It might sound like not as much fun as targeting the entire globe, but soon enough you will realize that no matter how small group of singles you target, it still will be huge.

In order to decide who to make the site for, you need to do a market research. Look up specific phrases on Google to determine whether or not such a site exists. Here are some examples that will give you a clue what to look for:

Dating Americans in Brazil
Online Lesbian Dating in London
Dating Russians in New York
Online Atheist Dating Service
Senior Adult Dating
Online Dating for Jews

This is only a bunch of ideas that you should investigate. If you live in a non-English speaking country, you have even a better position. The competition in smaller countries is weaker, and you can usually find untapped niches easily. If you are determined to create an English language website, think more about such niches as "British Dates in Norway," "Americans in Turkey," etc. This soon become popular thanks to Google traffic, simply because people who emigrate often feel lonely and they search for such websites quite often.

How to get members to a new dating site?

What I want to talk about is the trickiest part of the whole online dating venture. Once your website is up and running you will have to face the problem - how do I get the members to sign up? It's obvious that usually people sign up at those websites only when they find an interesting profile and want to get in touch with that person. But what if there are no profiles on display? It seems as if it was impossible to get members to a new website at all, because to get members you have to have members. Well, that's the tricky part, but there are things that you can do:

On Site Solutions:

Create a few dozens of fake profiles. It might seem like an ugly thing to do, but no worries. You will get rid of those profiles as soon as you start getting real people to sign up. Make those fake profiles look attractive, so the real members have a good reason to sign up.
Make it impossible for a not registered users to see how many members you have on your website. Force the registration after a surfer browses a couple of profiles. You will remove this restriction later, but it's crucial when you have only fake profiles on your site.
SEO - this will be really important later, when Google Robots start indexing your website regularly. You need to make sure to polish up your code as much as you can, because your goal is to make Google love your website more than your competition websites. If you're new to SEO, you should familiarize yourself with its concepts and techniques, or use a paid service that will do things for you.
Create a referral program for your members, so that it pays off for them to spread the word. There are many ways to do that. For example, you can offer them a privilege to be a featured member of the week if they bring in 3 new members.
Make your service FREE, and FREE of Ads! Obviously, as long as your database is empty. Later on, when you start getting more and more members, you can start thinking about how to monetize your growing database. For now though, don't even think that people would pay for a dating service that offers no profiles to browse.
Allow your members to easily share favorite profiles/photos on Facebook or Twitter.

Off Site Solutions:

Sign up for Google Adwords and run a campaign. It will take a couple months before you get Google traffic, so at first you need to rely on Pay Per Click programs. Realistically speaking, that's the only way to get your first group of members.
Create a press release that will notify the journalists and bloggers of your new site. In my opinion, PR WEB is the best choice, although their prices are just as high as the quality of the services they provide.
Create a series of YouTube videos that will familiarize viewers with the features of your website. Don't forget to tag your video with the keywords that your dating site focuses on. If your audience is narrow enough, your video will be easy to find by the people you want to reach.
Order business cards with your website URL - This is an incredibly cheap way to get the people you interact with in real life sign up for your website. People enjoy speaking about their private life and it's not rare to hear them complain about being single or not being able to meet "someone special." Use this to tell them about your website and give them a business card.