Proliferation of Dating Sites
Have you noticed how many different dating sites exist online today? How can so many survive when they are in fact in direct competition with each other. Well there are four main factors to explain this apparently contradictory situation:
- Not all are in direct competition with each other and happily manage to exist in niche markets
- Many of these sites share a common database and form an affiliate network, so there are less unique sites than you think
- Most sites are not successful and eventually disappear once they realise they cannot compete
- Dating site users do not appear to have much loyalty to any one brand and often are members on more than one site
Niche markets are the big area of potential, so if you wish to ride the current wave of growth, find yourself a less-competitive population subset and market your site accordingly. Just make sure that you are knowledgeable about your market and are not some cowboy after a quick profit who would try anything to get his site off the ground… eventually your customers will feel your lack of expertise and choose your competitor. Do your research and understand your customers’ needs.
Be wary of joining an affiliate network of dating sites. Just one big database and hundreds of sites plugged into it… dating site users do not like this. Often they find themselves getting unsolicited emails from other sites affiliated with yours. Gives the impression you have sold their details onto a third party. In addition, you are not totally in control and the profit does not all belong to you.
One last point to note; dating site users do use other sites as well. Bear this in mind when you are thinking of ways to keep customer loyalty. You will need to offer an enticing USP to keep them with you for any length of time.
