Archive for January, 2012

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SkaDate Dating Software Presents:
Online Dating January Roundup

Tuesday, January 31st, 2012

SkaDate Dating Software Blog is here to remind everyone that we’ve successfully passed January - the first month of supposedly last year ever for all of us. Nice, people, we made it. Achievement well earned, moving on. But before doing that, let’s look at the top 10 online dating stories from last month and see what we might have collectively missed. As always, our own January posts are at the bottom of the page.

1. Online Dating at Its Peak

And… we basically pick up right where we left off last month. Remember, December (and the New Year’s Eve in particular) became one of the best times of the year for the industry in terms of rough numbers. Well, apparently it was only the beginning, as the growth will continue to soar for at least a couple more weeks.

Indeed, Christmas to Valentine’s Day is officially the peak season for Internet matchmaking, and the perfect time to start online dating business. It is thus not a coincidence than that we’ve published not one, but two posts that can help any beginning dating site owner with a copy of SkaDate dating scrip on hand. See How to Start Online Dating Business (The Right Way) and SkaDate Dating Software: Getting Started.

2. Best Times for Online Dating

If you miss out on the peak season, but still want to know when’s the best time to launch an online dating site, just turn for help to OkCupid. They’ve provided a helpful reference list (published over at Village Voice), showing which days in 2011 were the best and worst for online dating.

Obviously most big holidays made the cut (including the New Year and Independence Day), but there were some surprises along the way. The night of Osama Bin Laden’s death? Huge. Go figure…

3. iDate SuperConference in Miami

One of the most important industry events of the year took place in Miami in late January. Dan Slater, the author of the upcoming book about online dating business, described the gathering best: “Everyone thinks they’ve got a line on the future, a special sauce that will really “hit” in the coming year. It’s going to be all about free dating! Paid dating! Users want more privacy! Less privacy! It’s about leveraging the social graph! The interest graph!” 

Oh, and SkaDate continues to be the Alfred Hitchcock of iDate Awards (with 3 Finalist Nominations and 0 Wins for Best Dating Software Provider so far), while the elusive prize went to WhiteLabelDating once again. But if you want to know about real advantages and disadvantages of running a white label site, do read our post SkaDate Dating Software vs White Label Dating Solutions.

4. Online Dating Sites to Face Stricter Rules?

One of the issues discussed at the conference was deceptive dating tactics and other instances of fraud related to online dating. Even the Department of Homeland Security made an appearance, giving more weight to the issue.

As a result, the government and industry reps now consider installing new stricter regulations to protect customers. However, some see the additional rules as possible invasion of clients’ online privacy. The timing of this topic couldn’t have been any better, as it almost coincided with the widespread SOPA protest, which we also covered in our post SkaDate Dating Software Explains SOPA Danger.

5. The Real Success Story

I honestly think we don’t get enough of those really inspiring success stories in our business. But when we do, they are usually written exceptionally by Jeff Kauflin. Last month we’ve got one in Business Insider about Match.com founder Gary Kremen. This time Kauflin went even further back in time and wrote about Dan Bender, who came up with AmericanSingles.org in 1995. Great read!

6. More Interesting Ideas

January was not an exception in terms of new trends and ideas for original online dating sites and services. The most promising and prominent of those was Hitch.com - and ingenious combination of regular online dating mechanics and the LinkedIn professional database.  On the other hand we have HorsieHotties with an iPhone App for equestrian singles… Brilliant isn’t it, eh?

7. Microsoft and Apple Weird Match

Speaking of iPhones and other things Apple. Cupidtino, the company that runs an online dating service for Apple fans was revealed to be run by two former Microsoft employees. Oh, the irony. Well, at least they are not from Android… Anyway, iPhone apps are now all the rage in Internet dating, so check out our post on the topic - SkaDate Dating Software: Mobile Edition Explained.

8. Scientific Study of Online Dating Success

You know you’ve reached a certain major milestone, when PhD students pick your area of work as a study material. That just happen - online dating is now officially (or rather scientifically) recognized successful, as two Drexel University students published a PhD analysis on the matter.

9.  What’s In A Name?

And we are finally off to the silly territory. Two more (completely unrelated) studies appeared on the net this month, both looking into the name games. Guess what, if your site is populated by Kevins, Justins and Mandies, you better hurry and get more Jacobs, Emmas and Charlottes over, because those are truly popular for online dating and will draw a bigger crowd.

10. Date The Girl, Jason!

It’s online and it’s a plea for a date, so we just couldn’t resist the awesomeness…

SkaDate January Blog Posts

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SkaDate: How to Start Online Dating Business (The Right Way)

Tuesday, January 24th, 2012

by Zima

SkaDate: How to Start Online Dating Business Right?Would you look at that? A few hours after SkaDate Dating Software Blog posted about the dangers of SOPA, Lamar Smith, the chief sponsor of the controversial bill pulled it. Pure coincidence you say? Well, sure, but I still love to think that we did our part and added one of the last straws to help the common sense outweighed the ridiculous proposition.

Now that’s out of the way, let’s return to our scheduled programming – we have some fairly important topic to talk about today. Namely, a question on the minds of anyone with the goal of starting online dating business on a budget: How do you not screw up?  How do you do it right from the start? There is no universal answer, of course, but I’ll try to give you some useful heads up anyway.

One common rule for entrepreneurs without a huge advertising budget or venture capital funding, is to start small and be patient.

What does it mean? Well, once you’ve got SkaDate dating script installed, slowly begin your expansion locally – there will be time and money to go international later on.

Your local scene will have everything you need to jump start dating service in terms of initial member base, networking opportunities, and advertising venues. Your goal here will be not to make millions in profit in just a few days, but to build some word-of-mouth and raise awareness for yourself – something that will go a long way for your future success.

Working together with local business can add some cash to your budget, make several important connections, and provide locations to recruit new members by hosting themed dating events. At this stage, inexpensive local media can also be utilized to great effects for promotion. Alternatively, even colorful fliers in right places will work to your advantage.

Spreading word-of-mouth is an art in itself, but the effect can be greatly boosted with a right strategy. When you know who you are going to target exactly (say, the local divorced market), how about signing up some of them for free as promotion. Also, doing something public or speaking up for the target group in the community will greatly boost your popularity and reputation.

While doing all of that, you’ll slowly get the hang of the business, and once you are through the stage one, things will proceed much easier. When that happens, you will have to re-focus on building a strong team around you, raising additional funds, and expanding your service beyond the local community.

And never be afraid of competing with big international players like Match.com, etc. They serve a huge pool of daters, but their audience is too spread out. If you do everything right, your precision rate will be much higher, what with the local operation and a targeted niche approach. Good luck!

 

 

 

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SkaDate Dating Software Explains SOPA Danger

Friday, January 20th, 2012

by Zima

SkaDate Dating Software Explains SOPA DangerIf there was one hot topic widely discussed by the new media last week, it was anti SOPA and PIPA protests all over the web. SkaDate Dating Software fully supports the sentiment, since the passing of these controversial bills can severely cripple the Internet in general, and majorly harm the online dating industry in particular. I’m going to explain why.

Let’s quickly get the terminology out of the way for those not in the loop. The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) is a bill currently moving through the US Congress, which claims to “promote prosperity, creativity, entrepreneurship, and innovation by combating the theft of US property, and for other purposes.”

Sounds good, doesn’t it? Well, in reality it will do none of that – it will not stop piracy, and will definitely not promote creativity and entrepreneurship. In fact, it has the potential to break the very fabric of the Internet, and put all of us out of business in the process.

Our industry connects people by giving them space and tools to communicate with each other, so they can find out whether they are a compatible match. SkaDate dating script, just like other dating solutions, does this by allowing people to express their creativity, share content they like, and show emotions in comments, chats, blogs and forums.

Under SOPA, any website even slightly suspected of being capable of encouraging copyright infringement can get blocked in the United States.

You can see that with a law like SOPA, any attempt at sharing a song, video, cover art, or even mentioning it on your dating site (or anywhere else on the Internet for that matter) can and will be interpreted as copyright infringement, and will be considered as a reason for blocking your site in the US, or for taking the matter to court.

Moreover, this situation is bound to lead to all sorts of unintentional but critical mistakes, as well as unfair practices. Where’s the guarantee that a malicious competitor wont pose as a member and bring your entire portal down by sharing some questionable content, and then reporting you to the authorities? The law is the law and they’ll have to react in accordance with the set of clumsily worded, but extremely strict regulations.

Another ridiculous but horrifying repercussion of SOPA deals directly with revenue streams. Say, one member on your dating site reported another as a possible copyright infringer, thus bringing your entire network, with all of its members, under heat.

With SOPA in place, your site suddenly becomes Wikileaks – all payment providers (PayPal included) will immediately sever their ties with you. Oh, and don’t forget that you will be censored from showing up in search results (goodbye affiliate programs). In addition, your now invisible and profit-less website can be actually shut down for five days pending review of the charges. Imagine what that will do to your membership.

No video streaming, no media sharing, censored comments and other user generated content, constant threat of losing your payment partners, lessened security, etc. Do you believe this is a good environment for online dating business?

There is another interesting nuance here. You see, the bill proposes the blocking of websites’ domain names, leaving their IP addresses open. So, say, when Google.com eventually gets blocked (and it will, for showing obscure but potentially illegal search results), you can still access it by typing 74.125.224.72 into your address bar.

Well, guess what? Real pirates, who are supposedly targeted by this bill know this stuff and can easily bypass it. They will not be harmed in the slightest by this minor inconvenience. Can you guess who’ll be harmed? That’s right – regular consumers and entrepreneurs.

If you think I’m drawing a way too grim of a picture, that’s because it is. You know the situation just got serious, when the mighty Wikipedia joined the global protest of SOPA and PIPA (Protect IP Act), and blacked out its English content for the entire day on January 19.  Other major companies opposing the bills include Google, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, eBay, Reddit, etc.

Make no mistake, SOPA and PIPA have nothing to do with combating piracy. This is a blatant attempt at Internet censorship, and giving a certain group of corporate representatives too much control and power which they will inevitably abuse. We have to stop SOPA. Visit this site for more information on what you can do to help (both in the US and abroad).

 

 

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SkaDate Dating Software vs White Label Dating Solutions

Tuesday, January 17th, 2012

by Zima

SkaDate Dating Software is one of the most popular and acclaimed dating scripts on the market, and there is a good reason why it is chosen again and again over various white label solutions for the past seven years. Nevertheless, many new clients who want to start online dating business often compare the two options at hand, and we are here to help them.

‘White label’ refers to a product or service produced by one company and than re-branded and sold by other companies as their own. The term comes from the world of vinyl records, where prior-to public release promo copies were sent to DJs, bearing no official artwork but a simple white label instead.

In general, white label is seen as something mass-produced and generic. Think low-end electronics or supermarkets with store brand goods – these are usually just re-brands made by someone else.  And there’s nothing wrong with that – sometimes white labels can reduce costs and save time. The same works for white label online dating, but not quite.

You see, the demand for online dating is still huge. There are close to 100 million singles in the US alone who are ready to be virtually matched right this moment. The business is striving and the industry is frequently referred to as recession-proof.  Nevertheless, the honeymoon might be over soon thanks to quickly growing competition.

Why am I telling you this? Because the only way to succeed in online dating nowadays is to be unique and original. No one needs mass-produced and generic products if those are readily available from big brands only a click away. Online dating startups have to rely on a lot of creative freedom, target niches, and be innovative, something white labels just cannot offer.

Only stand-alone platforms, especially the ones based on something like SkaDate dating script with its unencrypted source code, give users full control over their websites. They will be in charge of every aspect of the development, from design – to database expansion – to niche-specific modification, etc. Basically, anything can be done with the original script given enough effort.

With white labels new clients get a ready, generic dating solution and a member database used by all other numerous customers. That’s a problem right there, since all the new members brought to a white label website by admins will dissolve in the common pool. Needless to say, this also works against any niche concepts, since new members will be part of the same database used for, say, adult and christian sites at the same time. Do you think your members will like this idea?

But maybe the money’s good here? Ross Williams, the founder of WhiteLabelDating himself said that some of his company’s partners managed to reach a pretty decent monthly profit, but only after spending in the north of $60.000 per month on marketing.  And now look around – notice how virtually all of the dating websites that are actually making millions of dollars and setting trends run on stand-alone dating software like SkaDate? Yeah, it’s not a coincidence.

See, that’s all relative, of course, but there’s one thing to know about money in relation to white label dating solutions. No matter how hard admins work on their sites, market them, grow databases, etc., 50% of the profit will always go to the original white label.

So, not only users don’t have full control over their sites, cannot make them truly unique and target narrow niches, the profit is also split 50/50. This is a trade-off for having less overhead and not worrying about building a loyal member base.

Perhaps, white label dating solutions were a very viable option just a few years ago, when the market was still exploding. Unfortunately, that time is gone now, and more effort has to go into launching dating sites these days to make them really stand out and be successful. Hopefully you’ll find this information useful, because the final choice is up to you.

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SkaDate Dating Software Update: Word from Developer

Friday, January 13th, 2012
SkaDate Dating Software Update: Word from DeveloperSkaDate 9, the new version of the acclaimed SkaDate Dating Software was released less than a month ago, which means that once again we are getting a lot of requests to simplify the updating procedures. (Read this post for more general information about software upgrades).

Rather than repeating the same answer over and over in blog comments and private support correspondence, we decided to get one definite explanation about the issue, right from developers of the SkaDate dating script. Here’s what they had to say:

Frequent requests for simplification of the update procedure mean only one thing – not everyone fully understand what PHP software is, and how it works.

SkaDate software is written in PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor scripting language, which is open source, so anyone can modify it in any way. Most SkaDate customers do just that by hiring outsourced developers or introducing various modifications themselves. Consequently, numerous modified SkaDate versions on hands all differ from our original default version.

The release of a new software version (like SkaDate 9) means that we modified the original code of existing files and also added new ones.  This is necessary for the implementation of new features and functions.

If a client never introduced custom changes to files modified in the new SkaDate version, the update of these files will be as easy as it gets – said files can be simply replaced. It is, however, a different story, if some changes have been made after all.

If that happened, custom code changes should be merged with alterations done by our programmers in the new SkaDate build. This is absolutely vital for not losing modifications introduced before the release of the new version.

(Just to be clear – file merging is the manual transformation of previously made modifications, with the goal of making them conflict-free compatible with modified files and features of the new build).

That’s how it works in any real open source PHP software, and that is why it is impossible to create some sort of automatic update system for similar PHP applications. Simply put – it is virtually impossible to automatically update everyone’s software, retaining all of the custom modifications introduced by hundreds of customers.

For instance, take Word Press – the popular blogging software. Indeed, it does has an automatic update feature. However, said update overrides all custom code changes made by users, so any modifications will be lost if it is used.

We knew about this issue even while working on our first ever update script, and we tried to find a solution. It seems that the only way to make the process easier for customers is to introduce a semi-automatic update script.

This means that our script can compare files of a customer’s SkaDate version, with files of the same default version (without custom modification), and also with files in the new SkaDate build. Let’s see how it works, using the file index.php as an example:

  • If the file was not custom-modified by the client, but was revised by us in the new build, the script will automatically overwrite it;
  • If the file did not exist at all in client’s current and our default versions, but appeared in the new build, the script will automatically add it to the current version;
  • If the file was custom-modified by the client, while we have also introduced some changes to it in the new build, the file will end up on the Merge List. This tells the client that the file must be merged with both – custom changes and changes introduced by us in the new build;
  • If the file exists in client’s current and our default versions, but is not present in the new build, it will end up on the list of files to be removed. The script does not do it automatically to avoid the risk of deleting files by mistake, thus losing some of custom changes.

SkaDate Dating Software Update: Word from DeveloperHopefully, this shows that we indeed tried our best to simplify and semi-automate the update process as much as possible, while retaining all of the custom code modifications. Any other way of automatic update will result in the loss of all custom modifications.

Note, that the person performing an update should have at least a basic knowledge of PHP programming, since updating any PHP software is the same as working on a custom modification – PHP code will be accessed directly.

We have a number of clients who have necessary PHP skills and perform all of the updates on their own. At the same time we also allow our customers to work on updates without our input, by hiring third-party specialists. However, we also have a paid service in house just in case clients are not qualified enough to work with PHP, or simply prefer to not be bothered with updates at all. In the end it’s the customer’s choice.

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