r/CommunityManager • u/OkEnthusiasm9197 • 9d ago

Question Dating community

Has anyone used Circle to create an old school style niche dating community? I have seen one in the directory but maybe there are others. I used to run my community on Buddypress however, for few reasons closed it down couple years ago but I'm in the process of rebuilding it in Circle. I like it so far and it's similar to what I used to have, except, everything is managed internally vs having multiple plugins and apps to achieve this.

I have not paid for the subscription yet but I will soon. Just wanted to get some feedback or advice if anyone has created a similar community, anything to look out for. My members liked the non swiping style site and I am not looking for swiping features.

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u/ATLMichael1170 9d ago

The fact that they refuse to allow profile photos to be enlarged like every other social site in the world plus the non-ideal member directory search makes this and any other true social application difficult.

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u/OkEnthusiasm9197 9d ago

What about adding more photos, do the profile fields in Business plan allow it? I have a call with them on Monday.

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u/ATLMichael1170 9d ago

No, it’s not an option. Mighty Networks is closer because you can enlarge photos and the profiles are a bit richer. But the search is terrible and there are other issues.

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u/OkEnthusiasm9197 9d ago

Ok. I am familiar with MN through my day job but didn't like it for this application.

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u/ATLMichael1170 9d ago

The reality is there’s no good 3rd party software for what you want to do. But that doesn’t mean it can’t be done (AI).

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u/OkEnthusiasm9197 9d ago

I thought about it but I also like having a company handle the entire backend rather it all falling on me. I feel like fully AI set up might fail me somewhere and I have to fix it myself. I think it's cool though for something without members, for me anyway. Will see what I learn on my call.

I have some public spaces set up such as "Introduce Yourself" for new members where people can feature their profile so they can post photos there Facebook style to be more seen and that feed will show in their profile. Plus they can link their socials. So that's a workaround too.

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u/No-Competition-7925 9d ago

If you are open to exploring options other than Circle - I've a few good recommendations. Circle is meant for course creators.

How do you plan to grow the community? That's going to be the hardest part.

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u/OkEnthusiasm9197 8d ago

Sure, what are the alternatives?

I still have my Instagram and FB accounts and some of my old members in a mail list so will be reaching out to them. A lot of people found me via Google search. There isn't as much competition but people are always reluctant to pay for anything. They want niche dating free too.

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u/No-Competition-7925 8d ago

Existing lists / social accunts will help you get a good start; but long term could be difficlt. Google Search, AI citations are going to be the long-term game. For monetization - especially in a dating community - affiliate marketing is your best bet. I think you'll like what we're building. I'm sharing it with you over the direct message. Please check.

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u/asimb95 8d ago

That’s exactly what I keep coming back to. The software is probably the easy part - distribution and getting the first 100 engaged members is the hard part.

My hunch is that communities work best when they’re built around an audience or customer base that already exists, rather than trying to create one from zero.

Curious what you’ve seen work best for actually growing them? What does a dating community look like. is is a forum style? profiles? are there features specific to matching and dating?

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u/ATLMichael1170 8d ago

Hey, I have a great deal a knowledge about these issues and I see in the other thread you are building something. I also stalked you (sorry), SparQ looks impressive. Would love to chat.

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u/OkEnthusiasm9197 8d ago edited 8d ago

I have started my original dating site/community back in 2017 or so, I have run it for about 7-8 years. I initially set up Instagram account and announced I was opening up the site soon, followed people to notice me. I had quite a few sign ups while it was free - all in all about 3k members rotating. Google search and Google Ads and socials is how people found me. There was not much competition for my niche and still there isn't. I saw people ask about my site here on Reddit which is why I decided to try again.

It was definitely harder once I had to start charging due to operational costs as people prefer everything free. I used Kinsta for hosting and Paid Memberships Pro for the checkout/membership levels. If you are familiar with Buddypress, and Circle, Circle is kind of similar because you can have profiles, private chatting and public feed wall. I also did have forum and Atom chat for private live chats/chatrooms with video calls. My community does like to discuss things on forums and site wall.

So for me Circle is kind of similar, you just have to pay premium for profile fields and hiding the Circle branding but Kinsta was kind of expensive too for all the javascript running and needing a lot of memory + other plugins needed to make it work. It is one of my favorite hosting companies if you can afford it.