Ok, so I received several smackdowns regarding this PLR thing, many writers claim it to be quite lucrative. I’m wondering if any of the PLR writers can tell us how much they have earned with one set of articles, and how many times said set sold.
Thanks!
July 21st, 2007 at 6:27 pm
I started writing PLR articles with a website recently and wrote about 4 sets and have so far made $15.00. I know that’s not much but the owner of the site assures me I’ll make money and to keep submitting.
July 21st, 2007 at 7:32 pm
What is PLR?
July 21st, 2007 at 8:12 pm
The pack that’s sold the most for me was put up two months ago. So far, I’ve made $150 (from that pack alone) selling to 10 people. I’ll sell it 40 more times before I discontinue it.
http://www.easyplr.com and http://www.plrminimart.com are two other sites that operate similar to mine that seem to be pretty successful. If their sales numbers are correct you can deduce how much they’re making.
July 22nd, 2007 at 1:22 am
LP –
If I were you, and wait and see how much you make on the sets you have submitted before you put forth the effort to write more. The claim “There’s no limit to the income you can earn” is a common ploy by low-paying clients to bleed a writer dry.
Latoya –
$150 doesn’t sound bad, but how many articles does a set entail? It still sounds to me like a gamble: what if you can’t sell it 50 times? Besides that, at the rate you’re going, it’ll take eight more months to finish selling your 50 sets.
So it’s a gamble and it takes a long time to pan out. Hmmmmm.
Deb is, as usual, being more than fair about things, but I for one am not yet convinced.
July 22nd, 2007 at 10:48 am
WHAT IS PLR ?
July 22nd, 2007 at 11:32 am
Erricka,
PLR, or private label rights articles are articles the writer selling in a “bundle” say 10. They sell each bundle for a set price, say $20, to many different webmasters. Some PLR writers claim to sell packs of articles 50 or 60 time. Please see the discussions below for more information.
Hope that helps!
Deb
July 22nd, 2007 at 1:58 pm
Katharine-
I have 10 articles in each set. I’d charge $200 for exclusive rights to the same articles. So, with this particular pack, I’ve already earned 75% of my regular rate.
Just like all other products, marketing has a large impact on the sales rate. I must say what I’ve made so far in total from selling PLR is pretty good considering I do a minimal amount of marketing.
With PLR, the potential losses are minimal, but the potential gains are significantly greater. Yes, it is a gamble, but I doubt you could point me to a profitable business model that isn’t risky.
—-
Erricka & Kathleen-
Private label rights give the buyer access only to certain parts of the copyright.
A copyright, which can be held by one person, has multiple parts to it - the right to display the piece, the right to distribute the piece, and the right to reproduce the piece, among other rights.
Think of a copyright as a body with several parts. Only one person can own the body, but several different people can use the body parts. (lol, that sounds a little provocative)
With PLR, the copyright owner determines what rights they will allow buyer to purchase. Most all sellers allow the buyer to at least reproduce and display the piece. Some others allow them to redistribute the piece as well.
Private label rights can apply to anything that has a copyright. The rights do not have to be limited to a certain number of people, but is often done anyway to maintain the attractiveness of the product.
Like Deb said, what we’re talking about in this discussion are PLR article packs - where writers bundle several articles, give certain private label rights to them, and sell them to multiple people.
July 22nd, 2007 at 2:11 pm
So then,
Suppose I want to sell a pack, let’s say, of 12 articles, on how to burn the fat off of one’s stomach. I then write 12 articles (how long?) on this topic, then sell the bundle to some web site? Thanks for your patience with me; I have run out of ideas for AC and need to look at other easy-paying markets.
July 22nd, 2007 at 8:11 pm
I’d be interested in learning more about this as well. This is the first I’ve heard of it. Are there websites that act as a coordinator saying we want articles on this topic? Or do you simply come up with ten articles of your own? And like Erika, I’m wondering the length.
Thanks to anyone who can provide additional insight. (And thanks Latoya for that explanation.)
July 23rd, 2007 at 9:56 am
I don’t sell my PLR articles to a Web site to sell them for me. I sell them on my own through a Web site and I do forum postings, link to my site in my forum signature, etc. Success with PLR sales has a lot to do with what niches you write about and what competitive advantages you have over your competitors.
I sell 20 articles in a pack for $10 and each pack is one specific niche. The two packs I just released are in the pet and fashion niches (the pet niche has 10 articles on dog breeds and 10 articles on cat breeds and the fashion niche has 5 articles each on shoes, handbags, jewelry, and clothing).
When I write the articles, I do keyword research beforehand and optimize each article using one particular keyword. For example, the pet niche pack contains an article optimized for the phrase “golden retriever puppy.” I also calculate the KW density of each article by dividing the number of times the key phrase appears by the total number of words in the article. I aim for 2% density; buyers can add the keyword in more times if they want a higher saturation. However, this gives me a little edge because the buyer can see that the article is already optimized.
I also do something I haven’t seen any other PLR sellers do, but I’m sure some do it. I provide each article in text format, but I also provide each article formatted in HTML so if a buyer wants to, they can cut and paste the HTML-formatted text right from Notepad into their Web site editor and save it. The formatting I do is making the headings bold, making sure there is a double space between paragraphs, etc.
I limit my articles to 75 buyers, which means that a pack can make me $750. If I sold 20 articles to one buyer, I might make $300-400 depending on the buyer’s budget. So, by doing PLR, I make $350-450 more than I would otherwise.
Another good thing about PLR is that the articles can be very general. For example, a client may ask you to write about “5 training methods for golden retrievers” and you’ve got to limit your article to that specific topic and do research on those 5 methods. When writing your own PLR articles to sell, you can be as general or specific as you want, which can cut down on the amount of specific research you have to do. My dog articles, for example, are overviews of each breed and give information like coat length, coloring, common health problems, whether the dog is good for an apartment, etc.
I think the key to being profitable with PLR is 1. choosing profitable niches (you’ll make more money writing PLR articles about weight loss than you will writing about an obscure topic) and 2. marketing your packages well.
Great discussion, Deb.
P.S. Latoya - I can’t get into DP forums for some reason, so if you’re reading this, know that I’m not ignoring your message! I am waiting for the mods to respond to my e-mail for help.
July 23rd, 2007 at 11:02 am
This PLR thing has me stymied.
What types of sites buy content? Those run by indiviuduals?
If I’m researching buying a puppy, and I type in golden retreiver puppy into the search engine, it’s possible that the same article comes up multiple times? Or if not the same article, some closely related permutation of it?
Yuck. Makes me want to go back to the library to do my research.
July 23rd, 2007 at 1:26 pm
Erricka/Patrizia-
There is no standard way of selling PLR articles. It’s however you choose to do it.
You can bundle as many articles as you want, make the word count whatever you want, write on whatever topics you want, and sell to whomever will pay
I haven’t seen any websites that coordinate PLR as far as assigning topics, but contenttycoon.com and websitecontentplr.com allow you to sell your PLR on their sites. Contenttycoon takes a small commission. WebsiteContentPLR is free.
It’s possible to sell PLR without going through any website at all, though it’s probably more work marketing and making transactions.
MelissaO-
Yes, typically the types of sites that buy PLR content are run by individuals and yes, the same article will probably appear *somewhere* in the search results multiple times. Considering “golden retriever puppy” has over 2 million results, you have a .0001% chance of coming across the article even one time (assuming the PLR article is posted on 200 websites) and .00009 chance of coming across it again. The probabilities are even smaller with keywords that have more competition and smaller PLR distributions.
The fact is SEO isn’t just about sticking keywords in an article. Sure, writers can help optimize by adding keywords, but that alone will not make a site rank high in search engines.
In the grand scheme of things, PLR really isn’t that bad, not for writers, not for webmasters, not for internet users.
I’d like to know if the people who dislike PLR are also against article directories. I ask this question because articles from directories can also be republished. But unlike PLR which usually has a distribution limit, articles from directories can be republished an unlimited number of times.
Leigh- *whew* I thought you didn’t like me anymore, lol, j/k. Hope you get everything straightened out.
~LaToya
August 15th, 2007 at 11:41 am
I’ve posted one set of 5 articles on Content Tycoon, about 500-600 words on a newer PLR site and sold 1 set in a few months, but it’s a younger site and I’ve also not marketed them at all.
Sure, PLR might take awhile to see the income, but some of us might be willing to be patient.