Online Dating and Social Networking Industry Forums

BPFlorida · Joined: 02 Oct 2004 Posts: 13

When you start an online dating site - your first one - how do you deal with getting people to sign up? If no one sees anyone there, there's no reason for them to sign up is there?

Do you require a signup before they enter? Do you create fake profiles, some think this is unethical?

What ways have you and others dealt with getting your initial members to come and join!

yorktown · Guest

Ahhh, the 'startup phase'

A few suggestions

1) FREE Signups and No fees for at least a year.

2) Buy existing client bases from other dating sites that are struggling.

3) MOST IMPORTANT: MARKET. MARKET..MARKET. Get the word out there. Cupid.com now has over a million members because they blasted their name out on the radio...Over and Over again.

The same dilemma holds true for the &^%$#$^ industry. A new poker room needs players, lots of them. What's the point of playing &^%$#$^ if you are the only one at the table? They market like there is NO tomorrow. And these are some of the most creative marketers there are out there.

Marc Lesnick
Webmaster

BPFlorida · Joined: 02 Oct 2004 Posts: 13

yorktown - thank you very much!

I already have plans for free premium memberships for an indefinite period of time.

Also, when affordable I plan on not only buying sites databases but the sites/domains themselves which will be a redirect or a new site.

Of course I am doing adwords/overture campaigns as much as possible. Eventually I will do other advertising but for now this is the best

So thank you very much - I thought there were "magic" things I might have been missing, but it is as I thought.

TTYL!

KnowItAll · Guest

We have a solution for the initial Database stuffing and support. Contact Alexander.Shetinin@DuetNetwork.com

joetracy · Joined: 25 Feb 2006 Posts: 7 Location: Wilsonville, Oregon

You have to get visitors to your site in order to get members, so your initial focus should be on that.

Before opening an online dating service, it's vital to have a strategic initiative in place. This means at least a Web Marketing Plan and Business Plan. A Strategic Traffic Building Plan wouldn't hurt either. You also need to have a Web marketing or search engine optimization expert on board. But positioning your site in the highly competitive online dating terms will not be easy. Yet most people still find sites via search engines. If you don't know of an expert, come up with a way to barter services.

Chemistry.com was very smart in their launch. They first targetted specific cities. It's much easier to first build a user base by focusing on 1-3 cities than it is to first focus on the world.

I made some other suggestions in this post.

Online dating is one of the most competitive markets online. The serious services launch with marketing budgets in the millions. This automatically puts smaller services at an extreme disadvantage. You must have tenacity, ambition, drive, and strategies to succeed. And you also must be willing to lose a lot of money initially - particularly in the first year. It's not easy to break into this marketplace. Around 99% of new services fail. You must plan to be an exception to that rule.

Good luck to you,

Joe Tracy, Publisher
Online Dating Magazine
Online Dating Industry Journal

Columnist, Inside the Online Dating Industry