IDA INTERVIEW - Mar 1 - We noticed some pretty attractive commissions with White Label Dating recently. I interviewed Ross Williams, the CEO to find out how WLD is doing and ask some tough questions.
How can you afford to give 100% commission?
We're offering 100% net revenue share after payment processing (which varies by network) which covers the cost of taking payment but other than that partners will receive all revenue generated for a period of at least 12 months then up to 80% net revenue share (which all partners can earn on our standard tiered revenue share scheme).
We can afford this as, quite simply after streamlining our business last year and simplifying many backend operations we're able to offer this for new sites moving over from other platforms (or even new sites which can quickly get to a $1000/month revenue level). We can support this until April 2020 without any concern and will review the situation then - if partners continue to invest and grow they will then earn 80% net revenue share which is still more than anyone else in the industry - AND our platform is known to be the best converting and best LTV in the English-speaking markets we operate in.
Are you making anything on the back-end to allow this to be sustainable?
No we're not looking to make any money on this - the reason we're doing this is that we're now able to scale massively after considerable investment in 2018 in our infrastructure and internal processes. For example, much of our moderation, customer care and internal processes that were once manual are now able to be automated thanks to phenomenal developments in AI technology in recent years. So our overheads are lower which means we can scale without the need to add people.
As we gain scale through new partnerships and new site on the WLD platform our current partners will benefit from the activity generated on the platform by these new sites - that's why we're doing this.
In what niches do you feel White Label Dating performs the best for affiliates?
Our best performing networks are mainstream, casual and mature - we don't go into very specific niches as we don't need to - the platform performs well on these broader networks.
What is the commission structure and conditions for the ongoing 80% commission?
Very simply - partners will continue to earn 80% commission for life as long as they grow their daily initial revenue by just 2% per month. For example, if this month they generate £100 in initial revenue (new subscriptions) then next month they'll need to generate £102 in initial revenue to receive 80% net revenue. In practise this works out at a very small number of new registrations per month.
If partners fail to hit this growth - which can happen in extreme circumstances - then they can still earn 65% or 50% depending on their tier which is still very competitive in the industry, particularly considering our industry-leading performance for English-speaking markets.
In what geographic areas are you strongest for conversions for affiliates? i.e. UK, etc
UK, Australia, Canada and the USA are the key markets most affiliates focus on. We don't yet support non-English speaking geos but will be making an announcement on that subject later in 2019.
How are white label dating sites being served up on mobile phones now?
Great and they always have been - 70% of our traffic is from mobiles and the experience is great. All sites offer a mobile-optimised experience and our partners focus heavily on mobile traffic. We don't run apps because the share needed with Apple makes this prohibitive - however we will be making a wider announcement on this subject later this year. We've already started sharing some exciting news with our top partners but aren't ready to share with the industry yet.
Can you provide apps for super-affiliates?
Super affiliates shouldn't be promoting apps as there is far less margin than promoting mobile websites - our partners are still able to promote sites generating charging £30/month and with our 100% net revenue share they get to keep all of that after processing fees.
Consumers are wary of paying such large sums on mobile apps and when they do apps need to give a big slice too Apple - so until we've found a way around this (which we'll be sharing later this year) I can't see why a super affiliate would want to promote an app rather than mobile web.
What's your plans for 2019 for WLD & Venntro?
Well firstly with two kids under 20 months I'm planning a holiday at some point as I'm sure you can relate to Mark :)
After a process of streamlining in 2018 we now have phenomenal capacity to grow - we've dealt with a lot of legacy issues in the business and are primed for growth again. One of the team's achievements I'm most proud of that we've consistently delivered below 1% chargeback rate which is unheard of in the industry without the use of scammy corporate structure tactics to artificially avoid card scheme penalties. We don't believe this approach is sustainable and anyone using this approach is extremely vulnerable - we're pleased to be solid and sustainable below 1% chargeback rate.
In 2019 we are deploying AI across the business to enable us to serve members faster and improve metrics for partners - more importantly it allows us to grow without needing to add lots of people. We've streamlined the business to enable us to operate more effectively than ever before.
Venntro's sole focus nowadays is WhiteLabelDating.com - we're a SaaS business dedicated to serving the needs of dating sites operators.