Thoughts on white label software?

[scottb]

I wanted to hear what some of you thought about white label software. I have a situation where I am promoting software as an affiliate and its not converting very good from free to paid (its still early, but I'm looking for alternatives in case it continues). A competitor is going to launch their affiliate program and white label in the near future.

My initial thought was why would they white label, but I do see one or two good reasons for it in addition to the possible negative reasons like quality, time needed for support, etc.

My plan would be to start a separate domain for the white label software with the plan to sell it 6 months or a year down the road. I realize the white label aspect adds risk (at least in my opinion), but maybe some people could see it as a benefit. My advantages would be getting in early while everyone is at the very beginning and my site already has relevant and targeted traffic. I would just need to work on some of the larger volume keywords and build up the new domain before selling so it would at least be growing on its own month over month.

Would you ever consider it in a scenario like this where you would likely sell within a year. White label seems risky to me for anything long term, but I think it could make sense here.

 

[CCarter]

From my perspective as a software owner the cons outweight the benefits. But white labelling does allow one software to have a large footprint in an industry without the brand recognition.

My question is why wasn’t the first software converting well? Cause there might be problem within the industry.

Also a white labeller you’ll be at the mercy of the software developer - example when a customer ask for a new feature, you’ll have to work with the developer’s timetable.

It’s not as easy as it sounds supporting a white label operation so make sure it’s not a one man operation OR the software is not overly complicating.

 

[secretagentdad]

Hehehhe. Here’s my real spergy pro white label rant.


I am willing to take the opposite position of mister universe on this one. I think white labeling is very on meta and fits the current market paradigm well.

I think white label is the god mod of business right meow because I think the global economy is in a state of rabid overcapitalization.

In an over capitalized economy execution is a scarce good. Gate keepers are also extra problematic when the markets are dominated by the highly capitalized, so why not at least get to the customer.

Everything I’ve ever seen in software points to a severe talent shortage in labor and an over capacity of buzzword vendors, management teams, capital and support services.

I see it as, might as well just get the revenue, and get in the door. Decision makers are to hard to reach and some people just prefer to work with “their guy”. You don’t have to own every relationship.

Let the agency people worry about managing the clients. It’s a war to keep the sales force types away from the decision makers. Might as well have more then one chance to be on the winning team.