Adoption Profile Sharing Sites Are they Worth It?

When it comes to self-matching your private adoption, a popular choice is leveraging one of the websites that allows you to share your profile. However, there are two main questions you are likely struggling with as you decide if this is the right place for you to spend your time and your money. In today’s blog, that is exactly what we will talk about.

What Are Self-Matching and Non Self-Matching Sites?

Before we dive into deciding if the self-matching sites are a good fit for your adoption journey or use of your adoption profile, it is essential to level set and define what an adoption profile sharing site is. A self-matching site is a company that allows hopeful adoptive families to answer some questions, and that becomes your profile on their website. Then, they advertise to expected families trying to get them to come and consider families on their website. The goal behind these matching sites is to match expected families with hopeful adoptive families without using an advertising agency and other means like that.

Now that we're on the same page let's talk about what the alternative to that is. So if you are self-matching, and maybe you want to do this on your own, without the aid of those sites, you would be using organic ways or free ways to get more people to look at your profile, whether that be on Facebook, whether that be in real life, or whether that be on a website instead. There is another option other than a self-matching profile sharing site which is different than a website that is stand-alone like Mari Kate and Andy adopt, where it is just your family alone, without the ability to click around to any other families.

What are the pros and cons of using a self-matching site?

Now that we are all on the same page on self-matching sites, let’s focus on the question that I got from Alicia, who sent me a direct message and said, ‘what are the pros and cons of using a self-matching site, and should I be using one of those?’ Well Alicia, the answer is it depends. I know that is the worst answer, but I am going to give you a step-by-step process for you to decide if it is the right choice for your family.

You may be wondering if it is worth the money each and every month? Now, I will tell you, there are people out there that have matched through the self matching sites, and they've done it quite affordably. But there are others that haven't matched through the self matching sites, and they've matched through other means when they were self matching. It really comes down to what you are most comfortable with, and really what makes the most sense for your family.

How To Determine If You Should Use A Self-Matching Adoption Site.

As promised, I'm going to walk you through a decision guide, so that you can determine what's the right fit for you. Then if you decide to move forward with one of these self matching sites, I'm going to give you a few things that you need to look out for, just to make sure that you are choosing the right one for your family.

Do you understand what an adoption profile is for self-matching?

A self matching profile is a profile that you are creating and sharing with expectant parents yourself in order to be considered.

Now I know that may seem like okay, I got that. But here are some examples of what a self matching profile really is. And this is based upon what my clients see that work the best for them. So the very first element that they use in their adoption plan or adoption marketing plan, if you will, is a Facebook page that's specific to their adoption. We work on a specific list of questions and content that we create that's informed by what expectant parents are looking for based upon my conversations with them, so that they have a real clear action plan of what to use. The second element that they're using are Facebook adoption groups. They're posting in adoption groups and other non adoption groups also, I should say, where they're sharing kind of a mini version of their profile, and they're responding to opportunities that get posted in those groups. The third element that my clients are seeing success with

Is there a standalone website. So you could think of this as you know, Sarah and John adopt.com. And on that website, that would just be your deeper profile content, that's a click More information about you than what you can readily share on your Facebook page. And then the last element that my self matching clients really find success with are those in real life elements. I've had a client match, we a flyer that she posted in a laundromat, I've had another client match via a postcard and a brochure that she sent to her church. So you just never know where those opportunities and connections might come from. But in order to determine whether or not a self matching site is a good investment for you, the very first question you have to ask yourself is, what type of profile elements Am I comfortable using? And would this be an appropriate mix, or an appropriate element to go in my overall marketing plan that I'm using for my adoption? I know the concept of a marketing plan, or a an adoption outreach plan, they seem a little foreign. But trust me, my friend, there are other episodes coming up. And we'll walk through that a bit more detail. But it is something that's really important, because when you're not using an agency, you have to put yourself in the driver's seat of how you're sharing your profile. And you need to be really clear about what elements really will make an impact in your journey and what elements won't.

2. Do you know how to create and share a profile?

How are you going to get people to look at the profile that you built in step number one? The main difference between a self matching adoption journey, and a private adoption journey using an adoption agency is when it comes to your profile, is that you are actually the one in charge of getting people to view your profile. When you're working with an adoption agency, they are spending money to attract expectant parents to their agency to consider using their agency to place their child with. Those agencies are then using your profile as a submission to those expectant parents for consideration.

When you're self matching your adoption, your number one job is to ensure that people are seeing your private adoption profile time and time again. This is so you can be in the considered. There are free ways to do this, which is also called Organic marketing, and there are paid ways to do this, which obviously is exactly as it sounds, you're paying for someone to share your profile on your behalf. Those paid ways can come through ads, or social media ads on Google, or even the self matching sites.

My recommendation is to remember that you're in charge of making sure that you're getting the most amount of eyeballs on your profile each and every month and therefore your profile takes many forms, right? It could be your Facebook page, it could be a standalone website, it could be one of these self matching sites, it could be a flyer in the grocery store all of these different elements, but your job on a monthly basis is ensuring that you're getting as many qualified people to see your profile. There are a multitude of ways you could be doing this on your own, or you could be using one of these self matching sites to do it, it really comes down to whether or not you feel comfortable doing this on your own or getting help from a profile expert, or getting help from one of these self matching sites in order to make sure you're getting the most amount of eyes on your profile each month. That's the most important element there.

3. Are you willing to work with someone to learn how to create it, or have it created for you?

The third element within the decision guide is knowing what level of support do you need. Now, I'm going to be really frank and honest, there is the opportunity to do all of this 100% on your own, every single month. But if this is not your zone of genius, or an area where you feel like you can really dive into and really understand the ins and outs, then there are varying levels of support that I would recommend that you get. Using one of these self matching sites could be the first step for you. Because it may seem more affordable and budget friendly than maybe going and spending 1000’s of dollars on your own without really understanding how Facebook Ads work or how all of these other elements that could potentially drive traffic to see your self matching profile more on a regular basis. Or you could work with a profile expert like myself. I work with my clients to create actual profile elements, the actual copy and the content that are going to go on their Facebook page, on their website, on a flyer on a brochure, etc. And then I give them the exact step by step process to follow to get traffic to those sites and both free and paid ways. An element in that journey could very well be a self matching site, you just have to determine whether or not that's the right element for you, based upon your comfort level, and honestly, also on your budget, that does play a role.

Determining which site is right for you.

If you have made the decision that using a self matching site is a good way to get additional eyes on your actual profile, there are a few questions that I would encourage you to ask yourself when you're determining which site is right for you. The first question that I would ask of any profiles site that I was considering using is how many expectant parents sign up with them a month. That way you can get a real understanding of are their outbound marketing efforts to expectant parents really generating anybody that would potentially be a match for you coming in and looking at the site. The second question, I would ask is kind of quick follow up which would be how many matches are they making per month? And how many adoptions are actually finalizing from those matches? You really want to dive deeper into understanding the opportunity of each of these different sites. You want to know how many people are they getting into look that are actually qualified, and that are actually expectant parents looking to place a child for adoption. And also how many of those are actually converting to an actual finalized adoption?

When you think about it from that process, you can really begin to lay them up side by side, and do a comparison. I know that you're going to have to just trust them on their metrics that they're sharing with you, but I wouldn't lean in and trust them, because you can always validate through those Facebook groups. Those are really important questions, how many expectant parents are signing up on their site? How many of those are actually matching? And then how many of those are actually resulting into finalized adoptions?

The next element that I would be considering whenever I'm looking between those sites, is how much granularity can you get into the traffic each month on to your particular page. What you're looking for is how many people came to your page that were confirmed, expectant parents and not just people looking at it, because it could be whomever looking at your site. So you want to see on your particular page, how many expectant parents came and looked at your site, or your page, and then how many people are looking at the overall site in the month.

Well, there you have a step-by-step guide to helping you determine if adoption profile sharing sites are helpful for your private adoption. If you have any questions, please reach out any time inside the My Adoption Coach Facebook group! Remember, anything is possible with the right plan and support, and I have your back every step of the way!

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