[qq66]

The thing about dating services is that they work a lot better when they're not explicitly marketed as dating services. Facebook started out as a thinly veiled dating service, where the primary activities were looking up people you might want to date and communicating with them. But the product was marketed as a more general tool, even keeping the meaning of the "Poke" button rather cryptic. Instagram is in the same vein - a large use case is showing your friends and acquaintances how cool and attractive you are, with the goal of raising one's dating status. And Instagram is marketed towards making sunsets and pictures of flowers look better, allowing users to realize for themselves that a Gaussian blur might make their selfies look better too.

Huge numbers of products are marketed towards increasing one's attractiveness in some way, whether shampoo or automobiles or clothing, and outside of Axe body spray, very few of them are explicit about it. There's no reason that websites wouldn't follow the same script.

[pekk]

Dating services probably have difficulty getting traction unless they can attract women, and it might be harder to attract women to a dating service if you are purely and overtly offering a dating service.

[bali]

That depends on the age group, on sites targeting 30+ / more serious dating there is usually balance or more women

[sridca]

Very interesting analysis.

It seems that as a general rule leveraging sexuality and power to promote something is effective as long as that association remains covert.

[bali]

I think that has more to do with how publicly one has to use/consume the product. E.g. most people don't like to tell their friends that they have a sexual toy at home, or that they like to binge eat, or watch porn or do something else that is considered shameful once exposed publicly.

However as long as it's not a social product (e.g. porn sites or the axe deo), it's fine, since they do it privately. The problem with online dating is that it exposes one's intentions more publicly.. The embarrassment factor is somewhat declining though - according to Pew Internet's online dating survey it was 21% in the US in 2013 vs. 29% in 2005.

However one has to keep in mind that what Pew measured is agreement with statements such as "Do you agree that online dating is a good way to meet someone". So you might say yes since you have a friend who did it, but you may still not register yourself. The latter has some strong support if you look at how many people use online dating, which is only 11% of the population and something like 40% of singles if I remember correctly. These numbers contradict to the notion that it's ok for the majority to date online, but the tendencies seem to go in that direction [source: http://www.pewinternet.org/2013/10/21/online-dating-relation...]

[tlogan]

Very good analyst. Marketers will say "you can market based on sex, fear or greed - and sex sell the best."

[fpvracing]

Here's my dilemma: My startup (https://fpvracing.tv) users are literally 98% male so it would seem obvious to target this demographic with images of sexy female models, but I'm concerned about the ethics of doing so. I don't want to perpetuate the gender disparity.

[icefox]

No help on the advertising, but I must say your front page video is amazing. I desperately was looking for a link like "Fly now!", "How to race!", or something similar. Join is a big fat wall to make an account. Might be worth AB testing the main page. Pilots and Photos were not what I wanted to see, I wanted more videos and a big fat link to the guide section. Maybe worth AB testing the order of the links with the Guild and Video on the far left too.

In the guide it would be worth mentioning that the Hubsan X4 only records video from what it looks like, it doesn't transmit. It also mentions that there are ready-to-fly quadcopter, but doesn't have any links. While it isn't much, having a good resource center with affiliate links can bring in some extra cash while you get your startup off the ground while at the same time teaching the user base.

Edit: After thinking about it what was missing was a call to action page that showed if I followed steps A-G I could fly in a race too. Along the way I would need to make an account to find others in my area, start a local group, learn about regional races, etc. I am guessing that guiding new players is your primary challenge for long term growth?

Edit2: The events page should have a form so you can be notified when there are local events. I am guessing your larger market will be those that want to watch/goto the events so providing them with a way to get involved is funnel #2.

[fpvracing]

This is very useful feedback. Much appreciated!

[dustin]

The front page is also broken on Safari (7.1.5). The video won't run and when I right click it my browser crashes.

[qq66]

Why not contact some of your 2% female users and ask them to be in normal, non-sexualized advertising for your site? It will help you attract both male and female users to show that FPV racing can be enjoyed by everyone, and it's not duplicitous because you're using real FPV racing enthusiasts.

[stephentmcm]

Couldn't agree more, 'selling' how much fun being in the community is, will be much better at building a brand.

I'd seriously avoid going down the sexy models route, if you're site featured girls in tight tops holding RC 'stuff' on the front page I would have clicked away almost immediately, it cheapens what you're promoting.

Simply using professional photo/video people for imagery will help more than slapping on some tacky model shots.

[pekk]

I don't see what your site has to do with sexy female models, so I would be concerned how you expect that kind of advertising to result in "conversions"

[fpvracing]

> I don't see what your site has to do with sexy female models, so I would be concerned how you expect that kind of advertising to result in "conversions"

Then I think you might have missed the context of this discussion. The parent comments were talking about the fact that sex sells. Motor racing, especially, has a long tradition of employing sexy female models in marketing. Do a Google search of "Formula One promo girls" to see what I'm talking about. And several of our users have suggested putting "babes" on the site.

Having said that, I'm not comfortable with it. Which is why it's a dilemma.

[gregpilling]

And the umbrella girls are not without controversy in racing either.

A world championship level rider in Moto3 is Ana Carrasco - female. She came to the races recently with an umbrella boy. Not sure if it was a protest or a PR opportunity. http://i.imgur.com/xu25bOM.jpg

[scrollaway]

There's a lot of ways to appeal to a mostly-male demographic without resorting to sex, even if sex sells best.

BTW, I love the sharp video on the landing page.

[monksy]

If you don't dilute your content... why is this an issue? 98% of your users are male. (You're also assuming they would respond favorably to the models) Your goal is to serve your customer, not someone else's ideas of what your customers should be.

[eropple]

If being decent--and "not sticking pandering eye-candy on there for clicks" sure sounds like being decent to me--and serving the customer are in opposition, doing the latter is real problematic.

[spitfire]

This is cool! It's like the perfect nerd fantasy in concentrate form.

Cool!

PS: I'm usually a cynic.

[fpvracing]

Thanks! Sign up if you like. We'll be adding more content for beginner pilots and spectators very shortly.

[SocksCanClose]

Have any of your teams experimented with machine learning navigation?

[fpvracing]

Not to my knowledge. Flight controllers will undoubtedly get to the point where a completely autonomous quadcopter can beat any human pilot, even through an unfamiliar course. At that point we'll need to impose regulations on the level of autonomy that people can use in races. I've got no idea when we'll reach that point though.