Article Surfing Archive

Private Label Content is becoming increasingly popular as peoplejoin the rush to fill their websites with high-qualityinformation. Admittedly, you can have articles written byfreelance writers at sites like Elance or Rentacoder, but it getsexpensive. For those who are not yet generating a high incomethrough AdSense or affiliate sales, Private Label Content (PLC)provides a welcome alternative.

=== What is Private Label Content? ===

PLC generally refers to articles, e-books and manuals that arefree for subscribers to use as they wish. There are a fewrestrictions, however: you cannot claim copyright to PLC, orsubmit it to article sites, unless you change the contentsignificantly. (Interpret 'significantly' as 'unrecognizable asthe original article'.) The cost of membership varies, buttypically ranges from around $24 to $67 a month. For this youmight receive anywhere from 150 to 300 articles per month. Somesites also offer graphics (e-book covers and site headergraphics) and even ready-made sales letters.

To use PLC to the best advantage, you need to be aware of a fewthings.

=== 1. How Can You Use PLC Articles? ===

The most common use for PLC articles is to provide useful,interesting content for websites. There are other uses, however.Think about your immediate needs. If you require an incentive forpeople to sign up for your newsletter, you can offer an e-book ortraining manual made up from PLC articles. It's easy to tweakthese to be more relevant to your website and your clients. (Aswell as putting yourself in Google's shoes, put yourself in yourclients' shoes. What do they most need to know?)

You could also create an e-course (anything from 6 to 52 articles- a short e-course, or one that offers an article for each weekof the year). This gives you an excellent reason to stay in touchwith your clients.

=== 2. How Can You Alter PLC Articles? ===

Submitting articles to public article directories along with yourresource box is a great way to generate traffic to yourweb-sites. However, many directories don't allow you to submitduplicate content - ie, you have to submit your own uniquearticle. Therefore, when submitting an article that you obtainedfrom a private label content resource, it's advisable to firstalter the article before submission. Here are a few tips in thatregard...

(a) Change the title of the article. If you are usingkeyword-optimized articles, make sure you keep the keyword in thetitle - but be creative about the words that surround it. So ifyour article is based on the keyword "Mongolian Guinea Pig", yourtitle might be "Where to Find the Mongolian Guinea Pig" or"Taking Care of Your Mongolian Guinea Pig" and so on.

(b) Change the opening paragraph. All you need to do (usually) ismake sure that your keyword appears once. Take a look at the restof the paragraph. How can you say the same thing in a differentway? Look for synonyms - using your thesaurus - or alter thetone. Perhaps you can adopt a more casual approach (this mightwork better for your readership anyway). You might prefer write adifferent introduction altogether.

(c) Work through the article. Add a sentence here; subtract onethere. Present the facts in a different order. Expand by addingsome new points. Break a long article into two shorter articles.(If you do this, make sure each article seems complete initself.)

(d) Rewrite the ending. When you do this, think about what youwant the reader to do. Is this a good place to put your ownaffiliate link, or write a lead-in to your own product orservices?

=== 3. Blend Several Articles Into One ===

You can get a whole new look if you take two or more PLC articleson the same theme and blend them into one longer, fact-packedarticle. Sometimes you might find you HAVE to do this, if anarticle seems a bit 'lightweight'. Not all PLC articles arecreated equal! Sometimes it's obvious that the writer was low oninspiration.

=== 4. Think Outside the Square. ===

Most PLC articles are presented in batches relevant to one niche.For example, you might find that over the course of a month youget 20 articles on golf, 20 on cell phones, 20 on credit cardsand 20 on travel. Let's say that you are busy building a golfsite. It might seem at first glance that only 20 of the 80articles are relevant to your needs.

Not so! Golf vacations, for example, are very popular. Could anyof your travel articles be massaged to fit the theme of golfvacations? It's very likely that they could. And what aboutcommunication while you travel - or while you play golf? Does thegolfer need a new cell phone that will easily adapt to overseascommunications? How will the golfer pay for a new set of clubs ora golf vacation? Might he need to explore credit card options?

You see how it's done. Be creative in your use of Private LabelContent, and you will definitely get your money's worth.

=== 5. One Final Tip - Hold Out For Quality! ===

Now that Private Label Content is becoming popular, more and morePLC sites are opening up. You can afford to be choosy. Check outthe quality of the articles on offer, and especially the nichesbeing targeted. Niche areas like golf and credit are popular, andthat's exactly what you want. You want to go where there is an*existing* demand. You do NOT want obscure niches where there islittle activity. You WANT to go where there is competition.Naturally, the profitable niches will always have competition. Where there is competition, there are buyers! So you want tolook for demand, look for competition, and carve your niche!

Finally, consider being a member of more than one PLC site. Is itworth it to you to spend $150 a month on quality,no-strings-attached content? That would get you membership of 3-4sites and upwards of 400 articles each month. Even if you can useonly 50 of those articles, you're getting them for $3 each - abargain!