Case study: DJ-Dating - modern Joomla classified ads portal

The key is to make sure the site is aimed at the right audience and includes all the features that dating site users need.

Creating a dating site can seem like a daunting task, requiring significant development and design costs. However, with DJ Dating, YOOtheme Pro and Joomla 4.x, you can fire up a fully functional and cost-effective dating site today. DJ Dating has everything the current market requires from an ad portal. Below we will outline the most important features with examples. Let's get started.

There are some key ingredients of a Dating website. Let’s focus on important pages and elements that every dating portal needs:

The homepage is the welcome page that indicates the other important pages and features on the site. It should show the brand logo, slogans, pictures of happy couples and a set of all the features that users can use. 

The main section of a dating site's homepage should be the search function ( more on this below). It is also always a good idea to include buttons leading to user registration and login.

Appropriate categorisation is of enormous importance. It allows you to select your adverts accordingly and keep your adverts in order. As you can see from our demo example, we have divided the adverts into several major categories. Of course, this is only an example configuration.

An 'about us' page on a dating site should detail the people behind the site, why it was created, who it is for and what makes the site unique. The main purpose of the 'about us' page is to convince visitors that the brand is trustworthy, who they are dealing with, that user data is safe, and the many benefits of creating a profile and starting to use the site.

The contact page is used for users to report problems or ask for help in setting up their account. It should contain the necessary information so that the site administrator can be contacted.

Let's focus on the basic features that a modern dating portal should have. We will show some examples of features that can give you a competitive edge.

One of the best ways to launch a professional dating site is to install a ready-made solution, prepared for this specific purpose and then configure it accordingly, depending on your individual needs.

Here are the features your dating site is likely to require:

• Registration and profile creation
• Communication
• Search 
• Monetisation
• Security
• Administrator functionality
• Responsive design

Registration and the creation of a profile by users is key, as adverts will not be anonymous.

Profiles play a key role in most dating sites. The user profile serves as the basis from which the algorithm determines attractiveness and compatibility.

The most important fields when registering a profile are:

• About
• Contact
• E-mail address
• Location

A user's profile is not only their data. The available user profile options are:

• My profile
• Edit my profile
• My bids
• My favourites
• My adverts
• Order history
• My sales history
• My Payments
• My Points

It is important to be able to communicate with the advertiser. There is a “contact this advertiser option” that allows to send an e-mail message.

Search is a very important function. The main purpose of an online dating site is to help dating people find each other. The portal should have the ability to search for adverts.

• Search by keyword
• Search by ad category
• Search by location

A dating site can be a source of income for its owner. Here are some possible ways to make money:

• Paid categories
• Promoted ads
• Move to top
• Paid ad duration
• Paid additional images
• Paid extra characters
• Ad types

DJ-Classifieds Joomla classified ads extension, included in the DJ-Dating, also allows user to pay in points.

It’s an important issue related to online dating. Here are some basic security features that can be applied:

• Registration supports Captcha plugins (bot blocking during registration)
• Abuse report option
• Admin can mark profiles as "Verified". - then a special badge in the profile appears on the front. In addition, verified profiles can be added to a special user group.

You will need to be able to manage your website. The basic options are:

• Member profile management
• Reporting and analytics

DJ Dating quickstart website for Joomla 4.x you can get for €65 only ( 6 months subscription). Of course, you will need a domain and paid hosting to install it. The website, once installed, will be based on the Joomla 4.x CMS, which is free.

An additional cost is the purchase of the YOOtheme Pro web builder from the manufacturer's website. Its price is €129 (1 year subscription.)

To sum up - in the amount of less than €200 you receive all the tools needed to launch a modern, functional announcement portal.

There are 2 possible ways of the installation.

• Quickstart installation

The Quickstart is the demo backup (.zip copy) from the demo server. It comes with Joomla, and you install it like a regular Joomla backup made by Akeeba Backup; after that, you get the same effect on demo pages.
You do not need to configure everything from scratch; the installation is easy and will take a few minutes only.

• Installation from scratch

You get a set of files that allows you to install a website based on the DJ-Dating template from scratch or install it on an existing website.

More about the installation you can learn from the installation guide.

DJ-Dating - Classified Ads Joomla 4.x quickstart website, is an amazing solution that is ideal for both newbie and experienced marketers and advertisers. DJ Dating is an unique product that have something unique to offer - from its user-friendly design to the wide variety of features it comes with. Classified ads in Joomla 4.x are the ideal choice for your online business, if you want to promote your products in front of millions of visitors a month.

Creating a well-designed, and fully functional dating website can be a smooth, no-coding seamless process with DJ Dating template and YOOtheme Pro web builder.

We all need human contact, and a dating site is a great way to interact. If your ideas are unique or you have a niche audience in mind, a dating site can be successful beyond your expectations.

We hope the solution we've described will help you on that path.