Name of your website?Love9-1-1.net
Your name?
ScottRandolph
Your Location (city, etc)
New Orleans
Please give us a short summary of your website?
A new, international (but locally administered) adult dating website featuring photo personals along with a comprehensive profile. Registration is free and allows unlimited browsing. There is also a matchmaking feature. The site allows for up to six photos.
What inspired you to launch your own website?
I realized how much I personally enjoy surfing dating sites, making friends, chatting with people across the globe and learning about other cultures (not to mention looking for Ms. Right!).
When did you launch your first website, and what was it?
My first website went live around 1999 and was related to automotive parts. It is still up and running (family business) and does quite well (e-commerce wise, that is). Since then, I have several other e-commerce type sites and a few personal journal/rant type sites that are very popular as well as an autobiography (adult, no pictures or videos).
How did you decide on a name for your website?
Having worked in the emergency medical field (and being a desperately lonely male in the 20th century!), it was painfully obvious to me that finding a love, the right love, was not just a dream, but a real social emergency (!). I also own an affiliate site using the same name with .com. It does wonderfully well, but I wanted a locally administered and controlled dating site as well. 9-1-1.net is very new and seems to be gaining ground. I chose the 9 dash 1 dash 1 as opposed to just 911 because I felt it exemplified actually dialing the number as you would on a phone and also I felt using 911 (nine-eleven) could be construed as being insensitive to the 9-11 victims and their families.
What makes it different from other, similar offerings?
One is the personal flavor it has. I am one of the participants and interact with the members and browsers. Also, the software provides for a matchmaking feature which matching couples up in various ways. Membership is inexpensive and billing is simple and flexible. Last, we offer free registration on our sister site (9-1-1.COM) automatically.
What is your eventual goal? (To sell it, keep it for income, secure a book or other mainstream media deal?)
Have good time, meet a lot of friends, help other people meet a lot of friends (hopefully even spouses and mates), maybe make a few dollars along the way, eventually find a mate myself...
How does your investment of time and money balance against your success?
I spend about three to four hours a day doing what I call 'sitework'. I am generally very busy with many projects and consider this a minimal investment for the return.
If you had an unlimited development budget for development, how would you change your site?
Although I like my site design, I may change a few physical/cosmetic aspects of the site. The main thing though would be MARKETING! It would be at the top of every search engine (organic). I have a catchy (copyrighted and trademarked) logo that I am proud to say I came up with and it would be featured in every college newspaper around the country. There are a few other print ads I would like to see as well as some underwriting on public radio. Eventually, I would like to see the Love9-1-1 logo on polo shirts around the world! (I know, big dreams!).
If your site got really big, really quickly, would you be able to keep up with the demand?
Absolutely! I currently use a host that can handle up to 1,000,000 hits per day and constant traffic at about 75% of that. Additionally, between my brother (who is the web guru for a large metropolitan newspaper) and myself and a few others, we would likely set up our own server set and handle things in-house. No problem. In fact, I'm looking forward to it!
What unexpected costs and headaches have you had to deal with?
Actually, since I can write my of my own programming, PHP, HTML, JAVA and have a good bit of experience in sites, there hasn't been too much. To be honest, one of the hardest items was setting up billing for the site. Because online dating is considered high-risk (in the same arean that adult porn sites are [?]), it is difficult to find a processor that will work with you without a large cash deposit, and that includes going offshore. The company I finally worked out a deal with, CCBill, has been wonderful, but even they are very picky and it took a while for them to decide to take the account (after much background checking).
What has been your biggest challenge?
Once again: MARKETING! Finding new customers. I love pay-per-click marketing because of the tremendous control it allows. However, it is as close as I can imagine to having a heroin addiction= as soon as you make a payment, your account is bust again and waiting for more money to suck up. And sometimes the clicks/conversion rate is lower that you'd like. Believe it or not, in the beginning I printed up about 10K glossy postcards (one with one site on the front, the other on the back... again with the catchy ambulance logo) and just went around to all the restaurants, clubs, clothing shops, malls, etc., that would let me place them by the registers. I also would place cards in conspicous places everywhere I went. Amazingly, even though it was local, it paid off because part of the process is getting others to tell their friends, etc., about you. Hence, the 'tell-a-friend' link, which has also worked well.
What method has been most successful for promoting your website?
Without a doubt, pay-per-click and without a doubt, Google's pay-per-click. The tell-a-friend link on the site has paid off as has joining quite a few 'chat' sites, blogs and clubs to spread the word.
How has running your website differed from your expectations?
A little slower than I expected and a lot more competition than I expected. If it weren't for the fact that I had marketed sites before, I would be saying that "M" word again!
How long have you run the site already, and how long will you continue to keep it up if you don't enjoy big gains in traffic, income or popularity?
The site has only been up for just over a month. Because it costs me next to nothing to operate it (marketing not included), I see no reason to rush. Web crawlers are quite slow, but effective once they grab onto your site. I'm in no big rush. My YouveGotAFriendInNewOrleans.com site is just starting to take off and it's been up for over a year. Of course, I haven't really put much effort into marketing it.
Do you feel 'online dating' has a stigma over it and if so, why?
Yes, I do and I guess it's because relationships are personal, touchy subjects. Especially if you didn't meet the old fashioned way. But in this day and age, online dating/meeting only makes sense. In fact, as long as you watch out for and protect yourself from the scams, there is very little 'down side' to it. You can meet a lot of people you would have never had the chance to meet, you can search by what you (think) you want, you can 'weed' out the ones who are obviously not for you and you can do it as fast or slow as you want WITHOUT giving out your location, real name, etc., if you don't wish to. What can you beat about that?!
What is your website address?
Love9-1-1.net
