I know this has been discussed before, but what are the most cost effective ways to market a dating site like http://www.onionlove.com/ Some people have successfully used MySpace, but is that model still worth the time and effort?
Affiliate marketing, but I don't know how that might work exactly if AdSense is the only revenue source... I can think of a way to do it, but a popular way is to give the affiliates a % of sales they referred from banners, promo codes, &c.
If I were starting a dating site, I would make fake profiles with very hot girls, then advertise it using very cheap traffic at adbrite... That should convert great, in my opinion...
word of mouth plays wonderful role promoting these websites.... i also agree with what Stev has recommended (till preparing the fake ids only)... once you are thru the initial part of the preparing the website (and ids too).. spread them amoung your friends... and some online communities too like hi5 or orkut... may be other too... and then you could see the response... but be prepared that you need to do PPC as well... better go with good players rather then spending money here and there... all the very best...
you got a good point there. I'm trying the dating thing at http://www.goombo.com and you just gave me a good idea. Thanks
Also tell people in Forums about the site that you have created, which will give it some more exposure - they may also tell their friends etc. If you have any money try offline marketing - make flyers and put it in shops/letterdrops - I know this is only local but it still may get a fair few people visiting. You can also try adding your site to directories.
spread to friends, have unique functions, more functions available to free users, a lot of visitor (this will help later on), good layout, easy use, affiliates, cpc.
Read the topic on Univeristy Marketing posted earlier in the Marketing - General Marketing section. I shared my personal experience..and i personally think it will work best for social sites as dating and friends.
Nice site, why dont you try some PPC advertising and then work on your seo to get free organic traffic.
The site looks good, though I'm not sure about the name. Onions don't exactly conjure up images of love and companionship to me. Waht script are you using by the way?
If it is I can't see many women joining, you might as well call it big rack dating! Lots of guys and no women!
Yeah, onions and I think smelly! Brings to mind Smelly Love! A very important aspect is to have lots of profiles in the system. One way to achieve this is to use a shared database with other dating sites. This is something that has worked quite well for me on www.fadlove.com
I just noticed your site is a clone/mirror of http://www.blackbookpersonals.com/ Is this intentional or ... ?
He is using a free dating script called PHPizabi. The look you see is the default template that comes with it.
having great profile will certainly help attract people to your sites.I think all that myspace stuff can still work for your site since its targeting mainly teenagers. try focusing on your local scene rather than going global first.
If you need to make some profiles and want some photos. You can get all you can handle at this site. RomanceScam.com. I get photos from this site and create fake profiles on big dating services to advertise affiliate programs for products singles might be interested in. I basically just say in the profiles, that I own XYZ company, checkout my website. Sometimes they delete them, sometimes they don't. I run a dating service and a member brought that site to my attention. I didn't realize how many fake profiles I had. Heck. If you want to get really crazy. The scammers email addresses are on that romancescam.com site. Email then and tell them their welcome to post profiles on your site. I bet you you'd have like a dozen of them on there in a few days. Save you having to create the profiles.