Bloggers dirty little secret

This will be old news to some. Like you, I know this has been in existence for a long long time. Nevertheless, I thought it was time to share a few thoughts on this “bloggers dirty little secret”.

So what is it? Well, let me first tell you:

I am not implying, in any way, that all bloggers use this trick. Some do, that’s all I’m saying!

Bloggers dirty little secret: PLR Products

Have you ever noticed that when looking for “things to do in Paris, London or Tokyo”, you can find 100 articles or more, which all pretty much say the same thing? Or if you are looking for advise on “how to do this or that”, the articles you read all say similar things, in similar paragraphs with similar titles. They are not exactly the same articles, but they are extremely similar in terms of overall content. Wonder why?

In some cases it can be called plagiarism. In others it might be a slight excess of Ctrl C / Ctrl V. No need to tell you that it’s pretty bad…

But in some cases, it’s called PLR products.

PLR stands for Private Label Rights and refers to products like eBooks, articles and even videos, which you can buy online. The ‘beauty’ is that you can use those products, in which ever way you want. You buy them and they are yours. It is completely legal. Some people happily create these products with the sole purpose to sell them, usually as many times as possible.

What happens with images and music you can find on specialized website is different. In most cases, you purchase the rights to use such image or music but you usually need to credit the author. With PLR Products, you do not need to. That is the whole purpose. You buy the articles you want to use, modify it as much or as little as you want and publish as your own.

Yes PLR products is not limited to online businesses. It also apply to physical products but we are here to talk about online stuffs.

How do I feel now that I know about PLR Products?

As you and I, read blogs or other information website, we read articles that we think were written by the blog owner, another blogger or maybe a journalist for information website. As a blogger myself, I know how long it can take to write one of those. How much heart and soul, I pour into writing each and every one of my articles. Naively, I thought most bloggers out there, were doing the same. Naively, I imagined some of them writing long into the nights, to fill their little corner of the web with amazing and personal content. Part of me, admired such bloggers who were constantly able to deliver 5 or more articles a week, while still having a day job and a life….

Not to mention that they always offer great little eBooks, so well done and so pretty, to their subscribers.

So how did I felt when I learned about PLR products?

A little disillusioned to say the least.

I was glad to know the trick some of them use. Like many other things in life, it’s better to know, than to be kept in the dark.

But I felt a little disillusioned. Maybe a little upset and surely a lot less envious! Something good had to come out of this!

Why do bloggers use PLR products?

Since I don’t use PLR products, it’s going to be hard for me to answer this question fully.

Creating a blog is, for most people, a way to share their ideas, to express their own opinion, feelings and creativity.

However, some seems to be there solely for the money. Maybe fame? They want to create huge amounts of content to monetize their blog quickly. In which case, they probably use PLR Products, for the content creation part. I get it. Slow growth is a killer. Growing a blog and an audience quickly is motivating. So using PLR products is enticing and can probably get you started and ahead, without losing the required motivation.

PLR products sites also advertise that “PLR articles can help to keep that flow going when you run into a period of writer’s block.” I get that too. Although I think that there are 2 distinct categories of blogs and circumstances:

if you are launching a blog for personal reasons, then writers’ block isn’t really an issue.
On the other hand, if you are launching a more professional blog, then getting organized is a better solution to writer’s block or other ‘life issues’ you may encounter.

For example, I use highly productive and inspired periods, to draft articles so when shit happens, I have a bunch of articles that are ready or almost ready to be published. This article was amongst them. Sometimes I don’t even feel like publishing them. Sometimes it’s not enough and I just don’t publish anything. In these circumstances, I know PLR articles wouldn’t help either! When you are not in the flow, just do something else!

That’s it really, I can’t think of any other benefits. If you come up with something else, do let me know!

Why is it a bad thing in my personal opinion?

My opinion is that it helps no-one, to have everyone giving the same advise over and over. When you are looking for something specific and all the articles you read, give the same info, you may start thinking it is true, even if it isn’t.

It is especially the case with the “art of blogging”, marketing strategies, advertisement, business advise in general. It’s probably true with a lot of life coaching advise. It is also true with travel blogs and “top 10 things to do in…” articles which all include the same top 10 things!

Duplicate content helps no-one. If you are relying on SEO for traffic, it probably doesn’t even help your site.

With regards to your readers, it will most likely diminish their trust in your site. If you’re lucky they might not notice, at least not right away.

Using PLR content is a soulless way to blog. That is just my personal opinion!

Note: I pondered long and hard about publishing this article. I was telling myself that if I talked about PLR products, it might motivate you, my dear readers, to use them. Kind of the opposite of my goal! But, hey, I trust you, and I know you want to build a business with strong fondations and be real!