Place to discuss business issues and promotion

I just started my site and running it as a free site for now. As of today I have 20 members on the site :)

I was wondering if there might be a place here to discuss making money with a dating/social media site.

Also maybe different methods people are using to promote their sites.  Or maybe people don't want to give too much away on this topic :)

i think at some point somebody had actually started a blog. typically, and matter of factly, this would be a good topic for a blog (i think) since this is not directly related to support per say. but since you have it in here. i think there were some discussions the other day about promotions, and from my recollection some of the things that were discussed were search engine submission, xml site maps, back links, and such. the promotion of a social networking dating site, is basically the same as promoting any site.

1. identify your target audience

2. provide adequate exposure via the net and other media

3. have the site ready for the public.

Regards,

DosDawg

Blogs aren't sticky and quickly disappear further into the website after 4-5 blogs have been posted after it.
Forums shouldn't just be for support.............

all of it tends to disappear, and the search feature is a powerful tool that will find most anything. yes i know the forum is not "just" for support, i mentioned the blog, as its distributed across every dolphin site(s) front page on RSS (if thats not disabled), and its the front page of dolphin when you come in. was not inferring that the forum could not be used for this type of post, was merely making a suggestion. at any rate, this has been taken off topic by your post, and we need to give him the his thread back.

what are your methods of prmoting and advertising your site?

Regards,

DosDawg

we doing most of our promotion off-line, we  do event photography and advertise our rank and file community on the back of the photos that we sell *this has the added bonus in that all our members have already paid us before they join :-) *

other ideas:
try an get someone famous on your website even if it's locally famous ie an upcoming music band
find some relevant mods at expertzzz.com
add  content that is relevant to your target users...frequently
customise your website to your target audience in every aspect even wording!
keep advertising off the front page if possible....
don't forget offline marketing especially if it's free.

edit
dowdawg:
was in the process of bringing it back on topic when you posted

Ahhh... Marketing. One of my favorite things.

As with anything you do in business, marketing and how you handle it depends on your goals. I ran my own online business that grew into a community for 12 years. Here's what I did to bring that together:

1. I began by frequenting message boards (CompuServe, remember them, back when it was only numbers for emails?) and posting regularly, become a part of the community as I developed my product.
2. I wrote articles for the boards.
3. I wrote articles for magazines, both local and national.
4. I contacted businesses related to mine that did not compete.
5. I worked with college students interested in my fields.
6. I traveled to expositions and taught/sold and collected contacts.
7. I built my email list and sent out tips and information, becoming a source of eduction and authority.

Those are a few of the things I did then.Now, in my new project, I'll be adding and subtracting. No more Expos. I will be:

1. Speaking with bloggers in my field and inviting them to write articles for my members. I hope this will tie them to the project, so they will tell their readers about it.
2. Using twitter to meet people and help them as much as I can while getting to know them, so they like me and my project enough to support it.
3. Creating press releases for markets both local and national, general, busines and specialty. These will be going out primarily during my private Beta stage (6 months Aug 30 - March 1), and inviting the press to visit my project and comment.
4. Inviting some "regular" people in during my Alpha stage to begin testing and telling me what I need to offer to make this work the way I want.
5. Contacting retailers within my field and looking for ways to partner with them - to get their customers to visit and promote them to the potential customers I'll offer.
6. Building relationships with affiliate programs, again, with the intention of finding ways to make it work for all of us.
   

Honestly, I'll have to look at my extensive notes for more. That is off the top of my head. I work differently yet again in the marketing I do for my day job, for a local corporation directed mostly towards small businesses.

When it comes to marketing and promotion, the best plans are those custom-tailored to the client's needs and goals.

What's your market? Who are they? How old? What do they like to do? How much do they make? These questions and more will help you (and us, if you want the help) come up with some brilliant no-cost or low-cost ways to beef up your membership.

*smiles*

This is not my first website, but the first Boonex one I created.  I have been using wordpress/joomla for sometime now.  I had an idea for a dating site, but didn't like the current scripts available.  Then I heard about Boonex.  It's a great product, seems to work well and easy to set up.  I have found quite a few answers to questions just by searching here.

I am surprised though there is not a marketing/business forum here.  I think I have picked a good niche and in just 2 days I have 30 members.  I have been promoting the site by just emailing people who might be interested and also in forums and Yahoo groups.

Google hasn't even indexed the site yet.  I like the way Boonex creates the URLs and uses tags.  That should bring in a bit of traffic when the site gets indexed.

I want to spend a lot of time promoting the site until it gets to a tipping point where people start telling their friends about it.  I am using the free version for now.  I don't want to put any advertising on it until I reach that tipping point.

The post by YouDidntDidYou was interesting about how many members it takes to have a successful site. Initially, just getting one person to sign up is a challenge.

Maybe I should start a blog on this topic, or maybe I can just keep updating this thread.

hi tokyo
I have started a thread http://www.boonex.com/unity/forums/#topic/Forums-suggestions.htm
just a few days ago, a marketing forum section would be a good idea, Boonex.com is going to be re-organised in late  July/early August so hopefully they will restructure the forums...

another thing we do is email our subcription database of approx 7,000 people using email marketing software, getting to that tipping point where people are talking/generating word of mouth is the trickiest bit I think...

Good idea.  I love this product so far, but these forums are not so great to navigate around.

Start a blog.   It's the only place the topic will get any attention.   You're right about these forums.... Magellan would have a hard time finding his way around here.  All the AJAX is real neat, but it breaks browser navigation.

Unique relevant content and a community identity  carried through your website will help. Also find ways of firing your community members up with enthuasism so they become ambassadors for your site, also if  it's quite localised organise met-ups/events....