The question is, how do you choose a good PLR content provider? If you type “private label rights” into Google, you will get over 30 million results! Some providers charge mere pennies. Others require upwards of $50 a month! Some sell PLR on individual products. Others are monthly memberships. How does a well-meaning infoproduct entrepreneur separate the good from the bad?

Following are questions you should ask before committing your precious dollars to a PLR provider:

1. Is the PLR content relevant to my niche?

A common problem for many Internet marketers is to leave PLR content unused. This is more likely if the PLR you have is not relevant to your niche or target market. Sure, some content can be so generic that it can fit a lot of niches. But there are niches that are very targeted and specific, that not all PLR would work for them. So before you buy any PLR, look at the topic and make sure you can repurpose it to suit your target market.

2. Can I get a free sample of the PLR content?

A PLR provider who is confident about the quality of their products will allow you to sample their content for free. Otherwise, this could be a red flag that the quality may not be up to par.

3.   Is the PLR content original, well-researched and well-written?

Most PLR providers offer free samples or a free trial so you can look at the quality of their PLR content. Make sure the material is well written, with few or now grammatical and typographical errors. Ask the provider if the materials are original, that is, they have never been sold anywhere else before. You don’t want to pay for something that has been circulating the Internet for many months and has been rehashed and recycled to death.

4. Can I buy only what I want/need, or do I get a package regularly, whether I can use it or not?

Some PLR providers force you to purchase bundles of PLR content. This is fine, as long as you’re confident that you can actually use most, if not everything, in the bundle. Otherwise, it’s wiser to go with PLR providers that allow you to buy only what you want and need. Paying for PLR that you will not or cannot use is like flushing money down the toilet.

5. Is there a limit to the number of people who can buy the PLR content?

Although I emphasize the importance of transforming PLR and making it your own, you still want to look for PLR that is offered to a limited number of people only. Find out if the PLR provider has a cap on the number of “copies” of the PLR material they sell. If it’s a PLR membership, is there a limit to the number of members they accept? If not, you may end up with an infoproduct that will soon be mass distributed on the Internet. This leads to price wars wherein people selling the same stuff try to outdo each other by bringing their selling price lower and lower. However, if you are committed to giving your PLR content the “extreme makeover”, then this may not be an issue to you.

6. Does the PLR provider also give training and other resources to help me make the most out of the PLR?

A good PLR provider is committed to your success as an infoproduct entrepreneur. Therefore, a good provider will also give you training and guidance on how to make the most of the PLR you are purchasing. This is a sign of good customer service and a genuine concern for their clients.

7. Does the PLR provider have a good track record?

Here you’ll have to do some sleuthing to get an idea of the reputation and previous performance of the PLR provider you’re considering. Ask other Internet marketers you know where they get their PLR. Or pose the question in an Internet marketing forum. You’re bound to get recommendations for PLR providers in various niches.

8. Am I getting extras along with the PLR content?

Some PLR providers don’t just give you an Ebook or special report. They throw in a sales letter, Ecover graphic and even a matching website header! These can be useful, but remember that you can’t – or shouldn’t – use these as is. You can easily revise a sales letter to make it unique to your product and niche, similar to how you convert the PLR material itself. However, once you change the product’s title, you can no longer use the Ecover and website graphic. Keep this in mind when you’re considering if the price of the PLR is worthwhile.

9. What exactly am I getting?

As I have mentioned in other blog posts, not all PLR is the same. Make sure to read the license carefully and make note of what you can and cannot do with the PLR content. You might be looking for PLR to use as a giveaway to your opt-in list… only to find out that the license does not allow you to do that. Avoid disappointment. Know exactly what you’re getting before you buy.

10. Can I afford the PLR?

The cost of PLR content also varies widely. All other things being equal (upon considering questions 1 to 9), of course you’ll go with the PLR that’s within your budget. Single-purchase PLR may seem to be less expensive than PLR memberships, but it really depends on how you use the PLR. If you can take your monthly PLRs and use them to sell infoproducts, or to get sales from your lists or Ezines, then by all means, go for it.

You are looking for high quality PLR from a reliable provider, that will be highly useful to your target market and the particular business models you use. As you may have realized by now, there are no easy answers when it comes to choosing a PLR provider. It can take some trial and error to find exactly the provider that gives you that “perfect fit”.

Well, what the heck is PLR anyway?

PLR is a right or permission that you acquire, usually by paying for it, to use a piece of content and sell it for 100% of the profit. When you say “PLR” people usually think of E-books, but PLR can be granted for any – mostly digital – products such as software, audio and video. Other text forms that can come with PLR are articles, blog posts and autoresponder messages or newsletters. These PLR products can also come with sales letters, E-covers and even matching website headers.

When you buy a piece of content with PLR, in general, that means you can:

* edit the content: rewrite, remove, add content
* reformat the content: transform it from text to audio, for example
* repurpose the content: such as cutting up an E-book into an E-course
* put your name as the author
* sell the content and keep all of the profits

A key thing to remember is that not all PLRs are the same. Some PLR providers will allow you to give away the content, say, as a bonus for a paid product. Others will only allow you to sell it. Some will allow you to claim the copyright for the product. Others will allow this only if you have changed the content so much that the original writer would not even be able to recognize it anymore.

Confusing? It can be. The key thing is to read the license in every PLR product that you buy, to make sure that it meets your needs and purposes.

One good way to better understand PLR is to compare it to other kinds of rights, such as “Standard Resell Rights” and “Master Resell Rights”:

I hope this table has helped explain PLR to you. But the bottom line is: read the license. That will tell you exactly what you can and cannot do with the content you have acquired. If it’s unclear, ask the provider.

I even downloaded a free report about how to use – and make money from – PLR content By the way, if you’d like a copy of that free report yourself, sign up here. (It’s on the bottom of the page.) I actually read that report. But still, I turned up my nose on PLR! I was convinced I could write everything myself.

As I learned more and got deeper into Internet marketing, I kept hearing about PLR. At first, I was in utter shock. Internet marketing gurus and people I looked up to as mentors admitted to using PLR. Gasp! No, it couldn’t be! But there you have it. It seems like everybody who’s making money on the Internet is using PLR.

I like to keep an open mind, so I did try PLR. I signed up for a free PLR offer once. I took one look at the articles and then I junked them. They were crap! I could not put my name on that stuff! I was better off just writing all the content I ever needed by myself. As I said, I am a writer. I get paid to write.

So I continued to write all my own stuff.

Fast forward to eight months from the time I began Internet marketing: I have 5 blogs, dozens of article directories to submit to, guest blog posts to write, electronic newsletters to send to 3 different lists in 3 different niches, and an infoproduct empire to build.

All these Internet assets I have carefully built to generate passive income for me are sadly getting neglected. I am now busy servicing my clients, getting into joint ventures, creating more websites to sell products .. let’s just say I am beginning to not enjoy writing so much anymore. Ok, ok, I am starting to dread it!

I consider myself a pretty fast writer, but somehow, I was falling behind on my article marketing. Somehow I have a handful of half-written special reports that I had meant to give away for free but abandoned in frustration. I still don’t have freebies to give away on my opt-in forms.

And then it struck me: unless I get help with all the writing I need to get done, I will keep leaving money on the table!

Yes, I am a writer, but I simply cannot do all the writing myself. At least, not from scratch. I’ve thought about hiring a writer, but then the good ones charge more than I do , which means I’ll end up spending more than I earn. And the cheaper ghostwriters will produce stuff that I’ll have to rewrite anyway.

Being the open-minded entrepreneur that I am (and somebody at the end of her rope), I gave PLR a second look. This time, I actually paid for it. This time, I asked around and went with the PLR provider used by a successful Internet marketer whom I greatly admire. And you know what? My mind was blown away!

I now have all the content I need for my blog posts, article marketing, Email autoresponders, and all the infoproducts I had planned to make heaps of money with – and in fact, I have fresh ideas for many more!

Sure, it’s an “additional” expense, but it costs much less than hiring a ghostwriter for all the written stuff I need. Plus, if I consider all the profits I am NOT making because I don’t have all day to write… not only is PLR worth it – the cost forces me to make it worthwhile!

Wait, don’t think I don’t do any writing anymore. I do. But this time, I’m not starting with a blank page. I’m not spending 30 minutes researching the topic. I have the raw materials in front of me. I change the title to include my keywords. I rephrase the content to make it relevant to my target market. I pull things apart, rearrange stuff, combine different pieces of content, add what I already know, and I end up with content that is truly, uniquely my own.

Moral of the story: If you want to provide quality content without spending 8 hours a day writing, or paying $$$ for content, then you need PLR. The key is to get the best PLR out there and to recycle and repurpose it to make it truly your own.