I am starting a free dating site for finding international women. There are other pay sites that are quite popular for this, but not free. Anyway, I am having difficulty getting the ball rolling because there are only a couple of women on the site, i.e. no reason to sign up. Any ideas for how to get exposure for the site?
you will have to spend a lot of money on advertisements to get a dating site off the ground with all the other huge dating sites already in exisistance
I don't see a good way to bring men to the site unless women are already there, and no way to bring women there if there aren't men looking. Kind of a Catch-22! But I'd recommend trying to start small. Perhaps target a specific group, so you can more closely focus your marketing efforts. I'm not sure how you'd launch such a large venture otherwise without a lot of money or some serious connections.
Dating sites are very high competition. You will have to do a lot of backinking to be competitive. Good luck.
Finding a niche is key, but even with a good niche, it is still very competitive. Don't expect overnight success. Also free sites are springing up every where. Good luck.
I think you should have quite a lot of money and a good team in this niche to be in the first top 10.