Archive for May 8th, 2008

Key things for a dating website.

Thursday, May 8th, 2008

Building a community at your Dating Site is not an easy thing. I mean it when I remember what options site administrators use to attract right users to their Dating or Networking sites. Nowadays I read on many Dating Forums that people - regular dating site users - are tired of common features like search and matches. They need more!

Probably it may be less functional but yet entertaining. Like for example prizes, quizzes and parties. Our current Personals and Dating Site users seek originality and personal expression. What can we do to provide that?

First, I would advise to use your own site for a while (if you’re an admin) and write down the time you spend on a site every day, timelines, pages you check most you the time, the way you access the site.

Then, decide why you got bored with a site at a certain moment (if you did). List things or options that could entertain you personally.

Third, write everything down and single out points that your online Dating Software can do. There can be Forum, Poll, Events, Gifts, Blogs, Personal pages, Ratings and Shout Box.

Though most of the options I have listed are common you can make them special with a power of your talent. For instance:
* Pick up cute themes for Forum
* Ask challenging questions in Poll (make it frequently updated)
* Organize crazy Events for your users (you can use strange places for parties, unusual themes for them)
* Inspire your users with unbelievable Gift ideas.
* Track blogs and make their ratings from time to time. Evaluate the best.
* Help your members make their Personal pages more attractive. Post Profile creation tips, Advice and comments.
* Encourage members upload photos to get noticed. Rate photos from time to time your self and leave comments that could help.
* Implement Shout Box feature to make the conversations and matches faster. let your users express their emotions at a time and get more visits to their profiles.

And at last, remember that Dating and Networking people are looking for thrill and challenge more then for simple Dating. It’s my opinion but I get more proofs for that every day. One of the reasons for it is that Online Dating and Networking becomes very usual thing. It resembles a real life and people do need something new at least online.

Hotornot Converts back to paid.

Thursday, May 8th, 2008

Here is an email Hotornot Sent out saying they are going back to paid because of fake profiles and scammers.

I think its more about money, as a free site I earn millions, as a paid site I would earn around 100 Million a year given my membership. I would suspect the game plan is to focus on facebook apps to send traffic to hotornot and then make a lot of money off memberships again. I can’t see to many free site competitors in the future, as there is just way more money in being a paid site.

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Dear loyal HOTorNOT star members,Based on feedback we got from many of you, we have decided to start requiring star memberships on HOTorNOT again. While many of you saw how going free would be good, you also warned us that this would probably lead to more spammers and fake profiles.

You were right, this is exactly what happened. The spammers got aggressive to the point where they were screwing up the system, even causing the “someone wants to meet you” emails to not be sent for periods as long as 5 days.

We don’t really regret trying to make the site free dating site so everybody can use it, but it’s clear that most of our users believe an inexpensive paid site works better than a free site filled with spammers.

If you left the site after we went free, we hope you’ll come back and join again. If you are still here, we hope turning subscriptions back on has a noticable impact for you, helping you meet more people without having your time wasted by the spammers.