When you launch your dating site, it’s a given that you’ll need to offer trial memberships to attract your first members. But be careful of making “free” part of your business model.
Sure, we’ve all read about Markus Frind running the free Plentyoffish.com out of his apartment, and raking in millions through advertising. But he’s a great example of a guy who was in the right place at the right time (not to mention a great entrepreneur).
Just because he made it work, doesn’t mean there’s an endless amount of marketspace for other free, general-interest sites.
The majority of small, niche dating sites need revenue to grow and sustain themselves. Now, if you found a few million in VC funding, you can stop reading.
For the rest of us, there’s no shame in charging for a valuable service. That doesn’t mean a general site that does the same as all the other sites out there…
But a solid niche site that solves its members’ problems well and has found a market that isn’t swamped, can and should charge for its services.
Don’t worry that charging will slow your growth: in fact, charging a reasonable fee can actually spur growth, because it lets you launch an affiliate program, which in turn can open the flood gates to new opportunities.