By Jimmy Krug –
PLR (Private label rights) products and systems are very popular in the world of Internet Marketing. It’s easy to understand why. It takes time to write fresh, thoughtful, insightful content. Especially regularly! Try writing a quality monthly newsletter or blog. It requires some focus. Try writing a weekly blog for that matter! It may be easy at first, but after awhile, you’ll find yourself challenged in some way, shape or form.
I know, I’ve been there! There have been times I’ve been 600 or more words into and article, eBook or blog post – only to scrap the entire idea because honestly… it was crap. I’m not saying that everything your write and produce for your business (or your business in the making) has to be solid gold. It doesn’t. What I’m saying is, if you’ve been creating (or trying to create) content for any length of time, you know when you’re giving it your best and when you’re just filling space with fluff.
The PLR Shortcut
This is one of the main reasons buying private label rights to an existing product/publication is so attractive. All the hard work has been done for you.
Private label products have a place. If you really want to stand out in your niche, though, you have to have original content.
Does Stephen King Do All His Own Writing?
I used to wonder if Stephen King had a team of writers working under him like they have on TV shows and series. Over the years I watched in amazement as he churned out one novel after another. I heard that some writers bought story-lines and plots from other writers and basically “fleshed-out” the story. After reading his book “On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft,” however, I was finally convinced that King lived, breathed and ate his craft and was most certainly “doing the writing.”
Original content. That’s what he produces and that’s why his books are so memorable (if you enjoy horror). They’re infused with his personality.
Yes, buying something another person wrote and changing it however much or little has its place if you’re a marketer (as opposed to a full-time writer or author). Ultimately, though, what’s going to set you apart from everyone else isn’t the product someone else wrote. It’s your own, original content stamped with your unique personality that will ultimately separate you from the pack.
In my own business, I’ve purchased PLR products before. Most of them I rewrote because I wasn’t happy with the content once I started digging into it and analyzing it. Basic chapter titles and the main facts remained. Just about everything else was gutted and replaced it with my own content. These were publications I used to originally promote different services to offline clients.
If you’ve got a lot on your plate, PLR can (at the very least) get you headed in a focused direction.
For example, I understand how email marketing works. I can write a short or long (if necessary) book on the subject if I had to. Why would I buy a PLR publication on the same topic? It all comes down to saving time.
It’s All about Speed and Testing the Market
You can buy a PLR product, make your changes and have it live within 3-4 days. If the response to the short publication is good… you can go ahead and create a full publication, blog, video series, etc., for the topic. The short publication always precedes the long one. If the market doesn’t respond and it flops, you’ve lost days instead of months. This is a very simple way to test new ideas and markets.
Some markets go through downward trends that last awhile. We’ve seen this amplified since 2007. If you’re in a market that’s trending downward, you’re not going see a great response resulting from your efforts. If you’re new to a market, don’t assume anything. Find people who know the market well enough and ask questions. Find out the good and the bad about the market you’re getting involved in, not just “how much money” is in it.
A few of my friends are public speakers. They get paid by corporations and organizations to come in and motivate their employees. They hired me to help them promote their products and services with online publications (eBooks, blogs, newsletters, etc.) As I worked with them, I began seeing patterns in the “speaking biz.” From the outside, it looked one way. On the inside, though, it was much different.
Every Niche Market Has Its Own, Unique “Headaches”
Let me be completely honest with you when I say this… on the outside, EVERYTHING looks different than it actually is in black and white reality. I don’t care what market you’re talking about. Every niche has its own “headaches.” You just have to determine which headaches you’re better equipped to deal with and which ones you’re not.
Article Blogging – How to Refine Your Ideas Even Further
I got involved with WordPress about six years ago. Actually, you can say I went “all in.” Seeing the way the Internet was developing along with the growing complexities of SEO and content creation, I came to the conclusion that in my case… either WordPress, Joomla or Drupal would provide me with the automated tools I needed to grow my business into the next decade.
After about three months of deliberating, I chose WordPress. Six years later, I’m thrilled with my choice!
Articles (or blog posts) are even shorter than special reports. You can experiment with a variety of topics in a particular niche and watch how your readers respond. Not that you will necessarily get a lot of comments about what you’ve written (spammers and backlink junkies aside). You can simply look into your control panel’s statistics page and see how many visits certain articles get as compared with others over the course of weeks, months and even years. All it takes is a month or two to know if you have a hit, near hit or miss.
You will soon realize that certain articles get a lot more traffic than others and you can adjust your strategy from there.
As you do this, you’re creating original content which can later be used in many ways. You can develop a special report from one or more articles. The articles can ultimately become chapters in an eBook or course. Articles can be turned into audio or video products, too.
The average blog article these days are only 600-700 words in length. In other words, they’re not full-length features like the one you’re currently reading. They’re much shorter.
With your blog, your content is basically archived forever – or at least as long as the site remains online.
Not only do are you creating original content that can be used today or further down the line, but you’re also branding yourself as a writer/publisher in a particular niche in the process.
It’s a win-win situation across the board.
It Pays To Be Original
Recently, I met journalist at a friend’s birthday party. The subject of the conversation eventually began revolving around the topic of Online Publishing, eBooks and Blogging. She told me, “I’d love to start doing something, but there are a million-and-one blogs out there already about every topic.” I agreed but added, “What do you think about the quality of information you’re getting or reading?”
Her response was priceless. “Terrible!” she said. “The quality of writing, the information, it is complete garbage 99% of the time.”
As I went on to explain to her, therein lies the opportunity. Many blogs are being written strictly for SEO purposes these days. The readability of the content is wrist-cutting bad (that’s really bad!). People NEVER return to these sites again. They’re a waste of precious megabytes.
Other blogs are created to be nothing more than “Ad Machines.” The content is fair. You may find one or two useful things here or there, but nothing to write home about. I’m talking about blogs in this section, but you can apply this to special reports or eBooks as well because we’re talking about the quality of the content.
The quality of content has spiraled so badly over the past few years (in favor of the quantity of content); you can easily become a standout writer/publisher in just about any niche you can think of today – if you focus and stay on topic.
It Takes Time, But Not That Much Time
Personally, I can write one or two quality articles – per niche, per month. That may sound like nothing but over time, let’s say six to twelve months, that translates into a quality blog, eBook or special report of substance. Is six to twelve months too much of a time investment? Not if there’s money to be made (in my opinion). Remember, this is how you test.
The first special report or blog article you write may not generate too much interest. Neither may the second, third or fourth.
If you’re consistent, though, from one month to the next, you’ll “suddenly” have a body of work you’ve created. The sum of your work will be greater than the individual parts as far as establishing your expertise on a subject. You can apply simple technique to any niche or topic. One writer I know did this on the topic of wine and wine tasting. That’s how he started. He’s now considered an expert and publishes a column in several magazines.
I encouraged one of my clients, a doctor (a regenerative medicine specialist), to use this system to write easy-to-understand articles about the type of medicine he practices and its practical benefits. Since starting his blog six months ago, his practice has increased its number of patients noticeably. He told me last week that he couldn’t be happier about the progress his business has made in such a short span of time.
Anyone with a little focus and patience can do this. You can, too.
Some Things to Remember
