White label websites are a popular and intriguing option for many online marketers, both in adult and in the mainstream arenas, where the appeal of a free, turnkey solution is hard to deny. In the adult world, a paysite network seeking to add live cam offerings may find using a white label site is a preferable option to investing in infrastructure and model recruitment and maintenance. Likewise, an entrepreneur might find that a novelty shop’s white label program is the best shortcut to success for his brick-and-mortar store seeking to extend its marketing online.
Regardless of the motivation behind the choice of a white label website, the website’s owners and operators may both benefit from increased sales and tighter traffic control.
The overall goal is to treat the white label as “a real site” rather than an afterthought.
Let’s take a closer look:
IS A WHITE LABEL SITE RIGHT FOR YOU?
The first thing any potential white label operator should ask themselves is “why?”
This is an especially important question from the affiliate perspective; where issues of brand over-exposure and niche marketing opportunities must be balanced with the reality that many white label programs offer “watered down” versions of their parent site, while providing promo tools that are only available for promoting the in-house brand. Meaning, if the white label isn’t as good as its parent and is harder to sell, then why would you try?
THERE ARE SEVERAL REASONS:
One common reason is to have an easy place to park unused domains, with little followon effort expended after the site goes live. While your results may vary, for many operators relying on a “park and abandon” strategy, a guidestyle landing page promoting several sites may be a more lucrative option.
But it is one thing to park a domain, and another to run a website.
Some operators may find very compelling opportunities in micro-niche marketing or simply wish to appeal to users with different conceptual or visual tastes — and choose a white label site as a free and fast-to-market foundation for their efforts.
For example, you may like the product or service being offered by the white label’s parent site but think that you can do a better job of selling that site than can the parent company itself; i.e. you hate “red” websites — so you operate an AWE white label with your own tweaks and color scheme, instead of sending traffic directly to LiveJasmin.com.
This is just one example — and of course, it applies to all white label providers.
WHITE LABEL SITES: NOT JUST FOR AFFILIATES ONLY
Consider that a white label site is essentially a mirror of its parent; allowing the site’s owner to duplicate his main property, without necessarily offering the option to affiliates.
Similar to a paysite network that uses one backend content database that is accessible from multiple frontends (unique domain names and tours), “self white-labeling” could be used to offer geographic or other “community” based services. For example, a dating site called “Sexy Friends” could be easily extended across multiple domains (or sub-domains) to become “Lesbian Sexy Friends,”or “Minnesota Sexy Friends.”
White labels could be hosted on exact-match keyword domains for more competitive search results and further leveraged to deliver quality oneway links to a master hub site.
Once a site owner locks up their primary niches and domains, the white label can then be offered to affiliates that have their own promotional ideas and domain name inventory.
A CUSTOMIZABLE SOLUTION
One of the primary benefits of white label websites is their suitability to rebranding, which can range from simple logo and color swaps, hosted on a cobranded domain, i.e., yoursite.sponsordomain.com; to fully customized white label sites with unique HTML structures hosted on their own domain, i.e., www.yourdomain.com.
In the latter case, you may wish to use white label programs that allow sub-domains, i.e., whitelabel.yourdomain.com, as this typically allows you the use of your own email address and other website components.
For example, a tube site operator sending traffic to cam and dating affiliate programs may wish to use white labels as branded additions to the tube site, rather than (or better yet, in addition to,) sending its visitors to a different website. If your website has a decent level of brand recognition as evidenced by a high percentage of return visitors, this may be a great idea that is easy to test.
Take advantage of any styling and text customization options, including custom meta descriptions and keywords, tailored on-page text and other elements, for better results in the search engines — but keep in mind that the site’s coding structure may mitigate any SEO benefits for you (i.e., link “juice” is passed to the parent site, not to the white label) — a controversial practice reportedly used by some white label providers.
The overall goal is to treat the white label as “a real site” rather than an afterthought.
Google Analytics code should be added to all white label sites that will allow it to provide detailed reporting of traffic levels, sources and behaviors — along with the tools that are necessary to determine the ROI of any paid advertising campaigns. The important takeaway is that without these branding and customization features, there is little reason to use a white label site.
Paradoxically, countless users don’t bother.
A RETURN ON AN INVESTMENT REQUIRES AN INVESTMENT
According to Abbie from LiveCamCash.com, many white label operators really don’t seem to focus very much on branding their sites.
“Most seem to just throw up the white label in hopes of extra cash trickling in,” Abbie told XBIZ. “But no real branding or marketing seems to go into them.”
While proper search engine optimization may organically drive some traffic to your site, there are likely millions of other pages targeting the exact same search terms as you.
Make use of any applicable promotional tools to drive traffic to your white label site. Check with your white label provider or affiliate rep as to proper linking codes and any other tips, but you may find that the range of promo tools the sponsor offers for the parent site will work properly when used with your white label site’s domain name in the link.
One favorite technique is to embed these tools into a blog or forum that discusses the content, niche or performers depicted on the white label, which is styled to appear as part of the blog or forum — developing a community approach to content and sales.
Regardless of how you make use of white label websites, a few things are quite clear: these sites provide an easy way to launch an online business and to test and profit from new markets, with a minimum commitment of time and money, while building a brand and keeping your traffic “in house.”
With benefits like that and little downside, a white label site may be right for you.
