By Mark Brooks

YNOT EUROPE – White-label dating sites can provide savvy affiliates with a steady stream of residual income, as long as the affiliate and the white-label provider make a good match. If you’re considering employing a white-label site as part of your marketing plan, here are the Top 10 showstopper considerations you’ll want to keep in mind.

1. Critical mass
The main benefit of using a white-label dating provider is that they have a critical mass of users, so you will convert and make money as soon as you start driving traffic. Be sure the white-labeler has a decent critical mass of users for your chosen demographic and niche focus. That is, if you’re starting a dating site for golfers, do they have a few thousand active golfing singles? Test user activity for your niche by asking the white-label provider for the name of an example partner site. Sign up as a user. Try it out.

2. True niches
Does the service provider offer true, cordoned niches within their database. In other words, if you choose to start a Christian dating site, will your members be sent matches who are not Christian? Most white-label dating providers don’t offer true cordons, true niches.

3. Billing and payouts in multiple currencies, plus alternative billing
Make sure the white-labeler you’re considering offers multiple billing currencies and can pay you in your preferred currency. It’s worth asking, so there are no surprises! Also, if you’re running a non-geographically focused niche, sometimes you’ll get members from abroad. Your white-labeler should be able to take their money, as well. They should accept and pay you on sales in U.S. dollars, UK pounds, Aussie dollars, Canadian dollars and euros. It all adds up. Ideally, they also should offer a mobile billing option and present it to users when their cards are over-limit and fail. That happens more often than you might imagine. Mobile and alternative billing helps find money.

4. Twice-monthly payouts, at least
You want to get paid on a more frequent basis than you’re settling for your ad spends, ideally. This will allow you to leverage cash flow and make a lot more money.

5. Robust billing
Make sure the provider has a robust billing system in place. The golden words are “Are you PCI DSS compliant?” Email the provider that question, so you have the answer in writing. PCI DSS stands for “Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard,” a worldwide standard used by Visa, Mastercard and other card issuers. Compliance with the standard helps your white-label dating provider prevent fraud and minimize chargebacks. If they’re not PCI DSS compliant, they’re amateurs. Don’t consider them further.

6. Robust campaign tracking and reporting
Sub-ID tracking should be built in to the system. Let me explain: You should be able to track specific campaigns down to the keyword using the white-labeler’s built-in tracking system. You should be able to run reports, trends and graphs of your key metrics from within the white-labeling system. Anything less shows a severe lack of foresight on the part of the white-labeler. This is basic stuff.

7. Active email marketing
At least 25 percent of your dating site sales (and commissions) will come from emails encouraging the users you referred to the dating site to become paying members. Once a user signs up, they should receive emails from your white-label dating provider with potential matches, as well as direct communications from other users from within their niche. Quiz your potential provider. What experience and credentials does their head of customer relationship management have? What kinds of emails do they typically send each day? Each week? Sign up and try out the service as a user. If you don’t get any emails at all, something is wrong.

8. Customer service and retention
Sign up as a user and see what happens when you load a bad photo and when you call-in to try canceling. Do your poor quality photos get rejected, or are they allowed? Test how long it takes to get an email answered, and how long it takes for your potential white-labeling partner to pick up the phone. Your white-labeler’s customer service agents should be able to reference key activity metrics for you, as a specific user. They should use that info to comment on your activity levels and make a compelling offer to keep you around when you call in to cancel. They might say something like, “I see you’ve only sent three messages since joining. Is that correct? If I give you a week free, would you promise to send 10 messages to people you’re interested in this week?”

The customer service team also should be able to refer you, as an end user, into more relevant communities. They might say, “OK, I understand you’re really only interested in dating Catholics and would like to cancel your Christian dating site membership. Would you like to join this dating site for Catholics instead?” This is really worth testing.

9. No fakesters
Beware white-labelers who resort to sending fake emails to registrants, from fake profiles. Yes, it may be good for your short-term gains, but it will kill your long-term gains and brand equity. (It’s also terrible for the dating industry as a whole.) Once again, test the white-label provider you’re considering. Just sign up on one of their sites as a 300-pound, 4’2” pygmy and see what happens.

10. No scammers
Make sure your white-label dating provider is properly armed against scammer attacks. Scammer activity and attacks also can produce positive short-term returns because they drive activity and initial conversions. Once again, though, this kind of abuse kills your long-term gains and brand equity.

There are more considerations, but these are the Top 10. If the white-label dating provider you’re considering doesn’t offer all 10 of these core features, you may want to give serious consideration to using someone else.

After starting and then selling several successful matchmaking and social network beginning in 1998, Mark Brooks founded Courtland Brooks Agency, a consultancy providing electronic dating services with media relations, business development, and product and marketing strategy assistance. He is a popular keynote speaker at conferences worldwide and serves as the president of the Internet Dating Executive Alliance. For more of his perspective about white-label dating sites, visit OnlinePersonalsWatch.com or email him.