5 Important Life Lessons I Learned while Running a Dating Website

I would like to introduce a seasoned dating site owner John Ali. And today he’d share 5 life lessons he learned while running a dating website:

“Although I have not met that single guy who makes my heart go pitter-patter or who makes my world complete, I have always been and remain a hopeless romantic. Friends say I do not live in the real world. Instead, they say my head is in the clouds, always looking for the sun that I believe is obligated to peak through and illuminate everything in sight. My friends say that my passion for all things love and romance has me skipping daily to log in to my own dating website, hoping to find that elusive man for myself or welcome the news that two customers on my dating website have made a love connection.

Owning a website that offers customers a place to connect with other singles in search of love has taught me a lot about life. In this article, I detail 5 life lessons that I have learned by creating and running my own dating website.

1. Keep the Birds of a Feather Together

The biggest lesson I learned is the importance of having a niche. A niche is a marketing tool used to direct a certain group or demographic to your website. Its function is to direct that group based on something, i.e., a certain age group, certain sexual orientation, certain ethnic group, or any other specific group that I want primarily using my website. Having a niche steers and almost limits my website to those demographics that my site caters to.

Conversely, when I didn’t have a niche my website drew all kinds of people – simply because they are looking to connect with other singles. And in those cases, I learned that many came along and checked out my website and then kept it moving. I suspect that is because, without a niche, the demographics of who was on my site was too broad. I have learned that birds of a feather do indeed flock together. Some popular dating websites that have their niche down to science are for those looking for a love connection are:

Elite Singles – dating website for those looking for a serious long-term relationship.

Black People Meet – dating website for Black people looking to connect.

Jdate – dating website for Jewish people looking to connect.

Silver Singles – a second chance for 50+ singles looking for relationships.

Chatrooms.org.au – An Australian chatroom that is very different than every other website I mentioned above because they are available for free for anyone to use. What more would you want from a dating website?

2. Marketing Matters

In addition to being a hopeless romantic, I am a forever friend to many. I count myself blessed to still have friends from elementary school and do not get me started on my social media “friends” and connections. What having my own dating website taught me is that marketing matters when trying to keep a website growing and networking with friends is essential. It is not enough to have a ton of customers on my website who are mingling with other singles and happy with their membership. As a dating website owner, I am responsible to keep my business flowing and growing. New customers must be my end goal.

Therefore, I contacted a friend from college who majored in marketing and we brainstormed and put together several successful events. Each event is fun to execute and in the last six months have driven more than 61% more customers to my site. I have hosted First-Date-Friday’s, Speed-Date-Saturday, and other dating events for singles looking to connect with other singles at the local bars and restaurants around my city. Marketing matters and I must continue to evolve as a website owner if I want my website services to continue to grow.

3. Legal Zone

There are a ton more legal documents involved in creating and running a website than simply purchasing my domain name and registering my company with my state. This is a life lesson that came at me fast when a customer threatened to sue me and my service. I have a lawyer on retainer to protect me and my legal zone and understand now that there are so many forms – everything from Articles of Incorporation, Subscription Agreements, Disclosure Forms, a Business Plan, and tons more, they all need to be worded in precise detail and my lawyer is worth every penny of his fee.

4. King of Content

I once believed that if my dating website did not crash that it would be one of those businesses that I could just sit back and watch it. Meaning, I did not have to do much on a day-to-day basis to keep my website running smoothly. After all, I had put in the work to get it up and running which was at time grueling. Before launching the website, I spent hours every day for three months with IT gurus who executed my vision of a website and fixed all the glitches. They helped me work through all thing’s SEO.

After launching, I felt like my website was a new baby. I checked in on it often. I read comments, looked at how many new subscriptions I had, made sure there were no complaints, no stalkers, plenty of connections, and that the site was not in danger of crashing. Rarely did I make changes to anything.

But much like marketing, I have learned that my website needed daily work. My customers were logging in as many times a day as I, looking for something new. They spent money and were in need of encouragement by way of new content. Yes, they were looking for connections. Yes, they were hoping to find love. But in lieu of love, new content would at least let them know that the website owner was in their corner. I was checking in on them and cheering for their dating success. They wanted to know that someone was in their corner while they looked for that elusive Mr. or Mrs. Right. To do that, I learned that I had to become the king (queen) of content.

5. Love Wins

The last but most important lesson I learned is that loving what you do truly does makes all the difference to your happiness. I could have started a website based around my love for fashion and trust me, that love runs deep. But it does not compare to my ethereal dreams of not only finding love for myself but helping others make love connections. I have learned that when you love what you do, you are willing to take risks, work late nights, be disciplined and focused, and never give up. If you love what you do, you will win.

Running my website has been tough at times. There have been times when I had to put the needs of others ahead of my own needs. But I have learned a lot about life along with the way and the lessons above can be used for any business. 

I hope my life lessons helped you.”

Preview Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash

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