What is a Content Writer’s Responsibility
July 13, 2007 by Deb
Filed under Freelance Writing
A couple of weeks ago, I learned of someone who is selling bundles of “PLR” or Private Label Rights articles. For $10 or $20 the purchaser gets a bundle of 20 articles to do with whatever he pleases. The seller sells the same bundle to various webmasters and content purveyors for $10 hoping to make hundreds of dollars. At least this is the way I understand it. Do feel free to correct me if I’m wrong.
If this is indeed the case I’d like to know why someone would want to purchase the same content 20 or 30 other people have on their websites, what’s the point? Is it that they don’t care or will they rework the articles to fit their own websites?
I’d also like to know about the writer’s responsibility. Let me explain.
Those of us who have dabbled in web content writing know that there’s plenty of content out there that’s a little less than accurate. Joe Middle School Student does not. Say Joe comes upon one of these hastily written bundle articles and assumes it’s accurate. Say it is not. Let’s also say that Joe is trying to find more information on the Internet, but because the same bundle of optimized information is sold over and over again, all he can find are the same ten or twenty articles, or the same rewritten content. Does he trust that this is the only information out there and risk his grade? How does he know the content was bought in a bundle or run through an article spinner? Or is it not our problem what type of information our children come across. We’d be appalled if we thought our kids textbook content was purchased at $10 a bundle, yet we’re supposed to be ok with whatever information is pumped out online?
Writers….when did we stop caring about the information we put out there? Knowing that not everyone knows the web content business as we do, what is our responsibility?
I’m thinking that 20 articles selling for a dollar or two each probably didn’t take too much time to write up and research. I’m also thinking that anyone buying these articles is strictly looking for Adsense revenue and may not be all that interested in whether or not the articles are well researched.
Now, if writers want to sell themselves short and pump out a bundle of articles for a buck or two a pop, that’s their prerogative. I certainly don’t begrudge them their right to sell themselves short. What I worry about is the information out there. I worry about what people are reading and what they’re believing to be the truth. Most folks believe if it’s in print, it has to be the truth.
It used to be if I had certain symptoms or heard of a particular health condition, I’d look it up online. There’s no way I’d trust what’s out there now. There was a time when I thought the Internet was the best research tool for high school and college students, now I urge them to use the library first. I also know how the content business works. Most Americans know nothing about PLR articles or cheap web content. They’re trusting us as writers to put out information that’s accurate, well-written and well-researched. Isn’t it our responsibility to ensure they get it?
I’m not looking to rehash the low paying vs. high paying content debate. I wondering why we’re not being more responsible about what we put out there.
The reason I am offended is because Deb started this thread with, “A couple of weeks ago, I learned of someone who is selling bundles of “PLR” or Private Label Rights articles.”
Since Deb and I have been on WAHM.com together for nearly three years, I assume she is talking about me. I started http://www.websitcontentplr.com as a way to let writers sell their own packages.
What the majority of you fail to understand is how webmasters use private label rights.
It is not rehashed content. Say someone writes a chocoalte chip cookie recipe and sells it as private label rights.
Sixty webmasters purchase an article regarding how to make chocolate chip cookies. Now, each webmaster has the write to change their article any way they see fit to make the article fit with their site.
Webmasters now that the number one rule of SEO is UNIQUE content! That is why I make so much money at my job!
I work with webmasters directly, they are not idiots. Seasoned webmasters understand the value in unique content, and they also understand that they can save money by using Private Label Rights.
It is a false misconception to state that Private Label Rights rehashes the same article repeatedly.
It is obvious that the majority of people here are clearly in the dark regarding SEO content, Private Label Rights, and how webmasters run their business
I am shocked, but not surprised that so many of you can’t think for yourselves, and continue to repeatedly state false information, for the sole purpose that your leader spewed it from her mouth.
I won’t be posting or responding here, any longer.
Deb, if you had a question as to why I started http://www.websitecontentplr.com
you could have addressed me directly.
I had no problem coming here and answering your criticisms to your face.
You should have done the same, rather than starting this thread and letting your followers blindly support you in your misconceptions- once again.
You do seem to have a habit of doing this, don’t you.
For those of you who love repeating falsities rather than looking at facts, continue on your high pedestals of pride where you look down on all of the writers and believe that your group here is only for the “elite”.
Like was mentioned before,
“the real writers of poor content won’t come to this site”.
Give me a stinking break.
Oh, and let me say one more thing before I go, there are typos in my above post. Yes, I see them. Look at them and cringe, take out your handbooks for grammar and usage, and have a field day.
Good riddance!
I just wish to say I refuse to resort to name calling and personal attacks. With that said, please know my post wasn’t meant to single out anyone in particular. I have no beef with Charisse and she wasn’t even a consideration when I started this post. I’m sorry she took this so personally but my discussion wasn’t aimed at her at all. That is all I’ll say about that.
If anyone wishes to discuss a writer’s responsibility towards her readers or the pros and cons of selling the same article to 50 people, I’m all ears, or eyes as the case may be.
I know this has nothing to do with this discussion really but I just want to say how much I hate keywords and keyword writing. Nothing turns my stomach more than obvious keyword articles. I know this is the wave of the future and it’ll probably be around foreve. I know there’s nothing I can do about it. It makes one miss the kind of writing that comes from the heart and not centered around popular keywords.
It’s a shame when someone has to come along and ruin an intellegent discussion. And yes, it was an intelligent discussion.
Charisse, you could have made your case and we could have had a great discussion. You could have respectfully disagreed and educated us all on why PLR is such a great way to go. Instead you came here with an angry tirade, some of which has nothing to do with the discussion at all, and insulted thousands of great people. If you took the time to get to know us rather than judge us, you’d learn that we represent all sides of the coin and plenty of us even disagree with Deb on many issues. Did you even read the discussion? It didn’t look to me like everyone was blindy agreeing with “our leader” (eyeroll). No, you only came here to spew hate.
Deb’s “followers” as you put it have been very helpful in dispensing advice to others. Some of them even do PLR and write content like you. I’ll even go as far as to say I don’t know of another blog that is so helpful to writers. I guess that makes me “elite” right?
Wow…I wished I had noticed this conversation days ago.
Deb says “Now, if writers want to sell themselves short and pump out a bundle of articles for a buck or two a pop, that’s their prerogative” That’s where you’re wrong. I write and sell PLR articles on finance topics. A set of 10 articles is sold for $10-15 to 50 buyers. When I sell out of a pack of articles, I make 300% return on those articles. I don’t know about you, but I hardly consider tripling my investment selling myself short.
There’s a market of webmasters that want cheap content. It may be for Adsense, for article marketing, or for some other reason. I don’t see anything wrong with offering a product to a market with a need. It’s how business works. My prospective customers want cheap content. I want to make money from my writing. PLR solves both of our problems.
Someone earlier in the discussion talked about how there publications, Associated Press for example, that sell reprint rights to their articles. Deb argued that the same people aren’t exposed to each of these reprints because they’ve been reprinted in local publications. That’s only partly true. I’ve personally seen the same AP article on several different websites. Those websites might have different audiences, but it’s still the same article. This is how I see PLR articles.
I use what I call “residual” research to write my PLR articles. I write on a lot on finance topics and use the research from other assignments to write PLR articles. No, it doesn’t take a great deal of time to write these articles, because I’ve already done the research for another project. I call it “working smarter not harder.”
Deb says: “Say 60 web owners purchase the same poorly researched content. What then? The Internet is flooded with poor content.” The internet is filled with billions of pages. I’d hardly call 60, or even 1,000 pages of poor content “flooding the internet with poor content”. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not advocating poor content writers, but merely pointing out that in the grand scheme of things, it’s not that significant.
Buyers are encouraged to rewrite their content, but what’re the chances that readers are going to see that content twice? Considering the number of pages on the internet, I’d say about 1 in a billion.
Deb says: “Let’s also say that Joe is trying to find more information on the Internet, but because the same bundle of optimized information is sold over and over again, all he can find are the same ten or twenty articles, or the same rewritten content”. This is based on the assumption that 1) all PLR is SEOd and 2) that all SEOd content ranks high on the search engines. Luckily, search engines are becoming more and more sophisticated in their ranking system by considering things like backlinks, content indexing, and content duplicity. Even so, it’s not our responsibility as writers to make sure that only unique content shows up in the search engines. One final point on this argument, someone should be teaching Joe Middle School Student how to conduct research both online and offline. If the top 10/20/50 results are the same, then go to the 75th or 100th result.
My final point…buyers CANNOT do whatever they want with PLR articles. All my buyers can do is change the content, put it on their website, and use it in a newsletter or ebook. That’s far less than they can get with ghostwritten content with more money for me.
Wow, Latoya. Thank you so much for that enlightening description. I get it now. I’m still not sure if it’s something I agree with, but I’m happy it works for you and others.
I think I also want to state for the record that I I didn’t just decide to come here and spout off on something I know nothing about. I asked writers in several different forums about PLR and I also asked several webmaster friends. Some of them purchase PLR articles and some don’t because they didn’t have good experiences. I also visited at least a half dozen of the PLR sites and read sample articles.
I appreciate you explaining it to me, to us, in a clear, pleasant manner.
Quote from Charisse Marie:
The problem is that there are no “shoddy” plr packages.
One package of ten articles sold to 60 clients for ten dollars each = $600.00
How do you think that is shoddy or low pay?
I’ve seen sites selling packages of 10 articles sold for $1 each, 100 or 150 times. That’s what I’m talking about.
I’ve worked for a lesser-quality web content company, Ma’m, so as someone who’s been there and had people try to drag me in further, I do have some idea of what I’m talking about.
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There are many people selling these packages, and for one author to get upset and feel singled out is premature…Deb never mentioned one author. In fact, I have an E Book on my desk from another person who sings the glories of writing packages of articles to make money.
I do understand how web masters buy and use content. I’m on both sides of the equation; I’m a freelance writer, but I am also a direct and online marketing expert with an MS in Direct and Online Marketing from NYU, and I used to guest lecture at NYU on these topics. I work with clients from both a writing and marketing perspective.
Here’s the problem: while webmasters do say they want unique content, and they know it will serve them better in the long run – that’s assuming that you are dealing with a webmaster who knows what he’s doing.
There are many so-called content experts who promote a different model. What they suggest doing is making your fortune by finding keywords and building out a niche. This includes a website or free site like a Wet Paint or Squidoo lense populated with cheap and free articles. Packages of PLR articles fit into that category.
People in this niche trying to make a quick buck will NOT change PLR articles, or if they do they are done so badly as to make it worthless.
They are not the sophisticated web masters who understand the importance of unique content, and they aren’t looking to build high quality websites that Joe 3rd grader will use as a source for his school project. They are looking to make quick money or residual income through affiliate links and are hoping all that cheap content drives traffic.
It’s never a model I recommend, and when my marketing clients ask about PLR I tell them to steer clear. If they want quality content, I find them a writer or I write it myself, but I do not believe that PLR packages are a good way to get content.