There are a lot of factors to consider if you decide to develop a hookup site. What will your site be called? Will you develop it from scratch? Will you use a template? Which web hosting company will you use? To be sure that the information about the basics of the development of a hookup site is relevant to our days, we reached out to the developers from several hookup sites and they shared their experience. Read on to learn a bit about developing your own local hookups and a specialized website!
Basics
Here are seven steps to get you started developing your new website in the hookup niche!
1. Pick out a name. It all starts with a name. What you choose will vary depending on your target audience, but it should out in the current market, is easy to remember, & is fairly short. The name that you choose will be the basis of your domain name, so choosing something hard to remember or is unnecessarily long will lessen your likelihood of visitors. We recommend keeping your dating website name to three words or less. It’s important to come up with a few different options, as there is a possibility your chosen company name (or URL) is already taken.
2. Register your domain name. You will have a wide variety of domain name registrars and hosting services to choose from. If you choose to register your domain with a domain name registrar, you will have the ability to use your domain on the website hosting platform of your choice. However, depending on the platform you choose, your host may charge you extra to use your pre-registered domain. The alternative option is to purchase your domain name directly from your web hosting service. This will save you the trouble of importing a pre-registered domain, although you may run into complications if you decide to change your web hosting service later on.
3. Decide on a color scheme for your site. Many dating websites use the same basic templates, which consist of the main color, a secondary color, & a white background. While you can certainly use this setup, you may want to consider alternative options instead. Regardless of what colors you settle on for your final design, it’s important that information on your dating website will be easy to read for your users. If it’s not, you’re unlikely to retain many users.
4. Design a logo. Much like the name, your logo has to stand out & be memorable. However, when it comes to logos, you will also need to make sure your design is instantly recognizable! These days, many websites use nearly identical logos for their dating websites, so even the slightest bit of creativity will instantly separate you from the competition. Put a lot of thought into the colors you choose for your logo, as they will need to fit into the overall color scheme across your entire website.
5. Figure out if you’re going to build your site from scratch. If you decide to build your website from scratch, you’ll want to be familiar with HTML5, JavaScript, HTML5, Python, NoSQL, & MongoDB. If you’re not highly proficient in using these various tools, you’ll be much better off using a website builder instead. One of our favorites to use is WordPress: you can use the .com version for a basic website builder or the .org version for a more hands-on approach.
6. Select a good CSS template. If you decided to build your website from scratch, then you may consider making a custom CSS template for your site. However, you also have the option of using one of the many templates available online instead to simplify the process. Some CSS templates are available for free, while others you’ll have to purchase. It’s important to keep the end-user experience in mind when selecting your template. You don’t want to choose something that looks boring & outdated, like this example:
Instead, you should choose something more modern and easy to navigate, like the example below. Remember, you can customize the colors to fit your chosen color scheme, but other parts of the template (such as the borders, images, fonts, & font sizes) can also be tailored to your specific site.
7. Add plugins to your website. WordPress offers a variety of plugins, such as WPDating, that you can integrate into your website to add vital features like messaging, matching, & more. If you decided to use a different hosting service or build your website yourself, you will have to explore alternative options and may have to implement these systems on your own.
Ending
As you can see, there are a lot of different things to consider when developing your first dating website! You will also need to optimize your website for mobile users & figure out a way to grow your user base (such as advertisements). After this, you will want to turn a profit, so you will need to look into monetization options. While we didn’t have time to cover every detail you’ll need to address when developing your dating site, hopefully, we’ve given you some insight into what you’ll need to do to start your dating site & the amount of time/effort required. Starting a dating website isn’t easy, but if you plan, strategize, and properly establish your website, you can easily grow your user base & start making revenue along the way!
Taylor is a freelance SEO copywriter and blogger. His areas of expertise include technology, pop culture, and marketing.
