How to Create an Online Dating Website from Scratch

Have you always had a talent for matchmaking at parties and dinner parties? Why not realize your skills in a wide market by launching a dating site? For users, this is a new chance to make new friends, or even find a mate. Well, for you, this is an opportunity to get a good profit with minimal effort.

What you need to understand in the first place

Dating site is not the most difficult idea. Especially when compared with the latest trends, which are increasingly directed towards technologies like the blockchain. Of course, you need much less specialized knowledge. However, when developing such a website, you need to give it one hundred and ten percent.

People always crave communication. No matter how the technologies and methods of information transfer are developed, a simple conversation will be worth its weight in gold. After all, loneliness is a bad thing. The dating industry is hot and will always be in demand. Therefore, once you create such a business, you can always secure a decent income.

Beginning is easier than you think. We are used to the fact that the start of any business is a long and nervous process. But in this case, everything is a little simpler. Dating sites have a narrowly focused and routine task. That’s why their development is much easier.

General concept

Niche selection

When developing a dating site, it is very important to determine the target audience, since the competition in this market is very high. Eharmony, Plentyoffish, Pubnub, Zoosk, and this is not a complete list. Creating a website for any user is less as effective for the following reasons:

• users find it harder to find friends by interest;
• increased risk of fake accounts and malicious use of sites;
• low traffic.

Therefore it is necessary to choose the right niche. The site must meet the needs of users and limit a certain group. After all, people want not only to meet, but also to meet whenever possible. Vegetarians, skateboarders, travelers, even smokers - any group of interests today has thousands of people. There will be more potential users with a clear definition of the niche.

Work on the brand

Creating a business card dating site plays a very important role in brand development. In many cases, the choice of domain name is a key factor in the rapid growth of the site. Beginners postpone this stage for later, giving it a minimum of value. But any professional marketer will say that you need to do this first.

Work on these elements:

• tagline;
• title;
• domain name;
• logo;
• symbolism.

The quality and uniqueness of each of them creates a first impression about the site. Uniqueness and simplicity - that is important. Proper work on the brand will set the stage for trust in your project.

Business model

Online dating sites can be either free advertising-based or paid-for based on a subscription. Combined sites are also possible (for example, registration is free, but you need to pay to hide ads).

The first option will certainly attract a lot more users, which will quickly raise the popularity of the site. However, the profitability of such sites is usually less.
Free dating sites will help you quickly build a large community. They are especially good at a small niche or local level (for example, “Lonely villages of Davis” or “Treasure hunters of St. Joseph”). It is useful to run a similar site from scratch. In addition, only real users will initially come to such a site.

Paid sites are slower in gaining an audience, therefore, first of all they require a good marketing strategy. Again, only real users will pay for the account, which means there will be a lot of active participants. But no one will pay, if the site will be empty from the start. Therefore, before starting, you will have to "buy" a user base.

Badoo is a free network with about 330 million subscribers, but the average annual turnover reaches approximately 7-8 million dollars. Match is a paid dating site with up to 2 million members. Total profit from annual subscriptions is about $ 350 million.

But it should be understood that users expect a lot more from a paid site. Therefore, it is necessary to work on it harder. Poor quality platform will quickly become unpatronized and unprofitable.

Pair selection algorithm

There is an erroneous opinion that the site reduces all existing users randomly, with the only focus on their location. In fact, the site analyzes the specified interests, work and other such things in order to bring together the most suitable people.

On eHarmony, you’ll have to answer 400 psychological questions before you can make your first acquaintances. Tinder, on the contrary, requires a minimum of information (interests, age and location) to find a pair.
Think about what value will be important to your users and how the site will evaluate their matches. This is especially important when creating a site with a wide niche. The user will quickly leave the site if he meets people who are not suitable for him.

Communication opportunities

In real life, we always see a person's emotions, his gestures, because it is easier for us to understand each other. We always make an appointment quickly, because we know the contacts of our friends.

Dating site involves communicating with a variety of users. Some of them will attract more, because you want to contact them simply, and not search among a huge list of matched pairs. The more users get closer, the more they open to each other. Because they need more opportunities to convey their emotions:

• likes;
• emoji and stickers;
• friend requests;
• photo albums;
• instant chats;
• favorite list.

These and many other tools make life easier for users. Do not be afraid to turn your project into a kind of social network. After all, dating sites are like that.

Technical support and management

Software and hardware

Hang-ups and limited functionality are a big problem for any online service. This can be avoided only with the help of high-quality software and hardware. The system should be as distributed as possible. It will cost a lot of money, but significantly increase the bandwidth and the amount of information that can be stored on the site.

If you have enough knowledge, then each of these elements can be developed independently. Otherwise, contact companies that specialize in creating of the necessary security.

When you purchase you will receive a less unique product, in which you need to understand. However, high performance and safety will be ensured. Also, it will be easier for you to manage the site and control all its processes.

Server selection

Proceeding from the budget, there are always two options: buy your own servers or rent them on a hosting. It is important to remember that a dating site is a mass of personal information. For the most part, hosting is reliable, but you can never know what their owners have in mind.

When renting servers, the developer of the site does not have complete control over it. Third parties can always have access to databases. They can post someone's photos or personal information on public services. For the site owner this will end sadly.

Therefore, in the event of a shortage of funds, it is better to postpone the launch of the service and raise funds for the purchase of servers. Only in this way you will receive complete confidence that user information will not go beyond the site.

Subtleties of design

Dating site is the positive emotions from communication with new people. That’s why the color scheme should be bright and pleasant. As the screen saver of the main screen, you can pick up any photo of a friendly company or a cute couple.

With a sector-specific niche, be sure to select the appropriate design. For example, on a dating site for bikers pinkish shades and color patterns would be inappropriate.

If it is difficult to develop a general view, you can use templates of services such as Wordpress, Joomla, ph7cms and others. In one of the past articles you can learn more about, how how to develop good web design.

Audience engagement

Search optimization

One of the indicators of online dating site success is its search engine position. Therefore, it should be made as attractive as possible for crawlers (search engine tools that collect information about sites and create their rating). For this you need to:

• provide SEO (keywords, metadata, inbound links);
• avoid spam;
• avoid fake information;
• control the amount of advertising;
• use unique media content.

Advertising

Each site is engaged in search promotion, therefore it is not enough to increase the popularity of its service. One of the most important indicators is the number of visitors and active users.

First of all, it is necessary to spread information in social networks. Previously, it was necessary to contact the people involved in the relevant promotion. Today, most services (Youtube, Facebook, Instagram and others) advertise from their servers. Therefore you only need to allocate money for it.

Do not forget to do offline promotion. It is not necessary to spend money on TV advertising or billboards (although this will be only a plus). Enough to tell about the service to friends, colleagues, former classmates. Information will spread very quickly.

Another way is PPC (pay per click). Many people like to simply surf the net and earn money for clicking on banners. Sometimes to receive payment you need to perform minimal steps (for example, registration). So you can fill a good traffic, which again is an advantage for search engines.

Safety and quality control

Personal Information

Earlier, I mentioned that dating sites are a large amount of personal data. Buying a server is only a foundation for securing the personal information of users.

It is necessary to take care of protection against DDoS attacks, hacks, relinking to fake sites. In addition to hardware and software, you need to do informational support of users. Keep track of sites that copy yours and notify customers of any means of obtaining authorization data on your service.

Control over violations

Online dating sites are often used for violence, blackmail or harassment. Obviously, it is physically impossible to read all correspondence. You can write (buy) a script that will calculate such attempts. But the bot is not always able to determine the evil intentions of the user.

Therefore, it is necessary to quickly and radically respond to any complaint about such actions. Accounts that are related to violence or harassment must be deleted. Ideally, block the IP address from which the intruder came.
If the fact of the distribution of personal photos or blackmail will be linked to your site, it certainly does not add it reputation.

Age control

It is impossible to prevent teenagers from visiting dating sites. After all, they also have the full right to communicate in the network and make new friends or look for a couple. However, you should take into account the features of the niche.

For example, the activity of children and adolescents in the service for those who like to drink or smoke is unacceptable. It is also worth limiting their access if your site is intended for intimate dating. You can be accused of perversion, close the service and impose a fine. With such a resume, creating a new site will be more difficult.

Account Verification

Users will be more likely to communicate with real people. You should not make the verification mandatory, pass it through a passport. However, you can connect the confirmation by phone number, accounts in other social networks. After all, on a dating site, photo verification is very effective. For example:

• there must be one person in the photo;
• absence of processing;
• hold a certain object or a sheet with the inscription;
• need some photos in different places.

This way, the person will be able to confirm that he is a real user. This will increase the level of the site itself and attract a much larger audience.

Monetization

Obviously, there is no desire to maintain a loss-making site. Therefore there is a point in adding paid services:

• push to the top search;
• hide your activity on the page of other users;
• gifts to users;
• increase in the number of new connections per day.

Remember that on a dating site, users, as in life, want to show themselves in the best light. If they have paid tools, their rating in front of many girls (guys) will grow several times.

At the same time, do not put too high price. Make a reasonable range. After all, spending 50 dollars to instantly write to a user with a beautiful photo is a bit silly. But for the conditional 5 dollars every third will use it.

Creating an online dating site is a relatively simple process. However, the competition in this industry is very high. Therefore, create a high-quality, safe and unique project. Do not forget that the safety of personal data of users and the reaction to the malicious use of the site is the first thing that should worry you.

Successful beginnings!
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