Best way to use PLR articles

First of all, for those that don’t know, what is PLR? PLR is Private Label Rights, a real fancy name for content articles. PLR writers (freelance writers) write these articles to make some extra income and sell them to internet marketeers who will use them in various ways, starting from blog posts, article marketing, membership sites, and whatever else in between.

This is a great time saver for bloggers and internet marketeers in general, because they don’t have to worry about spending their time writing content when they could instead …market. It also helps tremendously those that simply put, can’t write or are bored to death writing. So PLR articles are a godsent really. And not only that. PLR comes in more forms that one can even count on one hand: articles, ebooks, reports, ecourses, full websites and autoresponder texts can all be part of PLR content.

There is just one problem with using PLRs. They are not exclusive to one person only, but can be used by everybody who purchased them. And that can add up to practically hundreds of people all over the internet using the same article packs. And with Google’s duplicate content problem (myth or no myth, Google will only show as many same content sites before they bag the rest of them in their sandbox), it is really a wise decision to make these articles unique. Or at least not identical with the rest out there.

Just an example here. I am a member of a couple of great PLR membership sites (and I briefly joined before leaving quickly some real bad ones), so I have plenty of PLR material to last me not only for a lifetime, but also for at least 50 different niches. So let me take a random PLR article from my hard drive.

Ok here is something I found about an acne product. Copied here only the first sentence of that PLR article. So go ahead and search for this exact phrase with quotes in Google. Even better, I’ve done it for you, all you need is click on the link below:

“The purpose of the Cellex-C Clear Complexion Complex is to clear the skin of those who suffer from acne.”

See what I”m saying? 8 identical results of the very same text. And now let’s head over to the sandbox. At the bottom of the SERP you find this: “In order to show you the most relevant results, we have omitted some entries very similar to the 8 already displayed. If you like, you can repeat the search with the omitted results included.”

Clickityclick on the link above…285 IDENTICAL pages, except the first 8, the rest are all hidden by Google, never to be seen, unless somebody click on that link at the bottom. That’s what identical content does to one, Google penalty or no penalty.

So how can you use PLR articles then, or is it best to avoid them?

Well, a while ago I wrote a post on my previous blog where I was totally against PLRs. However, in the meantime, I’ve seen the light. Yes, you can use PLR’s and the best way to use them is to make them unique. Once you purchased the PLR articles, you can do pretty much anything with them as you please. They are yours.  PLR articles are usually very inexpensive to buy, nothing like the custom written articles at Elance or other places, so if you are in lack of cash but still need some fast content, PLR’s are great. I really learned to admire them. But I pick and choose where I buy them from. Of course, I can also write my own unique articles from scratch, but that takes more time than simply rewriting an article. Trust me, been there, done that and learned to use my time wisely, specially when you’re involved in several niches, some of which you might not know that much (I have no clue of muscle training diets, for example, wouldn’t even know how to start writing about it!).

So yes, use the PLR articles, but rewrite them. Easiest way I found is by taking smaller chunks (usually a paragraph) of the article, read it once (even twice if needed), and then rewrite it in your own words. There is also another way which some people prefer. Just below your paragraph in the article insert a few empty lines. And then start adding the same sentence but rephrasing some words in your article with synonyms just below the original phrase.

So this sentence: “The purpose of the Cellex-C Clear Complexion Complex is to clear the skin of those who suffer from acne” I would rewrite to something like: “If you suffer from acne, there is one cure for you: Cellex-C Clear Complexion Complex, which has as sole purpose clearing your skin.”
Or something like that, but you get the point. This way you get to keep the main idea of the article, but use your own words, which will make the article unique and pass the Google test in the search engines.

There are tons of PLR places all over the internet, but one that I’m using a lot because they have great writers in many niches is Easy PLR. Very cheap articles which you can rewrite in just a couple of minutes and upload to your blog, or post at Ezinearticles or wherever else you want. So if you decide to use PLR articles in your marketing endeavours, I highly recommend these guys! And make sure you always rewrite the articles. Don’t fall into the trap of using them ‘as is’.