Need help with conversions on Dating website

[dewalds86]

Hi there.

I have a website hotdate4u.co.za

The site is growing very rapidly. At the moment we rank no 3 for free online dating. We get tons of traffic and we get almost 50 - 100 sign ups a day.

The problem is we are not converting the sign ups into sales.

We have a free 1 month membership as well as 3 premium membership packages.

I would like some suggestions on how we can get more sales.

We are also looking for ways to monetize the site with affiliate ads.

[Harold Mansfield]

If you're getting free sign ups but no one is paying for the service after the trial period, then your answer lies within the product/service, the price, or you're targeting the wrong audience.

Your best bet is to ask people why they have decided not to continue using the service through some sort of easy to use exit survey to get accurate feedback on what you need to change.

[Freelancier]

We have a free 1 month membership as well as 3 premium membership packages.
The problem is this. All they have to do is keep signing up over and over to get the free features. If that's enough to contact women, then that's enough for the guys.

Go take a look at other dating sites with similar demographics that you want to see how they are getting people to commit. My guess -- from nearly 10 years of actual experience with two clients who do this -- is that the "free" membership lets you look around but not contact anyone and the minute you want to contact someone you need to commit to at least a month's membership. The other thing about these sites is that -- in general -- guys are more willing to pay than women, so you need to make it free for women to contact guys (IF they have a photo as part of their profile), but not free for the guys to respond.

[dewalds86]

That is the best advice I have heard so far.

Just a quick question. I have optimized the websites SEO for the term free online dating for which we rank 3rd on google.co.za. My question is if the free membership enables men to just create a profile, view members, send gifts and upload profiles can I still promote the site as a free online dating site?

At the moment the free membership is set to send 30 messages and is valid for 31 days.

I think it is a brilliant idea to make memberships for woman free and limit the mens membership to only view profiles and send gifts ect.

But if I do it that way Ill probably have to change the wording slightly.

[Brian Altenhofel]

Whether you can use "free" depends on your local advertising laws. Here in the US, "free" and "unlimited" are the two most loaded words in online advertising. "Free" here often means "free to sign up, but subscription/purchase required to do anything else."

[Freelancier]

Unless you're planning to be an SA-only web site, you should also get a domain name that's not country-specific.

Meanwhile, yes, free is freely tossed around to mean you can do at least one activity for free. Sign up and look around is good enough. Make sure the ladies have good photos.

And do check out your competition to see features you may want to add to your software to further entice people to contact others. One great feature is to have a daily e-mail go out for the first 30 days after someone joins the site to say "here's a great match you wants to talk with you!" (send it to the guys who can't contact the ladies without paying).

[Harold Mansfield]

That is the best advice I have heard so far.

Just a quick question. I have optimized the websites SEO for the term free online dating....

There's your first problem. You're targeting incorrectly. You don't offer "Free online dating", you offer a Free Trial. These are not the same things. You're competing in search with actual free sites, which is not your competition.

What you're doing is a common mistake. Trying to attract the easy target with the largest search term in hopes that casting a wide net will attract a few paying customers. But what you're really doing is targeting the wrong audience. People looking for "free online dating" will never pay for anything because you don't have what they said they were looking for.

Search is about getting in front of people who are looking for what you actually have to offer. Not seeing how many people you can trick into coming to your site. The more people bounce out of your site, the more Google figures that your site isn't worthy of being high in their results.

If you optimized and marketed accurately for exactly what you have to offer and the customer that you actually want, you'd probably get less people to sign up, but at least they'd be your target audience and you'll have a better chance of actually converting them.

Features and benefits. What sets you apart from other sites? Don't compete on price if you're not the lowest.

Better to have 100 people who are looking for exactly what you have to offer, than 1000 who are not.

[Enock Machodi]

Hi, dewalds86,

Maybe you need to take on a new approach, because advertising alone won't work. I've been to your site, but I don't think you're doing much to attract attention. Getting 100 signups from people without any interest in what you're offering won't work either. Perhaps you should consider following the inbound methodology. It works.

One more advice, your conversion design could be the reason why people don't subscribe to memberships. You should work to minimize distractions as much as possible. This is how growth geeks attain their goals.

Thanks.

[washington79]

Your website looks promising. I've experienced that too during the first 3 months of my business. Very frustrating really. Try using MyConversionBrain.com My business has been going on well since using it. It's a great conversion automation and lead management software that will help you identify your leads - if they're spammers filling out fake inquiries, competitors or legit ones. It also helps you to close your leads easier with lead management tools, and automatic email notifications once your leads come back to your website you will know which can help close your leads easier. Very simple to use but helped me big time with my business. Leads from offline activities will also show up. It’s made for small business owners like yourself so the pricing is very affordable. All the best!