The Secret Success of Ridiculous Sites

by Zima

Back in June I wrote a post for SkaDate Dating Software Blog about weirdly extreme (or extremely weird) dating site ideas that somehow translate into success stories. The post itself proved quite popular, and I’m sure gave a lot of incentive and food for thought to many aspiring dating site owners.

The general misconception with sites like those mentioned in the original post, is that while they pick their niches very carefully, they are still not very popular, being too obscure. But, hey, that’s the idea. You don’t make Bold Mature Goat Shaver Dating and then market it to mainstream audiences. People who need that kind of stuff will find you anyway, because that’s what they do – they look for like-minded bold mature goat shavers.

You see, we all might keep an OKCupid account just as a security measure – a last resort for finding a date in a pool of generic profiles. Alas, even then we are not safe. Just two month ago Magic: The Gathering Champion Jon Finkel learned the lesson the hard way, after his date publicly ridiculed him on Gizmodo just for being who he really was. Ouch.

Yes, secretly we hope that someone would finally have the guts to launch a site that caters specifically to our interests and deepest desires. There is a dating site for WarCraft players out there, so why not for Magic: The Gatherers? If anything, this whole Finkel debacle made every single person with a quirk question what they say to their dates.  Also, it made every single person with a quirk look for specific quirky websites, just to avoid this kind of situation altogether. Simply put, people really need specialty dating sites.

What’s even more interesting is that weird, obscure, and extreme sites actually require less marketing efforts, since they market themselves. You read that right. Match.com has to constantly advertise its services to maintain quarterly postings. AdultDiapers? Not so much. The site gets thousands of hits monthly just by ending up on numerous lists of strange and ridiculous internet entities. For free!

You see where I’m going? Don’t be afraid to be bold (not sure if goat shaving as recreation is legal though). Build a weird dating site running on the SkaDate dating script and you’ll have more chances to be mentioned on the interwebs than Scarlett Johansson’s naked butt. OK, maybe not this month.

PS

While reading up for this post I stumbled onto something that I absolutely have to share with you. It’s about dating, and it sounds weird, so it qualifies. Elephant Dating! I know, I know, it’s not a real online dating website (it’s a charity for saving Asian elephants), but I have to share this anyway.

The introduction on the homepage is just that priceless. Read for yourself: “For £30 you will be set up on a 12 month long date with a real Asian elephant,” and in return “you will receive unusual gifts including beautiful love letters on recycled elephant dung paper.” Elephant dung paper? Why, sign me up immediately, I always dreamed of possessing that!

But wait, there’s more! The Duchess of York and Steven Fry are on board too. Here’s what Mr. Fry says: “I’m utterly delighted to be in a long-term, loving and co-dependent relationship with an elephant. The rumours of a trial separation in October were nonsense. It’s true I flirted with an African elephant while on safari but it meant nothing.” Oww, isn’t that sweet?