According to Kelly Davis of Dancer Dolls, the new platform required nearly three years of development and has had overwhelming and positive feedback from dancers, club managers and the public — both in the U.S. and abroad.
"It is a gorgeous site that can be described as a combination of Facebook, Youtube and Justin.tv," Davis said of the site, which is intended to empower dancers and clubs with social media and bring positive exposure to the industry while having some fun at the same time.
"DancerDolls has targeted the right people in this industry," Davis said. "You will find real dancers, club managers and strip club aficionados who have a genuine interest for our industry."
The site offers useful and entertaining features for dancers and clubs, with a familiar and comfortable feel, along with video streaming, real-time video chat and an upcoming mobile app.
"We will provide an extension to strip clubs and feature dancer's networking and marketing efforts," Davis noted. "Our video platform is powered by Wowza media systems and we are looking forward to getting clubs to upload promotional videos."
DancerDolls targets the international strip club scene, so every club has a global presence and users can get a glimpse of clubs throughout the world.
"The environment is friendly, professional and built in the best interest of the clubs and dancers," says Davis, adding that anyone is welcome to join as long as they are over 18 years of age and conduct themselves accordingly. "This is not the Wild West and we have taken measures to make sure the site isn't over-run with relentless MySpace-styled marketing."
The site build did not come without its own obstacles, Davis intimated, saying that the challenge was to create a platform that the industry would take seriously and offers a great user-experience.
"There are many strip club sites out there offering traffic and exposure but very few offer any real value to a strip club or dancer," Kelly said. "Dancers want a site they can call their own where they won't be harassed or won't be spammed till no end, so I went on a mission to build one for them and I think I did it!"
According to Davis, DancerDolls traces its roots back to 1999, when she graduated from college with a Bachelor's in Fashion Marketing. After graduating and still dancing, she decided to take a stab at an ecommerce site where she could sell clothing to dancers and DancerDolls.com was born, aided by college friend and computer whiz Nick Cello who built it. Selling clothes online proved difficult however, and when a forum was added, visitors began interacting with each other and she started meeting friends from all over the world.
In 2004, the DancerDolls database was hacked and all contacts and friends where wiped out, leading to a long rebuilding process which has culminated in the release of the new social platform.
"Initially, we tested third-party social network apps-in-a-can only to be completely disappointed at how limited you were with customization," Davis said. "A decision was made to build it from scratch."
Much time and effort went into developing the interface and user experience.
"The vetting application was also a priority to control uploads of explicit content which we are not interested in," Davis said. "When it got to a point we liked, we tested with a small group of users for about three months and tuned it to their liking."
While technically still in beta mode and undergoing continual refinement, the site is now ready for members, with new improvements and surprise apps yet to be revealed.
"In the end, our goal is to promote the dancers and the strip clubs so they can fraternize as industry peers," Davis concluded. "Also to get guys sitting at home, off their computer for a little while and get them into their local strip clubs to experience a lap dance or two."
