To PLR or Not to PLR?

I’m going to step on some toes with this one, but I strongly encourage anyone with an opposing view to step in and offer their opinions. I’m in no way against anything that helps writers, or promotes good web content ethics and practices. In the case of PLR content, I simply have a hard time seeing the benefit of it’s use in the long run.

Where did this come from, originally?

Before I spent much money or time on PLR articles, reports, or ebooks, I’d want a few key questions answered to my satisfaction - starting with this one. Where did the material come from - originally? The seller should be able to answer your question simply with one of two responses, either - I wrote them myself - or, I purchased the re-branding and re-selling rights. Otherwise, you’re running the risk of purchasing illegally procured material which might also be plagiarized. For your own protection, I strongly suggest you keep a record of the purchase and any rights the purchase claims to entitle you to.

How can I know the difference between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ PLR until I buy it?

Quite often all the information you’re presented with is a list of titles, and a large sales page for the PLR package. You have no real idea what you’re buying until you purchase and unzip the file. One way is to pose questions prior to placing your order. If the website doesn’t have clear contact information - this in itself is a red flag. Prepare an email to the seller and ask for a sample article from the pack you’re interested in. If you receive no response, this seller is not one you wish to do business with. An honest salesperson is more than happy to answer questions about their products or services.

What do I do if I've purchased illegal PLR content?

In most cases, this situation will be brought to your attention via a ‘Cease and Desist’ notice. The owner of the content will give you so many days to remove the content from your website, blog, or publication and as long as you comply - this is typically the end of the legalities. As for getting your money back, you can try, but more often than not the seller was scammed just as you were. They bought the material with re-brand and re-sell rights just as you did.

What’s the advantage to buying PLR, as opposed to downloading free PLR?

Borrowing directly from sales pitches I’ve read, supposedly, you get material with ‘limited publication.’ This perplexes me. If the seller has sold it at least one time - then someone else has the re-sell rights. If that person sold it at least one time - then someone else has re-sell rights… and on and on. Furthermore, if it’s been published one time - anywhere on the world wide web - it wouldn’t pass a duplicate copy filter anyway. So does it really matter if the material has been published 40 times or 400? Does it make enough difference to justify the cost? I wouldn’t think so.

The best argument I've heard recently for purchasing PLR...

“It makes excellent resource/research material, and saves a writer so much time!”

Really? Let’s think about that. Suppose I’ve never owned a house pet, but I want to write an article on having a house cat. For resource/research, I go get myself a well written PLR article on cats as pets. I dissect out all the pertinent information, the facts, the statistics (if there are any), and then I write my article based on my own desire for a house cat and information I’ve learned from the PLR article. How embarrassed will I be when my article is rejected because I said house cats are the #1 pet in America (based on PLR article information) and in fact, the #1 house pet in America is the dog?

As simplistic as this example may seem, I see this over and over. PLR articles may be so outdated that the once correct information is now obsolete. Before you can securely use information obtained from ANY source, you must check the facts! If you have to spend the time to check the facts, why would you spend it checking another writer’s facts when you could just as easily (and in the same amount of time) gather your facts from an accredited source - one in which you could cite at the end of your article and offer your readers even more information?

Who Do You Cater To?

Some of you who’ve known me for years and followed various websites and blogs that I’ve built have no doubt noticed that I have very minimalist tastes design wise. I tend to go with 3 base colors, Courier or Ariel font, and I hate advertisements.

Google Adsense absolutely infuriates me, and I refuse to put one of their ad boxes anywhere on a site I control. The explanation as to why actually goes back several years - to the dark days of contextual advertising. There was a time when anyone with a blog could earn money by adding a link somewhere within the text of a regular blog post, on ‘key words’. For example, suppose you blogged about a day at the park with your children and used the words ‘playground equipment’ in a sentence. Those are ‘key words’ to anyone who sells playground equipment, and they would pay you to make those words a link to their website. The problem with this in Google’s eyes, was that it tripped up their algorithm. All of those links gave websites a ‘false’ sense of importance, and scored the website a higher placing in search results. So, instead of changing their algorithm, Google decided to penalize blogs and websites who participated in contextual advertising.

You may have heard phrases such as “Google Slap” - and “Page Rank” and wondered what this meant. Well, in short - this is what Google did to offending blogs and websites. If found guilty, the blog or website would be stripped of it’s page rank, and banned from Google search results - essentially - black balled. What infuriated me about this is that a search engine used it’s power to control a marketplace. They won. Then (to borrow a phrase from my dad) like an egg-sucking dog, they offered Google Adsense as a means to earn money from your website or blog. So, it was never advertising they were against - it was simply advertising that didn’t benefit THEM.

Another area where Google used it’s might to control the marketplace concerns ‘duplicate content’. Any blog or website found to contain previously Google cached content would be stripped of page rank and banned from search results. Supposedly, these measures were taken in an attempt to fight plagiarism. No doubt, there were very serious allegations of plagiarism on all fronts - I’m not arguing this point. What I am contending is that a search engine was allowed to be the Deputy Dog on the case. Here’s an example where a ‘blanket’ duplicate content rule adversely effects the marketplace:

Suppose you wrote an article on child development that was so cutting edge and revolutionary - half of the child psychologists in the world were contacting you wanting to use your article. Wait… they can’t. At least not word for word. Google won’t allow it. Nor can you profit from the article more than one time. You may sell re-print rights, but only ONCE. Otherwise, the article will appear more than once in search results - a direct Google violation.

Obviously, most people ignore these ridiculous stipulations and you’ll often see the same articles high and low… but the fact remains, you’re taking the risk of being banned from search results each time you violate the duplicate content rule. As writers - this cuts right into our pocketbook - because it doesn’t allow us to gain income from re-print sales.

Some people choose to let the public decide - and pay no heed to the Google rules. Such as PLR content. I know several people who earn a substantial income and enjoy massive website traffic from sites that contain nothing BUT duplicate content. For example, suppose you have a website devoted to herbal supplements, and you publish PLR articles from known experts in the field. The public wants and needs this information in order to make an informed decision regarding the use of herbal supplements. The public doesn’t care if those articles have been previously published. If Google bans your website from search results (and they well might) there’s several hundred other search engines that won’t. The public can still find you - and most certainly will if the content is good.

So… what’s your take on it? Cater to a search engine, or cater to your readers/customers?

Conflicted Inspiration

In some regards, I’m very lucky to live in what most people would consider a vacation retreat. Nestled deep into the foothills of the Magazine mountain range, twelve miles away from the nearest form of humanity, and farther to a paved road. Bad or wet weather demands a 4 wheel drive vehicle to even access my property. Sometimes I wonder if this extreme isolation is conductive to my creativity - or detrimental. Have I been here so long I’ve lost all touch with the world outside? For an example, my oldest son mentioned what he’s paying for rent the other day and I almost called the kid a liar. I couldn’t fathom rent being that high now days, because it’s been so long since I’ve had to pay it.

Several years ago, I dated a musician and songwriter and he absolutely left me dumbstruck one day with one of his observations. We were talking about creativity and agreed that neither of us could work on any sort of time clock - either ideas flowed, or they didn’t. This accepted fact made our relationship somewhat more tolerable, because we understood when one or the other jumped up at 4am and ran to write something down. But, then one afternoon, he said: “Happiness and contentment block me.”

Excuse me?!

He went on to explain that extreme emotions are generally what fueled his creativity. The ordinary, even keeled, daily flow of a good relationship and steady lifestyle tended to put him into a lull. Whereas conflict, drama, unrest - fueled him into writing some of the best music and songs of his life. Hum… interesting. Needless to say, our relationship didn’t last, but it’s nice to think the breakup led to some good music for him.

But, the point I was trying to build into is that I’m wondering now if my lack of social interaction with the ‘rat race’ has a lulling effect on me as well? Does it soften the ‘edges’, or give a ‘moonlight and magnolia’ effect to my writing? Does a writer need a certain level of conflict or drama to prompt strong writing?

Something to think about…

Ode To Thwap!

THWAP! Thwap, thwap, thwap! Thwap! Thwap… thwap! Click, cheeeeng, bang. THWAP!

You have no idea what would make that sort of sound do you?

And you call yourself a writer, heh!

That is the sound of pure determination, focus, and inspiration. The sound of a manual typewriter sitting on a cramped student desk in the corner of a dark bedroom. No one could type fast on those things unless they had stubby fingers and an absurd level of accuracy. A mistake was comparable to one’s pants splitting - hard to fix and the mend always showed. We all tried to correct with the paper still lined up and securely wrapped around the roller - because it was a real bitch to line that back up again. Rolled eraser slag would fall down inside the typewriter case, and no matter how hard we tried - we’d always erase 3 letters instead of one. Sometimes the eraser pen tore the delicate typing paper, and then we were really screwed. That required taking the sheet out and trying to mend the hole with tape on the back. The glorious day of White Out was still several years in the future, and no one had invented the correction ribbon yet.

To get the typewriter in the first place, we had to either beg our parents relentlessly, or mow yards to earn the money. Some of us were blessed with shiny new typewriters, some of us were handed the one their Mom scored at a yard sale for $3.50 and had a broken W key. Our thrill at possessing the magic machine was soon abashed by our sadness at how quickly the ribbon ran out of ink. Some of us got creative (and handy) and learned how to re-ink them. We stole typing paper from school, and anywhere else we could find it laying around, because it was quite expensive. Once that climatic moment finally came when we had it all together - oiled, inked, papered - and ready to crank out our first best selling novel - we went blank. Performance pressure. After three crumpled pages on the floor, we started to count the pages we had left and guesstimate the amount of ink left. Each paragraph became harder to write, as the stakes got higher.

We loved our writing machines, and we hated them - equally. One undeniable fact about our machines was that they demanded the best of us. Total focus, total commitment. No key stroke was wasted. No sentence hit the paper until we spoke it aloud, acted it out, and made sure that was precisely what we intended our reader to read. Hours were spent pacing floors, acting out dialogue between our characters - making sure each word had the proper impact. Dictionaries, encyclopedias, library books, newspapers, magazines, and thesauruses lined the floor around our desk. Some of us had decent lighting, some of us had a bare light bulb on a drop cord hanging from the ceiling - but creativity happened. Works were completed.

Now I have a computer with unlimited white space, unlimited ink, unlimited formatting, spelling, and even grammar editing tools. I have a backspace button to fix small problems and a delete key to eradicate major ones. An entire room of my home is designated as my office, and I even scored a studio outside the home for really serious writing projects. I haven’t had to steal printer paper since college. I don’t remember the last time I blew a fuse because I was trying to run a shop light and a space heater off the same plug in. Why haven’t I created anything amazing now that all the hardships of creation have been removed?

Hum…

Perhaps the lack of challenge itself is the problem. After all - there hasn’t been a new set of Commandments since the ones chiseled in stone.

Writing Samples

I’ve noticed an alarming trend in the freelance content writing market. Regardless of whether you have a portfolio or not, or samples of your work on hand and ready to attach to an email - content buyers are now requesting “on the spot” samples. My first instinct was to think this is a means by which they can easily weed out the fakers who’ve only written one good quality piece of content in their lives and use it as their sample every time they apply for a job. By requiring an on the spot piece to be written on the subject of their choice, they immediately know three things.

1. How long it takes you to write an article.

2. That you or someone very close to you is in fact the author, because you didn’t have time to outsource.

3. How good of a writer you truly are when faced with an immediate deadline.

But then, having the devious mind that I do, I began to ponder a more sinister motive. Of course any writer put on the spot like that, and wanting desperately to land an assignment, is going to go above and beyond the call of duty to deliver quality content in a timely manner. The content buyer receives these free samples from you, for their consideration, and you receive nadda. You wait for their next email to see if you got the assignment or not. Because you’re rapidly hitting refresh on your email inbox, it’s doubtful that you took the time to upload a copy of those sample articles to your server, blog, or website.

Suppose they receive the articles, and upload them to their server, blog, or website? You just lost controlling interest in your own content. The buyer effectively beat you to the “time stamp” of publication. If it were to come down to your word against theirs, this timestamp could be the determining factor of ownership. Scary, huh?

My Father always told me to never offer up a problem, unless I had a solution to offer as well. Otherwise, it’s called “bitching”. So my obvious solution would be to get that publication time stamp on your side before you ever send a “sample” away. This wouldn’t have raised such a red flag with me if the sample was just a simple 100 to 200 word ditty. But lately I’ve been being asked to send 300 to 500 word samples. That’s a whole article guys! That’s money right out of my pocket and into theirs if they choose to publish it and beat us with a Google index. And think of the sheer amount of content they’re receiving each time they advertise a job this way! If 100 writers submit a “sample” - they just got enough original content on their key words and topic to satisfy their content needs for a solid year - for FREE!

Where's The Service in Your Service?

‘Living In Queue’ has consumed practically every conscious moment of my life for the past two years, but it’s finally reached the finished manuscript form.  I’ve spent the past week actively seeking the right Agent representation for it because I passed on a well respected agency. They requested re-writes and edits that the writer in me simply couldn’t abide by - now I’m swimming through the sea of hopefuls trying to find the perfect match.

As writer’s, we’ve been conditioned to feel at the mercy of Agents. And honored by any attention we can garner from them.  This is a ridiculous concept, that personally, I’m amazed we ever fell for in the first place.  We make them money, plain and simple - yet they want us to cater and bow to them as if it’s the other way around.  In effect, they’re simply doing the leg work for us - and for a pretty substantial pay off.

Therefore, I have very little tolerance for high-handed business practices that leave me feeling like I’m playing a game of ‘Mother, may I?’. Not to mention, many writers are finding the world of self-publishing to be very profitable.  In my personal opinion, Agents need to realize their marketplace is changing, and adjust accordingly. I’ve ran across a few that still request paper copies delivered via postal mail!  It’s fine to offer this as an option, but come on!  What an incredible self-indulgent waste of resources, money, and time - simply because they don’t want to sit at their computer to read, or don’t want to spend their money printing pages out.

Perhaps I’ll never find the right representation for my work with the attitude that I have, but it’s a risk I’m willing to take.  Two years of my life has been devoted to this book, and I refuse to take a back seat approach with it now.  I will not allow an Agent to request changes that don’t feel right to me, simply to keep them ‘hooked’. I won’t work with an Agent that I can’t talk to, or have trouble reaching.  In the event I find myself feeling as if I’m catering to their whims, they can consider themselves dismissed.      

Writing Voice vs. Speaking Voice

Have you ever wanted to share a sentence or two from your work, then realized as you read it aloud – it lost it’s punch? This happens because the “writer” in you is coming out, instead of the “speaker”. Here’s an example of what I’m talking about:


Speaker: 26 year old, unemployed, XBox playing dude named Tim. Talking to a friend on the sidewalk outside his apartment.


“Melissa won’t be stopping by today. She informed me earlier that she has errands to run that will likely occupy her time until late this evening.”


Maybe Tim speaks like this, but it’s more likely YOU write like this. To be more true to Tim’s character, the sentence would need to read something along this line…


“Hey, man! Melissa said she’s on errand run all day, so she can’t swing by.”


Know Your Character


You would never perform the lines of a play without getting into character first. You would study your character, know their expressions, know their body language, their tone, their emotion. You would speak their lines as closely as you could to the manner in which you imagine they would say them. Conversation in a book should be no different!


The two main characters in my book are not Scholars, there is no narration, it’s strictly first person – present tense. They’re not in public, there’s no cameras on them, there’s absolutely no reason to speak with anything other than their natural speaking voices. It’s jerky enough to have to read all of the “he said” – “she said” tags at the end of every line, without tossing in awkward phrases. As I wrote the conversational blocks in my book, I kept this in the forefront of my mind, and would always read the conversations aloud and in character.


Showcase The Fancy Stuff


If your book contains blocks of narration, this is a better place to show off your wordsmith talents. Narration is your turn to use your “writing voice”. The only character you need to get into here is yourself, your own unique style. Maybe your main character is a Chicago street thug who grunts more than he speaks, so you’re really limited on just how much information this man can convey to the reader in a block of conversation. However, as a narrator, you’re only limited by your own creativity. This is where you can describe the streets of Chicago as veins of filth running through the soft tissue of a decaying civilization. If your reader does decide to read this aloud, it won’t contain the “he said” – “she said” tags to stumble all over and it doesn’t have to be “in character” with any of your book’s characters.