PLR, or Private Label Rights content is content written by someone else for which you have the right to edit freely, put your name on it, sell it and various other things. It can be a great way to shortcut the content creation phase of building a website or a product, but to get the most out of it there are several strategies that you'll need to implement.
We're going to look at some ways to make more money when you sell PLR products as well as how you can make it more effective as web content too.
We'll even get into some more advanced strategies for using PLR, as well as a few
"gotchas" that you need to be aware of.
Let's dig in…
Selling PLR Products
Selling it is one of the most profitable strategies for using PLR. You can get ebooks, video courses, audio courses and various other forms of PLR that you can then sell as your own products. If you have an existing email list you can offer it to them or you can set it up to sell from your own website, and then start generating traffic to that site.
You basically have two options when you sell a PLR product:
- Sell it as is, in its original, unchanged form
- Edit it or repurpose it in some way to make it more unique before you starting selling
Both strategies have their place, but in most cases you'll be more profitable by choosing the second option - editing it in some way before you start selling it.
This can mean rewriting the content in the case of an ebook or it might mean repurposing that content into a completely different format, such as audio or video.
Think about this for a moment…
If the only change you make to a PLR package before you start selling it is recording a video version (which can also be turned into an audio version very easily) you're going to have a multi-media course that people can watch, read or listen to.
If they compare that with another offer from someone who simply put the PLR up for sale in its original format, which offer do you think they're going to buy? Even if you charge more for your "expanded" version, chances are good that they would choose yours.
And taking it one step further, once you have audio and video recordings for the package, you have the basis of a physical product - printed book (from the ebook), audio CDs (from the audio files) and even DVD training (from the videos).
A physical product like that can be sold for $197-$297 quite easily, compared to maybe (and it's a big maybe!) $97 for the complete digital version. And an ebook all by itself? Probably no more than $27.
Of course, rewriting and repurposing the content takes time, which kind of defeats the purpose of PLR in some ways. It's all about saving you time when creating content.
If you want to sell it as is, in its original form there's nothing wrong with that. The key to making this work is having an audience that you can market it to - an email list, a list of followers on Twitter or Facebook, etc.
If you have an audience of people with whom you already have a connection, you can simply send them an offer for the new product. Load it up on your website (or register a new one if you prefer) and send them to that page.
If you don't have an audience yet, you can promote it in other ways -
question and answer websites, forum signatures, SEO, paid traffic, etc. - but the chances are higher that those people might have seen the same offer somewhere else, and might wind up buying from the cheapest source.
And remember - being the cheapest source is usually not the best way to generate sales. You want to target people who are happy to buy from you at any price, not the ones that are always looking for the cheapest source.
Another effective strategy for selling PLR is to use a "hybrid" of the two options - selling as is or customizing.
One of the keys to being successful with PLR is taking fast action. The sooner you can get it up and selling, the sooner you can make back the money you spent on it (and then some).
Being quick-to-market also means you'll beat many of the other people who bought the same PLR package, effectively avoiding early competition.
To get the best of both strategies, you can set up the "stock" PLR package and start selling it through your email list, Facebook Page and so on right away. Then work on adding value through repurposing and rewriting the package.
You can even offer the initial package as a sort of "review" copy. Let your audience know that you're offering them a "pre-launch" deal, in exchange for some feedback. This can help you generate testimonials for one thing, and it will also generate feedback from those buyers as to what could be added or improved.
This can all be incorporated into your final "expanded" version, making it even more effective.
In exchange for sending in a testimonial or feedback (good or bad) those people could be given a free upgrade to the final version when it's ready.
Re-purposing PLR Content
We've already touched on this briefly in the last section, but let's discuss re-purposing PLR content in a little more detail.
Re-purposing means changing the format or the contents of the package in some way that's significant enough to make it unique compared to anyone else selling the same thing.
One of the easiest ways to change a PLR product is by rebranding it with a new title and new graphics.
Many PLR packages include minisites and product graphics. If you use the stock website and images, your product will be instantly identifiable as the same as anyone else who also uses them. Making new graphics gets rid of that problem.
You can either create these yourself or you can outsource it through a site like
Fiverr.com or the Warriors For Hire section on the Warrior Forum.
It shouldn't cost you more than $50 or so for an entire minisite with new product graphics, or you can spend as little as $5 on each image you need.
Even if nothing else is changed, new graphics will make the product look like a completely different thing to anyone else's.
Another effective way to repurpose your PLR content is to convert it into multiple formats. The majority of PLR packs are written content - articles, ebooks, etc. - so you can take those and convert them into audio or video, for example.
This is easier than it might sound, even if you aren't very comfortable with recording videos.
There's no need for you to be on camera. All you need to do is create a Powerpoint (or Keynote or OpenOffice Impress) slideshow that highlights the important points in the bullets.
Use Camtasia, Cam Studio, Screenflow or any other screen capture software to record a screencast video of you reading the ebook or articles while you page through the presentation slides.
You might need to practice this a few times to get the hang of it, but once you've done it a couple of times it gets pretty easy to put together.
And once the video is finished, you can export the audio track to create an audio version of the content that your buyers can play on their iPod or record to CD to listen anywhere.
And remember what we discussed in the last section - once you have those audio and video versions you can convert the whole package into a "home study" course that you physically send to your customers, and can charge much more for.
Note: All these steps could be outsourced as well if you prefer.
One method of repurposing PLR content that most marketers overlook is having it converted into another language.
The internet is world-wide so there are many potential buyers who may not understand English. If the topic of your PLR isn't specific to any one country or location, why not have it converted into another language so you can sell it to people in other countries more easily?
If you're fluent in another language yourself you can do this yourself but if not, sites like
Elance.com or
oDesk.com are good places to look for a translator.
Using PLR As Web Content
One of the most widely-used types of PLR is articles, which are generally used for web content - blog posts, website articles, etc. This can be a great way to avoid having to write your own content, which is particularly helpful in niches you may not be that familiar with, but it does have one big disadvantage - duplicate content.
Even if the PLR has a limited number of licenses being sold, there are going to be multiple people with the right to use it. Posting a PLR article on your site with no changes whatsoever is generally not very effective because of the duplicate content factor caused by all the other people who can also use it.
If you're the first to get it posted and indexed, you have a chance that yours will be the one that the search engines consider the original but it can be tough to always be the first.
A more effective strategy is to rewrite the PLR before you post it to your website, so it will be original content as far as the search engines are concerned.
Rewriting doesn't necessarily mean you have to rewrite the entire article, however. Making a few changes is often all it takes to get your content ranked.
You should always change the title, or headline, of the article and it's a good idea to edit the opening paragraph or add a new one of your own. A new closing paragraph is also a good idea, but the rest of the article can often be left as is without any penalties.
Another option for rewriting is more of a "curation" process than actually rewriting the article.
In other words, post the article to your website in its original form but add your own commentary throughout the article. Add an introductory paragraph with a
brief overview of the article, add some comments within the article body and add a closing paragraph that sums up both the article and your comments.
This lets you use the PLR content with no rewriting, but by adding your own comments it will change it enough to make it "unique" to the search engines.
You have two choices when using PLR as web content:
- Free content
- Paid content
If you plan to use PLR as free web content, or even as a giveaway for building an email list or some other type of lead generation, make sure you check the license first. Some packages don't allow you to use them as free web content or to give the content away.
If that's the case, you can still use it as the basis for a website. Just use the content to populate a paid membership. This works best if the content can be split up into modules that can be delivered over a period of time.
For example, if you had an ebook that contained 6 chapters, each of which covers a particular sub-topic, you could create a 6-week membership site with one
chapter being delivered to your members each week. Once again, you could create an audio and/or video version as well to add even more value for your members.
Using PLR For Research Purposes
Another under-utilized strategy for using PLR is to shortcut the research process. If you're planning on creating a product of your own, and you can find a PLR product that covers the same topic you can save yourself a great deal of time by "swiping" the overall structure and content of the PLR.
Think of it this way…
The person who wrote the PLR in the first place had to do some research before putting it together. They had to:
- Research the content itself
- Plan the structure of the content
- Outline it and put it into a logical order
- Possibly do some keyword/market research
All of which are things you would have to do yourself if you were creating something from scratch. But when you have the PLR product to use as a model you can simply follow the lead of the person who wrote it.
- Use the information in the body of the content to research your own
- Copy the structure of their content
- Use their outline in your own original product
- Use their keyword/market research data
And the best part is, there's absolutely no reason you shouldn't be doing this. It's not like buying a competing product and copying what that person did - you have the right to use a PLR package however you want, including breaking it down and copying whatever components you want.
Some Things To Watch Out For
When you're using PLR content for your websites and/or products you're selling there are a few things that you need to be aware of.
One of the big things is to always be sure you're staying within the "rules" set out in the PLR license. Most PLR packages include a license (often a file called rights.txt) that outline exactly what you can and can't do with the content. It will look something like this:
RIGHTS:
- [YES] Can be edited completely and your name put on it
- [YES] Can be given away
- [YES] Can be sold
- [YES] Can be used as a bonus for another paid product
- [YES] Can sell Resell Rights
- [NO] Can sell Master Resell Rights
- [NO] Can sell Private Label Rights
It may have a lot more restrictions than this, but it will spell out what you can - and more importantly, can't - do with the content.
In this example, you can use it however you want for the most part but you can't pass along master resale or private label rights to anyone else.
Some PLR packages won't let you give it away, limit you from selling it in certain places like eBay or the
Warrior Forum, and various other things. While it's highly unlikely there could be any real legal recourse if you broke the rules, it's in everyone's best interest to abide by them.
If one marketer starts selling it below the recommended minimum price, or on a site like eBay, it devalues it for everyone who bought the license.
And speaking of resale rights, that's one of the things that is worth checking on any PLR you are considering.
If the rights allow you to pass along master resale rights and/or private label
rights it can create a situation where the product gets saturated because too many people are selling the same thing.
Master resale rights, or master resell rights (MRR) means you have the right to sell the product but you can also pass those rights along to your buyers. So if you buy a PLR license and give the MRR license to your buyers, they can not only sell the product themselves, they can also pass along resale rights to their buyers.
This results in every "level" of buyers being able to sell it as well and it multiplies exponentially.
Note: The only real difference between master resale and private label rights is that PLR usually allows you to change the source files and customize it however you want. MRR typically doesn't allow customization, just reselling.
There are cases where offering MRR to your buyers can be useful, mind you. If you include affiliate links, links to your own products or other promotional messages in the product itself, allowing others to sell it can help it go viral.
Just be aware of the pros and cons when considering these PLR packages, and decide ahead of time whether you would be better served by a more limited number of sellers or potentially larger distribution.
"Fingerprints" are another thing to be careful of. In other words, things that can be easily identified as tying the PLR back to a particular seller, website or anything else.
Sometimes minisite designs or product graphics will have a "Designed by …" message on them, for example. Or a product might have links back to the original PLR seller in the "stock" files. You can change these if they're there, but if you're not watching you might miss them.
These types of things can identify the product as having come from a particular source and in some markets - particularly internet marketing and markets that are familiar with internet marketing - your customers might just bypass you and buy from the PLR seller directly in the future.
Depending on how the fingerprints are embedded in the site, it can also raise flags with the search engines when it comes to duplicate content.
It's always a good idea to go through the website and the product and look for any of these fingerprints before you start selling it or upload the website to your hosting.
Conclusion
PLR can be a great way to expand both the content on your website and your stable of products to sell.
You'll save a great deal of time and effort by leveraging it effectively.
Just don't treat it like some kind of magical content source that saves you from doing any work at all. You might get lucky and be able to make some money with it by doing this, but you'll be leaving far more on the table than if you follow some of the simple strategies in this guide to make your PLR more unique and more attractive to your customers.
