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Chances are, you’ve got gold on your hard drive if you’ve ever bought PLR (private label rights) or DFY (done-for-you) content. You just need to know how to customize this type of content and brand it with your own personality to cash in on that gold.
Stop Collecting Digital Dust
Sometimes, people don’t know how to edit this type of content. It then sits on the buyer’s computer collecting digital dust. Don’t let that happen to you! Put your purchased done-for-you content to use ASAP and cash in your digital treasure chest.
What is PLR?
First, let’s define PLR in case you’re not familiar with the concept. PLR also goes by the names white-label content, DFY or done-for-you content, and brandable content. All of these terms refer to content that is sold with a license allowing the buyer to edit, customize, and claim authorship of the content. In this article, PLR and DFY are interchangeable terms.
Licenses
Always read the license sold with each piece of PLR content to be clear about what rights come with your product. For instance, some PLR sellers only allow their content to be sold as a product, which means you would not be able to publish those PLR articles as a blog post even if you edit them. That’s because a blog is a free resource on the internet accessible to all. Be sure you understand the terms of the license before purchasing and then publishing done-for-you content.
Hire a Ghostwriter vs Use PLR
The big difference between PLR content and content written by a professional ghostwriter is in the distribution of the PLR content. Ghostwriters are hired to write content for one single buyer. Because of that, the fees to hire a professional ghostwriter are much higher than fees to purchase a license for PLR content.
Since each PLR package is potentially sold to multiple buyers, if all these buyers publish the same PLR content unedited on the internet, the search engines see this content as copied. That hurts the published authors’ SEO rankings. This is the most compelling reason to edit and customize PLR content before publishing it. Additionally, the simple editing steps below make your published content sound more like your unique voice and less ‘generic’.
PLR is a Starting Point
Consider PLR a resource, a starting point—it’s much easier to edit content already in a word processor than it is to stare at a blank page. It will help you when you have writer’s block or you’re just stuck with what to publish.
You probably had some idea for how you could use the PLR content you’ve bought in the past or you probably would never have considered buying it in the first place. Once bought, though, the majority of people fail to put this content to use. If it just sits on your hard drive, it’s not doing anyone any good.
Use this 4-step process to edit PLR content to make publishing content quicker and more consistent. Pull out one of the articles on your hard drive that you’ve not published yet and let’s go through these steps with it. In no time, you’ve got a blog post ready to publish.
Step #1 Include a personal story and/or your opinion somewhere in the article.
Storytelling is a great art and it’s available to everyone. Stories are all around you. You don’t have to be Aesop, Steven King or even William Shakespeare in order to come up with a great story.
Pay attention to what happens in your everyday life. Segue into your topic with a relevant story about something that happened to you that reminds you of the importance of the topic you’re writing about.
If you keep a diary or journal, you have valuable stories right there. You can also keep a specific story journal—pay attention to what happens in the news, in your life, with your kids or spouse or friends and jot down a word or two about how that might be relevant in your business. Then when you’re looking for a story to use for editing PLR, scan through your story journal and use one.
For example, your kids’ lemonade stand could be incorporated into an article about the importance of understanding how to attract your target market: thirsty people buy more lemonade than those who aren’t thirsty.
I created a storytelling workbook you can use to hone your storytelling skills and jumpstart your collection of stories.
Add your opinion to the article, whether it’s in favor or contrast to what is commonly thought about the topic. You might have a piece of PLR content that talks about how important Facebook ads are for your marketing. Maybe you’re not too keen on Facebook advertising, so you pull out pieces of the PLR article and explain how this is the commonly held belief although you have a different opinion about it and then include that opinion.
Don’t be afraid to really highlight your opinions and share them. That’s what makes your articles truly customized and uniquely yours.
Include any other ideas, steps, or tips that you’ve used or know about that would benefit the reader. When you view this PLR piece as a starting point for your writing, the creation will often flow more easily to ‘fill in the blanks’ allowing you to improve the article with your own expertise, wisdom and personality.
Step #2 Appeal To Your Readers’ Eyes
You want to draw in your readers’ eyes with images that make them stop to read while they’re skimming your article. You can do this by adding the appropriate visuals or personal enhancements: screenshots, graphs, infographics, images, tables, quotes or other enhancements like ‘callout boxes’.
Not every article lends itself to graphs or tables, so decide if that’s appropriate for your topic. Infographics are easily created with photo editing software like Canva. Add quotes that enhance or add to your article, too. These could be quotes from known experts in your niche or use your own quotes on the topic.
Don’t forget to add appropriate headings to break up the paragraphs and make skimming easier for your reader. Sometimes that’s included when the PLR content has been written but not always.
Step #3 Include a call to action.
This could be an offer for a content upgrade, a freebie, or a product that is relevant to the article. You can offer an invitation for readers to join you in your Facebook group or follow you on Instagram.
Be sure that the call to action is inside the article, even if you have the icons for FB, Twitter and Instagram on the bottom, top or side of the page. You want to make it easy for folks to follow-through with your call to action so they don’t have to hunt all over the page.
Step #4 Change the title.
You’ll want to use keywords in the title that you choose for your article. Change the order of the original keywords or add some number elements or emotional words.
For example, the original title of an article might be, “Create Your Own Digital Products”. This can be changed to any one of these options:
- (X) Steps Anyone Can Use To Create Your Own Digital Products
- Digital Product Creation Made Easy
- Down and Dirty Guide To Your First (Or Next) Digital Product
- The Easy Button For Digital Product Creation
- Digital Product Creation Secrets
- Put Your Digital Product Creation System On Steroids
Once you’ve got a list of potential titles, you could run them through a headline/title analyzer like the one at https://coschedule.com/headline-analyzer to get an idea of the best choice. You could even plug-in the original title in the headline analyzer and play around with different combinations or order of keywords to come up with your own ideal title.
No More Digital Dust
When you follow this 4-step process to make PLR content unique to your brand and your audience, you’ll be able to quickly and easily use the PLR you purchase. No more digital dust collection on your computer.
If content is king, consistency is queen when it comes to content marketing. Using PLR content helps you rule your niche since you’ll be able to consistently and frequently publish great content so you can impact more people and make those positive changes you desire in the world.
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Hi 🙂
Thanks for the tips for PLR customization. I wanted to start adding some content to a older blog that has been needing attention for a while, but just never get the time to write content for it. So bought some PLR and want to make it unique before posting. Thanks for the headline analyzer recommendation, it looks very useful. Your site looks good, well done. I’ll apply to become an affiliate and add you to my PLR directory for coaching content providers.
Have an awesome day and stay safe during these strange times,
Mozie
Thanks so much for your kind comments, Mozie! Nice to meet you here and I look forward to getting to know you and your business better!