One thing we hear again and again is that partners want to wait until there is a big enough database before they start marketing in a niche or new market.
I have sympathy for that position however it does leave you missing a trick. Firstly the cost of acquisition in a new market is very low compared to a mature market. Secondly the size of community required to start generating revenue is a lot smaller than you would expect.

What are the numbers?

Somewhere between 2,000 and 5,000 members are all that’s required to get a market up and running. If someone is breaking new ground we are prepared to work with you on this and offer all your initial members Gold membership to quickly build the traffic on these sites. Also don’t underestimate the willingness of people in a niche to communicate over great distances and borders.  The initial members you brought in aren’t lost, they are used to communicating on the site and when their free membership expires the conversion to paid of this group is very high.

Distance vs Niche

If you are running a regular dating site your members will quiet rightly expect to find members in their local area if it’s going to work. However people who subscribe to a niche are by definition more prepared to communicate over greater distances to find someone who’s into the same things.
Being successful at running dating sites requires you to invest some time and money to see the profits from your labour. If someone is claiming it’s easy to make money doing anything legal then they are probably lying or incredibly lucky.
Mark Harrison – VP Sales