In my last article, I covered creating logos and unique content for your dating site. I will now cover video creation and site links for inclusion.
I will use my landing page for MILFSinSA.com to provide examples of how to create these elements on your own site. It has a relevant, entertaining video embedded in it (see a previous article from Dating Factory on promoting your dating site on YouTube here), site links to relevant dating sites and blogs, plus a banner ad for one of my general adult dating sites that I created in Xheader.

On this particular site, targeted at South Africa, I have added some relevant links to some of my own general South African dating sites as well as some regional dating sites that I have set up – all relevant to a South African adult dating site. As a word of warning, I have had sites disapproved by Google Adwords for PPC (pay per click) ads where I wanted to promote a general dating site and included country specific dating sites on the home page as links or banners.
In Google’s view, the inclusion of these country specific links was not adding any value to a visitor’s experience on a general dating site, so I had to remove the links to have my site accepted for Adwords. I’ll be covering Google PPC in more depth in future articles, but for now, just take care when adding links to your landing pages if you envisage promoting them on Adwords now or in the future. Ensure that the links are relevant and add value to the visitors experience, even if they choose not to stay and sign up with you. Your options for click throughs to related sites need to be relevant to their initial search and country specific to the territory that your site is targeting.
How to create and embed videos in your dating site.
I think the key point to emphasize here is that it is important to use video to connect and engage with your target visitors. In this case, my site is very specifically focused on mature South African women and visitors looking for adult contacts. The video shows some gorgeous older women to get the visitor in the mood, to connect them with my site as the place to meet such gorgeous looking women, and to get them to sign up. That’s the theory; it’s early days for this new site on the DF platform, but initial signs are encouraging.
You can create videos in Powerpoint if you have it. I got hold of some pre-designed Powerpoint templates with royalty free music embedded, which I used to create this sample video for my Dating4Divorcees.com site:

I created another video this way recently and added it to my site, it has had over 4,700 views already. The videos take just a few minutes to create with bespoke text and images, and they save me a ton of time.
Another method is to use Fiverr.com, where you can buy all sorts of services, including video and logo creation, for $5 a time. This is an example of a video I had made using Fiverr.com:

The key to using Fiverr.com is to find suppliers with a high reliability ranking – you can check their rating and user comments before you commit. The turnaround time is pretty quick as well; sometimes you get your order processed within a few days. For videos, the designer will provide a template to fit with the video that you choose; you supply text and images to fit the template, so Slide 1 is text, Slide 2 is an image etc. In some cases, I have found designers who will source images as well and do a great job.
I also use these videos on my blogs, which gets more leverage from them and more exposure. There are some more examples here on my blog DatingPersonalsDirectory.com. If you like the Pinterest theme I am using for my WordPress blog, you can get more information on it here.
Site links.
As I mentioned earlier, relevant site links add value for your visitor, in my view, and extends options to the visitor to click through onto more of your sites, or affiliate links, if they don’t find what they are looking for first time.
I have a number of sites targeting South Africa, so on each of my SA dating sites I include links to other relevant sites, which you can see in the screenshot at the start of the article. The code is straightforward, and you can use this code to get the same result with your site links and descriptions included:
<p><strong><h2><strong><a href=”http://www.YOURSITENAME.com” target=”_blank”>YOUR SITE DESCRIPTION</a> | <strong><a href=”http://www.YOURSITENAME.com” target=”_blank”>YOUR SITE DESCRIPTION</a> | <a href=”http://www.YOURSITENAME.com” target=”_blank”>YOUR SITE DESCRIPTION</strong></a> | <a href=”http://www.YOURSITENAME.com” target=”_blank”>YOUR SITE DESCRIPTION</a> | <a href=”http://www.YOURSITENAME.com” target=”_blank”>YOUR SITE DESCRIPTION</a> | <a href=”http://www.YOURSITENAME.com” target=”_blank”>YOUR SITE DESCRIPTION</a> | <a href=”http://www.YOURSITENAME.com” target=”_blank”>YOUR SITE DESCRIPTION</strong></a></h2></p></strong>
This code will embed seven site links nicely spaced out wherever you place the code. It will look something like this:

If you haven’t got six sites to cross–promote, just cut the code down as you see fit, or embed Dating Factory’s affiliate links to recommended niche sites.
Under “Affiliates”, select “Add new campaign” and the niche that you want to promote:

Once you have created your campaign name and selected the site you want to promote (one site per campaign), you will see a landing page like this:

The affiliate code is highlighted; simply copy and paste it into the code I suggested above, and add it to you site. There are also some great banner options you can choose to quickly create banners to add in to your site, promoting affiliate offers:

Always open banners in new windows, and select the size of banner appropriate to where you will place it on your site. For footers, I would suggest that 468×60 is a good size for banners.
In summary

• Liven up and differentiate your site by embedding videos into your site that will entertain, engage and connect with your target visitors;
• Use your landing page to promote relevant sites that are consistent with both the niche and territory of your visitors;
• If you need to find sites to promote, check out the comprehensive list of Dating Factory affiliate sites, for which you can also use the comprehensive promo tools that Dating Factory has developed for banners, members’ blocks, pop-ups and quick search boxes.

Your dating site is primarily aimed at converting visitors who land on your site. The logo and text must be a compelling invitation to sign up. It’s a fact that conversion rates vary from nil to 2-3% of visitors to registered users, so what can you provide to the other 97% who don’t find what they are looking for? Links to other sites is one way of encouraging visitors to explore your relevant, recommended sites, so make the most of this traffic flow to maximise your conversion opportunities.
I hope you find the above guideline practical and implement some or all of these elements on your site, best of luck!
Steve Bolton aka Dateblogger