The Truth About PLR Articles.

When you run a website (or several), there is one problem that you are sure to run in to.  That is the need to supply new, fresh content on a regular basis.  That can be very difficult to do, especially when you work on your websites in the evening after spending a long day working a regular job.  That’s why PLR articles seem so appealing.

For those of you who don’t know, PLR stands for “Private Label Rights.”  Quite simply, PLR articles are articles that you purchase the rights to use without having to credit the author.  You can simply put the articles on your website, blog or in your e-book.  Most of the time, you can even list yourself as the author as long as you don’t claim the copyright.  It sounds good, doesn’t it.  Well, it can be under the right circumstances, but, improperly used, it can be disastrous.

Let’s consider this example.  Say you operate a website on computing and you purchase the rights to use an article called, “Getting the most out of your operating system.”  It’s a great article.  It’s keyword rich and packed full of useful information.  You’re sure that your readers are going to love it and that the search engines will just gobble it up.  With that in mind, you post it to your blog.

Now, let us assume that the search engines do index your article and it even gets good marks on Google.  That’s great.  Or is it?  Let’s continue on with the example.  Imagine that a potential customer is searching the web for advice on operating systems and they see your site’s listing.  There’s the article with your byline.  It sure does look impressive, but there’s trouble.  A few lines down, there is another site with the same article, but someone else is claiming the byline.  It gets even worse.  There’s another site with the same article down further still.  The potential customer is now curious and clicks a few pages on the search engine and finds several more pages with this article, all with different authors.  Suddenly, this article that was supposed to make your site look good has done the exact opposite.  Your credibility is shot!

How can you avoid this?  It’s simple.  You can write your own articles or you can hire someone to write exclusively for you.  If you simply must use PLR content, get it from quality sources that don’t resell the same article hundreds of times.  Of course, this last option can get rather expensive and it’s tough to convince yourself to pay $20-30 or more for one article when there are websites offering hundreds of PLR articles for pennies each.  Just remember the old saying that you get what you pay for.

Another thing to avoid are sites that promise large quantities of new PLR articles on a monthly basis for a small fee ($25 or so).  Usually these sites rely on other members or low-end paid writers to create their content.  The result is that you end up with articles that are either written by novices who are simply writing editorial content with no real informative value or you get articles written by people to whom English is a second (third, fourth, fifth) language.  Either way, you’re usually wasting your money.

Also, don’t fall for tricks that some sites use where they offer to rebate your membership fee if you write an article or two a month for them to distribute to other members.  Sure, many of these sites are honest, but, honest or not, this is not in your best interest.  Many of these sites will make your article available to their membership right away and then later decide that the article was somehow not acceptable so that they can avoid paying you.  Whether these site owners do this intentionally or by oversight, the results are the same.  You end up with articles being used that bring you no benefit.  You don’t get any publicity and you still have to pay your monthly dues at the PLR site.

A much better outlet for your writing talents would be to write articles and submit them to article directories such as ezinearticles.com.  At least webmaster who get your articles there agree to leave your byline and resource box attached.  By the way, a “resource box” is a box at the end of the article that tells about you and gives a link to your site.  You’re still not getting paid for the article, but at least you’re getting some publicity.  Best of all, most of these article directories cost little or nothing to join.

So you see, when it comes to PLR articles on your website, the best advice is to use them very sparingly, if not avoid them totally.  I know of no hugely successful webmasters who rely on PLR content to fill-out their sites.  Neither should you.

Review: Opportunity.Com

Everyday, I get e-mail messages hyping this new training course or that new e-book. All of them are “guaranteed” to make me wealthy in record-breaking time. Most of the time, the only person who makes any money from the programs are the people who wrote them and those who hyped it up. Most of the time, the information is old, obvious or, in some cases, just plain wrong. With this being the case, it is easy to see why I read most Internet marketing e-mail messages with a very skeptical eye. Read more

Tips For Mailing Your Visitors

One thing a lot of new webmasters (and many experienced ones) want to know is what is the best way to send e-mail messages to your website visitors?  Well, you basically have three options.  You can:

1. Use your e-mail client (Outlook, Outlook Express, Thunderbird, etc) to manually send e-mails to your visitors.
2. Use a script to automate the process and send the messages directly from your website’s server.  And. . .
3. Use a paid service. Read more

Installing WordPress In 5 Minutes Or Less

As astonishing as it may seem, you can actually go from having an empty web hosting account to having a site that is ready to accept content in under ten minutes.  Actually, come to think of it, it’s closer to five.  In this video, I’ll walk you through setting up WordPress (my favorite blog platform)  and updating it to the latest version in just a few minutes. Read more

Spammers Hijack Popular Promotion Technique

Have you ever been to a great website and noticed a link asking you to share the site with a friend?  Odds are that you have.  It is a very popular way of using word-of-mouth advertising for the site.  After all, we’re much more likely to trust the recommendation of a friend than we are to trust hype and ads from strangers.  It’s that friend-to-friend approach that makes this technique so appealing. Read more

Cross-Browser Compatibility: It pays to check.

Even though the purpose of this site is to help you become a great webmaster, not necessarily a great web designer, there are still a few things you really should check on when putting up a new site.  Among these items is cross-browser compatibility.  How does your website appear when viewed by various web browsers?  Now, you may be thinking, “Don’t all browsers display websites the same way?”  Unfortunately, the answer to that question is a thundering NO!  It gets even more confusing because you can have websites appear differently when viewed by different versions of the SAME browser. Read more

Review: Rosalind Gardner’s Super Affiliate Handbook

With all of the alleged “information” floating around the Internet, it becomes difficult to distinguish between the hype and the real nugget of gold.  That is especially true when you are talking about ways to make money on the web.  It seems that there is a new scam or scheme being hatched every second or so.   After awhile, it’s easy to become jaded and start wondering if anyone is for real. 

If that’s where you are, I have good news for you.  I have found the “real deal.”  For several years, I’ve been hearing about Rosalind Garner’s “Super Affiliate Handbook.”  When I first heard about, I remember thinking, “Oh great!  Another over-priced book by another alleged guru.”  And I didn’t order it. 

As time went on, I kept hearing about Rosalind and the book.  Knowing that scammers rarely stay around long and that no scammer could possibly keep up the years of positive press that Rosalind enjoys, I started to conclude that maybe she was legit and her book was worth reading.  Well, there’s no better way to find out than to read it.  So, a week ago, I went to the website and I purchased the e-book version.  Now, before you start to assume that I got some kind of a special deal or something, let me assure you that I didn’t.  I paid full retail so that I could give you an unbiased opinion of the book. 

Once I started reading the book, I couldn’t stop.  I literally went through all 212 pages in about three hours.  I couldn’t stop reading it!  Rosalind writes in a comfortable, easy-to-understand style that “clicks” with me and, apparently, many others. 

This book is no fluff, no hype and no nonsense!  It’s the “down and dirty” how-to stuff that so many promise but few deliver.  Let me tell you, this book delivers! 

The only drawbacks I found while reading the book was that Rosalind tended, at times, to go into too much detail for my liking.  Then again, I’ve been building websites for over thirteen years and was familiar with some of those areas.  If I were a novice at setting up a website, I’m sure those areas would have been much more interesting for me.

If I had to grade this book, on a scale of 1-10 (with 10 being the best book on the subject), I would give it a solid 9.  Knowing that nothing is perfect, I think that’s about the best recommendation I could give.  If you are serious about making money with affiliate programs, you’ll have this book in your library and you’ll read it and re-read it.

For more information on Rosalind Gardner’s “Super Affiliate Handbook” click here.

Getting Started: Which Option Is Best For You?

OK. You’ve just come up with the perfect idea for a website and you’re all jazzed and ready to put it up on the web.  Now comes decision time.  Just how are you going to turn this idea into a bright and shiny new website?  Well, you really only have three options.  You can hire a designer to build it for you.  You can use one of the many “site designer” packages out there.  The third option is doing it yourself.  Obviously, if you’re reading this site, option three is probably where you’re leaning, but let’s just see if that would be your best choice.

OPTION 1 – HIRE A DESIGNER.  This is an option that a lot of new aspiring webmasters choose.  After all, it’s easier to hire out the technical stuff so that you can concentrate on writing your content.  Let’s look at a few of the pros and cons.

PROS: 

• It’s a lot less work for you.  (At least, it should be.)
• You will probably have your site more quickly because the designer has done this before and doesn’t have the “learning curve.”
• The site should have a very professional look and feel.

CONS:

• This is usually the most expensive option.  Having even a small site custom built, can cost hundreds of dollars.  I know because I’ve been known to build sites for other people 
• You’re at the mercy of your designer’s schedule.  If your designer is sick or on vacation, you’re not getting any updates.
• You never learn how to do it yourself in case an emergency need should ever arise.

OPTION 2 – USE A SITE BUILDER.  There are many great site builders out there.  Perhaps the best known is SBI – Site Build it, but there are others.  Let’s examine this a little closer.

PROS:

• They usually have an automated system so you can build a site without having to learn coding in-depth.
• You can control the look and feel of your site, without having to try to relay your vision to a designer.
• You can make updates whenever you want.
• Many site builders have features to help you with site promotion as well.

CONS:

• Many of these site builders are still more expensive than the do-it-yourself option.
• Since most site builders use GUI (Graphical User Interfaces), you still don’t get experience editing the basic code yourself.  Should the site builder service be down, you’re out of luck.
• In many cases, you are limited in your layout to whatever stock layouts the service happens to offer.

OPTION 3 – BUILD IT YOURSELF FROM SCRATCH.  This is the option for the hearty souls out there. 

PROS:

• You have complete control over the look and feel of your site.
• It’s usually less expensive than the other two options, at least in terms of initial out-of-pocket expenses.  Of course, the learning curve and “incidentals” may eat into this, but I’m getting ahead of myself.
• You get a feel for the actual inner workings of the site, thus you are able to make updates when you choose. 

CONS:

• There is a learning curve.  Even if you are building a simple HTML site, there can be a substantial time investment in learning proper HTML coding.  If you get into forms, javascript, ASP, PHP, etc., your learning curve increases.
• You are totally responsible for the look and feel of your site.
• The entire responsibility for promoting your site is up to you.

So, which option is best?  Well, that, my friend, depends on you.  There’s not right answer that is right for everyone.  It depends on many factors such as your budget, your available time, your desire to control every aspect of your website. 

Personally, I prefer the do-it-yourself option, but then again, I am a control freak.  Only you can decide which option will work best for you.