In the beginning......
Starting an online business sounds relatively easy. The set up costs are comparatively minimal, the set up process generally straightforward, and no overheads (like salaries or office rental) to worry about.
On closer examination, however, you begin to understand the power of content marketing in helping you to boost traffic, engage with your audience, and make more money. You also begin to understand that just one person can't generate that much content on their own.
To engage in effective content marketing, you need to publish relevant content consistently directed towards your ideal customer. And to accomplish this, you’ll need content for social media, your website, and more. Content like blog posts, articles, downloadable PDF content, whitepapers, guides, checklists, and more – all published consistently, 365 days a year – and promoted in a way that attracts your ideal customers and helps search engines send your audience to you.
PLR defined
Private Label Rights (PLR) is the name given to content which is provided on a commercial rather than personal basis. Some people also call this type of content 'white-label content'. Others may call it 'done for you' content.
Technically (well, at least according to Wikipedia) the term PLR refers to:
"...a license where the author sells most or all of the intellectual property rights to their work. The license is defined by the author of the work and has no legal definition. Private label rights is derived from private labeling..."
Whatever it’s called, the creator develops the content for their audience to use as their own or per their licensing agreement in a way that is beneficial for both. Good PLR typically allows you to edit the content, use the content as is, and even assign your own name as the author. (One thing to remember here, is that you do not have exclusive ownership of the PLR content. Other people may publish the same content, word for word.)
This type of content might seem strange, but it’s not something new. PLR content has been around for a long time. In the days before online downloads and purchases, if you published a city magazine, newspaper, newsletter, or another type of publication for your community, you could order done for you articles that you could cut out and paste into your publication. Some of these outlets allowed you to edit the work and use it as your own. Some required that you used the work as-is.
It's a very similar situation these days, but, in most cases, good PLR companies will allow you to edit and change the work, as well as put your name on it and use as is. One thing you can't do is assign copyright to yourself for the work.
Having said that, contrary to what some people may think, it’s definitely not plagiarism to use the content as intended by the creator. In fact, if you want to use content marketing to build your business, you can rest assured that using done for you content is a practice that has been in use for decades, and not only is it ethical and legal, but it also works.