SEO, romance and US Military - Militaryromance.us

Beginning

Search engine optimization tricks are pillar number one for the success of any internet project. Kristian is a retired network and systems engineer who worked for the US Army. Together with his wife Silvia, he wanted to create an online community for fellow soldiers. This is how militaryromance.us started.

"The idea came to us one day while watching television. We saw someone who set up a successful dating site and said we can do that. We sat down and decided on an overall theme and what address we would give it," adds Kristian.

Even though he has good reputation among colleagues and knows a lot of people, it took him about a year to set up a fully functional website, which attracts visitors on daily basis. This new endeavor required new skills and knowledge of SEO. Things went easier with a platform that creates SEO friendly website - Dolphin.

Dolphin

"Dolphin was our first choice of platforms. I did extensive research and liked the features of the platform. Dolphin offered flexibility so that we could design it the way we wanted. I could offer users things to keep them busy without knowing a great deal about PHP at the time," comments Kristian.
The new feature of permalinks also helped Google fall in love with Militaryromance.us

The first thing was to edit the language file so that the whole look and feel was good. Put in our own FAQ and Privacy statement. The second thing I did was edit the header.inc.php to include title1. I then changed the header to be title1 versus title. This enabled me to have Military Romance in all correspondence and have a SEO friendly title," continues Kristian.

Community support for Dolphin offered at Expertzzz.com helped his site to solve other issues related to the successful launch and operation of any internet project.

"The greatest thing about Dolphin is the Expertzzz forums. You can find solutions to minor problems and get tips and tricks. I have not found anything close to it with any other product," explains Kristian.

Present and Future

Life has become different ever since. Militaryromance.us currently attracts about 700 new visitors per month. 493 members found their home at site, and about 70% of them are US citizens - mostly US Army soldiers.

"I am keeping an open mind and having no expectations. The times are bad right now for a lot of businesses and users. That is why I am keeping the service free for the time being. Advertisers cannot afford to advertise anymore so a lot of that is gone. We just have to sit it out and wait for better times," adds Kristian.

Interview

Tell us more about yourself and your team. What do you do? Tell us about the history of your team coming together. What are you good at? Provide us with any information that can introduce you in the best possible way.

My team consists of my wife (Silvia) and myself. I am a network and systems engineer. We actually started this to see what type of reaction we would get. My specialty is long haul communications and networking.

Before (What did you use before? How did your idea come to mind?) Tell us about any information that describes your project.

Dolphin was our first choice of platforms. I did extensive research and liked the features of the platform. The idea came to us one day while watching television. We saw someone who set up a successful dating site and said, "We can do that". We sat down and decided on an overall theme and what address we would give it.

Now (What's the current status of your project?) Any statistics would help.

Our project has been online and getting new users for a year now. We now have a Google Page Rank of 1. We get over 700 visitors per month to the site.

Why Dolphin?

Dolphin offered flexibility so that we could design it the way we wanted. I could offer users things to keep them busy without knowing a great deal about PHP at the time. Not to mention the price. Once we got up and running, I purchased the SmartPro pack. The pack and support associated with it is great. The greatest thing about Dolphin is the Expertzzz forums. You can find solutions to minor problems and get tips and tricks. I have not found anything close to it with any other product.

What did you change in the default version?

The first thing was to edit the language file so that the whole look and feel was good. We put in our own FAQ and Privacy statement. The second thing I did was edit the header.inc.php to include title1. I then changed the header to be title1 versus title. This enabled me to have Military Romance in all correspondence and have a SEO friendly title. I also designed new pictures for the flash presentation. Next was to add some HTML boxes to get some indexable content in the page.

What are your expectations?

I am keeping an open mind and having no expectations. The times are bad right now for a lot of businesses and users. That is why I am keeping the service free for the time being. Advertisers cannot afford to advertise anymore, so a lot of that is gone. We just have to sit it out and wait for better times.