Table of Contents
A Guide for Beginners What should I do now, after installing SkaDate?
Congratulations on getting your very own SkaDate-powered site running. This is the beginning of a very exciting journey to become a real online dating mogul! You might be overwhelmed with ideas and probably asking yourself - what’s the next step? Well, we are here to help you. This guide will set you on the most optimal path towards the successful operation of a dating website.
Site Design
We are sure you’ve given enough thought towards the concept of your dating site. If not, this is the best opportunity to do so, as the concept will determine pretty much everything else - from the site’s look and feel - to marketing strategies. Once the concept is locked-in, it’s time to start playing with the site’s presentation. Oh, and don’t hesitate asking our support team any questions if you stumble at any point. We are always happy to help you along.
Templates
Templates determine the overall look of your site. SkaDate provides a sample of free templates to cover basic niches, as well as larger and constantly expanding collection as part of ourPremium Templates Access Here’s how to choose or change a template -
Go to your site; Click Sign-in; Login with your username and password; Go to Admin Area > Appearance > Choose Theme; Select the template you like; Click Activate.
Logo
Logo plays an important role, as it is the most basic and memorable representation of your business for current and potential site members. To add or customize your logo use this helpful manual - Changing Logo
Favicon
Favicon is your site’s tiny icon seen in browser’s address bar, next to the page’s name in bookmarks, and next to the page’s title on an opened tab (of course if you browser has favicon support, and most do nowadays). Here’s how to add your own favicon -
Create a 16x16px favicon in .ico format; If you need help, just use the Online Favicon Creator to make one; Upload your new favicon in Admin area > Page settings.
Other Images
Now that you have your template, logo and favicon in place, you might want to edit your theme even more by changing some other graphics on the site like Header and Background Images. This manual will help you do so - Replacing Images
Index Page
The Index Page is the gate to your website - the area seen by all incoming visitors before anything else happens. Needless to say, it’s vital to make the best first impression. While our default setup is already quite nice, you can still customize it even further. Just use this detailed manual - Customizing My Index Page
Site Configuration
Now we are getting into the real juicy stuff - making your site run the way you want it in accordance with your general vision. In this section we’ll cover such important stuff as configuring profile questions and account types, installing plugins and adding new pages, translating the site and adding new languages, as well as working with mobile apps. Buckle up, as we have a lot of info to share! Don’t worry though, as our support team is always standing by if you need any help.
Profile Questions and Account Types
In general, profile questions and account types are needed to sort members on your site into various appropriate categories. This helps your members to find suitable matches; or allow you to set specific restrictions or permissions for certain users (helpful later on during monetization!). At the outset the site is set to default values, which you can always change or even add new ones, depending on your site’s concept.
Profile questions are the fields your site members fill out to best describe themselves. If you need to add new fields, change or delete the existing ones, just follow steps in this manual - Configuring Profile Questions
Account types allow you to sort member profiles into more strict groups (male and female by default). Why would you need this? For instance to grant all female members a VIP status, while restricting VIP actions for males. You can create, edit or delete account types by following this manual - Configuring Account Types
Installing and Configuring Plugins
One of the best things about SkaDate is that it can be expanded with a myriad of native and third-party plugins depending on your vision and end-goal. The out-of-the-box solution you bought already includes most requested dating plugins. But you always can get more from the Oxwall Store. We have a few useful manuals explaining everything plugins-related:
Adding New Site Pages
While SkaDate comes with most basic pages already activated, you may choose to add new custom ones. At the same time you can also add new items to various site menus, linking to already existing pages or your new custom ones. To learn how to do it use this manual - Creating New Pages and Menu Items
Adding Languages
Traditionally, English is by far the most used language with SkaDate Dating Software. Nevertheless, we are always expanding our language collection by means of user-translations. Keep in mind, that foreign language translations available in the Customer Area are done for the basic version of the software, as presented in Basic Demo. Use the Language Upload manual to add new languages to your site.
Site Translation
In case we don’t have the necessary language pack you are looking for, there is always the option to make your own translation. Here’s a manual on how to do it - Translating Site to Another Language.
Customizing Mobile Apps
One of the greatest advantages SkaDate has over competition lies in our native mobile applications for iOS and Android. Not only they are pretty sleek and insanely affordable (custom app development runs into hundreds of thousands dollars per platform), they also feature a built-in Tinder function in SpeedMatch. And everyone knows that Mobile Dating = Tinder this day and age. Anyway, give them a spin on the Demo, if you haven’t already.
For those of you who already purchased the apps, we have two great manuals on hand -
But why would you need to customize your apps in the first place? Good question. While our default apps were created as generic so as to suit most starting dating sites, you’d certainly want to personalize them once you start growing. This way they will look and feel original, completely reflecting your individual site concept. In addition, you will be able to enable in-app purchases and also localize the apps. Click here to learn more.
Oh, and of course, you can always order our own Basic Customization Packs (separate for iOS and Android) and we’ll do all the work for you, including handling the submission processes.
Site Monetization
If you’ve followed this guide all the way to this section, you should already have a pretty decent and operational online dating website, not to mention the basic grip on how to run things over here. If that’s the case, then welcome to the best part - playing with money tools, or as we call it - ‘site monetization’.
Payment Gateways
Basics first - obviously your site should be able to accept payments. We have various payment gateways readily available in the form of plugins (which you already know how to find and install from the previous section). Yet, the most obvious and popular payment options remain PayPal and CCBill (both already included in your package). And would you look at that, we have just the manuals on how to handle them - Configuring PayPal Billing Plugin; Configuring CCBill Plugin.
User Credits and Paid Memberships
User credits is the core of your site’s monetization operation. Credits are sold to site members in exchange for real money, and then used for on-site spending - for instance, buying access to certain features and actions available only to VIP members. Needless to say, this is where paid memberships also come to play. The manual on how to set everything up is here - Managing User Credits Plugin.
Advertisement
Another great monetization option is to sell ads as a publisher, using various advertising websites. Our dedicated plugin manages banner ad, while also juggling geo-targeting. Here’s a manual to go - Adding Advertising to Your Site.
Site Promotion
A very important milestone is reached after you finalize site design, properly configure everything, and set up all the necessary monetization options. This milestone means the site is ready for the prime time, fully operational, and ready to accept new members. Basically, your site work is mostly done, and the attention should shift to marketing - bringing in the paying audience.
While marketing itself is a very intimate thing, depending on many factors not least of which is your budget, what we can help you with is the increased site visibility for search engines. SkaDate includes a built-in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) tool, while there are also a variety of third-party SEO plugins available in the Oxwall Store. In addition you can play with Google Analytics and Google AdSense (contact our support team for instructions), or change your site’s MetaData.