NEW MEDIA KNOWLEDGE — Aug 6 — According to dating software company, WhiteLabelDating.com, having a relevant web site will always encourage relevant people to dip their hands into their pockets. We speak to Steve, Pammenter, managing director about profiting from niche.
Q: What's WhiteLabelDating.com?
A: WhiteLabelDating.com enables partners to set up their own branded, online dating sites.
Q: So is it quite similar to Ning.
A: Yeah, however, for our partners we also offer a database of contacts, and obviously the market it is targeted at is different.
Q: What are the differences between the online dating sites that you have in your portfolio?
A: The main difference are the networks within the database, some of which include: Adult, General, Over 50's, casual etc. Traditionally, these specialised sites produce a lower volume of members but have higher conversion rates.
Q: Do you do anything differently to target the various demographics?
A: We provide the tools for our partners and they can create what they think will appeal to their target audience.
Q: What other forms of communications will you be looking at implementing into your offering?
A: We already use a range of communications tools such as instant messaging and video chat. One of our main focuses will be in improving the personality profile matching.
Q: Will microblogging and blogs be integrated into the offering?
A: To a certain extent our members already have the ability to blog on their profiles, using the Diary facility we provide for them. They also have use of chat rooms, which is used as a main 'community' chat facility.
Q: What is your business model?
A: Our business is a white label service. It allows partners to drive traffic to the database and take the revenue share of subscriptions. Our additional revenue streams include mobile technology and Lifestyle Facility (i.e. personality matching, horoscopes etc). We are currently exploring other services.
Q: And what are these?
A: We have our own currency on the sites which can be used to purchase virtual gifts. We are looking at how we can improve this application and integrate it into the customer experience.
Q: But aren't we all bored with throwing sheep? On Facebook these are free, why would people pay for them?
A: Gifts on Facebook are little more than token gestures – send them to everyone. However, on our dating sites, people buy gifts for a reason.
Q: What sets you apart from other dating sites?
A: For our partners, our conversion rates and stickability are much greater. Our members generally remain much longer than other dating sites and use the site more often.
Q: Because of the niche markets?
A: In the last year we have seen the niche sites vastly outperform the more general sites, in some cases having doubled the rate of retention.
Q: How do you see online dating integrating with social networks or will they remain completely separate?
A: In my opinion they will remain separate.
The full article was originally published at New Media Knowledge, but is no longer available.
See all posts on WhiteLabelDating
