Should I Use PLR Articles / Content For My Blog?

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What are PLR articles?

For anyone who doesn’t know, PLR stands for Private Label Right’s content, they are articles that you can freely purchase over the internet to use as content filler for your website, blog, newsletter or eBook projects with the rights to republish and sell them on as you please. We ask the question should you use PLR articles on your blog?

There are a concerning number of bloggers resorting to PLR articles to use on their own blogs, and I’ve seen a few submissions here for guest posts made up of PLR articles which we’ve of course rejected; in fact in one of the columns I read in a recent printed article was all about how to cut up, mash up and mix up PLR content with your own content, to post on websites, blogs and article sites.

If someone we’re to ask me personally if they should use PLR articles on their blogs, my obvious answer would be no as I’m sure many of you would also agree, and here’s why I think that using private label right’s content on your blog is not a good idea.

PLR articles

Not Unique – Remember that these PLR articles are sold to potentially thousands of other webmasters to use, which makes none of it unique, and even with all the mashing up in the world, it still doesn’t make the subject matter or content your own. In short what you’ll actually be doing is regurgitating crap off the web and paying for it at the same time!

Not Engaging – A lot of webmasters might disagree with this one, but I do believe that PLR articles are not the kind that promotes engaging activities on a blog…

For example, say you post a nice piece of PLR article on your blog and someone leaves a decent enough comment, perhaps they ask you a few questions and your personal thoughts about a problem they might be experiencing related to the subject of the post. Now, let’s imagine for one minute that you didn’t have a clue what you just posted, it sounded good so you purchased it and posted it on your blog… How are you going to engage and respond to your comments? This isn’t blogging surely.

Not Personal – If you frequently read one particular blog you kind of get use and adapt to the natural tone in which the writer uses. Whilst you are able to mix your own content with PLR articles, it does on a large scale take the characteristics of your blog away in one way or another, in which the way you write and how others read your content. There isn’t anything personal or emotional about content written by someone else that’s published under your name is what I’m trying to get at.

You may end up rattling Google’s Cage! – The other factor is probably one of every blogger’s worst nightmares, being penalized for duplicate content, or being sandboxed and most likely not getting indexed in the search engines.

So should you use private label rights articles for your blog? No! I wouldn’t even consider using it for article marketing or even as content for an eBook let alone for posting on blogs.

Over to you readers

Perhaps you see it differently, do you or have you used PLR articles on your blog before now? Let me know your views in the comments section below.

Photo by Rodrigo Galindez

  • Graham Lutz

    I think PLR stuff is a waste of time! the only use I see for it is to get a content template for an ebook, ecourse, or membership site. But even with that, making it excellent will take so much time, it’s probably worth starting from scratch anyway.

    • Samantha Wright

      Hi Graham, I’d probably agree with you at a push that perhaps some material could be used for an ebook, I think giving something unique and resourceful for people to download and use is important though. It’s definitely writing material of your own though, it can be time consuming I know but the end result is much more personal and you feel that you’ve achieved something worthwhile.

  • http://verybestsoftware.net Shivam Garg

    Hi Samantha,
    It seems to me to be a very dicey situation. I think using a PLR in its totality is a poor idea as there will be no uniqueness. It should be avoided as far as possible. However, sometimes you just fail to arrive to some ideas on your own. At such a time, there seems to be no harm in using a PLR as the reference point and elaborating on it.

    • Samantha Wright

      Hey Shivam thank you for your comment, I can see your point about picking ideas from PLR to write about. That is something I should have mentioned perhaps, you’re right thanks.

  • http://www.barrywheeler.ca Barry Wheeler

    A great article on PLR (it’s Pretty Lame Really) … bloggers who use this are lazy bloggers.

    It’s become the plague of the internet world and the blogosphere.