As you may recall, in Part 2 of this series I mentioned the potential legal pitfalls of using PLR (private label rights) articles. So it was with some amusement that I read this email from one of the free PLR sites:
“Due to a disagreement with the supplier of the Private Label Articles we had to temporarily remove them until we find another source. Until then we are giving away AdSense Websites!”
Ooops. Man, it must hurt to create a PLR membership site (this one was offering 100 free PLR articles weekly) and then have the rights to those PLR articles revoked… kind of takes the wind out of the business model, no? If you ever plan on using PLR articles, be sure you know what rights you have to the material. Obviously this group discovered they didn't have the right to distribute the articles they were using.
So what CAN you do with PLR articles? As I see it, there are two legitimate uses:
- As information sources. People who write their own content, which is what I always recommend, generally need to do some research beforehand. Even if you're an expert on something, there are probably things you don't know or don't remember. And if you're not an expert, you've got lots to learn. Any article on the topic can be a useful source of information, whether or not it's a PLR article. You'll probably want to look at articles in the Wikipedia, too, for example. Of course, the idea is use them as sources of information, not to copy the words verbatim.
- As edited collections. If you do want to republish PLR articles verbatim, be picky about it. Do something with the content. Edit it for style. Only pick the best articles. Add your own material. Make it a useful collection, not just a random mish-mash of articles. This means you may end up using only 1 in 10 articles you see. But you're adding value. See Are article directories ethical? for further thoughts.
Now I know that people use the articles for other purposes, and that's why PLR articles are especially hot right now — they look like an easy way to get fresh content into a site/blog. But if you're thinking long term, you've got to think beyond just stuffing every article you can find into the system. I don't expect to discuss PLR articles any further unless there are specific questions you'd like answered, so we'll move on to something else. I hope everyone is having a happy holiday weekend (Canada Day here, Independence Day in the US)!
Sponsored Link: Hey, why not sign up for my free Profitable Niche Discovery course? No hype, just solid information. So far there are 8 lessons, spaced two days apart. All written by me — no rehashed PLR articles!
Eric Giguere is the contextual advertising expert who wrote Make Easy Money with Google and Uncommon AdSense. You can read this blog by mail if it's more convenient for you, just send a blank email to memwg-blog@aweber.com to subscribe.
As a whole, PLR articles don’t really work for websites that want to stand out from the crowd. But that doesn’t mean they’re not valuable. That’s why we’ve created a list of 101 Things To Do With PLR Articles designed to jump start your brain and get you out of that PLR box. Please share this article as it’s licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike License (which is a fancy way of calling it an ‘open-source’ work): http://www.outsource2documaker.com/101-plr.htm