So, you’ve arrived at the decision that you’d like to launch your own dating outlet and have taken this thought a step further: initiating a same-sex hookup platform for women. Does this maybe sound like it would be too tough a nut to crack? Is there a future in niche dating? Is there a future in online dating, full-stop? Surely the world is crammed full of these outlets, aimed at straights, the LGBT community, or a combination of both? The overall answer to these questions is this: no way are there too many sites, especially for lesbian matchmaking. Here, we’ll take that observation forward and explain how you could make lesbian dating a lucrative niche, by following our economic and technical tips.
Conduct market research
While there are certainly a lot of sites and their app versions to choose from, there will always be room for more, provided they’re engaging. The top tip is to find a popular outlet, but give it a unique spin. Here’s a nugget of information: members of the LGBT demographic are twice as likely to be going online to seek romance, compared to their straight counterparts. So, setting up the best lesbian website will already put you ahead of the pack. The next thing is deciding how to make your niche unique in some way. Undertake market research to see which of your ‘rivals’ are currently commanding huge interest amongst the LGBT community. What sort of interface do they offer? How about interesting features for finding matches? When it comes to thinking of a name for your venture, you could focus on something connected to lesbian matchmaking, or a completely unrelated name you can harness and make your own. Choose an appropriate color palette and a font which is easy on the eye. Another important decision to make is what the core theme of your venture is going to be. One-night stands or meaningful relationships? Or both? There are good arguments for focusing on one genre; similarly, a more generic outlook could bring more traction.
Implement monetization strategies
You need to formulate a business strategy, and here is where it would be worthwhile taking a leaf out of other industries. Check out websites devoted to selling commodities at a discount, a great example of which is discount clothing. When you navigate to one of these sites, your eye will naturally be drawn to the array of cost-cutting possibilities. Now, all you have to do is consider how these types of enticement could be framed within your platform. Entice new customers by offering free registration, then suggest they pay a nominal amount to access some premium features.
The monetization aspect will need to be carefully implemented, so it might be better to arrange for someone professionally qualified to handle this side of things. Bugs need to be eliminated as early as possible otherwise prospective customers will be put off hanging around.
Choose a brand to market
You won’t be reinventing the wheel – branding has been integral to business success for decades. What you need to grasp is how this alechemy can be applied to your innovative lesbian dating service. Let’s take a step back and look at the bigger picture. You’re in a mall and checking out displays. Your eye will be naturally drawn to bold colors. The aisle serving Pepsi in its familiar blue packaging. Sim cards for Orange phones. Apply that same logic to your online dating business. You might wish to select a color that people will begin associating with your brand. Whatever you choose, ensure this is reflected throughout your website’s design. Introduce shade variations, but never go for another tone which is going to clash. People alighting on web pages can be notoriously fickle – if they don’t like what they see, either in terms of the page content, the typeface, or a jarring collision of different colors, they’ll swiftly click away.
So, pander to your customer base by making sure there’s nothing which might deter them from hanging around. Since we’re talking about the dating business, there are obvious tricks at your disposal, such as introducing eye-catching images of the singles waiting to get connected. Choose a selection of the most alluring females and post these on your homepage.
Keep the momentum going
A final tip worth keeping in mind is that your economic and technical strategies should be fluent, not static. What this means is that you should always be looking at ways to improve the way your site performs. Tapping into SEO analytics will help paint a picture of how your customers are interacting, which keywords are proving to have most traction, and so on. There’s always room to improve your service – so make it a priority to do regular assessments.