The survivors guide to creating a SUCCESSFUL Dating site

Doing it yourself

First of all we’ve made a quick check list on what you need to do if you want to develop a dating site by yourself. Don't get put off by the long list – yes, there is a lot to do – and there are issues that you will need to overcome to make your new venture successful – but there are also ways that you can side-step some problems and tasks or use alternatives until you think you are ready to totally go it alone.

Check-list of important criteria

First you need a great idea - then do the necessary research on the existing competition and your potential markets
Decide on what is your ultimate goal
Build a business plan with an effective concept that is sufficiently different or niche-based to ensure a good chance of success.
Assess the investment necessary and translate this into an initial and monthly budget
Build a good technical specification. Ensure your site is sufficiently ‘feature-rich’ to attract members in this increasingly competitive business
Produce budgets on hardware and hosting
Identify an outsourcing company for programming requirements
Ensure good communication between outsourcing supplier and yourself
Ensure the programming schedule fits within your budget
Decide your launch date
Get Merchant accounts set up (if possible)
Have an effective plan on how to deal with fraud
Develop good copy and logic to convert your customers
Ensure good internal marketing, including how to prompt your members to pay
Develop good external marketing plans (how are you going to attract your members?)
Prepare detailed financial forecasts to see how long it will take you to make a profit
Have clear estimates and budgets for marketing activities
Understand how long it will take you to reach the necessary critical mass of members
Develop your own initial pricing platform for your site
Plan carefully how you intend to launch your site
Think again about budgeting for advertising
Learn how to focus on targeted traffic
Learn how to deal with chargeback’s
Create a plan for an effective affiliate program and related marketing strategy
If you don't have external investment, think about how to budget sufficient from your own resources for the next year or two

Cost considerations

Hardware
Hosting
Staffing
Programming
Software
Merchant account percentages
Chargeback fines
Home or office costs
Marketing
Accountants and solicitors fees
Tax
VAT
Sundries
Other Solutions

As you can see, setting up a site from scratch, without a lot of online experience and financial resources can be tough. If you do become successful and achieve a strong critical mass of members, the financial rewards from creating your own site can be great, but the risks are high, with a level of initial cash outlay on hardware, software, and staffing that is unacceptable for many people. However do not despair….there are other ways to get started on running a very successful online dating business which do not demand quite such a high initial spend, or indeed quite such an expansive knowledge of the ins and outs of creating an internet based operation. We’ve summarized the three ways of getting started in the dating business, with our opinion on the pluses and minuses of each.

We suggest you use the one that is most suited to your needs. Find a solution that will get you to your goal in the easiest possible way, then take it step by step, spending as little as you need to, as you move along.

The three alternatives are:

Dating software/scripts
Template systems
Dating services
Dating Software/Scripts

In our view the least attractive of the three are dating scripts which vary in complexity and price from free for a very basic system, to $000’s of dollars, for a more advanced package.

One of the primary requirements for this kind of dating system is that you must have a programming background in order to set up and maintain the software. The alternative is to pay the script supplier to do this, but this is usually at fairly high ‘consulting’ rates. Many of these scripts are bought initially in a basic form and you buy add-ons in order to add additional and different features to your web sites. Once again these ‘add-ons’ are often expensive, as is the charge for installing them.

Very few dating scripts come with a database; the ones that do are fairly unique and include members that are taken from other sites (that have often been used before). We are not aware of any dating script that has a communal database. If there is no database then you will have to run the site for free until you reach a critical mass. Only then can you start selling memberships. You usually find that dating sites that have been established using ‘scripts’ have a very low conversion rate due to a small database and limited site functions.

It is also unlikely that the owner of one of these new scripts will be able to get their own merchant account and would have to rely heavily on third party payment system, or independent systems like PayPal, which are often very expensive. Most dating scripts do not support recurring payments, therefore revenue earned is normally on a once-only payment, per profile, per signup or per email basis. Loss of revenue without recurring payments reduces the annual revenue for the owner by as much as 10 times.

Fraud systems are never built into dating scripts and they are often targets for scammers; controlling these is difficult unless new subscriptions are hand checked. This does require a degree of experience and merchants require that your fraud level remains generally below 2.5% (you can incur fines of up to $25,000 if you continually exceed this).

Template Systems

The second option available for the creation of a dating site with outside support uses the concept of Template Systems. Companies that provide this service offer template sites, free of charge, with a limited degree of variation per template, (slightly different design, different colours etc), all of which are fairly basic in design, although some do include mobile and text services, as well as chat services. There is normally a shared database on offer, but this is seldom of a significant size. Similarly payment systems are based around third party merchant accounts that are expensive and cannot offer recurring payments. If you work with a template system provider, you will receive a share of revenue, but normally only on initial payments, or on a per profile or email basis. Scammers are known to take advantage of many Template systems based on their limited anti-fraud processes and payment methodologies. The combination of a limited selection of template designs, a small database, restricted payment options, and a high volume of scammers, means that retention and conversion rates are often poor. However earnings and potential profits are normally better with a Template provider than a Dating Scripts company.

Dating services

By far the best choice of the three types of external providers of dating sites, are those companies that offer a full dating service. By this we mean companies that provide a complete range of dating sites (customisable templates, co-branded sites, white label sites, and portal links) with a wide range of site features. The good dating service companies have a substantial shared database of members, superior payment methodologies, good anti-fraud systems, and a fair way of sharing revenue, which ensures the active site owner will make an extremely good income. As an example of these companies that offers the most functionality with the best financial rewards is www.WorldDatingPartners.com. Its unprecedented speed of set-up, a shared database of over 3.5 million members, a full range of merchant accounts, the best anti-scam practices, and the widest range of functionalities on offer. World Dating Partners recognised as a world leader with unique filtering systems that support creative niche markets, offers outstanding retention and conversion rates, and some of the best revenue sharing models. All systems are free, with the facility to go it alone with the company’s blessing if a site/site-owner ever feels he would prefer to work independently with his own data-base at a later date.

Other companies that provide a similar, but less complete suite of offerings are SpringStreet Networks and Relationship Exchange.

Recommendations

Clearly the best solution for any start-up online dating organisation or indeed any organisation that sees a natural portal link from its existing sites to a dating site would be via a dating service organisation. With little or no financial outlay, a new site can be up and running within 24 hours, and making money immediately. Dating scripts and standalone Template providers are outmoded ways of dating-site development, and suffer accordingly. The financial investment and knowledge necessary to create a standalone site will normally put off all but the most enthusiastic and bravest investor, but money can be made this way, although risks are high.

Our recommendation would clearly be to use a dating service provider.

For further help or information contact Robert@singles.ltd.uk