Start a Successful Dating Website Business

Learning how to start a dating website business is relatively easy but monetizing the site can become a little tricky. First, let’s discuss how your website will make money to become successul. This will help you determine if this is the right business opportunity for you. Dating sites allow members to view the profiles of other members and contact those they are interested in meeting. Now we all know how popular these sites have become in recent years. We have found that “local” dating sites are extremely profitable. This gives you a target market and makes promoting your site much easier. Of course you will make the bulk of your money by selling memberships to site visitors. The membership grants them access information to portions of the site that are not viewable by non-members. Here is the problem with that form of monetization: you have to start with zero members or member profiles. Those first visitors to your site may feel you have an excellent idea but no one wants to be the only profile on the entire site. So, to eventually make your site profitable, you have to make your site free in the beginning. This will encourage your visitors to register and create a profile. Once you have several members and profiles available for your traffic to view, you can begin charging new members. You can also allow a free trial period. This will enable visitors to register and use the site for free for a specified time. After that time expires, they will have to become paying members to continue using the service. There are challenges with every online business, you just have to find a way to meet these challenges and overcome them. We are not trying to discourage you from starting your own dating site. We are simply seeking full disclosure and want you to know in advance some of the challenges you will face. Establishing the dating site is the easiest of all sites. There is hundreds of dating software packages available but we are going to tell you where you can get it for free. A new open-source dating script has recently come available. You can download the script by visiting the “Dating Site Software” link on WebPalPro. Once the zip file has downloaded log in to your cPanel and open File Manager. Click on the public_html directory and then click upload. Browse to find the zip file you just downloaded. The file will be named script_39. Upload this zip file to your server. Be patient as this process will take 20-30 minutes (maybe more depending on your connection and how busy your server is at the time). Once the file has finished uploading you can close the upload window and return to File Manager. You will see a single file in the list named script_39. Single click this file and click the unzip icon in File Manager. A pop-up screen will display listing all the files that have been unzipped. Proceed out of the pop-up menu to return to File Manager. You will now see a folder named script_39. Here is the tricky part. Follow these steps exactly to get your files and folders to the appropriate location.

1. Double click the script_39 folder
2. Double click the folder named osDate (may be followed by addition information such as the version)
3. Double click the public_html folder
4. File Manager will display a list of all files and folders
5. Click Select All
6. Click Copy
7. A pop-up box will display asking you the location to copy the files
8. Enter /public_html/ as the destination
9. A new pop-up will display showing all the files that have been copied
10. Proceed out of the pop-up to return to File Manager
11. Click public_html from the left navigation pane
12. You should now see all the folders and files you copied

You are now ready to install the dating software! Before you begin the installer you need to create a database for osDate to use in storing and organizing information. Return to cPanel and click on “MySQL Databases.” Enter a new database name and click create database. Now add a new user and assign that user to the database. Make sure the user has all privileges when assigning them to the database. Once that is completed, you are ready to start the installer. Information on how to install the program can be found at http://www.tufat.com/docs/osdate/install.html. You have completed the upload part and are ready to move on to the “2) Start the Installer.” We are going to cover the basics with you here.

1. Type www.YOURDOMAIN.com/install.php into your browser
2. Follow the onscreen instructions to complete the installation
3. You will be told to change the permissions on several files (This must be done before the installer will proceed.)

Here is a basic tutorial on how to change permissions on specified files. A name that ends with an extension (“file.xxx”) is a specific file while names that are not followed by an extension are folders. You will double click on each folder name in the specified path until you reach the last file or folder name in the path. You single click the last file or folder to select it. Then click the change permissions icon in file manager. Set the permissions as required by osDate Installer. Save and continue to the next file listed in the installer. Just to clarify, here is an example and how to follow the path indicated:
chat/inc/cmses

1. Double click the chat folder
2. Double click the inc folder
3. Single click the cmses folder
4. Click change permissions icon to edit the settings

Here is another example ending with a file instead of a folder:
Chat/inc/cmses/osdateCMS.php

1. Double click the chat folder
2. Double click the inc folder
3. Double click the cmses folder
4. Single click the osdateCMS.php file
5. Click change permissions icon to edit the settings

You will have to follow this process for each file path indicated in the installer. You can return to your main folder by clicking public_html in the left navigation pane. Once the permissions have been changed, continue to follow the onscreen instructions to complete the install process. After you have completed the installation, you are ready to log into the admin control panel and customize your site. To change your site name or logo click on Site’s Global Settings under Tools. Here you can change the name of your site, your email contact information, add your logo to the header, change your theme / skin, and define your meta tags (this is covered in more detail in the Meta Tags chapter of this book). To edit any of the information you click on the edit icon, enter the updated information, and click the save icon. There are several preloaded themes and skins for you to use in creating the look you want.