about dating/personals site

[YNR]

hey whats up? im new to this forum and i was wondering, does anyone have experience in dating websites? my website is going through some changes right now and after we finish the new layout and new features we are going to advertise on Focusin. Does anyone have any ideas on how to go further in promoting this type of website? Ours is different and very unique. We appeal to both Teens and Adults, so our target is much greater(could be for the best or worse:confused: ). If you want a list of some of our features to get a deeper understanding of what we have, let me know. Any ideas or feedback would be greatly appreciated. Thanks :p

[chromate]

Erm not sure - but I clicked on the "hot female" and got some guy in front of a webcam. Can't be good? :)

Wanna trade links with my dating site? (see dating site in sig) It's got no toolbar PR yet (just missed the last update), but I'm actively promoting it at the moment. PM me if you're interested.

[MarkB]

chromate: I took a look at your dating site today - very nice :) Are you going to have user reviews of the various dating sites?

[Chris]

Dating service review sites can make good money.

[MarkB]

I used to run a penpal site many moons ago. When I closed it, I put up a farewell notice, and a banner pointing to FriendFinder.com. Even up to 18 months later I was still getting a cheque every 3 months for about $100 :)

[chromate]

Originally posted by MarkB
chromate: I took a look at your dating site today - very nice :) Are you going to have user reviews of the various dating sites?

At the moment I'm just trying to get the site off the ground. It's in a very competitive area, so it will probably take some time to really see any results. Obviously having a PR of 0 doesn't help with building backlinks!

Eventually, I want to grow the site by adding more articles etc and the user reviews is definitely something I've been thinking about. I think it would help strengthen the reviews I've given no end if there were "consumer reviews" that are in agreement. That would help temp the user into clicking the link.

But mainly I'm just trying to get it off the ground at the moment.

[incka]

How do you get backlinks with PR0... Promise people it will be PR5 when google updates? Find people who don't know about PR?

[MarkB]

Not everyone cares about PR. I don't look at PR when I request links - I look at whether the opportunity of click-through traffic is there.

[Mike]

Yea, potential traffic is much better than PR imho. As really you only want PR for traffic don't you.

[Jaffro]

Traffic comes first :) Search engines are never stable at all from what ive seen, incoming links seem to provide a much more reliable source of traffic.

[Mike]

Originally posted by Jaffro
Search engines are never stable at all

Heh, we sure know about that Jaff:(

[MarkB]

To go completely off topic :D I think relying on PR too much is dangerous - you never know when the SE's will simply change their rules.

[YNR]

whats PR? also chromate i will contact you later today or tommorrow about trading links..anyone else has any ideas/feedback on my site? thanks again

[Mike]

PR = PageRank

Part of googles way of ranking sites.

[Jaffro]

The site is ok kinda a mix between rate my pic and a dating site. Bit slow to load and doesn't feel smooth (dont ask me to explain cause i dunno! haha) :) I think the main thing is the slow loading, there's loads of ad's on there too, maybe take a few down might help it load quicker, i dunno.

Would be nice to be able to limit the results by an area like 'UK' or by state perhaps. Maybe you can do this in the search section, but i didn't want to sign up.

[chromate]

Originally posted by incka
How do you get backlinks with PR0... Promise people it will be PR5 when google updates? Find people who don't know about PR?

As Mark says, there are quite a few people that don't care about PR or aren't aware of it. I normally try and "seed" a new site with some PR from a directory or other sources that don't require link exchanges.

I think when relying on PR really becomes dangerous is when links are bought from high PR sites. Otherwise, building PR = building backlinks = more traffic from other sites AND the search engines. The best idea is to build quality backlinks and also get links from sites that will bring in the traffic.