Hi guys, I am wondering what the best way to get new members for http://www.datendate.com would be. I have tried with a months free membership, now im offering a years free membership to the first 500 people to sign up, and im also offering entry to a prize draw for a £150 dinner for two? I am thinking of doing a competition where people can sign up for affiliate accounts, and then the first affiliate to reach so many members gets a $100 prize in addition to their commisions? Do you think people would be interested in this? Any comments on how I can get new members, and where I should look? Anyone believe they can work miracles and get me loads of new members? Help me out here guys, Thanks,
Here is your biggest problem: your site is empty and even if someone comes and see that there are only 20 something profiles, he's thinking: why bothering? Let's look for a better site! and there are plenty (of fish). Your first priority is to fill the site with profiles and in order to do so, you'll have to either pay or wait until things will happen naturally (and they won't). Here's my advice. Remove the "Special" offer. It doesn't look credible. Does it really look like "the UK fastest growing community" ? It doesn't - right? Well, the surfer is not an idiot. 2nd point: link exchange is important, especially with authority sites like TheFreeSite.com - but this banner makes your site look CHEAP! 3rd point: Hire a "surf for money" company and have the paid surfers to register with your site and upload their pictures. At least the DB won't look so empty. 4th point: Start an affiliate program. Pay webmasters 1$, 0.50$, 0.25$, whatever, for each new profile. Market this offer through freebie sites and dating directories and affiliate program directories as a start. Last point: I don't know how deep your pockets are, but building a successful dating site takes more than a cheap script, a domain and a hosting account. I hope I'm not offending you, because this was not my intention here. If you have the cash (and the determination) kill the current site, get a script loaded with advanced features, give it a killer design and market this FREE site aggressively. It will cost you a lot of money and it will take a lot of time, so think again if you actually want to do it.
This is soooo true! However the best and wise advice comes from Avishai's mouth Definitely I would take it if datendate.com would be my site.
Thanks for the compliment, guys. Appreciate it. Let me tell you something about pictures of "hot girls" (especially on new sites that use low cost scripts). Nothing can kill a dating site faster than hundreds of pictures of "hot girls". You may think that what I'm saying is ridiculous, but let me explain. In order to encourage people to register, the site must look both professional and credible. As I said before, the surfer is not stupid and if you're building a business plan which counts on the low IQ of your users - you're gonna be very disappointed. This is not a porn site. It's a mainstream dating site for singles that want to meet other singles and date them. High quality studio images of 200 models will make me run away as fast as possible, because I'll instantly understand that it's a scam - and who wants to register with scammers and provide them your personal info? People don't tend to register with sites which look suspicious. "Strangely", they prefer to register with sites that look honest and credible. If I had to choose what type of pictures I'd prefer to have on my site (after real ones, which are really my first choice), I'd say average home made, unprofessional pictures of average girls. The 'girl next door' type of images will probably work best in my opinion. But again, there are no shortcuts in this business. It takes a lot of time, money, dedication and patience to create a winning service. At the end of the day, the most successful dating sites today (free or paid) are the most professional ones. Can anyone show me ONE unprofessional dating site that did it big time? I don't think so.
I think your site may not be displaying properly in FireFox (I would post a screenshot but I'm too new). Don't neglect your users - 44% of my users are using FireFox. Also, I would make the search function a bit easier. I wanted some simple options, and then got frightened by the huge array of choices I had to make. Lastly, a dating site is useless without pictures. Or at least a live chat system to I can talk to people and start interacting instantly. Good luck
Hi guys, I have decided to write my own script, and i am wonder what features you feel should be included in this kind of site. So far I have • Membership Signup System • Members Thumbnail • Members Multiple Photo’s • Search • Photo Rating • Member Rating • Profile Views • Affiliate Signup System • Affiliate Control Panel o Manage Their Members o Manager Their Financial Details • Forums • Private Messaging • Instant Messaging Any more ideas, anything i've missed? Rgds,
I agree. Nothing sends up a red flag faster than studio quality photos. The "girl next door" should make up the bulk of your site. Make sure you show a few fat chicks for believability purposes, but don't over do it. Nobody wants to visit lard ass central. Promoting your site online is going to be hard as hell. Try promoting it offline with friends and such. No matter what you do you're going to have to sink some money into this thing, and it's going to take awhile before you ever see a return.
"Make sure you show a few fat chicks for believability purposes, but don't over do it" Ha ha ha ha. Great UK-Networks - how about an automatic introduction system? To match people together without you having to go and search.
you have to get hotter members...maybe not just get models but start recruiting from myspace or something. your own images/logos are all pixelated...maybe work on those to make the site look better it shows no one online...maybe you or an acct. should stay online at all times so it doesn't seem so dead you need up up the member list, even if that means having friends and associates post accts....beg and plead. good luck with it!
great advices. I have a uk dating site which is free for women and trial for men. it's doing good for a new site, have 5000 profiles and around 1400 is active which is good news. but coming to this point i spent a fortune and unbelievable time and effort and i'm still not there where i wanna be. firstly google organic results and adwords is the most important resource for a dating site. affiliates usually bring crap or no traffic. being free you will have problems being attacked by russian and nigerian scammers, so you must monitor new profiles and even monitor their messages, otherwise you may get yourself in trouble. if you want to ask questions or anything, you can always pm me. btw, if you wanna check the site, it's in my signature..
First off, your site doesn't seem too visually appealing. I Googled the term 'online dating' and came up with this site http://www.lavalife.com.au, which I feel has a fairly appealing template. You need something that shows your users that your site is easily accessible. I also think you should eliminate paid subscriptions until you've got a decently sized user base. Most people are reluctant to spend money on online dating services, unless it's very well worth it. Just something to think about.