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We have a social/News community site that we are putting together for a niche market in the US (Ready in June). We have an advertising budget of about $15,000. (We want to put it all in online advertising at this point). Our site will be free until we can get the momentum and registrations. So this $ will be spent basically on Acquiring free members. What is the best venues to do this?.
How much should we expect to pay for a newly opened dating site for a pay per lead program, is it the best solution for us?
We want to obviously capitalize a maximum on our budget and PPL seemed like the best way to go. Which company should we use.? CJ or other. Overall, we were hoping to get about 15,000 to 20,000 free members before we turn the site paid. Is is enough?. We were hoping for a 1:15 conversion ratio (Free/Paid) We want to get the site as far as we can get it with our current budget before we bring along third party funding, Investors, bank loan etc.. after 6 month of operation, to take it to the next level and have the money to advertise it properly. But our next few months will be critical to reach this point.
Any assistance and suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
thank you
J.
[edited by: eljefe3 at 1:27 am (utc) on Mar. 31, 2006]
Now is this a dating site or this a social news site? If it's a dating site I wouldn't invest into SEO. I would think outside the box. Be creative, think of something that will give your site an edge. That is the only way you can possibly aquire that many members in a niche like dating at that budget.
Once you figure out a good reason for people to join your site (the edge) I would invest the $15,000 into online public relations.
What about your UI, does that work? Have you set aside a budget for that?
It's actually a Dating site but we are making it with a community feel with News topics, Rss, Forums, Article of the Week/Day cartoon etc..
The 15,000 Budget is only for advertising. We are a design company and will be doing the UI ourselves.
So Online public relation . Pay-per lead will not work in our case?
The industry you're going after really is very competitive and you'll be going against some big companies with hugh marketing budgets. That's why you need to do something that will create viral buzz (the edge) for your site.
To compete in this market place with traditional advertising you will need deep pockets.
that way you should get some brand awareness relativily cheap i have found can expend my budget using under the $3 per thousand and target specific sites with some it works some it doesnt as my cpm bids are to low .
also easy to burn $500 per day and in comparrison with ppc / aff marketting overall cost is about the same for customer aquisition but some good branding which can be helpfull later
for this to be cost effective in your market you only need 1 click from 3000 impressions to be more cost effective than normal ppc
steve
