Thank you for your interest in our services. The central core of the service is quite straightforward:
"We give you, free of charge, a internet search box and you get 50% of any advertising income generated. This service is 100% branded and promoted under your name and ours and Whitebox's involvement remains invisible. You use the search box just as normal and get precisely the same results"
However, we appreciate that you will have a number of more detailed questions about the services. In order to assist you we have summarised below a number of the questions we often get asked, or equally importantly believe we should answer!
If you cannot find an answer to the particular question you have, please do not hesitate to contact us.
To assist you in finding the answer to your particular question we have split this section into the following sections:
How the Money Works >>
How the Services Work >>
Some Techy Stuff >>
How the Money Works
Are there any hidden costs?
No, you will not be charged for anything at any stage.
Where does the money come from?
Search engines such as Yahoo! generate advertising revenue from some of the companies appearing in their results. By getting your employees, beneficiaries, supporters etc. to use your co-branded Yahoo! search box you are able to gain a share in the revenue generated.
Whitebox, Yahoo!'s partnered company, provides these search box services to you for FREE.
How much can I earn?
It depends on the size of your organisation, the more people using the search boxes the more income is generated.
Typical earnings
Small organisation : £50 - £250 per month
Medium organisation : £250 - £500 per month
Large organisation : £500- £3,000 per month
How do I receive the income?
You can be paid by a number of secure methods:- BACS, PayPal-it's up to you.
Payments are made every 30 days. Each payment will be 45 days after the calendar month end.
You are provided with your own password protected online control panel where you can change your details and check up to date earnings.
How the Services Work
Who provides the services?
We are working in association with White Dot Box Holdings Limited and Yahoo! to provide these free online fundraising services.
Through their distribution agreement with Yahoo!, White Dot Box Holdings Limited administer the technical implementation of the service, tracking of advertising revenue, marketing support and the administration and distribution of the revenue received.
Click here for more details of White Dot Box Holdings Limited.
Yahoo! is the internationally recognised search engine.
Do people have to change how they search on the internet?
No! Apart from anything else, the beauty of this service is that you are encouraging people to do precisely what they already do - search the internet - but through your search box.
The key point and advantage of this service is that we are not asking you to change the pattern or nature of your searching but merely to change to this search box and to continue to use the search facility in just the same way as you did before, only now it can generate revenue for you.
Similarly, the search results you will receive are precisely the same as they would be if the search engine were accessed through any other route.
I already use another search engine, are the search results as good?
Choice of search engine is clearly a subjective issue, but we believe that Yahoo!'s updated service is extremely strong. Please bear in mind that if you use Yahoo! to access another search engine (Google etc) you will still be able to view the results, but no revenue will be generated!
When I have filled in the form to get started what happens next?
Once you have completed the START NOW, will create your own specific account and advise you by e-mail how to log in with your own password.
From your password protected account you can at any time:
- Select the services you wish to implement.
- View your volume of searches and the revenue generated (live and up to date)
- Access a dedicated "Marketing Materials" section that is regularly updated with marketing materials and ideas.
The most important message is to promote your search box out to as many supporters as possible!
I already have some online fundraising activities - how do these integrate with yours?
The search box can be easily added to an existing website to sit alongside existing online fundraising activities, so that the search service can be branded and presented by you to complement your other activities.
Are there competitors offering similar services and how do they compare?
There are a small number of other companies offering some of the same type of services as Whitebox. However, the Whitebox service has established a strong differential by focusing on the requirements of the voluntary sector.
- Via the service neither Whitebox or ourselves promote our brands to your supporters, clients or employees - everything appears under your name and as if provided by you with their involvement remaining invisible. Competitors take the opposite approach.
- The initial set up and ongoing service is provided free of charge, with costs covered from the future revenue share
- The systems are open and transparent. You can view your search volumes and revenue live at any time.
- With our background and the experience of many of our team we have a particular understanding and empathy with the voluntary and charity sector
Are there any terms & conditions?
When using the various services provided by Whitebox you are explicitly accepting the terms and conditions of their various affiliate partners. Whitebox reserves the right in its sole discretion to terminate the account of any organisation generating searches outside of the Terms and Conditions including (but not limited to) click fraud, repeated manual clicking, automated search tools, searches made without regard to the results returned.
All users understand that each and every time that use is made of affiliate partner site(s) that the prevailing Terms & Conditions apply, whichever were in force at the time if application for use.
1. Yahoo! : Affiliate Partner Search Box
When utilising the affiliate partners search box, the user agrees to abide by the affiliate partners Terms & Conditions found at http://uk.docs.yahoo.com/info/terms.html
Some Techy Stuff
What exactly do you do to support my organisation from a technical perspective?
Whitebox provide the search box as html to integrate into an existing site, or as part of a new website template that is provided for you to use as you wish. Either way the code is easy to use and incorporate by your own IT provider, whether in-house or independent, but Whitebox can provide technical assistance if needed.
Can you see my searches and do you share my information with others?
Whitebox and ourselves look at only the volume of searches and the revenue generated through the Yahoo! advertising mechanisms. None of this information is shared with anyone else.
Do your services interfere with the running of my website/intranet?
No, they are designed to sit within your existing structure without creating any changes or disruption.
Are your services secure? Can I get viruses, spyware, malware etc?
The services work within your existing structure and therefore all interaction with the internet is governed by your existing policies and procedures.
What are the policies for using the services?
Usage of Whitebox’ partners services are subject to their specific terms and conditions as detailed in the terms and conditions.
I have heard of "click fraud". What is it?
"Click fraud" includes spam or fraudulent clicks resulting from, for example, repeated manual clicking or the use of 'robots', automated clicking tools, or other deceptive software, searching without regard to the results obtained. Whitebox and Yahoo! employs many sophisticated tools to detect inappropriate usage.
Yahoo! like all the other search engines, employ stringent criteria to detect and act against such fraud, and the terms and conditions reflect this approach.
Why don't I employ people to make searches for us and we can then earn when they "click"?
No, this would clearly fall under click fraud. In any case, the beauty of the service is that we are NOT asking anyone to behave differently in relation to their web searches, we want searches to be conducted in precisely their normal way, but via the revenue generating service.
You say "post the HTML code" to our website. What do you mean?
HTML is the programming language that makes your internet website function. The search box code is therefore added to your site in order to make the search box function. This is not added as plain text but in HTML mode via an HTML editor.
