One of the greatest opportunities you have in the online dating world is the possibility of expanding your service internationally. In many cases this can be a very lucrative venture, particularly if you are able to fill a niche that either doesn’t already exist or is poorly represented in the country you are entering.
Even a small dating site within a specific niche can be very lucrative. So size doesn’t necessarily matter. It can be all about quality instead of quantity. Even just by expanding to the English speaking world you will open up a wealth of new opportunities without the need to concern yourself with language issues or other barriers of entry.
USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Ireland are all very open to online dating and growing almost as well as Europe is. So there are a lot of opportunities to explore niches in these countries.
The opportunities are there. Take them now while the market is still strong.
Friday 26 March 2010
Tuesday 16 March 2010
Invest in a good domain
Buying a domain name is an investment that will rarely lose you money. Of course there are exceptions to this, but in general a good domain name will hold its value quite well and sometimes even grow in value, particularly if you have built a site which has attracted a reasonable amount of traffic.
There are a number of factors that will determine whether a domain name is of any value or whether it will work well for you. So, it is important to determine which of these factors are of importance to you and your site project.
You may decide that a good keyword domain will limit your marketing spend as it will attract organic traffic. This approach doesn’t suit everyone.
How many people would use google if it was called mostrelevantsearchengine.com? OK, so maybe not such a good example. But you get the idea. Sometimes building a brand is your goal and so a memorable brand name will carry much more value. Sites such as Facebook.com, Bebo.com, Twitter.com are all good examples of branded sites whose names do not necessarily describe their purpose, but who have attracted such high volumes of traffic that the domains themselves probably hold a very high price tag.
By building volume of traffic to your domain you also increase the value of similar domains, misspellings and country specific domains. This is mostly because they will pick up some traffic from users seeking out your service. So, it is worthwhile buying up all possible variations to avoid paying a premium further down the line. This is particularly relevant if you are building up a brand.
A dating site can run pretty well on a keyword domain if you can manage to get a reasonable organic search placement. This is particularly relevant to niche dating sites. But, really, there is no replacement for a good memorable brand.
Check out the domain auctions at http://www.buydomains.com and www.sedo.com.
There are a number of factors that will determine whether a domain name is of any value or whether it will work well for you. So, it is important to determine which of these factors are of importance to you and your site project.
You may decide that a good keyword domain will limit your marketing spend as it will attract organic traffic. This approach doesn’t suit everyone.
How many people would use google if it was called mostrelevantsearchengine.com? OK, so maybe not such a good example. But you get the idea. Sometimes building a brand is your goal and so a memorable brand name will carry much more value. Sites such as Facebook.com, Bebo.com, Twitter.com are all good examples of branded sites whose names do not necessarily describe their purpose, but who have attracted such high volumes of traffic that the domains themselves probably hold a very high price tag.
By building volume of traffic to your domain you also increase the value of similar domains, misspellings and country specific domains. This is mostly because they will pick up some traffic from users seeking out your service. So, it is worthwhile buying up all possible variations to avoid paying a premium further down the line. This is particularly relevant if you are building up a brand.
A dating site can run pretty well on a keyword domain if you can manage to get a reasonable organic search placement. This is particularly relevant to niche dating sites. But, really, there is no replacement for a good memorable brand.
Check out the domain auctions at http://www.buydomains.com and www.sedo.com.
Monday 8 March 2010
Do your research
There is no better way to find out about an industry than to speak to the people already working within it.
The online dating industry has regular events across the world where you will get a chance to hear from industry experts and leaders and get some insight into current trends and future developments.
There are also a few dating industry blogs that can give a bit of insight or at the very least keep you informed of company’s activity in this sector. Of course you will also read my blog regularly, which I hope will provide some useful info.
So what sort of research should you be doing?
You can find out from others within the industry which geographic targeting you should be doing or which niches are performing well. You may be able to identify a gap for yourself in a specific city or country. It is also good to speak to others and find out what hasn’t worked well for them. Learning from the mistakes of others can save you a lot of pain. It is also good just to find out which companies are doing well as this will show you the business models and platforms that are able to perform in the current climate.
All the info you need is out there. It’s just a matter of gathering it together.
You can always give our white label team a call and they will be able to help with some of your research.
The online dating industry has regular events across the world where you will get a chance to hear from industry experts and leaders and get some insight into current trends and future developments.
There are also a few dating industry blogs that can give a bit of insight or at the very least keep you informed of company’s activity in this sector. Of course you will also read my blog regularly, which I hope will provide some useful info.
So what sort of research should you be doing?
You can find out from others within the industry which geographic targeting you should be doing or which niches are performing well. You may be able to identify a gap for yourself in a specific city or country. It is also good to speak to others and find out what hasn’t worked well for them. Learning from the mistakes of others can save you a lot of pain. It is also good just to find out which companies are doing well as this will show you the business models and platforms that are able to perform in the current climate.
All the info you need is out there. It’s just a matter of gathering it together.
You can always give our white label team a call and they will be able to help with some of your research.
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