Category: Private Label Rights Marketing

This post is going to look at a couple of tools that I use almost everyday to help with the PLR creation process.  These tools are certainly not PLR specific, but they will help address problems or needs that you may have related to the creative process.

Even if you are a long time PLR creator some of these tools might be helpful.  I know Evernote which I mention below was introduced to me only a couple of months ago.  I had been creating PLR for years before I found it, and now I can’t imagine creating a product without using Evernote.

If you are looking to produce high quality rebrandable content then you should certainly consider the following tools and resources:

1. BoxShot 3D – This is a simple little program, doesn’t use a lot of resources, but packs a powerful punch.  This software is exclusively designed to take your flat images and create 3D images from them.  You can take a normal image and then wrap it around 3D models of things like eBooks, cans, bottles, boxes, CD Cases, DVD cases, Binders, Brochures and MORE.

This really helps you take your PLR products to the next level.  Even to have one 3D soft cover book image will instantly increase the perceived value of your product.  The software is easy to use and reliable.  Much easier than fooling around in Photoshop skewing images.  And yes the link is an affiliate link, but I only share affiliate links to products I use and recommend.  Also the link goes to a trial version download which is free to try.

2. Evernote – This is a game changer.  I use this so often that I can’t believe there was a time I didn’t have it.  let me ask you this – how organized are you?  I am HORRIBLY organized.  It is reallly bad in fact.  I have text notes all over my computer, haphazardly stored and clearly not sorted in any manner.  I am also the king of the “mental note”.  Well, I am the King of MAKING mental notes – and promptly forgetting them.

Not any more though.

For the past couple of months I have been an organized machine working efficeintly towards PLR domination – and I owe it all to Evernote.  Now every note I make, I make in Evernote.  Every note I take is easily organized AND searchable.  No longer do I have the next great PLR idea and forget it.  I have a notebook full of random ideas for PLR products.  When I am in need of inspiration I can easily find all my brainstormed notes.

I have multiple to-do lists set up as well, every time I open Evernote my daily/weekly/long term goals and to-dos are right in front of me.

Evernote also stores all of your notes “in the cloud” so you can access theme from ANY where on ANY platform. This includes either iPhone or Android for you smart phone users.

3. Adobe Fireworks – This is an expensive one but very worth it if you are creating any sort of web based graphics on the regular.  I use this program more than any on my computer (besides internet browsers, and message clients).  I guess some people would ask why not just use Photoshop – and to be honest I don’t have a great answer to that.  I prefer Fireworks for graphics.  If I want to work with photos, then I will use Photoshop. When i work with graphics I go Fireworks.

TThis is simpyl a graphic design program. It is a lot like Photoshop and I couldn’t tell you all of the differences to be honest.  I find it more beginner friendly to begin with.

I use this tool for everything.  PLR covers, PLR graphics, Screen shots, PLR websites, Minisites – and of course all of the graphics needed for our actual site where we sell and host our PLR.

It is a lot to learn and I have far from mastered it, but if you put in the hours using it you will learn more than enough on your own to really upgrade the graphics in your PLR.

4. Mac Pages – UH OH A Mac vs PC debate coming up!  It is about to get all Vancouver Rioty up in here…OK, not really.

I use a Mac but I am not passionate.  Whatever gets the job done I say.  This is not a PC vs MAC debate.  HOWEVER, I have used both platforms quite a bit and I have to say iWork Pages is certainly a better program than MS Word when it comes to creating high quality PDFs.   I don’t know what it is but the templates are better looking, it is more intuitive to use and the PDF exporting is heads above Word IMO.

The one issue I have had, is exporting to a Word Doc, you have to be careful with what Pages tools you use when you want to create a .doc version.  Some of the more advanced Pages tools may not translate well in Word.  That said after dozens of PLR products created, all including a editable .doc format of an eBOok, creating a Word doc in Pages is possible.

Quick — what is the first thing you think of when you hear the term “PLR products”?

What did you think of?

Sadly, there is a high chance that you instantly thought of something negative. Since I have been creating PLR products, I have noticed that there seems to be a stigma around the term PLR.  People seem to doubt quality, how current it is and quite frankly the value.

All fair worries, because there has been a lot of subpar PLR content released over the years. The problem is for people who put in the time to create good quality PLR products.  There are a number of creators online that offer great products, and they face an uphill battle because of this stigma.

The stigma of PLR is so bad that the term alone might drop sales.  I haven’t done any really scientific testing, but we have sold personal rights versions of our products, and the PLR versions for similar prices and seen the personal rights version sell more.

That has happened more than once as well.  Even if it isn’t a pattern or a trend, realistically speaking the PLR version should be far more popular right?  You get the eBook that you would get in the personal rights version, plus all of the other goodies, editables and the right to rebrand it as your own.   It should be a slam dunk that it is more valuable, but when it comes time to sell and market – it is regularly proving it isn’t.

As a PLR Creator What Can I Do?

I don’t think there is a simple answer for this, there is nothing one (or even a handful) of PLR creators can do to wipe away years of history.

The first step is to produce the best quality PLR that you can.  We like to believe that is what we are doing, and from our interaction with other people it seems to be what they are doing as well.   As we build our businesses and customers, we will naturally be building more respect (and hopefully less of a stigma) for PLR in general.

Another thing you can do is think of different ways to spin your creations.  Maybe PLR is so tainted we have to move away from it.   Maybe we are simply content creators or opt-in specialists.  Maybe we are selling rebrandable guides, and instant content solutions.

I think that is kind of the cowards way out, I’d like to challenge people’s beliefs about PLR head-on.  That said,  in some cases being creative about your services is a smart business move.

I am not sure how we can remove the PLR stigma, or if it is even possible.  All I know is the more people who create and sell HIGH quality PLR means the more customers who will be open to it altogether.  If you want to build your PLR business while building the actual market then commit to high quality PLR. 

have mentioned it before, but a personal goal of mine is to help reduce the stigma of PLR.  So many people instantly think “low quality crap”.  Well, I think stories like this will prove that there is some great PLR content out there, and more importantly, it can be used to make money right “out-of-the-box”.

So recently Justin (if you don’t follow us, he is my biz partner and one of the “founding fathers” of Best Quality PLR) was approached to give a webinar.   When you are working in the online world there will be a lot of these kind of opportunities.

People will approach you to do a webinar based on reputation

Someone in your social network will need a webinar guest

You can offer joint venture opportunities to people with big mailing lists who can schedule a webinar

You can speak on someone’s web show – people are always looking for guests

There are even websites directed solely to generating webinar traffic.

Hold your own webinar – set up landing page and direct paid traffic to it.

Anyways, creating webinar opportunities is a post in itself.  What we want to discuss is how PLR helped us make some money. When doing a webinar there are two things you really need:

Webinar Content

An Offer

We were able to use our PLR products for both.

After being approached by someone who needed a basic SEO webinar, Justin created a slideshow from our SEO related products.  He didn’t skimp on the info, the goal is to deliver some quality content.  Delivering a webinar can be a lot of work, but having this content did speed up the process.

So while Justin perfected the webinar content, I worked on putting together a package.  I took some of our SEO related products, slapped our branding all over them (could have increased profit by adding our affiliate links through out but we didn’t in this case) and zipped them up.  I believe we used 3 eBooks.  We packaged them for $27 and that was our upsell.

Justin delivered the webinar to 80 people.  This is a good number of people for a webinar.  Now, one thing to keep in mind is Justin is a total natural on the camera, and has a knack for creating webinars and video content. We have that inherent advantage over a lot of marketers, but you can get good and comfortable as well – it just takes practice.

Since we began on creating quality PLR content, we have come across quite a few people wondering how they could create PLR products for themselves. I think this is a wonderful idea, and feel like the more people creating PLR content should mean the higher quality available to all of us.

With that in mind, we don’t mind giving people a glimpse at the way we create our high quality products. We do a wide variety of different types of PLR so the exact process is never the same but in general we follow a process much like this:

1. Identify a Need: The first step we take is identifying what people are looking for. There are a lot of ways to do this. We are active on some forums so we can gauge people’s interests that way. We have a social media presence so we can ask our followers and friends. We belong to online networking groups, so we can poll these groups as often as we want. Lastly, we listen to our customers — We have a forum that allows anyone to suggest a topic or idea for a product.

2. Brainstorm: Once we have a general topic, we will sit down individually or in a team setting and brainstorm potential product ideas. At this point we will be taking a broad look at our product. We will figure out the main piece of content. It could be an eBook, an article bundle, a video bundle, audio, a system, a report or anything else. At this point we will decide on the topic and delivery format of our PLR Product.

3. Research: We will then begin our research. All of our products are properly researched and provide the most recent of information (when they are written of course). We will usually let the member of our team with the most experience in a particular topic handle the bulk of the content. Justin is a whiz with personal development, while I like to take on the WordPress products. We also have strategic partnerships with local experts, like personal trainers, masseuses and teachers.

3. Creatives Time: At this point we will begin creating the basic cover of the product. We do this now, because it can inspire the content creation part of the process. Also, we may need to use the images in some of the content, so best to get this out of the way. We will brainstorm a product title and heading as well as general idea for the cover. We create a flat image in Adobe Fireworks. We edit it and tweak it until we are happy. Then we export as a flat image, editable png and editable psd. We then use software to wrap this flat image in a variety of 3d images (like eBook covers)

At this point we will also create banner ads and a mini-site, for anyone that wants to start quickly selling or giving away(as an opt-in) our product. We throw in editable images of everything as well as sometimes some additional graphics like buy now buttons.

4: Content Creation: Now we will take our research from earlier and create our main piece of content. Like mentioned before this could be any number of formats. If the main piece was an eBook we would create the eBook in Mac Pages and then export an editable Word version, as well as a high quality PDF.

5. Edit Main Content: Important step here – we edit the content to try and make sure it is free of errors. While this is a time consuming step we usually make sure at least two of our team members (and 99% of the time it is Justin and I) edit the product.

6. Create Add-Ons: Here we get creative. We can now take this product from great to a must-buy by creating a bunch of high impact add-ons. Some of our most popular would be things like an autoresponder drip, posters, infographics, graphics, tweets, lists of resources and etc… We create as many as make sense for the product. We also of course edit theses as closely as the content.

7. Complete Packaging: At this point we do another once over on the editing, we make sure that everything is included and then we zip it up and upload to our servers.

8. Send To Members: Our members get first crack at everything we make. We post the product in our members area and then broadcast a message to everyone saying it is available for download.

9. Launch & Promote: We launch and promote our new offer in a number of ways. This is when the product is offered to the the general public.

10. Regular Maintenance: Through this whole process we make sure we go out of our way to provide timely support. This is not bragging, this is us giving you advice if you want to sell something. If you sell a product – stand behind it.  Also, since we run a membership site there are  a ton of behind the scene duties that are just as exhaustive as the entire list above. We focused on the product creation side of things for this post, but when it comes to eCommerce that isn’t even half the battle.

When creating PLR products the very first thing you have to do is to choose a topic or niche.   Obviously, if you are creating a product or writing an article pack, you have to choose what to write about.  Basics.

What might not be so obvious, is what to choose!  Since you are trying to make money, the key will be to choose something that sells.  You need to choose niches or topics that are in DEMAND.

There is demand for PLR in a lot of niches, but having run a membership site for awhile now there are definitely some things to consider when you are choosing your topic or niche.

1. Your Knowledge Base – What do you like writing about, what are you good at writing?  Is there anything you know more about than the average person?  This is a great way to think of a topic to write about.  This won’t guarantee commercial success, but it will let you put together the best product you can, in the least time possible.

Take the time to brainstorm, and write a huge list of your interests, experiences and things you know a lot about.   These could all be potential topics for your PLR.  When you choose something from this list you will know that you will be able to write about it and will probably save a lot of research time.

2. What’s Hot – PLR is a very web-based business so that means things move rapidly.  You have to keep your eyes and ears open on what it is popular – especially when it comes to the internet.  If you are creating PLR you don’t want to miss out on a hot topic – these topics can come and go fast so make sure you take advantage.  Some of our biggest successes have been from trending topics like Mobile Marketing and Google+.

3. The Classic Earners – Since I have been creating PLR products for a couple of years now, I have learned that some niches always sell well.  They might not be MONSTER sellers like trending niches can be, but they will always garner enough interest to be worth pursuing.  I am sure people will have their own views on this, but looking back at our last 60 or so products, I feel like the following niches seem to consistently be PLR friendly:

Social Media (Twitter, Facebook especially)

Health (Diet, Exercise, etc…)

Online Marketing

Blogging/WordPress

4. Products That Transcend Niches – Another thing that we have found selling PLR, is that products which can be used across a wide variety of niches sell particularly well.  This makes sense because the products aren’t limited to small niches.  These type of products for us have included:

Time Management

Motivation

Content Creation

That is not a full list by far, but those have been the most successful ones that I have sold.  The common theme between them is that they could be helpful to just about anyone who is working online.  Everyone needs time, motivation and content!

When it comes to choosing a niche for your PLR product, the above considerations will help you create something that is commercially viable.  Now that said, and I may be in the minority, but I also think you shouldn’t lose too much sleep over your choice of topic.  I say jump right in, if it doesn’t sell well, you still have a business asset you can use on upsells/bundles and like Jay-Z says “On to the next one…”.

I wanted to share a casual case study on generating money with PLR.   I found myself needing a lump sum of money last month.  It was a surprise cost that kind of caught me flat footed.  I had just finished paying for some software updates AND ALL of my outsourcers.

I needed to make some money quick – and figured since I had all of these PLR products created I might as well use a couple.

I knew the key to making money quick would be offline.  AKA I hit the streets.  I know some online earners hate to hit the streets but sometimes it is a quick and easy way to not only make money, but build your network.

The best part is this really cost me nothing to start.  If you were to do it you would have to pay for the PLR but that is it….well, plus the cost of printing two pages.

The first thing I did was choose some PLR products – I chose 4 social media and web based PLR products.

I stuck with these four to begin with.   They are all geared towards local small businesses so they are perfect for my demographic.

Using Mac Pages – I created a one page “menu” or brochure that had an image of each of the products and some sales copy.  I included a price of $9 per guide.  I then created another page that was full of eye popping stats about online marketing.  I got these stats from other PLR products we had created.  I got both of these printed and laminated for less than $10.

I then hit the streets, the internet and the phones.  Obviously not all at once but my main goal was to get in front of decision makers.  I phoned some friends and got referrals.  I posted on the town’s Facebook wall asking if any local businesses needed online marketing help – and I got requests for meetings this way.

Lastly, I hit the streets and did a walk up and down downtown – not selling with anything – just getting meetings.  I was totally honest and transparent.  I asked biz owners if they were happy with their online presence, and if not would they mind considering some ways they could increase their online exposure.  I dealt with some rude and gruff responses, but on the whole most people were interested and a number of them committed to some meetings.

After ONE day of hitting the streets, and another day of hitting up my own network via email, Facebook and the phone — I had scheduled 17 meetings over the next week.

Here was my general plan of attack in the meetings.  I simply asked about their current online presence and listened.  I gave them some hints if I noticed anything glaring missing from their presence.  After some discussion – I showed them my “menu’ of PLR products and explained how each could help them. I also showed them the stats sheet.  I went into my pitch and tried to sell them on the cheap guides.  If people wanted to negotiate I would – as long as I kept above the cost for printing the guides.  A number of people I sold instantly. Some people paid right away and others didn’t feel comfortable until I had the guide for them.  Either way I don’t really care because even if I get stiffed for a guide or two – that isn’t the real money maker

I took the orders, and told them I would bring them their guide on whatever date (this is also an added excuse to get in front of potential customers, and when you come back you will be welcomed because you are bringing in a product for them – totally different dynamic on this visit – use it!).  Only once I had gotten all of my orders did I print the guides.  This way no waste whatsoever, unless someone backed out of course but that really isn’t a big deal and actually never happened to me.  Anyways, all orders (paid or awaiting guide) equaled out to 29 (this included some biz owners getting all 4).  Now, since some of these deals were bundles — the gross revenue from selling the guides was about $225.  I ended up paying about $100 to print the guides out.

So after a couple of days I had netted $125.  Not good enough.  The key is though, the guides weren’t my main objective.  Essentially the guides were advertising for big ticket offers.  So in essence, I just got paid $125 to advertise to local businesses.  Not bad!

Now here is the key – fill your guides with up-sells!  Offer social media training, web design, web hosting affiliate links, etc…  Since I have access to all of the PLR at Best Quality PLR, I even offered bundles of eBooks as digital downloads.   I didn’t get too obnoxious with the ads in the guides but I wasn’t shy with them either.  I even had a couple mini fliers made and inserted them.  These fliers were for web design deals.

Now I have the skill to build websites for local businesses, but if you don’t don’t worry about it.  Outsource it!  Just make sure you charge enough to make a profit.

Anyways, TWO days after I had dropped off the guides around town I got an email form a local business looking for a simple website.  I was able to use my Hostgator affiliate  link for their hosting and domain – so another $50 right there.  On top of that, we worked out a deal for a basic website – one grand!   The customer was more than happy to pay half in advance since at this point we had an established relationship.

So after that process I had earned:

$125 from guide (ad!) sales

$50 Hostgator affiliate

$1000 web deal

$1175

Not bad for essentially a weeks work.  It won’t let me retire early, but I was in a pinch and needed money.  I was able to get it with PLR.  The crazy thing is I have been in constant contact with 4 other business owners so I am probably going to make even more money.

If there is one thing I would change it was not including some sort of online coaching offer.  So many of the business owners have just wanted to “chat”.  I like creating goodwill, but there is also value in letting people know your time is valuable.  It is also yet another monetization method on something I have already did all the legwork on.  I think if I do this again I will include a mini flyer for a discount on “online coaching”.

Not everyone feels comfortable hitting the streets, but if you have a plan, an offer and some great PLR products you WILL make some money.

When you are creating and selling PLR material, there are many things to consider.   One of these things is to choose what usage rights are you going to give away on your PLR products.  Even though, by it’s very nature PLR is virtually wide open in how you can use it, there are still certain restrictions you can (and should) consider.

Any PLR product you create should include the specific rights you wish to grant and/or disallow.  Commonly, those will be found in a plain text file that follows this general template (Feel free to use this one in fact, just change the yes’s and no’s to your desired choices):

Usage Rights:

[YES] Can edit, take apart, add to, or sell as is

[YES] Can be bundled with other products

[YES] Can be offered as a bonus

[YES] Can use the content as a viral report

[YES] Can be used to create audio/video products

[YES] Can give them to your affiliates to publish to promote your products

[YES] Can be used for opt-in bonuses (newsletter signups, etc.)

[YES] Can be added to paid membership sites

[YES] Can be offered through auction sites

[YES] Can claim full authorship

[YES] Can alter ecover graphics

[NO] Can be used as web content

[NO] Can Sell resell rights

[NO] Can sell master resell rights

[NO] Can sell private label rights

[YES] Add to free membership sites

This is not the entire scope of usage rights you can grant or withheld, but it is a great starting point, and feel free to use it for your own creations.

I won’t break down every right as they are fairly self explanatory but their are a couple that take a little more consideration then others:

[NO] Can be used as web content – This right basically means people can’t break down your products for blog posts, or website copy.  This is a right you need to think about.  A lot of our products are full product suites that we fill lose value if they are found as web content across the net.  If we were just selling a pile of articles, it might make sense to allow them to be used as web content.

[YES] Add to free membership sites – This is also a right to consider.  If you feel the value of your PLR product is hurt by offering it to free membership sites, then feel free to use no.

[NO] Can sell private label rights – This is one we had to add to our products after initial launch of our site.  We were allowing people to sell OUR PLR as their own PLR products – welllll that was a problem because then they’d populate entire PLR membership sites with just our products.  We essentially were creating competition every time we created a product.  Not a great business model.

When you release PLR products, remember to include usage rights.  It might take a couple tries to balance, but the best combination of rights will protect the value on your PLR while still leaving it desirable to online marketers.

While you are free to copy ours, make sure you consider what works best for YOU.  You can change yes’s to no’s, you can add or delete rights – but at the end of the day you want a list of rights you and your buyers can live with.

Does anyone have any other usage rights they add to their own products?  Let us know in the comment area.

There is a lot of PLR content available online these days.  With more content being created, there is more opportunity to find great PLR products.  I remember even a few years ago, there was much less PLR available and the quality was a bit less impressive, generally speaking.  Now that there is more and more good quality being created, it is time that people get picky.

Why?

One of the main uses and benefits of PLR is in re-branding. You can take a fully finished product and slap your name on it. You gain instant credibility, an asset and potentially a money making tool.  Just like with anything though do you want to slap your name on poor quality PLR?  As soon as your name goes onto that product, it reflects on you and your brand.

Imagine walking into a meeting looking to an offline meeting to secure a 6 figure deal, would you want to toss a bad quality “report” to the customer you are trying to close?  Worse yet do you want your NAME on it?

If you are even considering this, just to let you know the answer is…no.  No you do NOT want to do that.

You want PLR products you can be proud of.   PLR products that will help close a deal and brand you as a pro – not make you look like a rookie in over his head.

When you are buying a PLR product that you plan on rebranding as your own, and you want to be proud of it….then there are a couple things to look for:

1. Packaging – Is the packaging for this product unique and high quality? Are there some graphic design elements included with the PLR.  Packaging can make a report really stand out and adds professionalism.  A proper cover page makes a difference. It grabs and holds attention.  packaging isn’t just about the design though – what about the actual report/ebook?  You want to make sure it is typed out in an easy to follow style that looks professional.  Visual appeal counts in our society so if you buy PLR without any – you might want to consider the extra cost it will take to have some created.

2. How It is Written – You should always read your PLR to make sure it is error free.  While typos happen and can be easily addressed with the editable versions, significant grammar issues can be tougher to tackle.  Since the price of PLR is so low, often producers will outsource there work to people who have English as a second language.  This can lead to grammar issues, a clunky read and other confusions.  English is actually one of the toughest languages to master because of a lot of weird idiosynracies.  Even English speaking writers might not be any good.  This is why you have to read your products through to make sure they are the quality you’d be proud to hand someone.

3. Current – You want to have current info. PLR can be sold for years and if the content isn’t updated then it can quickly lag behind current times.  if you are an offline marketing trying to land web based deals, you want current info.  Your customer certainly will.  The best way to ensure current PLR is to buy freshly created content.  This won’t guarantee the content is current, but it certainly helps.  Often PLR membership sites are good for this because they are constantly adding new content.