Should You Use PLR Articles In Your Blog

Writing a blog is not always the easiest thing in the world to do.  After all, no matter how much you love to write and how passionate you are about the topic, sometimes the ideas just won’t flow.  That’s when a lot of people start considering the use of PLR (private label rights) articles on their websites.

For those of you who may not know, PLR articles are written by a ghostwriter and offered to you for your use.  You are usually free to do most anything with them, such as attach your name as the author for use on your website and, in many cases, even in books.  This is not the same as plagiarism, because you are actually buying the rights to the work, and you are using them with permission.  That said, the question remains, should you use PLR articles?

In the past, I have been dead set against using PLR articles on websites.  I felt it was cheating and just thought it was a pretty bad idea all the around.  I now see that my opinion was based in large part because I didn’t really understand the proper way to use PLR articles.  I just saw people taking articles, attaching their name to them and throwing them up on the web.  I still don’t recommend doing it that way for a few very good reasons:

• Duplicate Content.  If you post PLR content “as is,” your article will be exactly the same as other articles on the web.  Search engines tend to “ding” you for having duplicate content.
• Damaged Credibility.  Imagine that a prospective customer visits your site and is greatly impressed by what you have to offer.  They really like the articles and want to do business with you.  A short time later, they find the same articles on another site with another person’s byline, how does that make you look?  Well, to be honest, you come off looking like a total fraud.  In business, that’s the last thing you want.
• Lack of Voice.  When you write for your blog or website, you want to build your “brand.”  One of the best ways to do that is to develop your own “voice” (i.e. style of writing).  If you post unaltered PLR articles, you are not presenting a consistent “voice” for your readers.  People like consistency and they like knowing what to expect.

So, if you don’t just post the articles with your name attached, how should you use PLR?  Well, I personally use PLR articles as a starting point or “rough draft.”  When I am stuck for ideas, I look at the PLR folder on my hard drive, find a good article and start there.  From that starting point, I:

• Change the title.
• Add my research and ideas.
• Add illustrations or stories from my life.
• Add an image or two.
• Remove parts that I don’t agree with.
• Edit the article and give it my “voice.”

Most of the time, the finished article looks nothing like the original PLR article (or, at the very least it looks very little like it.)  Just slapping an unaltered PLR article up on a website is just plain lazy and it very seldom achieves positive results.  The trick is to use the article as a starting point, but to make it your own.

If you see PLR articles as something to get your creative juices flowing and don’t see it as a short cut or as a lazy way to build your website, PLR articles could work for you, but you have to be willing to do the work to transform the generic articles you receive and make them your own.

PS: Not all PLR articles are the same.  Many PLR sources are selling pure garbage such as badly written articles with tons of grammatical mistakes or they are selling each article thousands of times.  Things like this make life very hard for you.  That’s why I recommend finding a good resource for PLR articles.  The source I use most of the time is Nicole Dean’s Easy PLR.  The articles are great and Nicole strictly limits the number of times each article is sold.  Give Nicole’s Easy PLR a try.  I think you’ll be glad you did.

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