Need guide to white label sites

[Melter]

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I'm interested in learning more about white label sites if someone would be kind enough to help. I've done a trawl of the forum for info and get the general idea of them but need to know more. A few things I'd like to know are:
1. Which are some of the better white label sites and what's the signup procedure for them? (PM me if you want to share personal experiences or have any examples I can have a look at)
2. Do most let you alter the look of the site?
3. In Mobipack's blurb referring to what they're about they say '...you will link to your own white label website and not to a merchant site. If you don't link to your website, we won't be able to track sales. ' If this is the case if someone comes to your white label site direct, say through the search engines, does that mean you won't earn any commission? Do all white label sites work like this?
4. Does it work to use a subdomain of the original site or set up your own domain if the option is available?

I'll probably have more questions but these will do to start with. Thanks.

[lowndsy]

Originally posted by Melter
3. In Mobipack's blurb referring to what they're about they say '...you will link to your own white label website and not to a merchant site. If you don't link to your website, we won't be able to track sales. ' If this is the case if someone comes to your white label site direct, say through the search engines, does that mean you won't earn any commission? Do all white label sites work like this?

You should always get comissions if a buyer clicks from the links on your white label site regardless of how they arrived - the mobipack warning is just to make sure you use your white label URL rather than the base mobipack one. So in theory you don't have to link to the white label site from anywhere and it's still possible to earn comissions. Bit stupid though - how will the public know the site is there if you don't publicise it?

White label technology varies but some implementations use lots of passed variables in the URL which don't translate very well to the search engines, so don't rely on that - signing up for a white label, submitting to Google and waiting will get you zip.

Also, you can't blame a merchant for wanting affiliates to be active in promoting a site, so a quiet white label site with no incoming links or sales might very well be reviewed to be discontinued.