are there any money in dating sites

I wonder if it still possible to make at least something with dating sites..

 

match.com seems to be making a fortune.

 

yeah but they started long time ago + they have a premium domain

but the industry in oversaturated, and the question is if it is possible to make money for a small startup right now??

thanks

 

To be successful with a dating site you need "ALOT" of people to join it first. Any user going to your site will join it only when he/she sees alot of members. I have experimented with dating & hot or not sites & ended up getting 95% male members. Had to shut down both.

 

There is money to be made with a dating site, but it takes a lot of hard work getting your website listed with search engines - which can take anything up to 3-4 months.

 

As a Adult Webmaster for the last 4 years, take my advice and forget about the dating. As said, most sign ups are men. Your better of promoting premium rate chat services, aimed at the male market! If you are interested, I can recommend a company that I work with.

 

Plenty Of Fish makes a fortune but like any business, it is down to hard work, expertize and innovation.

You need to be very professional to succeed in most business, luck plays a very minor role in the mix

 

this is a area on the internet where their is big money to be made still, people are all ways looking for love, any dating site will do well if you can acquire a large number of girl and guy sign ups, it will just boom after this point.

just look at adultfriend finder lol they make millions and millions

 

the market is huge, but there is lotz of big fish. May be concentrate on some smaller niche like "geek date" or "gothic date"?

 

Dating sites are pretty much done unless you can come up with a really unique idea/site.

 

hahah i think thats already been done, ive seen a big vampire goth style dating site lol...very weird lol

 

i have read a survey telling dating industry is about 700 million dollars per year ... however free social networking sites are harming dating business . its best these days to let your users to use free dating service and make money from affiliate programs .

 

There are PLENTY of opportunities. Even better than existing once.

Take niche of people living with uncurable STDs (herpes/aids)
This is a "market" on its own, maybe even larger than 'regular' market.. Just take a look at statistics:
- "In the United States, an estimated 15.3 million new cases of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) occur each year"
- "About one in five people in the United States over age 12 – approximately 45 million individuals – are infected with HSV-2, the virus that causes genital herpes"
- "Up to 1 million new HSV-2 infections may be transmitted each year in the United States"
- "An estimated 20 million people in the United states are infected with HPV, and as many as 5.5 million new infections occur each year."
Source

this "gold mine" hasn't been discovered by any "big players" of dating/social business like AFF.com, or match.com

Facts:
People have choices: they can go to bar and meet someone.. they can meet someone at company's picnic, or be introduced to someone by their friends and families. As a last resort they could go online and use one of thousands web-based dating services. In case of failure of current relationship, people start exploring all those options all over again.

People, who live with herpes/AIDS, don't have such options. 99% of them will not take chances of approaching someone, because of the fear of being rejected and embarrassed . Herpes is not a deadly disease, but it is not curable. If current relationship didn't work , the person will be forced to come back and start search all over again.. web is the only option.

From business stand point this niche is much 'stronger' than any web-based social service out there.
None of the advertisings on 'regular' site will reach all potential consumers simply because all people belong to different consumer groups: they all have different tastes and preferences, they belong to different social groups etc etc. The only product that will get interest of all of them would be a "love potion", but i haven't heard any scientific breakthrough in this field. Most likely it will be immediately banned by government and the only place to buy it will be some dark alley.

100% of customers in this STD-related niche belong to the same consumer group right from the start because they are sharing same medical condition (it would be interesting to conclude a research regarding other medical conditions that limit their partner choices to self-alike).
All people using this kind of sites is highly interested in anything that allows them to maintain / improve their condition. Who are advertisers?
Pharmaceutical companies, of course, plus all STD prevention organizations.


P.S. If someone will be looking seriously into this, and has about $100K to invest, let me know. we might be looking to sell one of the top sites from this niche.

 

good post above. I currently run a dating site and i totally agree that 97% of the members are males.

 

Great post, dotbeyond.

Yes, niche is where it's at. Sure, there are some big players out there. And unless you have a whole wad of cash to burn, it would be difficult to try to compete with them in the general dating scene.

Here's another excellent example of niche marketing - www.farmersonly.com . Fantastic niche. A dating service for the rural community. Absolutely brilliant.

Just spend some time brainstorming for a good (untapped) niche. You'll end up on Reuters, NBC, CBS, etc. just like farmersonly.com

Vito

 

Does any one know any good dating script.

with all the features like paid members and profile every thing like dating and matrimonial website.

 

Early this year, I did a bunch of research on setting up a niche dating site. After sifting through the many dating scripts, I felt that http://www.datingpro.com/dating/ was the best one. They also offer many addon modules (affiliate, audio/video chat, forum, poll, etc).

Here are some links I had collected with some info on the subject (I haven't checked all the links to make sure they still work):

http://www.darrenbarefoot.com/archives/2005/04/niche-dating-services.html

http://whispy.com/dating-services-resources.html

http://www.jrn.columbia.edu/studentwork/cns/2004-03-01/544.asp

http://www.calendarlive.com/dating/cl-wk-cover9feb09,0,5279441.story?coll=cl-weekend

http://www.onlinedatingmagazine.com/news2003/minglematchdatingrecord.html

http://washingtontimes.com/business/20051124-093203-8173r.htm

http://www.socialgrid.com/specialty-dating-service.html (example of directory where you could list your site)

Hope that helps.

Vito

 

Try finding a specific niche and go after it.
For example make a dating site targeted at a specific ethnic group, age range, people with the same interest, etc..

 

I tried to do this before, but it did not work out for me.

- MENJ

 

I've opened one the other day, still doing alot of link building and coming up with promotional ideas, but dont forget keyword research