In the internet marketing world it’s called private label and in the retail world it’s called white label.  Basically these are products created by one company and renamed or rebranded by another company.  It looks like 2009 is going to be a bigger year for this.  90% of my work over the years has been “private label” meaning people buy from me to resell to others at a higher price.  It’s no problem, I can afford to do that and my ego doesn’t need the credit as long as the cash is in my pocket.

Since the end of last year I’ve been getting more and more requests for private label offerings.  Of course my standard is to do everything without branding anyway so that’s not an issue.  A lot of companies want to brand themselves through your site and design.  It’s not a bad thing, but I think you can build up your reputation without the need of adding your link in random places on someone’s site.  Ummm….let me rephrase that, if someone is paying you a decent rate than you shouldn’t have to do that.  If you’re giving something out for free or at a discounted rate, definitely brand yourself where ever and when ever you can.

Any way this year with economy problems world wide and people wanting to make money by any means necessary, it looks like there will be a bigger trend than normal of rebranding.  That’s not a bad thing.  It means you’ll have other revenue streams if that’s not part of your business model already.  The biggest internet marketers and largest retailers all have some form of affiliate program and private labeling things is just another form of an affiliate program.

The big boys do private labe/white label so why not you?  It’s always good to have a new source of revenue.  You can even go the extra mile and add your client’s name to the items and shipping label (aka drop shipping).