Want to give props to BGOL for introducing me to "The Millionaire Fastlane"

[keone]

Let me know. It's now as hard as it may sound. I feel its three things in life that will never cease to be money makers...and that's....Weight Loss Pills, Credit Repair Schemes and Dating Sites.....all are cyclical.... Which means, more potential for us to make $$$

true dat

 

[Dino Velvet]

To the OP congrats fam and good luck with your pursuits

I wanna know ballpark what does it cost to start a site like that?

I can't give a total estimate, cause I did most of the graphic custom work and a few design changes myself. I bought a few dating software packages in the beginning and decided I didn't like it after trying to test. I literally blew $1000 between all the packages I bought initially. That's my own fault though from lack of thorough research. I would buy one, install it, and then find I couldn't tweak it how I needed to, or it was to hard to understand. Then you got to think graphic design. Folks hundreds+ for some of the work I did myself. Luckily I knew enough PHP/MySQL and Photoshop to alot of the work I needed. There are tons of dating softwares that you can buy (SkaDate, OSdate, etc). Most go for at least $400 though, and they are real vanilla, meaning they will need some customization to really get granular. So, $400 for a decent software package and then some graphic editing $, so I'm thinking in the ballpark of a Grand+ when you factor in all that and then a good web host provider. That alone will be about $100 a month to have your site hosted on a reliable host with a personal server.

A lot of these software packages you can download from torrentz, but I wouldn't recommend that for production, since this is a business venture, you would want those upgrades that the developer will put out, since shit can be buggy and you might need to report a bug and have them fix it in a patch or later update.

 

[Mixd]

Props to the OP, I mentioned it months ago, was the best book I've read in many years. Made me actually buy a copy to support the author that's how good it mentally slapped the 'wake tha fuck up' into my ass.

 

[klep]

I cosign this, His forum is pretty good as well.

 

[daman200]

I need ideas for starting a Internet business besides a dating site or weight loss pill since those are saturated markets great thread though

 

[Dino Velvet]

Just as an update, membership has been growing steady. Got about 150 members now since launching on September 5th, and I haven't even started mass marketing yet. I just been letting word of mouth do it's thing, so when I do start ramping up on marketing, I have a more populated site that will appeal to the masses.

Google Adsense revenue has been accumulating each day consistently also. Only a few dollars a day, but it certainly helps me see the potential with $$$ growth, as the user base increases and I play around with ad placement throughout the site.

 

[moblack]

Seems like every city I've lived in has one of these type of sites.

 

[redemption]

Just as an update, membership has been growing steady. Got about 150 members now since launching on September 5th, and I haven't even started mass marketing yet. I just been letting word of mouth do it's thing, so when I do start ramping up on marketing, I have a more populated site that will appeal to the masses.

Google Adsense revenue has been accumulating each day consistently also. Only a few dollars a day, but it certainly helps me see the potential with $$$ growth, as the user base increases and I play around with ad placement throughout the site.

Keep it up fan. Continue posting updates, because I'm very interested in seeing your progress.

 

[Llano]

Congrats on your success OP. I'm halfway through with the book and its a very good read.

 

[furlough]

 

[Liquid2000]

How's your site working out?

 

[Cock Head Jones]

I want to give props to any member who posted the e-book "The Millionaire Fastlane", by MJ Demarco. I read it a few months ago, and it really got me hungry to be my own boss. Basically, the book talks about how to create an automated money stream using the internet as a source. If you haven't read it, I suggest you do so. Hell, I'll even upload it again myself.

I took ideas the author suggested and ran with it. Took all my web design and programming skills, and 3 months later, as of today, I have created and launched what I hope to be my "Money tree." I live in Atlanta, and it's TONS of women down here that are single, with a huge turnover rate, so I decided to create a localized dating site, for Atlanta only. It's a free site, but I'm using Google Adsense for my personal revenue, and hopefully down the line as the amount of members grow, I can start charging for "Premium features." Any BGOL brethren that are from ATL, feel free to sign up. I also have it so you can sign up if you are outside of ATL also, for those who may "visit"

www.AtlantaSinglesMeet.com

I can see this site is going to be a hassle though. I just officially opened it like a few hours ago, and already got 30+ members signed up just by word of mouth, and I haven't even started mass marketing yet. Some of the women are even messaging me personally. Regardless, I just need to keep the eye on the $$$, and off the @ss, and hopefully the site will be a success.

props bro. if u handle it right you'll have a nice lil income stream and basically have ez access to all the single chicks in ur city as a side benefit... MOB though...

 

[TheKingofVa]

Props for the info and good luck

 

[Madrox]

Interesting.

Thanks and good luck.

 

[Dino Velvet]

It's coming along, at about the 170 member point since launching on labor day, about an even mix of male/female. Right now I'm working on my marketing and learning ALOT about search engine optimization (SEO). Even though I just started my site, I had totally did a redesign on the homepage just to make it more "SEO friendly" after reading about some tips and tricks. I also just finished up a real nice and interactive Facebook page and hoping to leverage social networking to get my link on a lot of peoples FB pages. Get them to the Facebook page, traffic should funnel into the website. http://www.facebook.com/atlsinglesmeet I also just created a YouTube channel, so I'll keep putting up videos that I make myself. Never know where traffic may come from, but its best to cover all the bases. http://www.youtube.com/user/AtlantaSinglesMeet?feature=mhee

I went from out of nowhere on Google search to the 4th page so far for one keyword, and first page for another. This is after a few study courses and a lot of sleepless nights trying to figure out some of these SEO software packages I came across. I'm trying to get 1st page on Google for at least four good keywords I got in mind.

Honestly, I'm learning so much about SEO and its so interesting to me, that I might actually looking into doing that on the side also as an SEO consultant as even another stream of income. Some of these "SEO Guru's" I see on the internet making thousands of dollars a month doing SEO work, especially on www.fiverr.com or just from their own webpages.

If I can get my own site to rank high in the search engines, that would be a killer start to my own SEO portfolio that I can show prospective clients, mostly some of the local business in my area who trying to gain some web presence.

 

[daman200]

I can't give a total estimate, cause I did most of the graphic custom work and a few design changes myself. I bought a few dating software packages in the beginning and decided I didn't like it after trying to test. I literally blew $1000 between all the packages I bought initially. That's my own fault though from lack of thorough research. I would buy one, install it, and then find I couldn't tweak it how I needed to, or it was to hard to understand. Then you got to think graphic design. Folks hundreds+ for some of the work I did myself. Luckily I knew enough PHP/MySQL and Photoshop to alot of the work I needed. There are tons of dating softwares that you can buy (SkaDate, OSdate, etc). Most go for at least $400 though, and they are real vanilla, meaning they will need some customization to really get granular. So, $400 for a decent software package and then some graphic editing $, so I'm thinking in the ballpark of a Grand+ when you factor in all that and then a good web host provider. That alone will be about $100 a month to have your site hosted on a reliable host with a personal server.

A lot of these software packages you can download from torrentz, but I wouldn't recommend that for production, since this is a business venture, you would want those upgrades that the developer will put out, since shit can be buggy and you might need to report a bug and have them fix it in a patch or later update.

Which online dating package software did you go with? What are the revenue streams for this type of business?

 

[8/11Streetz]

good luck brother hope everything works out

 

[Dino Velvet]

Which online dating package software did you go with? What are the revenue streams for this type of business?

The package I have now, I bought from this developer. He had a site he built and did programming himself and wanted to sell the code for it. I bought it off him from a message board for a few hundred. Since he did most of the programming and database work, I just needed to customize the template. Before settling on this one though, I also had bought this package called
<a href=”http://www.skadate.com”>SkaDate</a>. It had a little steep learning curve for some of the changes that I wanted to do it, so I end up not using it. I still do have the license though, so if anyone wants to buy it, you can take off my hands for $200. The license is $350 new, so you got about a $150 savings.

As far as revenue streams. Depending on what you trying to do I guess. If you talking global site, could always start if off free then charge if you get the popularity you going for. Always can do some Google Adsense. More people on site, more like you get money from Adsense. Competition is out there for sure, so I guess have to get creative with the theme you going for.

In just researching, I've seen people have dating sites for sports fans only, dog lovers, video game lovers...I even came across a dating site for people who had iPhones.

 

[keone]

.I even came across a dating site for people who had iPhones.

 

[RepostKing]

I want to give props to any member who posted the e-book "The Millionaire Fastlane", by MJ Demarco. I read it a few months ago, and it really got me hungry to be my own boss. Basically, the book talks about how to create an automated money stream using the internet as a source. If you haven't read it, I suggest you do so. Hell, I'll even upload it again myself.

I took ideas the author suggested and ran with it. Took all my web design and programming skills, and 3 months later, as of today, I have created and launched what I hope to be my "Money tree." I live in Atlanta, and it's TONS of women down here that are single, with a huge turnover rate, so I decided to create a localized dating site, for Atlanta only. It's a free site, but I'm using Google Adsense for my personal revenue, and hopefully down the line as the amount of members grow, I can start charging for "Premium features." Any BGOL brethren that are from ATL, feel free to sign up. I also have it so you can sign up if you are outside of ATL also, for those who may "visit"

www.AtlantaSinglesMeet.com

I can see this site is going to be a hassle though. I just officially opened it like a few hours ago, and already got 30+ members signed up just by word of mouth, and I haven't even started mass marketing yet. Some of the women are even messaging me personally. Regardless, I just need to keep the eye on the $$$, and off the @ss, and hopefully the site will be a success.

dawg major props. But let me ask you the most important question on these sites. Did you buy members? When I looked at starting one last year I was wondering who would sign up if I had no members on there? You have to have folks on there already to get people to sign up. Cant start with 0 members. I couldnt get pass this step.

Also check out the creator of plenty of fish. Maybe you could drive members to the big sites and not have to worry about premium memberships. The owner of plenty of fish is a one man operation pulling in 10 mil a year just off affiliate marketing.

http://www.inc.com/ss/how-make-10-million-home-4-easy-steps

 

[Dino Velvet]

dawg major props. But let me ask you the most important question on these sites. Did you buy members? When I looked at starting one last year I was wondering who would sign up if I had no members on there? You have to have folks on there already to get people to sign up. Cant start with 0 members. I couldnt get pass this step.

Also check out the creator of plenty of fish. Maybe you could drive members to the big sites and not have to worry about premium memberships. The owner of plenty of fish is a one man operation pulling in 10 mil a year just off affiliate marketing.

http://www.inc.com/ss/how-make-10-million-home-4-easy-steps

Yep, I read the plenty of fish creators blog. He writes some good tips and info.

Man, I know the feeling. I didn't buy members though, so I felt the same way. Launching at that 0 member mark, like who in they right mind going to sign up for this shit? So, the plan was to get some of my ex-girlfriends to sign up and make profiles. (Good thing I'm still cool with them all like that). I started texting a few of them to ask, and then I got some random guy that signed up before any of them did. I have no clue if he was from a Google search or not cause I didn't ask. He created his profile and sent me a message to me using the "Contact Us" link. He said that he saw the site and it had no members. Then he was like "once the ladies start rolling in, I should be at the top of their list to message lol"

After that though, sign ups just started coming in from some of my other local peeps and just spread more from there.

 

[RepostKing]

Yep, I read the plenty of fish creators blog. He writes some good tips and info.

Man, I know the feeling. I didn't buy members though, so I felt the same way. Launching at that 0 member mark, like who in they right mind going to sign up? So, the plan was to get some of my ex-girlfriends to sign up and make profiles. (Good thing I'm still cool with them all like that). I started texting a few of them to ask, and then I got some random guy that signed up before any of them did. I have no clue if he was from a Google search or not cause I didn't ask. He created his profile and sent me a message to me using the "Contact Us" link. He said that he saw the site and it had no members. Then he was like "once the ladies start rolling in, I should be at the top of their list to message lol"

After that though, sign ups just started coming in from some of my other local peeps and just spread more from there.

Props. My boy started www.wheelsunder10k.com but couldnt get anyone to list their car because he had no cars. He has the site free now but still only gets a few listings here and there. Just not sure what to tell him

And SEO? Man I've been trying to teach myself that for awhile now. Literally stayed up 2 days in a row researching dating sites a year ago. I have a few sites now and SEO is big. I outsource a lot of my SEO now

 

[Dino Velvet]

Props. My boy started wheelsunder10k.com but couldnt get anyone to list their car because he had no cars. He has the site free now but still only gets a few listings here and there. Just not sure what to tell him

And yea that SEO business is fascinating but it takes awhile to learn. SOOOO much shit out there on the subject but a lot of people trying to sell you bullshit. They need to have a class on that in college. It runs deep

Right about the SEO. My head is hurting now from all I read the past few days. So many good tools out there also for it. Then you got the White Hat and Black Hat SEO consultants. They both have good ways to work the system, but so much information conflicts, that I don't know how you could ever standardize this stuff in college.

One thing I can say for sure though. Regardless how my dating site venture goes, I AM going into SEO work. I mean, there is too much opportunity out there. If I had this interest in SEO before I thought of the dating ideo, SEO opportunities would have won. This dating site and high I can rank it in the search engines, can just be for the portfolio no matter what .Everything is moving to the web, so with the growth of companies trying to rank higher in search engines, is more work than the current work force of SEO consultants can ever sustain. Almost exponentially.

Just read about this article about how much in millions major companies are spending on things like Google Adwords and SEO for all the search engine traffic. Now thing about all the small business, not just in the US, but all over the globe, who are out there who trying to rank up there with this big businesses for that search engine traffic. Serious cash opportunities if you do SEO and can deliver or improve.

http://mashable.com/2010/09/06/brand-spending-google/

 

[RepostKing]

Right about the SEO. My head is hurting now from all I read the past few days. So many good tools out there also for it. Then you got the White Hat and Black Hat SEO consultants. They both have good ways to work the system, but so much information conflicts, that I don't know how you could ever standardize this stuff in college.

One thing I can say for sure though. Regardless how my dating site venture goes, I AM going into SEO work. I mean, there is too much opportunity out there. If I had this interest in SEO before I thought of the dating ideo, SEO opportunities would have won. This dating site and high I can rank it in the search engines, can just be for the portfolio no matter what .Everything is moving to the web, so with the growth of companies trying to rank higher in search engines, is more work than the current work force of SEO consultants can ever sustain. Almost exponentially.

Bruh, thats a good observation. I'm actually finishing up my MA with a concentration in marketing. I dont have programming skills though...not yet. Learning CSS but i dont like programming to be honest. I'm a writer and enjoy the creative part of things.

I do have a webdevelopment company where I outsource the SEO portion. I'm hoping to do this full time though. Do you think you need programming skills for SEO

And how are you going to deal with people spamming your dating site or inappropriate posting on your site since it's just you overseeing things?

 

[Dino Velvet]

Bruh, thats a good observation. I'm actually finishing up my MA with a concentration in marketing. I dont have programming skills though...not yet. Learning CSS but i dont like programming to be honest. I'm a writer and enjoy the creative part of things.

I do have a webdevelopment company where I outsource the SEO portion. I'm hoping to do this full time though. Do you think you need programming skills for SEO

And how are you going to deal with people spamming your dating site or inappropriate posting on your site since it's just you overseeing things?

I have my Masters in Information Systems, and I hate programming. Just isn't my thing and I've tried it and failed. Same here though, I've been learning CSS though, CSS3 specifically. I don't think you need to know programming at all for SEO, not one bit. CSS and HTML is key, and really, you only need to know the the basics, such as being able to make modifications and do things like on-page SEO optimization.

As far as spamming of my site, fortunately, I have two younger brothers who don't have shit to do back home in Flint, Michigan....., so I have them doing a little overseering and checking for explicit pics and the such.

 

[ScorpDiesel]

Ayo Dino, how did you get people to sign up and stay on an empty dating site? People don't wanna stay if there's no one to talk to.

 

[RepostKing]

I have my Masters in Information Systems, and I hate programming. Just isn't my thing and I've tried it and failed. Same here though, I've been learning CSS though, CSS3 specifically. I don't think you need to know programming at all for SEO, not one bit. CSS and HTML is key, and really, you only need to know the the basics, such as being able to make modifications and do things like on-page SEO optimization.

As far as spamming of my site, fortunately, I have two younger brothers who don't have shit to do back home in Flint, Michigan....., so I have them doing a little overseering and checking for explicit pics and the such.

Props and good luck. We're on the same track. As I find jewels on the SEO game I'll post here and shoot u a PM so you can check it out.

Ayo Dino, how did you get people to sign up and stay on an empty dating site? People don't wanna stay if there's no one to talk to.

I asked the same question. He answered it above.

 

[ScorpDiesel]

Props and good luck. We're on the same track. As I find jewels on the SEO game I'll post here and shoot u a PM so you can check it out.



I asked the same question. He answered it above.

He said he used word of mouth but, that doesn't answer my question. How do you get them to stay on an empty dating site?

 

[Dino Velvet]

He said he used word of mouth but, that doesn't answer my question. How do you get them to stay on an empty dating site?

Hard to say, since I'm learning about that question myself. I think it just comes from users seeing new members sign up, or more faces then the last time they logged in. Also, probably should email them a maybe once a week to say new members have signed up. Then, there is just kinda hoping they don't cancel. I've seen a member sign up, cancel a few days later when it was only 15 members, and them sign up again a few weeks later when it got the population neared 100.

Always going to be turnover, but sometimes people will just come back for more of them same.

 

[ScorpDiesel]

Hard to say, since I'm learning about that question myself. I think it just comes from users seeing new members sign up, or more faces then the last time they logged in. Also, probably should email them a maybe once a week to say new members have signed up. Then, there is just kinda hoping they don't cancel. I've seen a member sign up, cancel a few days later when it was only 15 members, and them sign up again a few weeks later when it got the population neared 100.

Always going to be turnover, but sometimes people will just come back for more of them same.

So, you didn't populate the site with fake profiles to make it appear there were lots of members?

 

[Dino Velvet]

So, you didn't populate the site with fake profiles to make it appear there were lots of members?

No, I don't want that shit to bite me in the long run. I rather take it slow and let it gradually build up, than make fake members. There are some software packages that will allow you to automate fake members though. I think that could be a bad move. Say for instance, you auto create 500 fake members. So, when real members sign up and send messages to these fake profiles, they will never get a reply back. I doubt you would want to be logging into all these profiles and sending messages just to keep people on the site. I rather just start small and let the little base of people I have keep constant communication with each other while the site grows steadily, rather than have a site where people sign up, see these hundreds of profiles, try to them send messages and wonder why they never get a reply back. That would cause them to give up hope and cancel. At least, that's my own reasoning.

 

[Anthony-Cruz]

thats amazing bruh. congrats. keep up the good work

 

[humble]

Great thread brother! I wish you the best with your business ventures! Did you use models or friends for your ad campaigns?

 

[Studio718]

Nice, site looks good too.

 

[Dino Velvet]

Great thread brother! I wish you the best with your business ventures! Did you use models or friends for your ad campaigns?

I bought royalty free photos from istockphoto my first round of ads. My next round is going to feature my ex-girlfriend, who is very attractive and got experience in modeling, so she's really good at taking those glamour shots. We was also talking about doing a little commercial video for YouTube also.