Should I start a free dating site?

[Winston]

When I met that German guy in Taiwan, I asked him why there aren't many dating sites catered to Europeans, and if I should start one. He said that starting a dating site for Europeans to meet foreigners would not be successful because Europeans prefer to go out and meet people in person, not use a dating site. That's their general mentality, and hence why there are so few dating sites that cater to Europeans.

So I guess my plan for a DateinEurope.com wouldn't be as marketable as DateinAsia.com.

Here is an interview with the most successful free dating site entrepreneur, Markus Frind of Plentyoffish.com, an Adsense multi-millionaire.

http://www.workhappy.net/2006/06/interview_with_.html

[Fenix]

I was on Finya, a German dating site that was free, and 99% of the women I talked to told me that they rather meet me in person than talk on Skype. Your German friend was right. Online dating in Europe is not as big as it is in the US.

[Hook]

Unless you have some kind of radically innovative idea, you aren't going to do much in an already saturated market.

The first thing you should always ask is "Do I bring something to the market that no one else has fulfilled for customers?" Too many people start out with "How can I shave some market share from an already established market"

[xiongmao]

Well I said I never would, but as some of you guys know, I've started my own free dating site at asianloveconnections.com.

I've got quite a few websites covering a lot of topics, but I'd wished I'd just started one and made it a monster like Happier Abroad.

I saw another dating site competitor launch this week - many people want a slice of the potentially lucrative online dating market.

At the moment I'm burning through cash getting members to sign up. The days of launching a free site and getting 1000's of signups from word of mouth alone are over. And men are VERY reluctant to pay for these sites now. I've sent 768 visitors to LoveMe and I've not earnt a single cent.

My unique selling point will be that I will make my site the most sophisticated free dating site on the planet. Most people start dating sites using identikit off the shelf (white label) sites or they pay somebody $10,000 and then pray that the developer isn't a total goofball.

My advantage is that I can build the whole thing myself. Today I stuck some of my membership data on a Google map:

(scroll down to the bottom of the page)

It's early days yet and god knows what those Filipinas are doing in the sea lol . But I think men will love my site if I can show them where the hottest girls are, plus maybe glue it into flight and hotel information so they can plan their monging (sorry, wife finding) trip of a lifetime. As I gather more data, I'm also working on algorithms to match people up as well as kick off the scammers.

And to answer the other poster, online dating is GIGANTIC in Europe. I did some market research for my site and I found one UK site (not even a household name) with 43,000 users online one evening.

[Winston]

Brett,
Why did you put "Affordable dating site" on your site if it's free? Why don't you put "100 percent FREE!" on your site? Those words sell better.

http://www.asianloveconnections.com

Also, the profile pics are way too small. Very annoying. You gotta make the profile pics bigger and feature in the CENTER or LEFT, not in the right sidebar. You are defying common sense and won't succeed if you do that.

Don't you understand basic logic or common sense?

[xiongmao]

Aaargh, I have so much to improve.

Actually, signup conversions are great so that's not a problem right now.

What I need to work on is getting repeat visitors up and getting the critical mass of profiles on there so people have plenty of reasons to spend a lot of time on the site.

I'll get the designers in at some point.