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Open markets are good and I believe everyone should have the opportunity to succeed.
That said, there are too many broken, poorly designed, sad excuses for dating sites out there. I would like to take most of them behind the shed and put them out of their misery because they make my job harder.
The initial *perceived* barriers to entry to build successful dating sites are too low. We need to raise them. I am all for risk taking and starting internet businesses, but there should be some kind of test you have to take before you can roll out a new domain name (no hyphens!).
Why not have a “throw in the towel� day? Shut down your dating site and become an eBay Power Seller. Less stress, shorter workdays and more money and time in the sun.
The software for sale to run dating sites is terrible, with few exceptions. The service these companies provide is even worse. Why would you want to get into something that is going to cost little to build and your sanity to make work and keep running?
Someone needs to start a consortium of developers dedicated to the building and maintaining of dating sites. Guru.com doesn’t cut it. Neither will your nephew or the guy you met at the local geek networking event.
Today when people call me to ask for advice on how to start a dating site, I often mention green energy or pet rocks as a better way to make money. There are too many dating sites which a) never should have been started, b) have no idea how to run an internet business, c) have unrealistic expectations. Is it better for them to limp along on life support or close up shop and move on?
The world does not need another dating site. If you think your idea is novel and never been done, it’s probably for a reason. Sometimes ideas are more fun to think about than execute.
You probably don’t have enough money to make your site successful. Your competition has a bigger marketing budget, and knows where to spend it (and where not to waste resources.) eHarmony spends $90 million a year on radio and tv jingles.
You are not Match, or PlentyOfFish. The chances of this kind of luck and success are infinitesimal, even lower than most dating site visitor-to-member conversion rates.
Most people don’t think about dating sites as internet businesses, which is exactly what they are. There is no “youâ€? in running an online dating site, it’s your IT guy and your credit card processor. They are your new best friends. Who call at 2am.
If you still want to get into the game, congrats, you are either comfortably ignorant or incredibly smart. Either is good, just know where you stand and what direction you need to go in to be successful.
Keep reading and learn how to make it in the world of online dating “social networkingâ€?, because that is what online dating is going to be called in 2008 as the space between the two continues to narrow and paywalls fall down in favor of free dating (which I’m not a big fan in most contexts, BTW.)
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Blog reactions
6 responses so far ↓
1
Sam Moorcroft, ChristianCafe.com (Check me out!)
// Jan 23, 2007 at 10:27 pm
Amen!
Check out christiansinglesdepot.com and then click random links at the bottom, e.g. FAQ:
christiansinglesdepot.com/faq.php
“Your FAQ here”
How about christiansinglesdepot.com/about_us.php
“Your company information here.”
Or
http://christiansinglesdepot.com/contact.php
“Your contact information here”
Sheesh. Save your time, energy, and money on lousy out-of-the-box-Eastern-European-s/w and get a real job.
2
Neal (Check me out!)
// Jan 24, 2007 at 4:03 pm
Haha. I think Dave has been reading about “link baiting”. :)
3
Luke (Check me out!)
// Jan 27, 2007 at 10:45 am
Dating is definitely moving towards “social networking” or as we like to call it “social dating”. We have been moving Matchdoctor.com in that very direction. Blogs and forums are becoming ever more popular for finding quality matches through interaction and social discussions online. Matchdoctor.com will soon have most if not all of the features of the big players such as MySpace, but the main difference is that the members using the site are single and looking for a relationship. The big networks are great for staying in touch with your friends, but when it comes to dating, they don’t cut it. They don’t offer profiles that are tailored for “dating” either.
4
Charla (Check me out!)
// Jan 29, 2007 at 10:50 am
I wish you would take all the cookie cutter sites behind the shed! Even my beta site, MenschMatch, which you were kind enough to look at and critique last year when it came out.
I do think that online dating is here to stay, however, and that the big sites still leave a bit to be desired…particularly in the social networking realm.
So, please, Dave, check out the new incarnation of my dating site: FlirtySomething.com. It’s stylish and smart and, I believe, offers singles a fresh approach to online dating. At this point, I have two partners poised to help breathe life into the site. So marketing should begin in earnest within the next couple of months.
5
Tiberius Brastaviceanu (Check me out!)
// Jan 29, 2007 at 5:34 pm
David, you said:
Keep reading and learn how to make it in the world of online dating “social networking�, because that is what online dating is going to be called in 2008 as the space between the two continues to narrow and paywalls fall down in favor of free dating (which I’m not a big fan in most contexts, BTW.)
I believe that we should consider dating as a niche market of social networking. To succeed in dating one needs to be specialized and to understand marital, romantic and sexual relations. The service has to be highly customized for dating purposes. Dating will never be dissolved into a generic social networking service. At a different scale, a generic dating service like Yahoo! Personals and Match.com can never put out of business a niche dating service such as Planetout or DateAGolfer.com. As dating companies integrate better and better online and offline dating activities, they will define their identity and their specificity within the whole spectrum of social networking. Dating will not be washed nor diluted by the social networking wave. It will always remain identifiable, and it will respond to a very specific need.
People will continue to pay for dating services, if they get a service that corresponds to their needs. In my opinion, dating will not get entirely free. Those who understand that dating, by its nature, extends into real life activities, and find a profitable way to integrate that aspect, will always retain value. At the opposite side, those that are trapped into thinking that a dating service is run by the IT guy, and that it is not more then an Internet business, will offer a product of a lesser value to the person that is desperately looking love, and they will be forced to charge less. Yahoo! in my opinion is not interested to move into the field of offline dating; they probably don’t have the expertise, and prefer to concentrate their resources on what they do best. I predict that with this kind of attitude they will be pushed out from the dating business, and they will live room for new comers that focus their efforts to that specific problem.
The dating industry has not stabilized yet. It went from brick and mortar dating companies, newspapers ads, phone dating, and life singles events (speed dating, singles parties, etc), to Internet dating, as the technology made it possible. Online dating has matured and has almost implemented all the new possibilities introduced by the Internet technology (harvesting various forms of expression and presentation, and means of communication). We are now seeing the integration of online dating and the old dating models. This trend will continue for a couple a years, and we will see dinosaurs dying and new comers thriving.
Tiberius Brastaviceanu (MS)
Product Developer (Palo Alto, California)
Designer of the new Matchmaking Device System
6
horus (Check me out!)
// Feb 7, 2007 at 9:56 am
Markus is a fruit cake……
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