Private Label Rights, The Best Way To Build A Business

It's got to be true because that is what all the gurus say, right?

Well, I've got good news and bad news.

The good news is: Yes, you can use Private Label Rights (or PLR) products to build your business.

The bad news is: Forget it. It's not going to work. At least, not the way you think.

First, What is PLR?

PLR is the easiest, and the cheapest, way to get a product that you can call your own. Someone writes an eBook or an article and then gives you the right to add your own name as the author, even changing the contents to make it more personal.

Then you advertise and sell the product as if you created it yourself. Kind of like having something ghost written. Many of the big names have written books using ghost writers. They come up with the ideas, and the ghost writer puts it down on paper. It's a good way to go.

So, What are the Problems with PLR?

First of all, that is the wrong way to build a business. Almost every business has failed because the owner thought of a good idea, spent time and money creating it, then tried to create a market for it. Just because you like something doesn't mean every one else will. That is not the way you build a business.

You first find out what the market wants, then you create a product to meet the needs of an already existing market. You find out what problems your market is having and you create a product to solve that problem. Then you can be successful.

With PLR you get a whole bundle of products, but none of them are really marketable.

The Big Problem is Quality

I don't know about you, but I will not sell my customers junk. If you've been reading my blog for very long you know that I have often had less than complimentary things to say about Cody Moya because almost without exception, the stuff he gives away and sells is pure junk. Some of it is usable if you are willing to spend many hours rewriting and correcting all the errors in English before you try to publish and sell it, but some of it is so bad it can only be trashed.

Perhaps the best example I have seen lately, (not from Cody, but from some other unknown publisher) was a book on fly fishing. That should be a good niche, right? Fishermen are generally pretty avid, and they like to buy new books with new ideas to see if they can improve their chances at catching fish. The first thing the book started talking about was bait.

Whoa, I thought this was about fly fishing, Fly fishermen do not use "bait" they use "flies." Artificial flies that they quite often make (tie) themselves. Then the writer went on to talk about fishing line and he described mono-filamenet line that is used by bait and spinner fishermen. Reels came next, and there wasn't a single fly reel among the ones discussed.

Now how can I use a book like that? I suspect it was a bundle that I got for free, or very little money, but regardless, it is totally useless and can only be trashed. It is too far away from reality to even be salvaged.

Unfortunately, too many marketers just buy and sell without even checking the product they are selling. Is is any wonder why so many fail?

PLR Floods the Market

You find a good deal on PLR products. A giveaway, or an OTO (One Time Offer - which, by the way are pure BS) that offers lots of free or cheap goodies. You can't wait to buy. Neither can thousands of others. So, by the time you get your product ready to market, there are a thousand other marketers doing the same thing with the same product. You don't have a very good chance of selling to a market that is already overloaded with the product.

Besides, most of the people you are trying to sell to have already been sold by the big guns.

So, how can you make it with PLR?

Glad you asked.

First, find a niche market. Anything other than the rabid make-money crowd will work. Do some research to see if there are actually people spending money in this market. If nobody is spending money, you are not going to change the market by yourself. I'm not going to go into the mechanics here, there is a lot of free information about finding a niche to sell to.

Second, search for products within your market that offers PLR of even just resale rights. If you can sell it, you can make money. PLR is better, but in the beginning just resale rights or even affiliate programs are a good way to go. Once you are making some money, then you can expand and eventually have your own product created (you could even use a ghost writer) that you can sell, or perhaps make available as a PLR product.

Time to Get Off the Band Wagon

The idea of getting on the band wagon means to join the crowd and do what everyone else is doing. Well, we need to be different. Be unique. Be yourself. Do something different. If you want to use PLR, be selective. Don't just buy it because it is PLR.

Let the dogs chase their tails buying one PLR product after another. If you will spend your time, and your money, doing some research into what the market really wants, you can then use PLR products wisely, and make a good living at it.

Thanks for Listening
This is Phoenix Rising, telling it like it is.