Approach for Dating site

As Per my study there are hundreds of Dating sites and even Social sites serve the same purpose. Now the biggest task is how to create space and to attract target audience.

I am listing four basic problems with dating site and how to address them:

Free membership - Most of the dating site offer free membership to user. This will affect the credibility of a site. So it is advisable to put some membership fee to get serious user.

Usability & Lengthy forms - Normally all the dating site lack of usable design and have lengthy registration procedure where user have to fill lot of forms and to disclose personal information. So we suggest gather the information in bits at various level like searching, chatting etc.

Spamming and Security - One fine day I registered to a dating site and find few messages in my message box, I got excited ahh I have a date to night great but… L found they were spam and advertising messages. Think what will be my reaction? So data security of personal and financial information of members is of prime importance, avoid spamming and lot of advertisements on profile pages use strategically placed Google adsense and a header banner. This can be done through using implementing standard encryption standards like SSL for online payment, advance switching standard for data transferring etc.

Business Propositions - Most of the dating sites generate their revenue from space selling and registration. This approach leads to higher registration fees or bulk advertisement which effects the design and distract user attention. Rather we suggest to apply innovative business practices like tie up eating joints, restaurants, hotels and offer good discounts and coupons to the user or the couple book the venue through your site. This will be and added feature and service which other sites didn’t offer.

A new emerging Ecommerce market

A new growing Ecommerce market

I would like to share some very interesting statistics regarding the women’s oriented sites.

• Women view and interact differently then men when online using the internet.

• Women are now the leading online consumers. Statistically, sixty-three percent of online shoppers are women, and women control 75 percent of household finances and 85 percent of purchasing decisions.

• 90% of the women oriented sites were developed by the mail designers.

Now questions arises - what’s in to it? Yes here the answer.

We have focus on understanding the diversity of the women's market and helping clients connect with their female customers with design concepts and marketing strategy. So for developing a good result oriented site we need understand the need and demand of audience and create the ambiance and atmosphere accordingly.

Rules for Landing Page Optimization

1. Have a Clear and Direct Headline
2. Place High Value on Whitespace
3. Deliver Your Value Proposition with Short Direct Messaging
4. Have a Persuasive Message Directly Above the Call to Action
5. Large Red Buttons Rule
6. Call to Action Copy Matters
7. Trust and Security is Still Incredibly Persuasive

Functional specks for www.spotlitefriends.com

1. User registration

A. Email ID:

B. Password:

C. Confirm Password:

D. Membership

i. Check Box Dating Site on click following radio button activated

1. Platinum Membership (with link for more details)

2. Gold Membership (with link for more details)

E. Submit

(On submission user will be directed to the profile page and a message will be displayed on user screen regarding user ID & Password mail)

2. Profile Creation

A. Social network

i. Name

ii. Middle Name (Optional)

iii. Last Name

iv. Date of Birth

1. Check Box Public

2. Check Box Private

v. Sex

1. Radio Button Male

2. Radio Button Female

vi. Combo Box country

vii. Combo Box City

viii. Zip Code

ix. Upload Photo (optional)

B. Dating Profile (Additional Features if Dating Selected)

i. Upload photo

ii. Height

iii. Eye color

iv. Hair color

v. Physique

1. Average

2. Athletic

3. Thin

4. Muscular

vi. Looking for

1. Radio Button Man

2. Radio Button woman

vii. Religion

viii. Language

ix. Ethnicity

x. Partner Match (Default parameters for all profile search)

1. I am man/woman

2. Seeking woman/ man

3. Age 13 to 85

4. Relationship Combo box (Category*)

5. Geography Preference List of countries (Optional)

(Once a user fills this information s/he will be asked to choose from the 3-4 pre-defined templates for her/his home page. The templates have view option which opens up in a middle size popup window)

xi. Select Services (With more link to detail page where all the options will be described with pricing)

1. Communicate with other members of dating services by sending email, chat – IM and video

2. Location Mapping (Google map displaying the dating members) With link to more details)

3. Translation services with combo box for languages to choose (user will get a page to translate to the selected language). Languages we propose to give for translation:

· Thai

· Korean

· Chinese & Mandarin

Note: We plan to use the free translation services provided by www.stars21.com

xii. Choose Payment Option: Radio Button

1. PayPal

2. Credit Card

xiii. Command Button Submit

3. Website Sections

A. Main Menu Bar

i. Groups

1. Join Group

a. All existing groups displayed by category *

b. Select the radio button to select the desired group

c. Submit button

(On request submission a message will be sent to the group moderator with the user profile. Once approved by the moderator, the user will become a member of the group. Also, a text message will be displayed on the user screen that request has been sent to the moderator).

2. Create Group

a. Combo box for selecting category *

b. Group moderator will set the privilege buttons for members

· Forum -- Can select from: Read, Post, Comments

· Events -- Can select from: See, Create, Invite

· Games -- Solo, choose partner (snakes moves & your shoot)

· Poll -- Can select: Vote, Create & Invite

ü User can place 1 poll a day in 2 multiple choice answers format.

ii. Blogs

1. View Blog

a. Post Comment

b. Rate Blog ‘Articles of a blog’ (Grade from 1 to 5 star)

c. Book Mark Blog (Digg it)

d. Subscribe to Blog

2. Post Blog

a. Write up area

b. Privileges

· Private (Only user can see and can exchange the links through mail)

· Public (Can be viewed by all user on the site)

· Activate properties

ü Comments

ü Ratings

ü Book mark

iii. Forum

1. Select category *

2. Forum Topic

3. Last Post

4. Topic Starter

5. New Replies

iv. Video – Categories *

1. Supported Format - all kinds of movies, they will be automatically converted in FLV files and played in an ordinary Flash player.

2. View

3. Upload – Default 5 MB but can be increased through Admin Section

4. Share – User can define videos as Private and Public

5. Rate

v. Photo – Categories *

1. View

2. Upload – Default 5 MB but can increase through Admin Section

3. Share

4. Rate

vi. Music – Categories *

1. Supported format MP3

2. listen

3. Upload – Default 5 MB but can increase through Admin Section

4. Share

5. Rate

vii. Travel and tourism (We will provide the Admin sections which will allow the site administrator to upload all the following relevant data.)

1. Define Categories *

2. Upload Images up to 5 MB – Admin can upload 5 images at a time

3. Music file in MP3 format up to 5 MB – Admin can upload 5 images at a time

4. Description - up to 1200 charter length.

5. Fields in the Travel Agents list

a. Sr. No

b. Title 75 character

c. Description - up to 250 character

d. Address - up to 300 characters

e. Reviews - up to 500 character

6. Fields in the List of Hotels, Motels, guest houses and restaurant

a. Sr. No

b. Title up to 75 character

c. Description up to 250 character

d. Address up to 300 characters.

e. Reviews up to 500 character.

f. Rating provided by Admin control

viii. Events

1. See events within group

2. Create Events

a. Event format

· Title 50 Character

· Description 200 character

· Date MM/DD/YY

ix. Poets Corner - Categories *

1. Upload Poem (textual content only)

2. Add Comments – up to 250 character

3. Rate Poem

x. Comedy

1. Register as comedian

2. Upload

a. Video

b. Image

c. Voice

3. Rate

4. Post comments

B. Vertical Navigation bar

i. Mails

1. Compose (Only for Paid members)

2. Inbox

3. Sent

4. Trash

5. Add folder

ii. Chat

1. Video Chat (Paid Users)

2. Text Chat (Normal IM)

iii. Call a friend within site (Premium users only)

iv. My Gallery

1. Photo

2. Video

3. Music

4. Blogs

5. Events

v. Friends (dating members will get the other dating members listing too, from which they can make their friends)

1. List of friend with their online status

2. Invite a friend

vi. My Matches (Only for Dating site members) – will show the listing of matching profiles

vii. My searches (User can save his preferred profiles for Dating only)

viii. Send Greetings

1. Postcard – Can upload new images to create their own cards.

2. Audio – can add music to their cards

ix. Love Calculator (only for Dating members)

x. Horoscope (daily , weekly and monthly RSS Data feed from site like www.astrocenter.com)

xi. Games (freeware online games like snakes moves & your shoot)

xii. Dictionary (Only for paid members)

xiii. Change Templates (for changing look n feel of their site without changing the layout of it)

C. Search profile Based on default parameters

D. "Online/Offline" user status

E. Subscribe Newsletter

4. Business directory with their Classified Ads

i. Select Categories *

ii. Add Details

1. Text Box for Company name 75 character - Title

2. Text Box for job 500 character - description

3. Text Box for address 500 character

4. Text box supporting hyperlink for website address

5. Photo Auto Scaling and watermarking (Each and every photo get water mark of www.spotlitefriends.com)

6. Banners system (admin controllable) for advertisement wherein you can upload different banners through the admin panel.

7. Free trial membership (Admin possibility to set up the period length and conditions. For instance, a member will not be able to send messages until he pays. Only for Dating section)

8. One of the following payment gateway integration of your choice:

9. Privacy Settings: User can select the privacy setting for their contents like Photos, Videos, Blogs, own gallery by using private, public & friends.

A. Private will be define as that the only user can view the section

B. Public will be defined as that all the members of site can have access to these contents.

C. Friends will be define as that the only those members who are listed in users friends book or to whom user listed as friends can view, post comments on the contents.

D. Apart from site stake holder only the user who posted the contents will have a privilege to edit and delete the contents.

10. Grading/Rating – All the grading and rating on the site will be done on 1 to 5 units with stars displayed on the upper right hand side corner on all rated contents.

11. * All categories sections/fields will be defined by the client.

12. All comments on Blog & Forum will be accompanied by “Bot”.