Dating Services: Smart & Clumsy Ways To Get Monetized
Just in continuation of the last week post about your own dating site launch and chances to enter the dating market. There are many experiments that smart guys carry out with online dating projects – just read how OKCupid tries to compete with monsters like Canadian Plenty of Fish (though run by the team of two only) and Match.com
Despite all that funding and smart idea with speed dating button widget it is not yet clear if the site will be turn profitable. To tell the truth, I have a feeling that they have min chances to succeed – judging by the amount of traffic they get and need to break even. And this just proves that the market is so tough.
This story has reminded me of some other idea to monetize an online dating service.
The former Russians have set up an agency, I do not remember the State and am not certain – probably they are still in the business. The way to make the money was quite smart. They charged their male database for every OPEN e-mail letter that they read from Russian ladies. They also have to pay to send them letters. Each open/ sent letter was charged for about $5.00. Not much until you start opening or sending letters in tens or hundreds. Then the dating service would arrange tours to Russia, Ukraine and Belarus to meet those ladies.
The idea was not bad, but it is too easy to abuse it. And the backfire was fast and inevitable. A lot of fake letters from fake lady profiles that cost the guys thousands of bucks. The dating service have tried to introduce some screening system, but all in vain. I remember the dating services was blacklisted, not sure if they run their dating business at this time.
I guess there are many more stories of successful/ failed online dating services trying to get rich providing their services. Would you like to share any?
Best way to start your own dating website
Those who are in the dating industry now and then play with the idea of starting their own Plenty of Fish, OKCupid or something else
But only a few people who have some knowledge about the niche competition make an attempt. And those few have a few options to go:
- make dating site from scratch
- make use of some free dating software that no doubt needs much customization
- just join some program running dating white label site programs
What are pros and cons of each option?
To tell the truth, I do not see any pros, but cons.
OPTION 1: to go this way you should be either well funded or simply out of your mind… but probably you are good at coding and months to toy with this project.
OPTION 2: if you think that free dating software is an easy way to build a decent dating site – you are wrong. Customization can take the same amount of time and funds as option 1. It is extremely difficult to edit someone’s code.
OPTION 3: white label site… No problem with software, and even no problem with user database. At first glance. Firstly, the user database is likely to be months old – so the users are likely to be inclined to actively interact. Secondly, you will run into the problem with search engine rankings and Google will filter most of your pages for duplicate content – this very user database is crawled with some other website.
There are probably more options to enter the game. For instance, go some niche. But you face other sort of problem – most popular niches are filled by top general dating sites. And if you target some less popular niche you will get LOW demand and too small user base.
My conclusion:
FORGET ABOUT STARTING YOUR OWN DATING SITE
Do you share this point? Would be great to listen some others ideas.
Would like to take a speed dating dinner?
Speed dating is relatively new – it really took off at the end of the last century. The idea is to meet many people at one time looking for relationships or more.
A short conversation lasts 5 minutes or so, and then a ring bells and people change their speed dating partners. At the end of the date the participants provide the organizers with the list of those who they would like to share their contact information with. This is how it works.
How much time does it take to decide if you would like to add this person to your ‘wish list’?
30 seconds. There was a research back in 2006 and the findings show that this is the amount of time required to take that important decision. In my opinion, it is 99% based on your partner appearance.
Unlike ‘online dating’ ’speed dating’ enjoys a healthy demand and it justifies why more and more dating agencies offer this sort of service:
Is it a good or bad way to do partner search? It is a hard question to answer. I think it is good as it:
a) allows meeting many people
b) imposes no pressure on speed dating participants
c) increases you’re your chances to find someone to your liking
In China speed dating took one step forward – they run speed dating for business men to define potential partners for cooperation.