Setting up a dating site - most attractive features to offer?

AxeMedia

Can't say I agree with that!

 

All I'm trying to say is to truely consider how and why users actually use a dating site. IT IS NOT THE SAME AS A SOCIAL NETWORKING SITE. Use one for a while to see. Chat with some of the people and get to understand the psychology of most users on a dating site.

Don't just think "ok, I'll build a dating site. I'll just add video and it will automatically be the best dating site ever".

And I'll say again, video might be ok, but don't expect everyone to use it.

 

Nathan. I'm going to tell you. About a year ago I heavily was going to start one myself and make it VERY competitive. I wanted to make big, do I reached a little problem.

It was too much to handle for one person. Blogs, pics, payments, sales, advertising, uh..I couldn't handle it.

I have this advice.

1. Not many are willing to do video so I wouldn't do that. Personally I love doing all of these cool clips and always have a camera with me just in case. You'll pretty much Blow your chance of success right there though because even with pictures it's one out of 20 people who use that. I couldn't imagine the less amount that will do video. Also, it'll cheap your site out and you'll be known as the site with those dumb people with shaky videos. Not many can do good quality videos.

2. As a previous visitor to many dating sites I think it's the thing that seperates a person leaving straight away as opposed to joining up is pretty much the main title banner and name. Of course the site must be appealing but that's a given. The picture in the banner, logo, and name.

3. The most important thing. If you are not popular in your town/city then you may have a problem. Something about a dating site is 100 members are worth more than 10,000 visitors so you need to promote out of the house and on the internet. Because people are not going to join unless there is others in their hometown or near. I didn't really had a problem with this. I was sure I could grab 600 locals to start, then hit up on the nearby cities. I jus tdidn't have the guts to do it alone. What if their was a problem and it was too much to handle!!. Anyway, like I said. heavy advertising in a short time is important and you really need to target certian areas then expand out.

4. Regardless if your serious about it I absolutely recommend a partner or two. Don't just hire anyone. Make sure they are a good enough individual who won't leave the site hanging. Probably the type of guy who will call you up for little meetings, etc.

5. Do not worry if anyone says "oh, its too competitive". There is enough people in the world for everyone plus a million more sites. They told me my arcade will be not worth it because there is so many and now I'm 3rd page of the highest keyword in the world for it "Online games".(I'm working on first). If your going to think and do big then surely you can expect big competition and bigger problems. It won't be easy but it's good that your taking a large step.

I'm hyped that you are going to run a site like this. It's not often people around here go for big sites. It seems a lot of people are always just starting up cheap sites just to sell them later.....but then again who am I to speak. I own an arcade and a dinosaur site

 

well, video could be offered as a premium kind of feature. If you want to use it you use it, if you don't feel like using it you don't use it.

The success story video clip is a good example of good video usage in a dating site. What do you think?

 

In my opinion I don't think so.. We are talking about a dating site, not a social networking site where people present themselves.

 

Video as a premium would help to insure the video is of a higher quality. If it was free, every person with a firewire camera is going to post a video. This is great except that most of those people have little experience with producing a quality short. A lot of bad videos may be detrimental. I think the success of a site like this would be testimonials. "I met Jane Doe and its was so simple and safe, too" and stuff like that. You can't argue with results.

 

Of course not every person with a firewire camera is going to post a video. Why does dating sites have just a few members that use that feature? because they want privacy though

 

video as a premium feature could work for a dating site. Several video recording tools have been mention so far in this thread that could fit these expectations.

 

I still think one should focus more on text features than audio/video features.

 

could you be more specific?

 

Mesum, do you mean text features as in the social networks? Could you dwell on that topic a little bit more? Thanks!

 

All these text features sound way too old fashioned to me. When will people realize that we need something new and interesting? Alright, I tend to agree that the video should not be the major feature, but it still has its role in dating at the end of the day.

 

I've been trying to point it out for some time. I am glad it is not just me thinking like that.

 

well I agree to some extent but as Mesum pointed out you need the text features incorporated as well. It would be really nice if one finds the formula that will create the site with both good textual and video content that would be of huge interest to the site users and that will drive you the traffic.

 

ok, i have to admit that after doing a well done research that videochat and IM and webchat will be relevant for dating business as well. My first thoughts were that it is not relevant at all, but after reading more resources and university behaviour studies I have found out videochat etc. will be more relevant. So I have decide it to implement it as well in our new version update for my dating script..

 

definitely instant messaging.

But how about a chat room as well. That'll keeps people on your site longer peroids of time, and gives people the chance to speak and meet others immediately. Shyer people might do better in a chat room at first, too

 

Now that we speak about these options we have to say which one will be better for this, the video mails or the real time chatting and instant messaging. Frankly speaking I'd prefer the video mail messages simply because you have some sort of expectations and curiosity till you get the video. The instant messaging does not give you that.

 

IM is essential. A dating site has to have it. Period.

On a dating site the users will want to do a bit of chatting first. Online daters take babysteps. Remember they are trying to filter people to find one who will be their companion/lover/husband or wife. Jumping straight into more direct contact is not a desirable thing at this stage. They will chat with a number of people and choose a few from them that they might want to go to the next step with.

Video Mail Messages is a great idea. I may have been putting down video on a dating site, and I still think they will not be an important feature on a users profile, but sending Video Messages is a cool idea.

But it is full of problems.

Dating sites NEED various types of filter controls to keep users happy about their PERSONAL comfort and safety levels. (this is the message a few people in this thread are missing) There are all types of people on a dating site and many have differing levels of comfort to personal, and especially sexual, expression. Some are very timid and some very aggressive based on their personalities. From prudes to perverts and everything in between.

The problem here with video messaging is it will allow those who are more sexually aggressive to send undesirable content to users with much lower sexual appetites. This will kill a dating site quickly (unless it was specifically an "adult" dating site, of course). And you do not want to have to preview and approve every video message before it is sent to the recipient.

User managed photo approval works well on other dating sites, for the pictures uploaded to personal profile pages, but it can't be done for video messaging (for lots of reasons).

 

How would you try to prevent all theses issues if you were to use video messages? Any suggestions?

 

Unless your willing to intercept and review every video before it gets sent to the recipient, then it cant be done. You would need an army of cheap asian workers reviewing all videos. And that is just not feasible.

If you were to fall back on having the recipient make complaints regarding inappropriate videos in their inbox, then you will just piss off too many users who would rather just not come back to the site versus making complaints about other users.

This WILL be a problem on a dating site. It's already a bit of a problem even with text emails on dating sites. Video would just get out of hand.