teh ghey

I started a gay personals site 8 months ago and have 11,000 members in it, I did it all myself. All free, members they dont pay (I dont charge yet).
The site itself is very good, I really made a nice site with features my competitors dont have, and my members love

But my competitors are very established and have 150k-200k members in their sites and I only have 11k, so my members complain that theres no one on and ask me to delete their profiles, even though they're free profiles.

so I have a few questions:

1. What can I do to get 50k new gay dating site members into my site? Is there a database I can buy of gay members?

2. What do you think of contests? I was thinking of doing contests where whoever refers the most people will win $100, and do this every month.
Or something like that. So more people tell their friends about it.

3. Should I start charging now, or wait until later to charge when I have more members?
My competitors are very popular and my members know about my competitors, so Im afraid if I charge now that they'll say "fuck you" to my site and go to my busier competitors

LoveSandra

Yeah, from my point of view , i guess it`s not a good idea to charge right now.Keep working and bring more people on your dating site. Or you may put a very small montly fee for the member IMHO,few bucks on the month

clickhappy

yeah I just got my CCBill account and was thinking of asking for donations and seeing what the reaction is to it. if I get a lukewarm reaction from my members then I guess they arent that great afterall and I might have a dud on my hands.
if the reaction is good then it means I can make a few bucks that way or charge like $3.95/month until it grows

bamf99

I agree, I would not make them pay now. But dont knock yourself 11K members is a good start. I would blow up other sites with adverts...MySpace/Facebook/CL it to death and probably put a couple of ads on the front so you can generate revenue for now.
Best of Luck to You
PS you can advertise with us free too

Pseudonymous

If it's that good of a product and you believe in it and you got a professional design, pay the money for advertisements on websites that are similar or relate. Get gay webmasters to promote you, buy ad space on their websites. Takes money to make money.

Don't charge for a while. Even a small membership will scare them away right now. Get income from ads on your site

VicD

add your site here: diamondsexlinks dot com

Dating Port

Are your competitors free sites also or are they paid sites?

__________________
Email: admin[at]datingport.co.uk - ICQ: 456416181
It's amazing what you (L)earn when you put some effort into it!

teh ghey

I have 2 major competitors who have both been around 6-8 years now. Theyre both Goliaths. Both let you join for free and charge for extra features. They both work the same microniche, we'll say 1 is gay-black and the other is gay-ethnic, so similar but slightly different.

competitor 1- charges $15 for 3 months access.
He claims 190k members , I dont know how many pay and who are free.
Paying members get unlimited messages, can see members gallery, see members uploaded videos and use all chat rooms.
Non paying members get 2 messages a day and can go into 1 chat and search and thats it.

competitor 2- charges $9.95/month
He claims 135k members.
Has picture galleries and messaging, thats it.
doesnt offer video, private pics, nothing.

My site - 11,300 members
Every member can upload 8 videos, 10 pictures, I have a messageboard, picture guestbooks, streaming video voice chat for group jack offs and IM'ing, member blogs.
I went overboard on features. I have more than my competitors do and the members love the site.
It's just a matter of time before people discover me. I just dont know how to get the word out there in the niche.
I just want to make $10k a month and Ill be happy. I dont need more.

Competitor #1 banned me from being on his site because im competition to him.