I've started two dating sites (for Russian-speaking users) and never encountered a chicken and egg problem. I was able to get a useful number of active users fo

I've started two dating sites (for Russian-speaking users) and never encountered a chicken and egg problem. I was able to get a useful number of active users for under $1000 (if you concentrate only on several big cities). The real problem for me was: when you stop advertising, the traffic is fading off. There is some kind of secret how Plenty of Fish or OkCupid are getting visitors without advertisement.