Dating Site Niches...

I have a fair bit of experience with the dating market, as a few know here. I'd be happy to give you some advice, Dave.

At some point or other, almost every dating affiliate gets the idea to setup their own dating site. Some of the usual options include (but are not limited to) these:

1. White Label.
2. Forum.
3. Dating Script.
4. Custom Script.
5. Wordpress + Plugins.
6. Matchmaking Newsletter.

At a guess, I would suggest that around 95% of their sites fail. Many reasons. The big reason - they lack experience from an affiliate perspective.

Those who do make it, and I have first-hand experience here, are either super affiliates or regular affiliates with a few years of dating promotion under their belt.

For all I know, you may have been in the dating business for 20 years. If not, though, and if you lack experience, I would honestly reconsider. For now. Just trying to save you money.

If you do want to go ahead, though - I can tell you the 2 current options that are working very well for many of us:

1. VBulletin Dating Communities.
2. Wordpress + Plugins.

The trick for you, I believe, if you do go this route, is to keep your startup overheads low. I'm not sure of the niche you have in mind, but not all niches pan out. I cover several dozen. Some are poor, so you drop them. If you keep your overheads low, you can test the market, grow a database, and look into going custom if ROI supports it.

Strong recommendation, though: hurl some PPC or media buys at relevant affiliate offers in the dating niche you have in mind. Quick and easy way to get a feel for it, you see?

Cheers,

Tom