OPW INTERVIEW -- Oct 11 -- David Cliff is an internet dating affiliate. Rather than just be an affiliate of traditional dating sites, he’s started up his own sites under a white labeler. Its going well for him. Here’s his story. - Mark Brooks
David, tell us how you got started in the online dating industry and how your business has been performing since then?
I joined a dating site myself as I was interested to see how the site worked. I joined Singles365.com which is run by WhiteLabelDating.com.
There was a box in the corner of the page inviting people to start their own dating site. So I thought this was a good idea because if I start my own dating site it would be cheaper for me to be a member. I started up my own site and invested about 100 pounds on some ads with Google in the UK. There was only 30 or 40 pounds return after the first month so I thought it didn’t work too well and I wasn’t going to invest any more. Then more revenue came in as people, once they joined, stayed for a second month and then a third month. So I thought it might not be so bad after all. I got some advice from WhiteLabelDating.com and started investing more money.
InstantFriends.co.uk went from strength to strength and I started setting up some more sites from other markets which WhiteLabelDating.com offered, including adult dating. InstantHotDates.co.uk was the next one I set up, then InstantGayFriends.co.uk and a few more. I also did one for military dating and one for senior dating.
When WhiteLabelDating.com got into the U.S I thought well let’s give this a go as well. So we’ve now got InstantFriends.us, Dates4Sex.us, SeniorDating4Fun.us and MilitaryDating4Fun.us. There are now 15 sites in total.
What are your thoughts on WhiteLabelDating.com? How they worked out for you personally?
After I set up the first site InstantFriends.co.uk with WhiteLabelDating.com, I looked at other providers. One of them was the FriendFinder Network. I did see some quite favorable results but the big difference I experienced with the WhiteLabelDating sites was in the retention rates. The members were staying for much longer. I was receiving a residual income each month from the WLD sites which I wasn’t receiving from any of the others.
Are you happy with the support the company provides you?
I’m very happy. I’ll be 55 in November and I was 50 before I sent my first email. So computers are all rather new to me although I have a sales and marketing background. I didn’t know anything about computers so the support that I received from WhiteLabelDating.com was excellent.
Is the online dating business a hobby or is it your primary income?
This has now become the largest part of my income. We’re looking at about $20,000 a month from InstantFriends.co.uk of which I’m receiving about $10,000. And that’s just from one site. I do also work in a local radio station in London which is very much a hobby and I love doing it. My income is coming from the dating sites.
What made you decide to enter the U.S. market?
I had seen the success of the sites I’m operating in the UK and I’ve seen a lot of the American sites trying to get subscribers in the UK. So I thought it would be interesting to see what happens with a British site in the U.S. We have to wait and see what the results are because its too early, it’s only been 14 days. In the first month of operating InstantFriends in the U.K., I thought it was a waste of time. I have to give it a couple of months, certainly 3 months before I know whether I’m going to make it in America or not.
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