5 Killer Strategies to Build a Profitable Dating Site

In this era, the Internet has enabled people to communicate faster and quicker. For this reason, online dating sites have become a popular place for single people to meet and find their partners. Building your internet dating website can be a great way to earn extra money. But it takes time, hard work, and creativity. First, you need to ask yourself if you’re looking for another project to work on during your day off, or if you’re interested in building an online business.

Dating sites have the real potential of making money as businesses. They also help people hook up and find true love. The dating market is increasingly becoming crowded with sites like Tinder and Dragon-backed Double taking a huge stake in the dating industry. Tons of apps have sprung up and the dating scene is shifting from the traditional monthly subscription websites to freemium apps.

With such a huge competition and sensitivity of the dating industry, you will need to have a realistic business plan. Plus, you also need to concentrate on a professional, safe, and transparent product.  So, if you’re planning on starting a dating website, here are five simple ways you need to consider.

Find the Right Niche

The most important element when starting any successful business online is identifying your target market. At this point, there are huge players in the online dating world like Match.com, PlentyOfFish, etc. They have a huge following making it hard to gain ground in the overall marketplace.

With such an array of popular market players, you need to offer outstanding services that make you stand out from competitors. Building a site that targets specific tastes and needs of your audience is a good way to establish your target audience and succeed in the dating industry.

For instance, Tastebuds focuses on matching the user with their favorite music genre while Uniform Singles is built for people in the military or emergency services. Consider unique characteristic for different people including vegetarians, food lovers, smokers, or anyone else who is part of your potential target audiences. Remember that the narrower the social group you focus on, the more conversion you will have.

Choose a Business Model

At some point, you will want your website to create some income for you. So, dating sites can work on either a subscription model or advertising or a combination of the two. For instance, PlentyOfFish.com has over 30 million members because of their friendly site that enables free ads, but it doesn’t match the profitable subscription option used on Match.com which has a little over 1.3 million paying subscribers with annual revenues of over $350 million. So, if you plan to go for a subscription model you stand to make a profit. But if customers have to put up some amount to use a site, you need to have the best tools and services in place.

If you’re planning to start off with a monthly subscription, it would be wise, to begin with, a free trial for the first users. This is because you may have a few users and offering a free trial will attract more members that may become potential subscribers later on. In addition, it’s also important to have limited offers and discounts to attract more users. For instance, users of Match.com are entitled to a free membership for a month if they don’t find love within six months. New subscribers on the site are given three days of free unlimited membership.

All this require patient since users won’t come rolling in once your site goes live. You will have to wait for a while before you can break even and start making a profit. All this depends on the amount you decide to charge. It should be affordable to your target audience. You will also need to incorporate other ways of making money such as advertising revenue or an affiliate partnership.

Appeal to Customers and Create a Friendly Environment

No one is interested in a dating site with few or no people. So, you will want to put up a strong marketing campaign. Include some incentives to get more signings for your site. Start with your single friends and get them to sign up their contacts to the site. It’s upon you to choose whatever preferences that suit your visitors. But, keep in mind that all these members are human beings with feelings and emotions. Most people might be new members or people who have had previous bad experiences, so it is important to create a warm environment that makes online dating a fun experience. Members are allowed to express their feelings and don’t judge.

If you have a subscription-based business model, you can offer discounted membership to the first few people that sign up. With the right audience, you will have an easier time promoting your site on other channels. Keep in mind that you will also get members through word of mouth, to create an app or site that is easier to use.

Select High-Quality Software

If you are like most people, choosing a high-quality software with all the excellent features on the market can be a tedious process. Although what you need is just a computer to start, the basic understanding of software and creating websites is crucial to the success of an online business.

In the real sense, the construction process of the website or app will need great skills from an experienced website builder. In this case, go for a reliable hosting provider. You don’t want all your hard work and resources to go to waste, so hosting should be among the top things on your bucket list when creating a dating site. Remember that not all hosting providers are optimized to provide excellent results, so do your research before making a decision. You will need to outsource other services like instant messaging, e-commerce, spam detection, and moderation. Keep in mind that an average looking dating site will not attract many users and may turn off potential customers.

Site Advertising and Promotion

A successful online dating site requires to rank well in search results. It is therefore important to create a search-engine-friendly website focused on key dating terms that are frequently searched by users every day. The process may be time-consuming with a lot of resources spent, but it will be worth the effort when you start getting those leads.

Search Engine Optimizations tactics that you need to use are creating high-quality and engaging content with relevant search terms related to online dating, use of meta-titles on your pages, inbound and outbound links, etc. You can always learn more about SEO through useful materials on the internet. It is important to understand the basics to rank your site on search engines for different keywords.

Once the site has enough subscribers, you can dive into PPC advertising. Pay-per-Click is an advertising model where advertisers pay to get their ads displayed only when users click on them. In this case, advertisers have to set their bid for the advertising campaign or specific search terms. In other words, they choose an amount to pay per click. The campaign involves placing some ads on specific points on your website on the first page. It lasts for a short period depending on the agreement between you and the advertiser. It’s another great source of income.

Promotion

While you start building your site, there are other key things you need to consider to make the process easier. Include special features in different levels of membership such as Gold, Silver, or Platinum. That provides additional features depending on the user’s membership level. Also, include discounts for users who have subscribed for long periods and split them into a month, three months, and six months.  Make sure you have linked your dating site to social media sites, like Facebook, Instagram, etc. It will expand the pool of users. Don’t forget to include a unique feature to make communication private and anonymous, so that users cannot reveal their personal information to potential partners they have just met recently. Once the site is running successfully, you can have added a couple of short success stories with photos or real partners that have found love through your dating site.

Conclusion

You can go on and on with the essential strategies needed for a dating website, but these will surely get you started in your journey of building the profitable dating site. Ensure you have a safe and reliable payment method with a trusted company to avoid frauds against the user who may send personal information online. You can also include a section where users can log in and leave complaints of issues threatening their security.

When you apply these tactics, you will start getting positive results on your site with increased members. It will help you grow your business.