Many people are interested in creating their own dating site and there are many options on the best route to do so. The two main routes are to create your own dating site or create a Private Label dating site. Each have their own pros and cons which I would like to clear up.

Creating your own site
This involves creating your own site from scratch. There are many premade solutions which will help you get started so you can save time and costs. This usually requires having some programmers, designers, and some knowhow on how to create a successful site.

Pros

• Full customization – This route allows you to create whatever processes and features you want
• No revenue share – Since the site is your own you won’t be sharing any revenue with anyone. You will need to cover all merchant and processing fees though.
• Unique content and features – Goes along with the full customization aspect. If you have something that no one else is offering to singles, this could be a major pro if done correctly.

Cons

• High startup costs – Even if you use a premade solution, there are many things that need to be changed, designed and created. This means time and money. If you have never built a site before there will be a large learning curve for you and your team.
• Customer service – Once the site is launched you will have to handle all customer support calls and emails. This requires alot of time and knowledge to retain and assist the singles who join your site.
• Billing – You will need to setup merchant accounts, deal with multiple currencies (if global), deal with chargebacks and potential penalties. This is also a full time job if your site grows large enough.
• Member database – Managing a database is one con, but growing one is a much bigger task. The first wave of singles you get won’t have many people to interact with. You will need to work really hard to build your site to a critical mass. Without members it will be difficult to succeed.
• Hosting – You will need to manage and pay for hosting for your site. Maintaining adequate speed for your site will also be a factor for your success.
• Mailing – It will be up to you to mail your members for new features, promotions, matches and information about their account. Emailing is another animal in the dating world. Your bounce rates and complain rates must be at optimal levels to reduce the risk of getting your IP banned.

Private Label Dating Solution
Building a Private Label dating site will take alot of the startup issues out of the equation. A Private Label  dating site is built on an existing database of members and provides billing, customer service and the programming right out of the box. The idea behind this is to allow your Private Label provider, like Datingbackend.com, to handle the heavy lifting while you just need to focus on the marketing.

Pros

• No startup costs – Creating a site on Datingbackend.com and most other providers is free. The only costs to you is the design of your landing page and hosting it yourself
• Customer service – By using a Private Label dating provider you will get access to their customer service team. If one of your members has issues or questions, your provider will take care of them for you.
• Billing – Private Label providers will handle all billing aspects. This includes handling charge backs, refunds, and setting up new currencies as we grow into different countries.
• Hosting – All member pages will be hosted and maintained by the Private Label provider. The only thing you will need to manage is your own landing page.
• Member databases – Your Private Label provider will already have a maintained, large database of members for your members to interact with. This will result in higher conversion rates as interaction is usually the best way to get members to upgrade.
• Mailing – Your Private Label provider will usually handle all mailings to your members. The provider will make sure all emails are CAN-SPAM compliant and will always make sure the bounce rates are at an acceptable %. Datingbackend’s mailings are very successful in converting regular profiles into paying members as well.

Cons

• Limited customization – The amount of new features and customized options will be limited with a Private Label provider. The software being used is to cater to a large group of partners so a new unique feature would effect every site on the platform. In regards to marketing a Private Label partner will have plenty of options to customize their strategy.
• Revenue share- Because of the features that a Private Label dating provider offers, there are some costs to providing and maintaining those features. There are always promotions at Datingbackend for 100% revenue share, but eventually your account will go back to 70% of the revenue.
• Few unique features – Due to the lack of customization you will rely on your Private Label provider to offer new and unique features to members of your site. As a Private Label provider we are always open to hearing of new ideas to implement on our system.
• Not your members – All members that join your Private Label dating site will be owned by the Private Label provider. This means if you were to stop sending traffic and create a new site somewhere else, those members stay with the first provider. Getting a member to leave one site and sign up for another is difficult as it is, but this still falls under the con category.

With whatever solution you choose, marketing the site will have its own costs and difficulties. Either route you take this one part is unavoidable. If you are unsure of the best route I recommend contacting our team to discuss your plans and we can help you figure out if a Private Label dating site would be right for you.

What other reasons do you feel one option is better than the other?