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How to jump start a Dating Site with posts?

by nichedemon
9 replies
I am starting a new dating site - can anyone provide ideas of how to get some real profiles and dating posts into the site? Is there a way to get free listings out of Craigslist into the site?

Thanks for any help from Warrioirs with dating site expereince.
#dating #jump #posts #site #start
  • Profile picture of the author Web Content By Jim
    You could always contact the posters of personal ad's on Craigslist, let them know about your site and offer to copy their information and create a profile for them. You are going to need something creative, because dating is a very competitive niche...
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  • Profile picture of the author LogoNerds
    Here are some things that helped me build a dating site to 400,000 members

    1.) Don't let anyone search without first registering. No-one wants to join a dating site with zero members. When they click on the search button/feature, redirect them to the register page and....

    2.) Have a strong call to action that will get visitors to sign-up without thinking about it - "See Who's Online Right Now! Join For Free"

    3.) Get listed in every dating site directory online

    4.) Tedious but always a must - Write a ton of dating articles. Post to your site and go for those long tail keywords to get free organic traffic. Use wordpress to post your articles on your site and submit your RSS feed to feed directories + submit your site to every blog directory you can find. Post a spun version of each article to the article directories to build backlinks. Quality articles will also be picked up and posted on dating blogs, relationship advice sites, etc.

    5.) Marketing Budget - Today it's a lot more difficult to compete in the dating market so you should have an advertising budget set aside. Be prepared to spend some money to build your membership without seeing any returns on that money for quite some time.

    6.) Don't make your registration process to lengthy. Capture enough information to display on a profile without it looking empty.

    7.) Ask yourself, what makes you different? Why should I join your site over the thousands of others. What are you going to offer me that I can't already find somewhere else? If you can't answer those question and find your unique position in the market, you need to re-think your game plan otherwise you're just another "Me too"
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    • Profile picture of the author Ofthemix
      My first internet project ever was an online dating site. Building up the members became effortless after I got #1 on Google, but my dating site was very niche specific (catering to the gothic, emo, and punk subcultures). I know that starting a general dating site is a lot harder. A friend of mine started a general dating site at the same time I started my niche dating site, and my site grew in leaps and bounds compared to his.

      My first tip would be to get all of your friends, both online and offline to join your site. This will give you a few profiles to help get the ball rolling. Trust me, it's incredibly hard to get people to sign up to a site with only 1 member. It's not near as hard to get people to sign up to a site that has just 5 members. That sounds strange, but it's true.

      As was already mentioned, don't let people see how many members are currently active on your site until after they have signed up. I would still allow non-members to use the search feature, but I did not display site statistics on the front page. Some people believe that it is best to not even enable the search feature for non-members. In general dating sites, this might be a better idea.

      When I first started my dating site, I knew absolutely nothing about internet marketing. In fact, I didn't learn about internet marketing until almost 6 months after the site was up. At that point the members were pouring in on a regular bases. For not knowing about internet marketing, I did a pretty good job to collect new members. The first thing I did to get members was spend a lot of time on MySpace, looking through profiles and sending out e-mails to people who I thought would be a good match for my site. You'd be surprised how well it works if you make the e-mails personal. I'd usually mention something I liked about their profile so that they knew it wasn't just an auto generated spam message. I also made sure to disclose that I was the owner of the website. People like knowing that they know the owner personally. And many people were excited to help me start building the memberbase of the site. I got over 50 members just doing this.

      The second thing I did to boost my memberbase was to list my website for sale on eBay at a rediculous price that no one would pay for it. Since the website was niche related, I knew that anyone looking for similar products (emo clothing, gothic clothing, ect.) would pull up my site as a result of their search. Many people signed up for it out of sheer curiosity.

      Those are just some outside of the box ideas that have worked for me.
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    • Profile picture of the author nichedemon
      Originally Posted by LogoNerds View Post

      Here are some things that helped me build a dating site to 400,000 members

      5.) Marketing Budget - Today it's a lot more difficult to compete in the dating market so you should have an advertising budget set aside. Be prepared to spend some money to build your membership without seeing any returns on that money for quite some time.
      Thank You for your insightful answer.

      What kind of marketing would you suggest that is effective for a dating site that would build membership?
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  • Profile picture of the author nichedemon
    Thanks all for the great suggestions. Definitely will try them out. Yes my concept is a mix of social networking and dating so it does have a different flavor to it... I am hoping.

    Just another thought, I know its a little unethical but what about creating a few 100 fake members at least initially.. I feel guilty even asking this!!
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  • Profile picture of the author Ofthemix
    Fake members are always an ify thing, though a lot of people do it. I personally wouldn't recommend it. If your genuine members find out that a lot of your others are fake, they'll be less inclined to trust you. That's really your call though.

    Is this a free dating site or paid membership dating site?
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    • Profile picture of the author nichedemon
      Originally Posted by Ofthemix View Post

      Fake members are always an ify thing, though a lot of people do it. I personally wouldn't recommend it. If your genuine members find out that a lot of your others are fake, they'll be less inclined to trust you. That's really your call though.

      Is this a free dating site or paid membership dating site?
      Free to register then I want to charge for upgrade features for social networking.
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  • Profile picture of the author JackPowers
    Offer some incentive maybe? Like a gift for the first 100 members?

    Also go for the girls and the guys will follow.
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  • Profile picture of the author Jose_marry
    It's common at your age to be interested and curious about dating! Modern Man is a good site which will guide about how to date. Log on to the site and it will answer all your questions. You can be all set before you actually go for a date.
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