Editor of "The View From The Cabin" newsletter
http://www.online-business-centre.com/lan/newsbiz_blog_perm.htm
Private Label Content is becoming increasingly popular
as people join the rush to fill their websites with high
-quality information. Admittedly, you can have articles
written by freelance writers at sites like Elance or
Rentacoder, but it gets expensive. For those who are
not yet generating a high income through AdSense or
affiliate sales, Private Label Content (PLC) provides a
welcome alternative.
=== What is Private Label Content? ===
PLC generally refers to articles, e-books and manuals
that are free for subscribers to
use as they wish. There are a few restrictions,
however: you cannot claim copyright to PLC, or
submit it to article sites, unless you change the
content significantly. (Interpret 'significantly' as
'unrecognizable as the original article'.) The cost of
membership varies, but typically ranges from around
$24 to $67 a month. For this you might receive
anywhere from 150 to 300 articles per month. Some
sites also offer graphics (e-book covers and site header
graphics) and even ready-made sales letters. To use
PLC to the best advantage, you need to be aware of a
few things.
=== 1. How Can You Use PLC Articles? ===
The most common use for PLC articles is to provide
useful, interesting content for websites. There are
other uses, however. Think about your immediate
needs. If you require an incentive for people to sign
up for your newsletter, you can offer an e-book or
training manual made up from PLC articles. It's easy
to tweak these to be more relevant to your website
and your clients. (As well as putting yourself in
Google's shoes, put yourself in your clients' shoes.
What do they most need to know?) You could also
create an e-course (anything from 6 to 52 articles -
a short e-course, or one that offers an article for each
week of the year). This gives you an excellent reason
to stay in touch with your clients.
=== 2. How Can You Alter PLC Articles? ===
Submitting articles to public article directories along
with your resource box is a great way to generate
traffic to your web-sites. However, many directories
don't allow you to submit duplicate content - ie, you
have to submit your own unique article. Therefore,
when submitting an article that you obtained from a
private label content resource, it's advisable to first
alter the article before submission. Here are a few tips
in that regard... (a) Change the title of the article. If
you are using keyword-optimized articles, make sure
you keep the keyword in the title - but be creative
about the words that surround it. So if your article is
based on the keyword "Mongolian Guinea Pig", your
title might be "Where to Find the Mongolian Guinea
Pig" or "Taking Care of Your Mongolian Guinea Pig"
and so on. (b) Change the opening paragraph. All you
need to do (usually) is make sure that your keyword
appears once. Take a look at the rest of the paragraph.
How can you say the same thing in a different way?
Look for synonyms - using your thesaurus - or alter
the tone. Perhaps you can adopt a more casual
approach (this might work better for your readership
anyway). You might prefer write a different
introduction altogether. (c) Work through the article.
Add a sentence here; subtract one there. Present the
facts in a different order. Expand by adding some new
points. Break a long article into two shorter articles.
(If you do this, make sure each article seems complete
in itself.) (d) Rewrite the ending. When you do this,
think about what you want the reader to do. Is this a
good place to put your own affiliate link, or write a
lead-in to your own product or services?
=== 3. Blend Several Articles Into One ===
You can get a whole new look if you take two or more
PLC articles on the same theme and blend them into
one longer, fact-packed article. Sometimes you might
find you HAVE to do this, if an article seems a bit
'lightweight'. Not all PLC articles are created equal!
Sometimes it's obvious that the writer was low on
inspiration.
=== 4. Think Outside the Square. ===
Most PLC articles are presented in batches relevant
to one niche. For example, you might find that over
the course of a month you get 20 articles on golf, 20
on cell phones, 20 on credit cards and 20 on travel.
Let's say that you are busy building a golf site. It
might seem at first glance that only 20 of the 80
articles are relevant to your needs. Not so! Golf
vacations, for example, are very popular. Could any of
your travel articles be massaged to fit the theme of
golf vacations? It's very likely that they could. And
what about communication while you travel - or while
you play golf? Does the golfer need a new cell phone
that will easily adapt to overseas communications?
How will the golfer pay for a new set of clubs or a golf
vacation? Might he need to explore credit card options?
You see how it's done. Be creative in your use of
Private Label Content, and you will definitely get your
money's worth. === 5. One Final Tip - Hold Out For
Quality! === Now that Private Label Content is
becoming popular, more and more PLC sites are
opening up. You can afford to be choosy. Check out
the quality of the articles on offer, and especially the
niches being targeted. Niche areas like golf and credit
are popular, and that's exactly what you want. You
want to go where there is an *existing* demand. You
do NOT want obscure niches where there is little
activity. You WANT to go where there is competition.
Naturally, the profitable niches will always have
competition. Where there is competition, there are
buyers! So you want to look for demand, look for
competition, and carve your niche! Finally, consider
being a member of more than one PLC site. Is it worth
it to you to spend $150 a month on quality, no-strings-
attached content? That would get you membership of
3-4 sites and upwards of 400 articles each month.
Even if you can use only 50 of those articles, you're
getting them for $3 each - a bargain!
Tom Taylor
BSc, MSC, PHD (School of Hard Knocks and Real Lessons)
http://online-business-centre.com
Editor of "The View From The Cabin" newsletter
http://www.online-business-centre.com/lan/newsbiz_blog_perm.htm
This article may be republished so long as the resource informationis left intact.
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