Introduction
Private Label Rights content (PLR) has, in my opinion, gotten a somewhat undeserved, fringed reputation. I might not be biased as I sell PLR products myself. But I want to add to the conversation that PLR 13 years ago, is not what PLR is today.
Private Label Rights content BEFORE AND NOW
If you Google anything PLR concern related, you find old articles about copyright infringement and plagiarism. And also about duplicate content, saturation in the market and so on.
But, like I said, the concerns are mostly old, meaning from 2000-2010. We now write 2023, and let’s just say that the internet has become something quite different, on a much larger scale. We now even face AI (Artificial Intelligence) that can write whole essays from just a few sentences.
When you hear the label “PLR content”, you might at the same time hear about “White Label”, “Master Resell Rights” or “Resale Rights” content. All of these are types of content that is commonly sold to people running businesses online. Whenever a product is marked with any of these labels, you’re allowed to resell the product as your own. You can add your name on it, sometimes edit it – this depends on the license that you buy when you buy the product. The only thing you can never do, is claim copyright.
You can take a piece of Private Label Rights content, like an article, combine it with other articles, and create an ebook. Or you can create an audio, a course, printables and much more.
PLR content is very much like public domain content, but with public domain the copyright has expired. With PLR your customers will not know who had the original copyright.
Time is the bottleneck in any business, and content creation is time consuming. Using PLR or any done-for-you content to free up time is not a scam, it’s a necessity.
Using Private Label Rights content is kind of like outsourcing some of your tasks, much like going to Upworks or Fiverr, buying a gig and getting someone else to create it for you.
But in many cases it’s cheaper and faster to use PLR content, because in either case, you should edit the text to make it sound more like how you normally would “talk” to your audience through your blog posts, your courses and emails.
The same goes if you buy a ready made coloring book, with resell rights. You should change or add other pieces to the book too, to minimize the chances of there being duplicates out there.
Private Label Rights And Plagiarism
If you have a look at those sites that sell large courses or detailed planners or multiple articles as Private Label content, they don’t always do all of the content creation themselves.
They probably started out doing it themselves, but as they grew, because demand got higher, they couldn’t keep up.
Some hired people inhouse to help out, some outsourced to VA’s, and some used the previously named Upworks and Fiverr.
I’ll be the first to admit that if things are not done by yourself, you can risk plagiarism. But if you’re ever to grow your business, you must learn to trust others.
Even if you run a multimillion dollar company, you can’t be sure that there aren’t some bad seeds among your employees. So should you avoid growing your business just because at some point someone might fool you?
To dismiss PLR content and that alike, just because someone might overstep and copy someone else’s work, is not a sustainable way to run a business.
What it all comes down to, is having systems in place that will hopefully prevent such incidents from happening. There are tools online that you can use, and you can even copy/paste the text into google just to see what comes up.
But again, this is why you should always edit any PLR content you purchase, or any copywriting you outsource, to make it yours. Your voice and your words, to make it yours.
That way, even if it should turn out that the original piece you bought was somewhat copyright material, you’ve made it unique, and will by that avoid any lawsuits.
The Problem With PLR And Duplicate Content
When PLR content became popular several years ago, it was sold at low prices and in high volumes.
Now, in 2023, to not saturate the market, to avoid penalizing from Google, and to limit the possibilities for duplicate content out there, many PLR sales sites limit their sales of each product.
The prices for the products goes up, but instead of selling to maybe thousands of small businesses, many now limit to 10-50 sales of each product.
The PLR content creators are no longer interested in flooding the internet with the same product, as that will not benefit themselves in the long run, as businesses rely more and more on SEO and organic traffic to their sites.
And there are both free and paid guides and courses on how you can edit PLR content you buy, so that it will stand out from the other copies that are sold.
A different perspective on this duplicate issue is that many people buy PLR content, only to store it on their computer, and never put it to use. Just like you’re a member of a book club, but hardly sit down any more to read the books that are delivered to your mailbox.
And let’s take this PLR duplicate problem and transfer it to physical products – because physical products also have duplicates.
Think of toothbrushes. Meatballs. Duvets. Bicycles.
They are all the same, but they are not 100% alike. They work the same way, but they don’t feel the same or taste the same. Some like the mothers and some the daughters.
Again, to avoid copyright infringement, to avoid duplicates that are identical – put your own words and voice to the products.
You can also buy t-shirts with private labels. The only thing telling the t-shirts apart is the logo on the front or back. But some will buy one brand, and some the other.
PLR Content And PLR Quality
High ticket PLR content does not always mean better quality.
What you should be looking for is if the content is editable in Canva or Illustrator or similar programs. To determine quality you should also see if the different elements of the PLR complement each other.
If it consists of a planner and social media images and quotes – do they cover the same topic, or is it just some random things put together in a package?
There are also those that offer 10000 PLR ebooks in one huge bundle, at an extremely low price. Unless you’re looking for a gem in the haystack or want to do some serious editing of all 10000 ebooks – steer away.
Not only do these files take up a lot of storage space, the chances of you being able to use them as is, is slim to none. The content is often outdated, the graphics are from 1990 and so on.
Private Label Rights content Conclusion
2023 is my 4th year in the PLR industry, both as a buyer and a creator of PLR. In my experience, if you do take some time to edit the content and make it personal to your brand, you do not have to worry about duplicates out there.
It’s also a good idea to get on different email lists of PLR content providers. That way you get a feeling of what they’re like. You’ll find out if they seem to create a product every now and then or if they seem to be on a conveyor belt when it comes to content creation.
Check the value of what they’re offering by trying out some of their free content before buying. And have a look and see if their website(s) get regularly updated.
All of these things can help you determine if this is just a site set up to make a couple of $$ in passive income. Or if it’s a business that keeps on growing and is determined to deliver value.
Interested in other blog posts about this topic?
Copyright Infringement and PLR