Since the world first began to adopt and implement software and technology and conduct business, there have been a number of different models and methods for distributing and acquiring this product.
There’s lots of information, so we thought we’d give you a ranked list of the best software building business models. But first, let us begin with SAAS.
SOFTWARE AS A SERVICE (SAAS)
Software as a service can become lucrative if you provide an in-demand solution to a problem or make something easier to accomplish.
For example, an autoresponder tool like Convert Kit will make it easier to build an email list and sell your products through email marketing. As a result, consumers are happy to purchase because the software solves a problem for them.
If a business were to create or pay someone to make the software themselves, it would involve lots of work and huge costs.
It is more accessible for them to pay a monthly fee and create everything they need inside the software — this is why software is so popular.
Below is a list of some popular Software as Service programs available today:
- Hubspot
- Leadpages
- Clickfunnels
- Freshbooks
- Shopify
- Slack
- Google Workspace
- Office 365
- Aweber
Software is in demand, and with rebilling, advanced support, and various updates, you can continue to make decent money for years to come.
Try to develop software that solves a real problem or makes the users’ lives easier. Sometimes creating something that solves a problem for yourself will usually be a problem that other people are having, so think of things that would make your life easier.
You might just come up with the idea that takes off — that’s what happened when Mike Mcderment produced Freshbooks after he lost an invoice because he never saved it.
Supermetrics partner program
Niche: marketing reporting and analytics / data integration
Product: Already trusted by 16K+ data-driven businesses and 500K+ users, Supermetrics is the preferred choice for marketers who want to automate their marketing reporting. It develops tools for both reporting and analytics and data integration.
Program: As a reseller partner, you can sell Supermetrics’ full product suite, including the data integration solutions for enterprise clients. You’re free to choose any products and sell them as stand-alone offers or bundles together with your own services. You get a dedicated partner manager and all the necessary help with product training, implementation, and support.
Compensation: Supermetrics resellers get a 20% recurring commission of the purchase price. To sell products in the data integration category, which usually involves larger deal sizes than the reporting and analytics tools, you can get in touch with the Supermetrics partner managers.
Suitable for: Any marketers, agencies, or consultants whose clients want to make the most of their marketing data, spend less time on collecting that data, and bring it directly to their go-to reporting, analytics, or storage platform.
Keap Certified Partner program
Niche: CRM / sales and marketing automation
Product: Keap is a CRM, sales, and marketing tool that helps businesses manage customers and communicate to them efficiently. Designed for small businesses in particular, Keap also has features for lead generation and email marketing.
Program: As a Certified Pro Partner, you get training and onboarding support and will receive a certification after completing your training. You also have an onboarding coach to get you started on the right foot. You will bill your clients directly as an authorized reseller.
Compensation: Certified Partners earn 20–30% recurring commissions on the monthly subscription price of the Keap apps and services you sell.
Suitable for: Consultants, agencies, and other sales & marketing experts whose clients want to scale their small business and need a solution for CRM / sales and marketing automation.
Klaviyo partner program
Niche: Email and SMS marketing
Product: Klaviyo is an email marketing platform that helps online businesses automate their email and SMS marketing and push notifications. It integrates with multiple platforms and has features for audience segmentation and performance reporting.
Program: As a Klaviyo partner, you get support and training for your whole team, certifications that help you attract clients, and a library of sales and marketing resources. As you bring in more clients, your revenue share increases and you get co-marketing opportunities.
Compensation: Silver, gold and platinum tiers for partners. One-time bounty payouts are 5–15% based on 4 months of accumulated revenue and revenue shares are 10–20% based on deal duration (12–24 months).
Suitable for: Agencies, freelancers, and systems integrators who work with ecommerce and email marketing platforms on behalf of their clients.
Drift solutions partner program
Niche: live chat
Product: Marketed as a revenue acceleration platform, Drift is a live chat software focused on generating and qualifying leads and booking meetings with them. The software has a diverse directory of integrations and it’s divided into conversational marketing and conversational sales.
Program: Those who qualify for Drift’s selective partner program become certified in their software and receive co-marketing support and resources from the company. You also get a dedicated channel account manager for your business with access and listing in their partner directory.
Compensation: Solutions partners who resell the Drift software earn 20% revenue share.
Suitable for: Those serving B2B clients and whose services fall into demand generation, inbound marketing, CRO, PPC, web design, sales consulting, or systems integrations, for example. And you already implement software to medium-sized or larger client companies.
ActiveCampaign Agency Partner program
Niche: email / CRM
Product: ActiveCampaign is a customer experience automation platform for SMBs mostly. Its main focus is on email marketing, which is complemented with CRM and sales/marketing automation. The software combines site tracking, app integrations, and artificial intelligence.
Program: As an agency partner, you can choose between indirect reselling and direct billing. You get a sandbox account, access to monthly training webinars and marketing materials, and an agency manager is assigned to help you with issues related to agency revenue growth.
Compensation: Choose between commission- or discount-based compensation. In the commission-based model, ActiveCampaign bills the end client and you earn a recurring commission of 20–30% of the purchase price based on the number of referred clients and the duration of the partnership. In the discount model, you set up your own pricing structure and collect payment from your clients. The more accounts you resell, the higher the discount.
Suitable for: Agencies, consultants, and automation experts who have SMB clients that want to grow their business. Especially if your clients are looking for a customizable customer experience solution with multiple integrations.
HubSpot Solutions Partner Program
Niche: CRM / inbound marketing and sales
Product: HubSpot is a popular and multifunctional CRM platform that provides tools and integrations for marketing, sales, content management, and customer service. Users can store all of their leads and marketing data in one integrated database.
Program: Choose between becoming a solutions provider or solutions partner. Solutions provider is a low-cost way to see what the partnership could do for your business, while a solutions partner is a deeper partnership with additional benefits. Both require a HubSpot subscription and give access to resources, training, certifications, and directory listing.
Compensation: 20% revenue share for both partner types. 1 year of commissions for a solutions provider and lifetime commissions for a solutions partner. The minimum cost of joining for a solutions provider is a starter level subscription ($50/month), and for a partner, a CMS or professional level subscription ($300/month) + onboarding (no onboarding fees for your clients).
Suitable for: Customer-centric agencies and service providers looking to expand their offerings and implement marketing, sales, web design, or CRM solutions for their client companies.
MUST HAVE APPS
Profit Bandit
Profit Bandit has become a go-to app for Amazon sellers looking to make more money. It’s a great tool to use during retail arbitrage because it includes a barcode scanner, allowing you to research products in real-time. Other key features include a profit calculator (featuring cost factors such as Amazon fees and shipping rates), pricing and sales rank data, and easy product searching.
The app is available for both iOS and Android users for $9.99 per month.
ScoutIQ
Similar to Profit Bandit, ScoutIQ is a robust inventory researching app for Amazon sellers. Originally created for selling books, its features include a downloadable database to access data offline, an “eScore” that provides an item’s historical sales on Amazon without leaving the app’s scout screen, and a team mode that enables resellers to add team members from anywhere in the country.
ScoutIQ is available for $36 per month with an annual subscription, or $44 per month with a monthly subscription.
Evernote
Evernote is one of the top-rated apps for note organization and productivity. You can store and share your personal and business to-do lists, reminders and notes across mobile AND desktop, and is available on Windows, Mac, iOS and Android devices.
Evernote Basic is free to use, while Evernote Premium and Business are $7.99 per month and $14.99, respectively.
The BULQ App
You need to be able to source any time, anywhere. Fortunately, we have an app for that! The BULQ app for iOS and Android allows you to purchase wholesale lots, set category and condition preferences, see screens showing curated lots that fit your business needs, and enable push notifications, all from your mobile device.
The best part? The BULQ app is free!
Best App to Sell Stuff: eBay
eBay is undoubtedly one of the best selling apps out there to make money on. It has an impressive 85 million sellers and 182 million users worldwide.
If you’re looking for an app to sell stuff online, you can use eBay to sell everything from used video games and children’s toys to jewelry and even mega-yachts!
Here’s how it works: First, upload a photo of what you want to sell and choose whether to advertise your item to everyone or just to your local area. Then, set a price. You can list your item at a fixed price, or use the auction feature.
The money making app is famous for the auction feature, and it works exactly like a real-world auction. You set a starting price, and interested buyers will bid on your item – when the auction finishes, the highest bidder wins. eBay also makes it easy to set your auction to end in 1, 3, 5, 7, or 10 days.
You can choose to be paid via debit and credit cards, PayPal, or in cash when local buyers pick up items.
Great Local Selling App: CPlus for Craigslist
CPlus for Craigslist is a third-party selling app that is officially licensed by Craigslist, one of the most renowned websites to sell stuff locally. Just like the website, it’s a great place to find buyers in your local area.
Craigslist is available in more than 700 cities across the world, and the largest 23 cities in the U.S. see more than 300,000 for-sale listings per day – no wonder so many sellers use the platform!
When you list an item for sale, this selling locally app uses your geolocation to list your ad in nearby cities. Plus, buyers can set up notifications to find out if there’s a new listing that might interest them.
Interested buyers can contact you directly to arrange to pay for and pick up the item.
As with all in-person transactions, try to meet potential buyers in a safe public place. Watch out for scammers, and make sure you receive your payment before you hand over the item.
Easy App to Make Money: Facebook Marketplace
Facebook Marketplace is probably one of the most accessible selling apps to use, mainly because almost everyone you know has a Facebook account. In fact, more than 800 million people use the marketplace every month.
To sell your stuff, take photos and upload them with a description and price.
When a buyer makes you an offer, you’ll need to arrange a method of getting paid and delivering the item. For example, you can choose to deliver or ship the item, or arrange for it to be picked up. Also, you may prefer to get paid in cash or use a service like Paypal or Venmo.
Great Neighborhood Buy and Sell App: Nextdoor
Nextdoor is another best app to sell stuff locally via mobile. When you install Nextdoor, you’ll need to enter your zip code so the app can connect you to your neighbors and customize your daily feed.
To list an item for sale, click on the “+” icon in your feed, upload a photo, add a price, and include a description.
The great thing about this buy and sell app is that your “for sale” listing will automatically show up in your neighbors’ Nextdoor feeds – along with the usual announcements like road closures, block party announcements, and parking complaints.
If you haven’t received any offers in a couple of days, consider discounting your item to give it a “boost.” Boosting is Nextdoor’s way of bumping your listing up to the top of the feed, and it’s likely to increase the chances of your item selling. It’s important to note that you can’t increase the price again when you discount your item.
There’s also a nifty option to make listings available to your broader local area to reach a wider audience and increase the chances of your stuff selling.
Quick Mobile Selling App: Offer Up and Letgo
OfferUp and Letgo were two separate selling apps that did pretty much the same thing. However, in August 2020, these two buy and sell apps merged.
The combined selling app is called OfferUp, and it provides access to nationwide shipping, which provides a broader market.
You can also enjoy comprehensive safety programs like TruYou. This is the selling app’s way of screening buyers and sellers by verifying identities.
On top of these great features, listings on OfferUp will never expire. So when you list something for sale, it will remain in the marketplace until it sells or you remove the listing.
When you’re ready to sell your stuff, upload a photo, and the selling app will use image recognition to help fill in the information. OfferUp will generate a basic description and a suggested price based on how much similar items sell for in your area.
If you want to sell your item quicker or advertise a discount, you can always pay $0.99 – $3.99 for a premium listing, which will be moved to the top of the page and highlighted.
Great App to Sell Clothes: Poshmark
Poshmark is one of the coolest sale apps to make money with old clothes, shoes, handbags, makeup, and jewelry.
According to Poshmark, there are 25 million items from 5,000+ brands listed on the app on any given day – no wonder it’s one of the best apps to sell clothes.
The process of selling on Poshmark is pretty straightforward: Upload a few photos, fill in the description (brand, size, fit, color, etc.), and set a price. When you sell an item, Poshmark will create a prepaid shipping label for you to make shipping items easier.
When it comes to apps to sell stuff, Poshmark offers a ton of fun features to make the process less stressful. For example, you can use the “Posh Stories” feature to sell your items through short videos that you make.
Another cool feature is the Posh Bundle. This allows sellers to entice buyers to purchase more items by providing a multiple-item discount. You can also sell entire outfits as bundles.
This selling app takes a commission on sales – a flat $2.95 on items sold for less than $15 and 20% of items that sell for more than $15. Once you make a sale, you can get paid via direct deposit or bank check.
Top Money Making App for Designer Clothes: Tradesy
Tradesy is one of the best apps to sell designer clothes. So, if you have any luxury pieces in your closet and want to make some money, consider using this selling app.
To get started, upload photos of your items and specify the brand, size, condition, and the price you’d like to receive. Tradesy will then automatically improve the images to make them more appealing to buyers.
Like some other top selling apps, Tradesy will suggest a price based on what similar items have sold for in the past. If you want to sell faster, you can always opt for reducing the price or join a “Tradesy Sale.”
When you’re ready to ship your items to buyers, Tradesy will create a prepaid shipping label.
Tradesy takes a $7.50 flat commission on every item you sell for less than $50 and 19.8% on items you sell for more than $50. You can transfer your money from the selling app into your PayPal or bank account.
Popular Clothes Selling App: thredUP
thredUP is one of the best selling apps to make money online in 2021. The company has dubbed itself the world’s largest online consignment and thrift store – and for good reason. According to thredUP, you can find more than 35,000 brands and over 2 million items on the selling app. Plus, almost 40,000 women’s and kid’s items are added every single day.
What’s great about thredUp is that they do all the work for you. After you’ve gathered your items to sell, order a free “Clean Out Kit” from the app, and thredUP will send you a huge – and pretty – polka-dot bag to send in your items to sell.
thredUP will inspect your items, take photos of them, and list them on the marketplace for you. Easy, right?
If your items sell, you can receive payment via PayPal or a prepaid Visa card. You also have the option to receive a thredUP credit to buy items on the selling app.
If you want to clean out your closet and make a donation to charity, thredUP will send you a “Donation Kit.” You can send in your clothes, and thredUP will donate your share of the sales.
Mobile Selling App for Media: Decluttr
Decluttr is one of the better apps for selling stuff that you’re not sure what to do with. For example, it’s the perfect place to sell old DVDs, video games, gaming consoles, LEGOS, cell phones, tablets, and textbooks.
The selling process is super easy, and it only takes a few minutes. Just scan the barcodes of your items, and Decluttr will quote you a price instantly.
Once you’re done scanning, you’ll receive a printable prepaid shipping label and a box to send your items to Decluttr.
If your items pass Decluttr’s quality control, you’ll receive your payment the next day. You can choose to get your money via PayPal, direct deposit, or as a bank check.
However, if your items don’t make it past the quality inspection, you won’t receive any money or get your items back. So, be diligent and read the seller guidelines before you start scanning.
Furniture Selling App: Chairish
Chairish is a buy-sell app designed specifically for selling new and used furniture.
There’s a market for almost everything. For example, you can sell high-value vintage items or pre-loved pieces that you hand-crafted.
It’s free to list your items on Chairish if you plan to sell less than ten items per month, and this selling app will take a 30% commission on every sale you make.
However, if you want to list more than ten items per month, you’ll need to subscribe to a membership package. Paid memberships offer additional benefits such as expedited payments, promoted listings, and customer support for your buyers.
Unlike many apps that help you make money, Chairish suggests that you include shipping costs in your listing price. You may also want to consider listing large items as pick-up only.
Once a buyer receives your item, Chairish waits 48 hours to allow for return requests. If the buyer doesn’t initiate a return, your money will be sent to you via Paypal.
Download on: iOS
Custom Apparel Selling App: Printful
Printful is a print on demand app that lets you create and design custom apparel. It’s extremely well-organized and offers over 200 customizable products to print on.
The main requirement to use the app is that you need to have an ecommerce website.
First, connect your site with Printful, then consider your audience and create apparel that’d appeal to them. Next, set a price that covers the costs of printing and shipping while earning you a profit. Lastly, market your products to reach your first customers.
With Printful’s mobile app, you can receive order updates, remove order holds, track your shipments, and talk with customer support.
So if you have a knack for designing clothes with awesome graphics and artwork, consider using this app to monetize your talent and skill.
Conclusion
Software reseller business model is a model where a company resells software that other companies have developed. Software companies may use a variety of distribution models. Software distribution models help decide how a given version of a product will reach its customers.