In the past it has been difficult to get unbiased information about white label sites. White Label Dating and World Dating Partners only went so far as to tell you how fantastic their conversion rates are, which is all fine and good, but not exactly useful when it comes to potential customers comparing services.
In recent posts, Ross Williams from White Label Dating has provided information about partner revenue and marketing costs. I applaud Ross for sharing this information publicly.
Some companies have contacted me to say they have seen precipitous drops in revenue when moving to white label platforms. I think this is not a trend, but a function of marketing spend and channels.
Certain niche subscription-based sites perform well on white label sites, but I’m hearing from a few sites that white label platforms are not converting anywhere near promised rates. Is this happening with a minority of sites or is it more widespread? I’m interested to hear from people who have moved to, or started out on white label dating site platforms. What has your experience been in regards to conversions and working with white label providers in general.
Making the move to a while label provider means addressing differences between your existing system and whatever white label provider you choose.
For example, what are the issues surrounding importing profiles from dating software? What happens when the software you are importing from has more profile fields than the white label platform? What if you let people have 25 photos and the white label only allows 10 photos? How do you deal with the potential for decreased functionality if the white label doesn’t do search or email or chat like your customers are used to?
I urge Ross and other white label providers to jump into the comments and address these issues.
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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi David – I doubt if any of the people contacting you are partners on our network and if they are, direct them to me and we’ll look into it – all the evidence I’ve seen is that sites moving to our platform INCREASE their conversion rates.
We’ve got some public case studies for companies like Dateline PLC and a few other UK general sites but I’ll be able to release some case studies for US sites next month.
Without slagging off the competition, the difference in conversion between white label platforms DOES vary significantly – we’re public about our conversion rates because we’re proud of them and our partners back it up.
I’d direct you and your readers to http://www.makingamillion.net/recurring-commissions/2008/12/03/ as an example – Tim Rees was the CEO of our main competitor until the middle of last year when he left and set up his own sites on our platform as he knew our platform converted better than that of our competitor.
Re. importing members – we’re able to cater to most situations and import members from other platforms without trouble. We can provide custom fields for each partners (for example, certain niches will have fields that aren’t relevant to other niches).
There WILL BE concessions that need to be made – you can’t do everything on a white label platform that you can do on a bespoke platform.
HOWEVER – when deciding what solution is best, I urge partners to consider how much revenue they want to generate and whether REVENUE is the priority or not.
It’s very easy to get caught up trying to recreate a bespoke platform perfectly on a white label system but unless a certain field or feature will result in more revenue for the partner (and the white label provider) then in all honesty it’s unlikely the white label provider will be incentivized to implement the feature. It’s not all about revenue – a good white label provider understands the importance of strategic reasons for the partner and will take that into account.
The main thing is – HAVE A CONVERSATION AND ASK.
We’re still picking up partners who have known us for years but didn’t think they could use us because, for example, they had an unusual billing mechanism or wanted to import members or wanted to own the data – all things that we can do.
In part, this is down to our messaging – we need to market ourselves better and understand prospective partner concerns so that we can address them overtly.
Fundamentally, a white label platform provider only makes money if you make money – using a white label platform eliminates all your costs with the exception of marketing and means you can be far more profitable than is possible using your own infrastructure, customer support, etc.
We’re now approaching 60 employees who are all focused on generating revenue for our partners – this means we can have the kind of expertise on hand available for partners that couldn’t justify having that skillset in-house.
I appreciate that dating software developers advertise on this blog and I do believe that software has it’s place – if your focus is pure, genuine small niche then software is a good solution.
If your focus is revenue then a white label platform is a good choice but be aware that not all white label providers are equal – we convert a lot better than any other platform, we pay our partners twice a month (our main competitor hasn’t paid partners for months now) and we have 60 people full time in our offices who are dedicated to growing partner revenue.
And if in doubt – have the conversation and ask. My contact details are generally available to partners who need them and I can also be reached by anyone interested in the white label platforms at:
rwilliams
AT
globalpersonals.co.uk
Hope this helps to stimulate debate,
Best wishes,
Ross
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i created a general niche dating site on worlddatingpartners.com , as you say they offer near 10% convertion rates after 3 months, i registered with domain http://www.luw.me and wait near 1 year but the convertion rates were not more than 1% thats poor and waste of time. Also they do not offer nice affiliate payment options just checks and direct deposits for only much from 1000GBP earners. Never pay your time for sites like these, just sending clean directions to major dating sites affiliate urls like singlesnet, mate1 etc. will put 10 times more from these