Hi,

I had an idea earlier and have been through the pros and cons in my head but think it might be a 'runner'

OK, we all know that Male membership far outweighs Female membership and as a 'goal' we need Upgrades and preferably recurring ones at that.
So, what do we need to do to get the recurring upgrades?
Have more active female profiles is one solution but, how do we go about this?

I have an idea but it needs DIY-D to play a major part:

1- set up a new domain aimed specifically at women (maybe a nice domain name)
2- free FULL membership for Females (only for 'straight' profiles and across the whole network, but the domain in no.1 really pushes this)
3- to offset advertising of this site cut the DIY marketing budget aiming for more webmasters slightly, maybe run ads every other month instead of monthly, use the remaining budget to advertise a totally free Female site.
4- maybe even tie it in with some 'chick' magazine (perhaps Vogue wouldn't go for it but maybe another mag might, co-branding perhaps?), at least try to get them to print some sort of article (free advertising)
5- sit back and watch the guys upgrade monthly 'cos they're meeting women???


Pros.

Better conversion rates.
Longer term recurring upgrades.
More Females
Word of mouth promotion, the best there is. (guys - this site (www.your-domain.com) works...girls- this is totally free)
This works and I look great!

Cons.

No female income (what % is it anyway? wouldn't the extra male income outweigh this?)
Higher fake profile amount and more timewasters (impliment a rating system? when get 10 'Timewaster' points then profile deleted? IP adress is banned?)
This fails and I look like a dumbass!

What do others think, especially the chaps/girls at DIY-D?

Has it been tried before? If so, where did they go wrong?

Let me know your thoughts and ideas.

I'd be more than happy to try it, I think in the long term it would be better, and if it doesn't work I can't see there being a huge loss.



Vince.

This sounds like a great idea in theory, but there are a few problems.

1) It may be illegal to market a site as being free for females due to sexual descrimination laws in the UK. You would need to seek legal help before marketing such a site. I remember in the news a few years ago that a nightclub near to where I lived got taken to court by the council because they offered free drinks for women, in a hope to entice men there too. In their defence, they said that they would give free drinks to any men who dress up as women too, but the council had none of it and the club had stop making the offer.

2) We have already advertised in Cosmo a few years back. The advert was a tester to see what traffic we would get. The site was unique and was set up especially for Cosmo. We had less than 10 profiles created from it and thought it was a waste of money. Although, this was a few years ago, and perhaps you might get a better return now people are more internet aware.

It would be great if anyone else had any thoughts on the idea.

Gary

aha! this is where the co-branding idea part comes in...

Maybe Cosmo is a little err, ummm, 'up-market' for the target audience?

but if the site is specifically aimed and marketed towards 'Magazine-Name-Here' readers/subscribers and they got a free site membership thrown in with the subscription or something that might get around that. Leave it open for M or F but make it so 'girlified' that guys will quickly leave, besides, I doubt that the subscriber base would be that huge from guys

any potential revenue loss could be offset by carrying advertisng on the site with a revenue share for 'Magazine' and DIY-D.

Vince

There is a number of dating sites which promote free membership for females, One is called Girls date for free which is run by a large UK based company.

I personally think this would be a very good idea but instead of giving full access for free to females how about letting female members able to read emails sent to them but would have to upgrade to respond back or even allow female members to respond once every 24 hours untill they upgrade.

Andy3921

We are aware that there are a few sites advertising that girls can date for free, its just that no-one has reported them yet I believe.

I will have to pass this to our solicitors, but I'm pretty sure its a no, cant do, its sexual discrimination, but I will double check with them.


It would be great to contact these magazines directly and ask them if they want to co-brand a site with us. No cost to them at all, so long as they allow us to use their name within the site we make. Then we could probably make it a totally free site, or even a revenue split between the magazine and others. Does anyone else have any comments or want to jump on board our systems, because we are currently employing and looking for good marketing people who know how our system works and how to successfully market dating/adult websites.

Gary

How about (for the time being) for the adult sites, couples date for free but must be able to prove that they are a couple by posting at least one photo of themselfs together and must upgrade in order to respond emails sent to them but able to read mail sent to them.

Just a thought.
Andy3921

I think this is a fab idea! You should definately follow this up (If its legal of course). I've seen some very successful contacts sites that is free to female members (however I think most are not UK based). BTW can you give more info on the jobs you have (i.e. job spec) and method for applying for employment - thanks

Andy

Having been working in the online dating world for a few years now I'd have to say this is a bad idea.

I've been a member of a number of different dating sites and there's never been a shortage of women around to get to know. If anything, the women get a bit sick of guys assuming that one email is enough for a date/meet.

The "free for females" sites I've seen have men who still can't get laid because they assume too much.

Also, the women tend to be the better customer. Whereas most men join a site for the hell of it to see what happens, the women join because they do want to find someone (whether it's a man, another woman or a couple) and are then prepared to pay.

To get round the legal issue of discrimination - can you not set up a site JUST for women that is free. Therefore this site will not let men sign up, or even have the facility for men to join. The site would be targeted at women only. Would this not get round the problem where it seems that Men pay and women go free??

Andy

Yeah then how you gonna make money hunny?

But that doesn't solve the problem that there is a shortage of women - whether they are prepared to pay or not, just look at my stats - they speak for themselves. If we relied on Womens income alone then this kind of affiliate marketing wouldn't be worth doing. A very high percentage of my income comes from Males upgrading, with the hope of getting a girl or even just communicating with girls. Therefore the more active females on the site would mean more upgrades! Some competitor Affiliate programs offer Webmasters a higher rate of commission when they introduced female members - So it is pretty much fact that the more women on a contact site, then attracts the men who are then prepared to pay.

Andy

You are correct, the more women you get on the system, the more upgrades you get from both men and other women too.

I've been talking to solicitors regarding what we can offer for free for women and the general consensus is that whatever we offer to women has to be offered to men too, otherwise its sexual discrimination. I mentioned several websites that blatantly advertise 'free for women' on them, which are UK based and our solicitors say that they are breaking the law, its just that its not bothered anyone enough to report them or take action against them.

None the less, I have asked them to look further into this for us.

Gary

Which brings me to the conclusion that if you give away free membership with a product that mostly women buy (magazine/other website/Jimmy Choo's/whatever) then that's fine, as long as any guy that applies also gets in for free.

I can't see many men buying a 12 month subscription to New Woman (for example) just to get 6 months free on the DIY system.


Vince

Well you wont make any money from that site that only lets women sign up... however the women that join the site would still be able to contact the guys (and other women) in the DIY Dating database (even though guys cant sign up to the particular site in question), thus generating more interest from the guys that signed up through other sites of the system!

Hi there

Hmm interesting thread, I have been saying these sites should be free for females for a long time now, but i had no idea it was a sexual discrimination issue.

There has to be a way around this, as i have got the tele on now and theres an advert for sheilas wheels insurance, advertising cheaper insurance for women ! isnt that the same thing ?

While its probably not a good idea to be giving free upgrades away, surly there must be some scope for offering special deals to females ?

Woc

The topic has an interesting point, and for my reply it's coming from a U.S. viewpoint. I don't know U.K. laws, just what's on post, but I would still like to share some ideas that clubs and bars use.

Most clubs/bars will entice the women to come in, but it's not free all nite. Some tactics used are free admission when there is a cover charge, but you still have to pay for your drinks. Sometimes they are 2-for-1, somewhat offsetting the male cover charge, and some establishments go even further to offer free drinks to ladies during this same time frame. The usual cover charge is about $20-60 (U.S.), and it will be charged till about 3 hours before close. Inside though you have free drinks from 7-10, the club is open till 3 so another 5 hours you will be paying full price on drinks. Happy hour is over, but you still want to score so you start buying drinks for that redhead you met earlier. <-remember that.

OK. If you offer a free site, being a U.K. company with majority of profiles from same, you would be in violation of the law. It's also a waste of money (IMHO). You could do this of course based on the above scenario.

Nothing would really change with the current format, membership, features, etc that require payment to use would stay the same. You could however offer the following for female profiles:

7-days free email after 30-days (even if free profile)
3-days free email with profile (including free profile)
10 message trial - can send 10 free messages (receive free)
1/2 price on any new membership sign-up (commission lower also)
1/2 price on any membership plan for 1-year (even if paid quarterly)

None of these are offering 100% free membership, as none of the clubs truly offer 100% free catering to women. You entice them not only with a free profile (all sites do that), but also some discount or free feature afterwards. Some sites already do this, it's a good way to get women to join. If they are communicating with someone during their free trial, and they want to keep doing so, they will pay for a membership. Even 1/2 price is better than no business, and the discount is not forever. I wouldn't think these would violate U.K. laws?

Now remember the redhead from the club? Lets say you are browsing profiles and you want to contact someone, but you only have a free account and don't wish to pay for a full membership, what do you do? Offer a paid message feature, for both paid and free profiles. Profiles that are paid members could have a graphic or something in the actual profile view page, showing they were "premium members". Normally if the browser is a free member they would have to sign-up to contact this person. The average person would be too cheap to pay a full membership to send one email (which may not get a reply), but if you offer them the ability to pay $0.50 a message to send (billed monthly) you could potentially make more than the full membership fee. People do not mind spending loose change. Paid members could have the same option. If they spot a profile that was not a premium member, they could prepay the message and it would show up as a "free message from xxx" in the non-paid profile members mailbox. If they want to reply they will pay for another message, or membership.

You could take this a step further with "gift profiles". Maybe offer a section in paid membership where they could buy a discounted membership (33% off list) and give it as a gift to anyone on the network. This would work better with the paid message scenario.

What are legal issues on a user ID service? Where people can validate their identity to prove who they are and that their profile is legitimate. Might have some legal issues though. People always feel safer when they know who they are contacting is really who they are. This type of service would offer peace of mind, and keep predators/profilers away.

Any thoughts?

Hi sounds good we need more woman how about half price membership for 6 months or maybe 1 year
Love Angel