Making A Dating Website

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Have you ever wanted to build a dating website? Maybe you thought to do it yourself would be too difficult, time-consuming, or expensive.

Primarily considered a social website theme for WordPress, BuddyPress has everything you need for a dating website. Profiles, notifications, friendship connections, activity streams, and private messaging are all built-in. You might also consider some themes that have been built on top of BuddyPress. Like KLEO, Buddy, and Socialize. How To Start a Dating Website: 5 Step Guide. Creating your own online dating site takes time and creativity, but these sites have real potential as lucrative businesses. Here is a 5-step guide to starting a dating site, powered by SkaDate Dating Software.

Create a Dating Website for Free. MotoCMS offers a 14-day free trial period for all online dating website templates in our store. So, you can easily compose a model of your site, see how it will look online, and modify all necessary elements up to your needs. It is simple and, actually, free. Paid Memberships Pro is the perfect plugin to make paid memberships part of your dating site. How to Share Your New Dating Site With the World Social Media. This is first on the list because it will likely be your most useful tool. Open up as many social media accounts as you can for your dating site and post to them frequently. A dating website must have a sign-up page to get the users registered and give them access. Sign-up page is important for the website in order to keep the record of the basic details of the users and to make them aware of the services and features the website is providing.

I’m here to tell you that it doesn’t have to be. You can have a dating site up and running in no time, and you can do it on a budget.

I’ll show you how to create a dating website and what you need to know to make it a success.

Give Yourself an Advantage When Starting a Dating Site

Starting a website is easy. A quarter of a million people start one every day. But when you start a site in a specific niche, like dating, it’s good to have an edge over the competition.

A Unique Approach

Match, eHarmony, and OK Cupid are popular general dating sites. If you start a general dating site, those huge, established sites are your competition.

But there are many niche sites that cater to specific groups. There are dating sites based on religious affiliation, people who live outside big cities, those interested in technology, even people who avoid gluten in their diets.

If you can serve a portion of the population that doesn’t currently have a good way to meet, your site can be a success.

How to create dating website

A Good Head for Promotion

Building a website is one thing, but promoting your new site is where most of the work takes place. Especially when you’re starting a site that relies on attracting users.

Most of that promotion will take place online. But depending on the niche you choose to serve, you may also take advantage of local advertising.

You don’t necessarily need a huge advertising budget, but you will have to include time to do website promotion. More on that later.

Building a Dating Website

As I mentioned at the outset, starting a new site can seem like a daunting task. But it doesn’t have to be complicated or expensive. You don’t need to hire a developer or spend thousands on web servers.

Let WordPress Handle the Website

You know it’s going to take time to promote your dating site, so you don’t want to spend weeks or months constructing it.

WordPress can be installed in minutes and customized with themes and plugins. We’ll take a look at some tools that can help you build something successful that attracts people.

The Most Important Tool Is Your Web Host

It’s never been less expensive to create a website, but quality and reliability should not be sacrificed for cost. Performance issues or technical problems can sink a membership site, so make sure you have excellent service from day one.

GreenGeeks can provide that reliable, high-quality service, and do it affordably. Every site hosted at GreenGeeks also has access to scalable resources, so your GreenGeeks hosting platform can grow with you.

Of course, GreenGeeks also provides expert help from friendly support staff. We’ll even provide you with a free domain name for the first year to help you get started. We’ve got every aspect of hosting your website covered.

And since we’re called GreenGeeks, you may not be surprised to learn that renewable sources match all of the energy your website uses. In fact, we match three times the energy your site will consume.

Hey, there’s a niche that may not yet be adequately served: Green Dating. 🙂

Choosing a WordPress Dating Theme

The theme is the jumping-off point for your WordPress website’s layout and functionality. Generally, I like to recommend free themes, but there aren’t any that specifically address dating website design.

I’m going to list some free themes here that may not be dating site themes, but they can indeed be configured to accommodate your needs.

You may also want to investigate premium (i.e., paid) dating site themes. Sometimes paying for a theme license can be a reasonable expense when you consider the time you could save in configuration.

BuddyPress


Primarily considered a social website theme for WordPress, BuddyPress has everything you need for a dating website. Profiles, notifications, friendship connections, activity streams, and private messaging are all built-in.

You might also consider some themes that have been built on top of BuddyPress. Like KLEO, Buddy, and Socialize.

Sweet Date

Sweet Date is one of the most popular paid themes for a dating site. It features unique profile navigation and a sophisticated user matching system. Members can browse other members from their profile page and see compatibility instantly. It also lets users register using their Facebook login. Everything is ready to go.

Ultimate Member

Ultimate Member has many available plugins that expand its reach into a wide variety of dating or social activities. This includes forums, user reviews, and email integration. The Ultimate Member theme works with the Ultimate Member plugin that we’ll talk about below.

OneSocial

OneSocial is a clean, minimal social theme that’s built to be responsive, so it’s perfect for your mobile users. The theme is built on the BuddyBoss/BuddyPress foundation, so it has a lot of the same capabilities, but provides its own take on social connections.

BuddyBoss

BuddyBoss works right out of the box. It’s incredibly flexible and customizable and does just about everything you would need a dating theme to do.

WordPress Plugins for Your Dating Website

All of the dating themes we’ve talked about can be improved, or at least expanded, with plugins. If you like a theme but it’s missing a feature, you can find it in a plugin.

Rencontre

Rencontre is the only WordPress plugin specifically designed to power a dating site. It features private messaging between members, customizable profiles, advanced search, text and video chat, ability to send smiles and contact requests, and a lot more. There’s no limit to the number of members you can add.

Ultimate Member

The Ultimate Member plugin can be used with any theme, but it was built for use with the Ultimate Member theme (above). It provides complete, detailed control over user registration, logins, member directories, user profiles, account management, roles, content restriction, and email functions.

iFlyChat

iFlyChat enabling users to chat with each other privately, in group chats or chat rooms. It can log conversations, so you may not want to enable that. Most dating site users (and website visitors in general) have expectations of a certain level of privacy.

bbPress

bbPress is a discussion forum plugin. A forum may not be the first thing you think of when you think about a dating site. But a proper forum encourages conversation, and any dating website can make use of that.

Paid Memberships Pro

A great way to offer extended functionality to your members (while also helping offset the costs of the site) are paid memberships. Paid Memberships Pro is the perfect plugin to make paid memberships part of your dating site.

How to Share Your New Dating Site With the World

Social Media

This is first on the list because it will likely be your most useful tool. Open up as many social media accounts as you can for your dating site and post to them frequently.

That’s going to be overwhelming at first, but eventually, you will see which sites work for you. Then, you can weed out the websites that don’t perform as well and make things more manageable.

Reach Out in Your Local Community

If your dating site serves a local niche, you’ll want to make it known in town. Consider advertising in local meeting places or sponsoring local meet-ups.

SEO

Search engine optimization is a promotion tool? Sure it is. In fact, improving a site’s search result ranking may be the best form of promotion. Research how people looking for dating sites search, what words and terms they use, then optimize pages on your site to rank in those results.

Call In Favors

Dating sites are social. The most attractive thing new members can see is many existing members. See if you can get your friends involved to lay the groundwork. People you already know are an excellent resource, and if they’re up for the challenge, they can help your site grow.

That may not sound like the height of authenticity, but dating sites have to start with a group of users. If visitors get the impression that others also use the site, they will be more likely to join and participate.

What Can You Do With a Dating Website?

Serve an Underserved Population

We talked about it earlier; serve a niche as a way of standing out among dating sites. But niches are made up of people. When you provide a service to a group who may not feel included in the mainstream, you will gain their appreciation and loyalty. And that can be very rewarding.

Learn What Interests or Motivates People

Running a website made up of hundreds of (hopefully) thousands of members is a real learning experience. Most people are good and kind, and serving and interacting with them can be a great way to spend your time.

But any time you deal with the public, you deal with all kinds of people — some less pleasant than others. The coping and people skills you learn managing people online will spill over into other aspects of your life. And that’s almost always a good thing.

Earn a Living

Not every website becomes a billion-dollar company. Let’s face it; most websites struggle to make a profit. But if you build an attractive site and put in promotion time, you can create your own employment.

Making A Dating Website

Dating sites can produce substantial profits, even smaller, lesser-known sites. If you do everything you can to set yourself up for success, your dating site can be the source of a comfortable income.

People Need Other People

For as long as there have been people, we have searched for intimate connections. We all need human contact, and a dating site is a great way to interact. If your ideas are unique, or you have a niche audience in mind, a dating website can succeed beyond your expectations.

I hope I’ve given you some useful tools and insights that can help you along the way. Now get out there and make some matches!

Author: Michael Phillips

Start A Dating Website

Michael Phillips is a web hosting industry veteran, helping people make the most of their web presence since 1995.

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Dating apps remain a controversial and ambivalent thing. Some like it and have met the love of their lives, others oppose it. Some of us dislike negative experiences brought on with a dating app, but still use it. That’s life, that’s human hopes for better. Everyone wants to be admired. Good news is that there is no shortage in mobile apps for dating. Another good news dwells in a fact that it becomes easier to make a dating app.

Admit it or not, but we’ve all used dating apps. The business of dating existed long before the rise of mobile apps and devices. So it is only natural that dating has occupied a large piece of mobile industry. And it exploded like crazy. From gay dating apps like Grindr to Shinder – the app matching all women to just one guy… You will find any kind you can think of. But what about the dating app development? How to create a dating app? Let’s start with Why.

Why build a dating app

Dating apps will never be abandoned by users and they bring huge profits. There’s your reason number one. No wonder how to make an app like Tinder is such a popular search request. And with variety of apps for dating, apps for hookups or escort, you can always put a new spin on things and earn a buck on it. Like Hater dating app, for instance, that connects people based on things they dislike.

Let's Build Your Dating App

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Find out a new niche, attract audience, introduce paid plans with extra features. And there’s your business project. Make it easy as swiping right. Tinder has 50 million monthly users, Zoosk app has 30 million. Even regional and culture-specific dating mobile apps are trending. Chinese networking ap Momo reached 70 million MAU by start of 2017. Besides, social studies prove that all men and women of all ages use dating apps. From teens and adults to men of age above 50.

As it appears, love could be a blooming business. Few more interesting facts about investment value of dating apps:

  • Dating is the $2.5 billion worldwide market
  • 40% of all US citizens engage in online dating
  • 10 billion matches reached in Tinder app
  • 80% of dating app users are millennials
  • $1.3 million is the monthly revenue of iOS dating app by Match.com

Dating apps features

Making Money Dating Website

So you want to create an app like Grindr. Some are also interested in how much Tinder costs. To make a dating app you start with defining the features. Do you want swipe-right functionality or do you want matching on location? Or are you planning on incorporating totally new unique dating app features? Well, the essential are these ones, as a rule:

  • Profiles

User accounts with editable information – bio, images, interests, age, sex, etc.

  • Matching

System algorithms to match people, to offer possible matches, adjustable settings

  • Push notifications

Real-time alerts about events within an app – messages, matches, reminders, etc.

Making A Dating Website
  • Chat / messaging

For users to communicate with each other, often available as a premium (paid) option

  • Social integration

Login with social media accounts, app integration to collect data for user profiles and matching

Another issue is how do you monetize a dating app? There are five basic dating app business models:

ModelInfo
SubscriptionPremium features available within monthly/quarterly/annual pricing plans
FreemiumBasic functionality for free, additional features for a fee
GiftsDigital stickers, gifts, emojis, flowers, etc. for a fee
AdvertisingIn-app ads, native ads, in-chat ads, etc.
Offline servicesBook movie tickets, reserve a table, call a taxi, etc.

Best dating apps

iOS dating apps or dating apps for Android – there’s no great divide there, actually. Almost all popular dating apps are available for both these 2 platforms, and some for even more. Mobile apps for dating count in hundreds, but to make a dating app and know how high the bar is, check these top ones.

  • Tinder – probably the most famous one. Just swiping an offered match left to refuse, or swipe right to accept. Likes and superlikes, chat and group chats, social login, matches around you, recommendations. Basically, everything you need for dating and nothing else.

Make A Dating Website Free

  • Coffee Meets Bagel – high quality matches (bagels), pre-selected matches based on personal profiles, chat, search and filters, premium accounts. A separate functionality for LGBTQ community.

Best Dating Website

  • Happn – a specific kind of matches that helps discover people you’ve already crossed paths with. On the street, cafe or concert. Users just turn on the location services on their phones. Fun additional features like “Just say Hi”.
  • Zoosk – a dating app for serious relationship building. It uses artificial intelligence algorithm (AI) to check user preferences and offer more confident matches. It even validates users’ phone numbers first, and photos as well.
  • Match – a mobile version of famous Match.com, one of the first dating services on the Internet. Similar features to all the other dating apps, while additional cool features are subscription only. Great both for single men and single women.

How to make a dating app

If you see a gap on the dating market and wish to create your own mobile app, you’re welcomed to go ahead. Maybe your idea will become the next Tinder. We’ll all adore it and you’ll make huge profits. A win-win situation. If you have little knowledge in making apps, we can help.

Making A Dating Website

Outsourcing mobile development is possible as a whole, or partially. We can do a market research for you, we can prepare an estimate of your app concept. We can do design tasks for a dating app, as well as wireframes and visual prototypes. Also we can test your product.

Of course, this is just one of the options. Though, we also have the expertise to make a dating app skillfully and efficiently, and can tell you how much does a dating app cost to make. Date people, love people, enjoy yourself!

Let's Build Your Dating App

Making A Dating Website

Provide us with your contact details and we will contact you today

Start A Dating Website Free

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