How Dangerous Are Private Label Rights To Your Blogging Credibility?

Here’s a little snippet from a comment I wrote on blog discussing Private Label Rights a while back:

I’ve spent months, years writing articles for publication, even winning an award for one paper.

None of which has made me a single, solitary penny.

The whole notion of Private Label Rights makes me want to vomit into my coffee cup.

However… it got me to thinking… my time is valuable, and if there are people willing to write very cheap… maybe I can find some leverage.

So I just spent $150 picking up a suite of domain names. They’re sweet. Not even going post the name pattern until I’m sure I’ve mined it out. But they are sweet, and one is absolutely killer.

And I don’t plan on writing every word word for all of these websites. I’ll have to write some of the material, which I’ve already started doing.

What are Private Label Rights anyway?

Private label rights means the writer forgoes all authorship rights to his or her writing to a purchaser. It’s like “work for hire” gone mad.

(Quoted from There Is NO Box Pledge) PLR is extremely lucrative… for the purchaser. Articles can be purchased on any popular subject, and written to a specific keyword density to attract attention and high ranking from search engines. There are several forms of PLR, some of which allow complete rebranding. That is, you can purchase an article, and put your own name on it, even though you didn’t write it.

Ethically using Private Label Rights

Given that PLR could provide some serious leverage, what’s the responsible and ethical manner to employ such material?

Here’s your checklist for populating other blogs and websites with private label rights (PLR) material:

1. Tell people you collected the information and didn’t write any of it.
2. Tell them you PAID for it! PAID to get the best material available.
3. Full disclosure for PLR material, with an explanation of guidelines for how it’s edited, redacted or otherwise modified and prepared for publication.
4. Do not rebrand. If you didn’t write it, don’t say that you did. Don’t even tack your name on the end as a co-author. While this is a long standing tradition in academia, you aren’t in academia. Don’t do it.

In general, people don’t much care who wrote the article, as long as the information is accurate and they don’t feel they are being deceived.

I have a killer edge I can use for PLR: I do technical reviews for International Journal for Numerical and Analytical Methods in Geomechanics. Reviewing for an internationally respected, peer-reviewed journal means I’m an absolute expert in my field. It’s instant credibility.

I can leverage that credibility to put my “stamp of approval” on any PLR material I use.

So obvious.

I’m really starting to see the benefits.

Under which name to post?

Check this out:

Iain M. Banks writes science fiction.

Iain Banks writes non-science fiction.

This is the same person, a Scottish author who authors his work with different names, depending on the type of writing he is doing.

Given my background, I could never use my real name (academic, reputation is critical, why burn bridges), but posting without attribution, or under an avatar name (look for a future article on business avatars, it’s in the draft queue) might be just the ticket. Then I have my cake and eat it too.

In the end, PLR material isn’t so much different than the 100s of pages of consulting reports I have written for clients, none of which I hold copyright to. Some of these reports are at least professional conference grade quality. That is, they are as well written (or better written) than papers you will find presented at professional conferences.

Are you using PLR material? If so, what’s your experience? On the other hand, if your adamantly opposed to using PLR, let’s hear your reasons why.

Tagged as: Absolute expert, Authority, Credibility, Private label rights