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Ask HN: Given $50k, how would you market a dating site?
11–20 of 31 posts
Re: Ask HN: Given $50k, how would you market a dating site?
#12Make it exclusive and hip. To me, at present, dating sites seem to signal some degree of desperation. I suspect that is very common and why a lot of folks won't use them. I'm not going to go on a "date" with someone from a dating site because (a) I don't ever go on anything that get called "dates" and (b) I'd assume that folks that needed to get dates online are those can't get them in real life.
So, if you made them zany events -- like renting out a full restaurant and curating a list of 50 top matches where folks don't get to pick them ... all of the sudden that sounds fun. Or a first class at ball-room dancing. Or canoeing. Actually, I'd prefer even goofier stuff like the flash-mob-ish sort of things where you have groups that baked into their activity / assigned mission you have some reason for pairing them up.
If you can just create environments for people to do stuff that's fun and meet other people along the way without the baggage of calling it a date or the signaling of "I can't get a date", then it's cool, not desperate and attacks the largest part of the market: the folks that wouldn't use current dating sites even if they didn't suck.
Re: Ask HN: Given $50k, how would you market a dating site?
#13[deleted]
Re: Ask HN: Given $50k, how would you market a dating site?
#14Get a ridiculous prize for the affiliate that does the most volume for you (like Epic's playboy mansion parties), and spend all of your time and money trying to convince large affiliate marketers to drop whoever they're pushing currently and push your site instead.
Look at this for ideas - http://www.doubleyourdating.com/
Re: Ask HN: Given $50k, how would you market a dating site?
#15Earlier quoted context omitted.
A bold PR stunt like this might be a good gamble and get you the best return on the money.
Do 10k and a PR blitz with that idea, then a month later follow up with a contest where every referral of a new member is an entry in a drawing for a 10k prize. Then a month after that, another 10k contest for putting up the most pics (with a facebook import feature). Edit: and start in NYC or one of the biggest cities in the world. A single sign-up in a high density city, is much more valuable as a search result bec…
It is indeed starting NYC-exclusive to begin with.
Re: Ask HN: Given $50k, how would you market a dating site?
#16Make it exclusive and hip. To me, at present, dating sites seem to signal some degree of desperation. I suspect that is very common and why a lot of folks won't use them. I'm not going to go on a "date" with someone from a dating site because (a) I don't ever go on anything that get called "dates" and (b) I'd assume that folks that needed to get dates online are those can't get them in real life. So, if you made them…
Re: Ask HN: Given $50k, how would you market a dating site?
#17Make it exclusive and hip. To me, at present, dating sites seem to signal some degree of desperation. I suspect that is very common and why a lot of folks won't use them. I'm not going to go on a "date" with someone from a dating site because (a) I don't ever go on anything that get called "dates" and (b) I'd assume that folks that needed to get dates online are those can't get them in real life. So, if you made them…
Like this - http://waynechang.com/2010/09/15/patrons-formula-for-buildin...
Right, that's a great example. Do that, but manage to pair people off a bit. Not a "date" of course; just happens to be a person of the opposite gender that some mix of automatic and hand-picked shuffling thought you'd find interesting.
Re: Ask HN: Given $50k, how would you market a dating site?
#18do a the worst date contest. But give the money to a charity. Choose 3 worthy charities - something couple oriented.
Then get radio shows involved. Radio shows need new material everyday. Everyday do a mini contest with no prizes for different topics:
1. worst place to meet 2. worst pickup line 3. worst foobar 4. worst dressup etc.
do this every week before the contest ends.
make sure to get the nonprofits involved. Feature a nonprofit each week. Always make a story about how a specific person would specifically benefit from the charity.
Felix Denis in his book mentions selling beer on the island, donating a portion of the profits to the women and orphan fund.
Holding a contest for the winning cap. He describes in detail here: http://books.google.com/books?id=meKL68N5esEC&pg=PA261&#...
Re: Ask HN: Given $50k, how would you market a dating site?
#19word of mouth, would spend money on sponsored blog posts, facebook ads, pr and news stories, etc.
Re: Ask HN: Given $50k, how would you market a dating site?
#20Hold a contest for $50k to the first users to get married.
Some couple in Vegas would be $50k richer in about 5 minutes I'd think.
1. setup profiles and 'meet' each other 2. Chapel of love 3. Profit!!!
:) I wonder if you'd get enough attention before that inevitably happened...