Make a date... meney

A lot of money with minimal outlay can be made if you live on the Costa del Sol, as an affiliate of an established internet company.'Mainland Spain will be a target for our service in 2006, and we would like to hear from any entrepreneurs interested in partnering with us on this project,' said Mike Fitzgerald of Dating Central in Gibraltar.

grew and grew.'We reached the point where we had a staff of nine in our Stockport office, and were making such a good income that we had to think hard about the amount of tax and VAT we were paying. Realising that we could work anywhere on earth, we started looking at some of the op tions. Gibraltar won because of the weather, the tax regime, the Eng lish language and legal system, and its nearness to Britain.'

The company has expanded fur ther this year, and has brought in a senior programmer, Shaun Baruzi from Milton Keynes, and general manager David King from Guildford.'They both bring bluechip experience to the company,so you can expect great things from Dating Central in 2005 and 2006,' said Mike.'We have taken the ap propriate steps to bring the com pany up to the next level and to keep our noses ahead of our com petitors.'

'It's not a get-rich-quick scheme;' he explained,'but with a committed long-term application there is a lot of earnings potential. Some of our affiliates, both corpo rations and individuals, are mak ing up to £20,000 a month,depend ing on their experience and input.'

Mike and his partner Graham Hampson were telling me about their four-year-old internet busi ness which they started in Stockport, Greater Manchester, in 2001 and which they moved to Gi braltar's friendlier offshore tax re gime due to the enterprise's phe nomenal success.

So, what is it? 'It's your own fully automated dating agency;' explained Graham,'all you need is a website and some advertising to bring the customers to it.'

That's all? 'Yes,' Mike con firmed,'the whole system is auto matic and managed by us. You don't have any contact with the customers nor do you have to col lect any money. Simply generate the customer interest and we pay out half of the income.'

Although the idea has been cop ied in other parts of the world, it was Mike and Graham who came up with the original concept and then set about designing the soft ware to make it all work with mini mal intervention. The two had be come friends while doing business degrees at Manchester Metropoli tan University.'We weren't what you would call computer literate, but after a spell in the world of work we both felt we wanted to do something really worthwhile.' By chance, they read a report on ecommerce which predicted that computer dating was one of the big future markets and decided to see if they could make it work.

They started by running it as a students' dating service but it just

Graham added: 'Growth in terms of sales and applications are up 20% on the start of the year,and to strengthen our position by the end of 2005 we will have a multi lingual service opening up mar kets in Asia, Africa and mainland Europe - including the south of Spain. This will give us the best dating affiliated programme in the world and make us one of the top twenty dating services on the internet.'

How much does it cost to be come an affiliate? Presumably something so potentially valuable must come at a premium? But no; 'There is no charge at all. You just ask to become an affiliate and we set you up. There are no monthly targets to meet either; if you make money, fine, but if you don't do anything after you've registered then someone else will.'

You do need to promote the service, by advertising on the internet or in the press, although spam and other unethical methods are not allowed. People who re spond to your adverts do not have to pay anything initially (which makes it more attractive), but can look at the lists of over one million members, divided into categories such as Christian, Disabled, Forces, Gay, Lesbian, Romance, Age Groups and so on.'This gives a better conversion rate,' said Mike,'as people can narrow their choices down and feel more confi dent about finding a suitable date.'

It is only when the customer de cides there is someone he or she would like to contact that they sign up, and it's not expensive. They pay a monthly registration or membership fee according to their status and category, starting at about £10 for disabled or unem ployed and rising to around £30 for top professionals, half of which is automatically paid to the affiliate. The affiliate does not have to at tend the business in any way, ex cept to advertise, and payments are made automatically to their bank account in their country of residence. A reminder here: be cause of Dating Central's non-resi dent tax status,they cannot take on companies or individuals who are based in Gibraltar,except for other tax-exempt companies. But other wise, everyone is welcome and they won't have to pay any sort of fee or commit themselves in any way to join up.Dating Central will also provide useful tips on how to promote the business under your own chosen website domain name. At present there are about6,000 af filiates, of whom just 300 are ac tive, working easily from home or as a bolt-on to their existing busi nesses. One interesting example is the Trinidad Express,a WestIndies newspaper which uses its own pages to promote the service.

If you have a non-Gibraltar internet connection and bank ac count, you could be earning any thing from a good part-time wage up to a very high full-time income simply by placing adverts and spreading the message. And there is the bonus of knowing you'd be making a lot of other people happy.

Full inforomation can be ob tained from the website, www.dating-central.com, email affiliates@dating-central.com, or phone/fax Gibraltar 40335 be tween 9 and 3, Monday to Friday.

WHAT'S 0

Tues 2,9,16,23,30 August

Guided Coach Tours from Gibral tar to Cape Trafalgar.Price:£35.00.

Further information contact: Bland Ltd Tel: 79200 or 72663

Sat 6 August

Rooke Volunter Band Open Air Concert, Casemates Square 11am

Sat 6 August

GONHS Evening Outing Laguna del Comisario (roosting stocks).

For further information contact Keith Bensusan Tel 73296 or email: kbensusan@gonhs.org

Sat 13 August

Admiral Lord Nelson Regatta at Royal Gibraltar Yacht Qub 3pm.

For further information contact Sydney PilcherTel:48847or 78897.

Sat 20 August to Sun 28 August

Gibraltar Fair Week at Common wealth Parade (USOC). For fur ther information contact Ministry for Culture Tel: 77486 or 78638.

Wed 24 August

Gibraltar Federation of Sea An glers Boat Fishing Competition. Contact Charles Carreras Tel: 74337.

Sat 27 August

Cardboard Boat Race. Race starts at 3pm from Eastern Beach. For further information contact Ian McDonald Tel: 77390 or 54001574

Every Tuesday & Thursday "Gibraltar Summer Nights". En tertainment for the whole family at Casemates Square 8pm.