When I first learned about private label rights (PLR) information products, I thought the whole concept sounded like another get-rich-quick scheme.  I couldn’t believe it would be possible to take a product someone else had created, slap your name on it, and resell it for a profit.  I wondered who in the world would write a book only to give others the rights to publish it.  And I figured that if they were willing to let others take credit for their work, it must be really poor quality material.

Beware of Poor Quality PLR Products

But curiosity got the best of me, and I purchased a membership to a site selling private label rights products. I remained a subscriber for a few months until I took some of the content from one of the books and did a quick search on Google.  It turns out the site owner was simply taking free public domain material from Project Gutenburg, importing it in into Word documents, creating PDFs, and adding some low-quality book cover graphics.  I bet that guy was making a killing, too.  But I dropped my subscription and unsubscribed from every one of his marketing lists.  I don’t like to be scammed, and although it could be argued that he was adding a bit of value to the free material, it didn’t warrant the price I was paying.

Look for Quality Products

I’ve since purchased several PLR products and had some success with them.  But I made the purchases with quality in mind.  If the graphics looked good, and they included a table of contents that looked promising, I would give them a try.  I’ve bought a few duds, but most of them have actually been high quality material.

How to Make Money with PLR Information Products

But the key to really making money selling PLR information products is making them unique.  If you add your own creative touch by editing the material, changing the title, creating new graphics, and writing your own sales letter, you’ll have far greater success in the long run.  I’ve even taken products that were originally intended for one audience and revised them to work in a whole different niche.  Because the product you create is original, you eliminate the direct competition. 

Sure, it takes a little effort, but it’s not difficult.  It just requires investing a little time you’d otherwise be spending in front of the TV.  And if you think about it, writing a book yourself could take weeks, or even months.  So buying a completed product and making a few changes is a piece of cake by comparison.

Where to Find a Good PLR Product

There are a lot of good PLR information product resources if you search around on the net.  It doesn’t take a lot of effort to find good products in almost any niche you can imagine.  And if you’re really creative, you could even grab some public domain content and put together a product of your own.  The sky’s the limit, and there’s little downside risk.  Worst case is losing a few dollars on a low-quality product, and best case is creating a new residual income stream.  I decided it was worth a shot, and it’s since paid off for me. 

New Video Game PLR

In addition to buying and reselling PLR products, I’ve recently begun actually creating original products of my own to sell.  You can be one of the first to check out my original PLR ebook on the basics of video game development.  There’s nothing like it online anywhere, so it’s a truly unique product.  And we’ll soon (early August 2008) be launching our new video game PLR website (early sign-up will be live by August 1), where we’ll release one completely original video game with complete source code each month.  Not only could you make a little money by selling the games, but you could learn how to write video games in the process.

Starting an online business is definitely not for the faint of heart. It takes an enormous amount of time, money, and patience. You have to have the guts to stick with it even when things don’t look promising. You have to be willing to learn the ropes, and then take what you’ve learned and put it into practice.

Most are Doomed to Failure

Most people that get started will make it through the early stages. They’ll invest a few hundreds bucks in courses, books, and seminars. They might even try the water by throwing up a website. But that’s when the rubber really meets the road, and things start to get interesting. At that point, 99 out of 100 will throw up their hands and say to themselves that it’s impossible. (Note: Thinking something is impossible is a good way to make yourself feel better about giving up on your dreams.)

The Brave Press On

But there are a few that have enough sticktoitiveness to stay the course. Those brave souls will likely face the scrutiny of their peers. They have to listen to the naysayers that will gladly tell them it can’t be done. They have to give up their get-rich-quick fantasies and get their hands dirty in the real world. They’ll have to brave the rushing current of change that occurs on the internet. To stay afloat, they’ll have to learn how to embrace change - and maybe even learn to anticipate it.

Fun in the Mud?

I just recently read something about pigs. I didn’t know it, but pigs don’t look up at the sky. All they ever see is dirt and mud. They never aspire to reach the heavens. They don’t even care enough to look up. Now, I’m not trying to say anything bad about pigs. They have their place in the world just like every other living creature.

I’m just saying that you have to be willing to look up out of the mud if you ever want to reach the sky. You can’t let adversity keep you down.

It’s Lonely Up There

While I’m on the topic of animals, what about chickens? Chickens have wings. They can even fly a little if they feel the need. But they don’t soar with the eagles. They’re content to wander around near the ground where it’s comfortable and safe. They like it down there where the quick and easy food can be snatched up easily. (Sound familiar?) They don’t feel that inner drive telling them to take to the skies and spread their wings. I wonder why that is.

At what point in the history of chickens did one of those odd little creatures decide it just wasn’t worth spending another minute gliding through the heavens? When did that first chicken think to himself about how much more comfortable it would be to stay down here in the mud with the pigs?

The Choice is Yours to Make

If you want it, you can have it. Whatever it is. But there ain’t nobody heading to your door to deliver it. It’s time for you to decide if you’re going to work your way to the top or hang around down here with the rest of the chickens. The choice is yours to make, and you’ll probably have plenty of company should you choose to take the easy way out.

I have to recommend going for it. It’s not easy, and it’s not for everyone. But if you think you’ve got what it takes, there’s nothing like the feeling of accomplishment when things start to fall into place. Believe me - it’s worth the effort.

P.S. Notice that I didn’t include the usual pitch to for some cheesy internet marketing ebook or course.  This time, I’m serious.  You really do have a decision to make.  You really do have to decide to either sit still and enjoy the life you have, or you have to put on the gloves and create the life of your dreams.  Once you decide, the right tools will fall into place.  You’ll know where to turn when the time is right.

Although some would suggest keeping Google in the dark when it comes to their sites’ performance, I have a different opinion.  After working all last month to get my niche sites switched over from Commission Junction to the new eBay Partner Network, I decided to try to optimize my AdWords campaigns.  I send a lot of traffic to my niche sites using AdWords. 

Although I do use tried and true SEO strategies to get organic traffic, I’ve found that PPC traffic converts better for some reason.  I can spend weeks optimizing my sites to get them ranked for some decent-performing keywords, only to find that the majority of visitors coming from the search engines are just browsers.  I can send a fraction of the traffic to my sites using AdWords ads to get the same results.  It takes far less time and effort, and it allows me to focus more on building better content.

Anyway, I recently began optimizing one of my campaigns based on some knowledge I gained from a new StomperNet video on PPC ads.  I was able to improve my click-through rates dramatically using their strategies, and I was excited about the results.  But the excitement was a bit short-lived.

You see, I have my Analytics account tied to my AdWords campaigns.  I like to be able to track the performance of my campaigns down to the specific ads and keywords I’m using.  Using the StomperNet ideas, I was able to add a new ad that got a whopping 60% click-through rate. 

After seeing the results, I moved on to take care of other business.  I came back later to find that Google had doubled the minimum cost per click on my account and set my account to inactive until I raised my bids.  I was alarmed, and I waded through my campaign settings looking for an answer.  But the answer was only to be found in my Analytics account…

After clicking over to Analytics, I went to my AdWords campaign and clicked down to what I thought was my best performing ad.  Sure enough, the bounce rate for that ad was over 50%.  So, although the ad attracted lots of clicks and had relevant keywords for my site content, it wasn’t attracting customers - only curious clickers.  So, Google had done me a big favor by increasing my minimum cost per click.  They were actually saving me a lot of money.

After removing the offending ad, I soon saw my cost drop back to previous levels and all was well again.  I’ll continue to create new ads and research new keywords, but I’ll be sure to keep a close eye on the results in my Analytics account.  Some may call it the Google-slap, but I now prefer to think of it as a way to quickly learn how to improve the results of your PPC campaigns.