PLR content comes in many formats, from PLR articles to PLR books and everything in between.

PLR sellers will sometimes specialize in one particular niche and offer articles, books, short reports, auto-responder emails and blog posts.

Other sources will offer PLR in a variety of niches but they may specialize in only two or three types of PLR content.

However, because most licences for private label rights material offers you the opportunity to do anything you want with it (except resell PLR to the content itself) you have great scope for converting your PLR into almost anything.

Remember to read the terms for the PLR you purchase and ensure you stay within those guidelines.

It’s not worth the hassle of getting into any legal problems with the seller.

I’m going to share 7 tips on how to use your PLR articles and how to make them unique without a lot of effort on your part.

1. Many PLR sites sell their PLR articles in packs of 5. That gives you a lot of information for very little cost. Start to raise your expert status with your Twitter followers by tweeting one or two pieces of information at a time.

2. Using bullet points create a PowerPoint presentation (use Open Office if you don’t have Microsoft PowerPoint). Use Windows Movie Maker (or Windows Live Movie Maker) and create a short video. Upload it to YouTube, add callouts, music and publish.

3. Create a short report to giveaway and build your subscriber list. If you have a lot of PLR articles on one subject, create an eBook that you can sell. 25 articles on a niche, when formatted will make a decent size eBook.

4. Go deeper into the niche that the articles refer to and edit them so that they are specific to a sub-niche. Take dog training for example. Most instructions can be applied to most breeds of dogs. So instead of having generic dog training articles, you can create dog training for Chihuahuas, dog training for poodles, etc.

5. With some minor tweaks, your PLR articles can be transformed into emails and sent out to your subscribers.

6. Use the articles on your Squidoo lenses with links back to your sales page.

7. Personalize the articles and schedule them to be published on your blog over a period of time.

You will notice that, after the initial purchase, all of these tips can be implemented at no extra cost. And the amount of work needed to personalize them should only take you a matter of minutes.

Unfortunately, most people won’t make any changes to their PLR content. This is a great mistake especially as it doesn’t take a great deal of effort to make it unique.

For more tips on how to use PLR articles, go to http://www.PLR-Marketplace.com and pick up a free copy of “Five Steps To PLR Success”.

Good luck in becoming a PLR expert.

There are many different ways to grow your list of subscribers and one of the most effective is AdSwaps.

Many people new to the idea of AdSwaps immediately thinks that this strategy involves passing on your list to other marketers.

That is definitely not the case.

Put simply, two people agree to promote each other’s product (in most cases, a free product) by sending an email to their own subscriber list, which includes a link to their adswap partner’s product.

The respective emails are sent out at the same time on the same day.

As I mentioned above, it’s usually a free product and the visitors are sent to a squeeze page. And as we know, the one and only purpose of a squeeze page is to collect subscribers email address and sometimes, the visitor’s name.

In return for opting in to the mailing list, the visitor receives a free gift containing useful information.

In the past, setting up an ad swap involved finding potential partners and negotiating an acceptable date and time.

This was a very time consuming process.

A number of people saw a gap in the market and set up sites whereby like minded individuals came together and arranged their swaps without having to do a lot of searching.

One of the biggest sites to emerge in recent times is Safe-Swaps.com.

I first joined a couple of years ago and enjoyed tremendous growth to my list of subscribers.

Last year I scaled down my business due to health issues, cancelled my membership of Safe-Swaps and then rejoined in January 2012.

The membership is certainly worth the investment but I have noticed a decline in the quality of traffic received from some of my swap partners.

I have a theory as to why this is the case but I don’t have any evidence.

I am going to share my theory but please, do your own research. Your experience may prove me wrong and I’d like to hear about it.

Anyway, here goes.

Earlier this year a listbuilding product was released. (I’m not going to name the product or the owner because this is only theory.)

The product advised using Safe-Swaps to grow your list, but with a twist.

The prooduct was aimed at those who had no list or a very small list of maybe less than 100.

The idea was to build the list fast and to do so meant that initially you had to buy traffic at a very small price.

The squeeze page this traffic was sent to was a very simple one and, after opting in, visitors were sent to a product being sold on Clickbank.

I don’t know the source of this traffic, but it attracted a lot of visitors and, more importantly, a lot of opt-ins.

Using this “inflated” list, you could then successfully approach other marketers at Safe-Swaps with a similar sized list and set up a swap.

The twist was that you only sent to your partner’s squeeze page the list gained from the paid method. You never sent the list gained from swaps to another swap partner. It was claimed that this list would be a fresh one (although as they will be on other lists, that claim isn’t necessarily true).

The list gained from the first paid method is, in my experience swapping with others, of a low quality. Although they may click on the link and view the squeeze page, they are not opting in.

And even if they do opt-in, they are “freebie-seekers”

Granted, there are always going to be people looking for free gifts and never purchasing. But I think this strategy has increased those numbers.

As I always test the opt-in process with potential swap partners, I started to recognise a similarity to the squeeze pages.

And I think these squeeze pages have come from the same source and those using them have participated in the product I alluded to earlier.

In fact, many of the exit pops on the squeeze pages are the same.

Now, do I think that Safe-Swaps is not to be used?

Actually no, I think it’s still one of the best places to go. That and the Warrior Forum.

My suggestion now, as with most things online, is carry out your due diligence.

Test your potential partners opt-in process.

If you start to see similarities in squeeze pages and exit pops, then check closely the results from each of those swaps.

If you get satisfactory results, congratulations.

If not, then maybe my theory holds up.

I don’t have anything against the strategy employed in the product I mentioned earlier. It’s the name of the game in this business.

But sometimes new methods can have a detrimental impact on other marketers.

Test, test and test again.

Let me know what you think.

I’ve come across a number of discussions recently about the use of private label rights, particularly on the Warrior Forum.

There was a fascinating debate taking place between writers of PLR. It concerned how writers research the topic they intend writing about.

The two sides debated the “rights and wrongs” of research by copying and pasting notes from other articles as a basis for their work.

The forum thread was initiated by Tiffany Dow, a writer who I admire not only for her written work but also for her business ethics.

If you read the thread, you’ll probably guess which side of the fence I come down on.

I like to work with PLR material and this thread had started a couple of days after I had bought a PLR coaching program. This particular coaching topic is evergreen and although I don’t have immediate plans to use it, I bought when the opportunity arose.

So, because of the forum thread and looking through my recently acquired product considering how to put my spin on it, any other mention of private label rights was likely to catch my attention.

And so it did.

A sales page caught my attention and I thought this may stimulate ideas for me to add to my recent purchase (as well as adding to my workload!).

I hit the buy now button and duly acquired personal rights and (pleasant surprise) the private label rights which were being offered as a one time offer. Feeling happy with this other product, especially the PLR, I started to explore the content.

Or I thought it was another product.

Because when I opened the files what did I find?

The very same product that I had bought a week or so previous!

Not a great deal of work had gone in to changing the “second” product. A sales page had been created (that was no surprise as the original didn’t come with one); the writer’s name was changed but that was about it.

I had two reasons for being annoyed (putting it mildly); one was the price of the product for personal use.

It devalues the product out of all proportion to the content.

Of course, a buyer can charge whatever they want, especially as there was no mention of a recommended price from the original seller.

But even so…

The second reason was that I had just bought PLR to this course at a ridiculously lower price than the original.

After taking a deep breath, I considered more rationally what had happened and a number of questions came to mind.

I searched out my original purchase. No matter how much I looked for it, I could not find the rights to resell PLR.

I could have left it there but…

I contacted the owner of the original product and simply asked for clarification as to whether I could resell PLR to the program.

Within minutes I received a simple answer…”No“.

Pausing for thought, I then proceeded to pass on my findings to him.

He responded by saying “…taking action on this….”.

I’ve no idea what action he intended to take but I wasn’t finished.

The “second” product I had purchased was being sold via Clickbank. I opened a couple of tickets requesting a refund.

As manager of Support Desks for a number of marketers, I’ve had experience of dealing with Clickbank on behalf of customers, but this was a first for me.

In the tickets I provided an explanation for my refund.

There was one last course of action for me to take.

The “second” product had been sold as a WSO on the Warrior Forum. Although I didn’t know if this particular WSO had broken any of their rules, it had certainly gone against the rights granted by the creator of the product.

So I opened a ticket in the Warrior Forum, providing as much information as I could. I ended the ticket with “What you do with the information is completely up to you“.

I don’t know the outcome of this incident.

Except that I note the WSO is still being offered although I don’t know whether the OTO of PLR is still on offer..

Maybe the Warrior Forum haven’t completed their investigation (my ticket is still open) or maybe they don’t care.

I received my refund from Clickbank but the incident left a sour taste.

A number of issues are raised with this incident.

The WSO was being promoted by some very respected marketers. I guess they weren’t aware of what was happening and, in all honesty it would be difficult for them to know.

Although some of these same marketers advise to try a product, or at least know the owner well, before promoting. Hmmm…

It’s also a salutary reminder to always check the rights to products with PLR, MRR or Resale Rights and abide by those rights.

Should I have ignored the issue completely?

Should I have taken further action?

Let me know your thoughts on the matter and leave a comment below.

The other day I was searching for a report that I knew I’d purchased some months ago but had never got around to reading.

Ever had that experience?

I’ve got this folder on my hard drive called “Reports” and then sub-folders for such topics as, Traffic, Listbuilding, SEO and so on.

It’s a bit organised; probably my civil service training…

So I found the report I wanted but was rather taken aback by the number of reports that I had collected.

But, more importantly, the number that I hadn’t got round to reading.

I know I’ve skimmed through many but hadn’t taken the time to read them thoroughly and certainly not implement whatever strategies were on offer.

Does this ring any bells with you?

I’m not unlike many people I guess, and we all have hundreds of reports just waiting for when we have “that spare half an hour” to read just one.

And we never get around to it do we?

I then decided to take a look at the list of videos that I’ve either downloaded or those which I can access online.

And the surprising thing was that I’ve viewed, if not all, certainly the vast majority of them.

And I know that I do go back to some again and again to either refresh my memory (it’s getting old!) on a particular technical aspect or a marketing strategy I want to implement.

I can find the information much quicker in a video than in a written report.

I suppose I learn best using the visual/nonverbal style and benefit from visual aids such as film, video, maps and charts.

Have you noticed how much training and educational stuff is now offered in video format?

I agree, it doesn’t appeal to everyone.

For example, there are those who learn best when information is presented visually and in a written language format (visual/verbal learning style).

But in the broad Internet marketing niche, think about how many products you’ve purchased that are now in video format.

So if you are creating products, maybe you should consider creating them in that same format.

And it’s not as difficult as you might think.

It’s definitely a growing trend and one that I don’t think will disappear.

If you don’t want to miss out on this trend and would like to know more about Video Marketing, go and get my 6-part video course, Cool Video Marketing.

It’s completely free and I can guarantee that you can have some fun with this gift.

Start your video training by going to CoolVideoMarketing.

Oh, the report that I found? It comes with PLR. It could become a new video product!

Are you sick and tired of all the spam you’re receiving?

It may very well be that you have some email contact information on your website and this is being read by the robots.

Here’s a short video in which I share a little tip to eliminate that possibility.

Hope you found it useful.

It’s been quite some time since I posted something here and there is a very simple explanation.

I died!

Okay, obviously I haven’t because I’m still here.

As Mark Twain said, “Reports of my death are greatly exaggerated“.

So let me offer you an explanation.

The last time I put up a post I mentioned the fact that we were moving house, in my case for the 21st time.

By the way, thanks to those of you who commented congratulating me on my 21st – however, it wasn’t my birthday. You really should read each post before leaving a comment! (Useful tip there for some people.)

We are now settled and enjoying the village life away from the hustle and bustle of Barcelona.

At around the same time of the move and for reasons that I’m not going into now (as I’m rather tired of doctors, hospitals and everything medical) I was told that I would not be able to work for a period of time. Complete rest was required.

As a lot of my business runs automatically, I wasn’t too concerned. However, I did have commitments to some clients to whom I was providing a customer support service. These people had to be informed so they could make alternative arrangements.

With very little time I had available, I called upon someone I considered a good friend. I dictated an email outlining what was happening and that I would be incommunicado for some time, and asked him to send it on my behalf to my clients. I then gave myself up to the medical profession.

The middle of last month I slowly started to address myself to my business. I was pleased to note that my list of subscribers had continued to grow although I do apologise to them all for not being in touch recently.

And then I came across a response from one of my previous clients that completley knocked the wind out of me.

He was responding to an email, supposedly coming from my wife, in which it stated I had died!

The original mail had come from one of my email accounts which gave it some authenticity.

However, the style of writing rather perplexed me.

As some of you know, my wife is French. As well as reading, writing and speaking perfect French, she also reads, writes and speaks English and Spanish very well.

This particular email didn’t support that fact.

I’m not going to share the full content, but here’s a couple of sentences:

“I see you write John but he not answer.”

“I not able help you I not understand.”

“I sorry tell you John he die Friday.”

As you can see, apart from the blatant, downright, ugly lie, the syntax is all wrong.

I know, how can I go on about syntax when I’m supposedly dead. Well, I’ve had time to get over it….

But one of the saddest things about this event is that I don’t know why my supposed friend did this. For I have no doubt that it was him writing this mail to my clients and not the one I had dictated to him.

Suffice to say I haven’t seen him since.

I have obviously contacted my previous clients informing them of my continued existence. I’m certain they have been surprised to hear from me.

It’s a strange world we live in and people can be the strangest of creatures.

So, I’ve picked myself up, taken time to assess the state of my business and will be moving on.

I’m not sure if I will be leaving this post up forever but it was the quickest way to offer an explanation of my absence to many people.

Look out for some interesting business stuff very soon.

Live life to the full. It’s good to be alive!

In just over three weeks there is a cause for celebration – it will be my 21st….time I will have moved house/flat/apartment.

For a moment there, you were looking at my picture above and shaking your head. I wouldn’t have believed it either.

I have to admit that my first three addresses were that of my parents but at the tender age of 17 I was shown the door of independence. Actually I was pushed out at about 1 o’clock one December morning, but that’s a story for another time.

So, why so many moves?

Low threshold boredom maybe.

Whatever the reason, I’m always reminded of the fact that moving house is supposed to be one of the major stressful activities we experience.

I can say, hand on heart that I’ve never found this to be case.

One move involved me carrying half a dozen plastic bags to a shared flat. This was the total sum of my belongings. Hardly stressful, more a case of “why didn’t I take a trolley to do the weekly shop” type of moment.

Consider this for a potentially stressful period.

The last time we moved was five years ago (seems a lifetime ago in moving terms). My wife was pregnant and I had just finished a six month treatment of chemotherapy. I started to load the van at 8.30 in the morning and by 2.30 in the afternoon our helpful band of moving assistants were sitting down to pizza and beer in our new apartment. Job done!

Was it stressful?

No.

I believe it was all down to planning and preparation (combined with experience as a touring theatre stage manager).

At the moment, although I’m surrounded by boxes already packed with many more still to be done, I’m feeling confident about this move. There are other planned events which I have to work around.

We’re meeting up with friends next weekend who are over from the UK. The following weekend we then take my daughter to France so that she can spend two weeks with her grandparents. Samia and I then fly back to Barcelona for a couple of days for the final push before the big day.

Having done the work beforehand, and practised it many times, come the day it is so much easier.

Of course, my business still needs to be attended to but as most of it runs on auto-pilot, it’s easy to manage.

Which leads me nicely in a roundabout sort of way, to the latest product from Keith Purkiss and John Thornhill, Push Button Giveaways 2.0.

Keith has created a product that makes the whole process of using giveaway events to build your list of subscribers so much faster and efficient. Do the job once and then on the day, click a few buttons and you’re ready to go.

John, who surprisingly had never particpated in a giveaway event, tested the process with some good results. He reckoned it could have been better had he offered a different product. Either way, I’ve seen his results and they’re not too bad.

There’s a lot more to Push Button Giveaways 2.0, which I believe is going to make using giveaway events a quicker and more enjoyable process.

I found the time, in between packing boxes, to put together a bonus for you when you purchase Push Button Giveaways 2.0 through my affiliate link. You can get more information at Push Button Giveaways 2.0 Bonus.

If you like systems that make your business run smoothly, this is for you.

And now back to that 21st celebration – where did I put the gaffa tape?

You’ve created an amazing product. You’ve got the most attractive squeeze page that you are convinced will have a high conversion rate. But the one thing you are missing is traffic. And without visitors to your site, the chances of building your list is virtually zero.
So here are 4 ways to help you attract visitors to the best squeeze page ever:

1. Forum Marketing
Forums are a great potential source of traffic. Your signature should include a link back to your website, which of course could be your squeeze page, so that every time you make a post you are getting your links seen. This also has the added benefit of creating backlinks, important for SEO purposes.

If you are in the internet marketing or ‘make money online niche’, consider setting up a free Warrior Special Offer (WSO) at WarriorForum.com. List your free product and link back to your squeeze page.

2. Traffic From Your Blog
Having a blog is a great way of having a presence online. You can use it in many ways to help in your list building strategies. Have a banner advertising your squeeze page.  Include text links to your squeeze page in relevant posts. Have an opt-in box prominently displayed on your homepage.

3. Adswaps and Solo Mailings
You can drive huge amounts of traffic to your squeeze page by using either or both of these methods. Both strategies utilize other marketer’s mailing lists.

You can pay another marketer to mail their list promoting your free product. Generally people tend to be more responsive to a squeeze page advertising a free product. This strategy is known as a solo ad or solo mailing.

Alternatively, instead of paying someone to send a mail to their list, you both agree to send out a mail to your respective list of subscribers in which you promote your partner’s free product. You will have guessed that this is an adswap.

4. Article Marketing
There is much debate as to the effectiveness of article marketing. However, as a free method of driving traffic on a long term basis, it’s one that shouldn’t be ignored.

Your article should provide quality content that readers will find interesting. At the end of your article, in the resource box, simply have a link back to your squeeze page. Obviously the article’s subject matter should be related to your free gift.

The EZ List Building Blueprint explores more in-depth these four and other traffic generating strategies. Visit http://www.ezlistbuildingblueprint.com/ for more details.

Is it possible to create a ‘good’ squeeze page? First you would need to define what a ‘good’ squeeze page actually is…

One factor to take into consideration is the page’s conversion rate. That’s to say, what percentage of people who land on your squeeze page actually sign up to join your list. The conversion rate you achieve depends on lots of different things such as where you are getting your traffic from, which market you are operating in, the quality of your copy and the appeal of the actual product you are offering to your target audience.

But of course, one marketer’s disappointing conversion rate good make another marketer ecstatic.

The only way to find out what works for YOU is to track and test. Experiment with different changes and find which ones boost your conversion rate.

Here are some things to think about:

1. Graphics or no graphics?
Do you go with fancy, professional quality graphics to enhance the look of your product and squeeze page, or would you get a higher conversion rate by going for a simpler look with text-only?

2. The layout
You can experiment with different layouts, for example having your opt-in box below your main text, to the right, above it, etc. Many people say that having your opt-in box ‘above the fold’ of the page helps increase conversion rates.

3. Remove distractions
A squeeze page is usually a single page with no links to any other pages or websites. The only thing a visitor can do is opt-in to your list, go to another website or close their internet browser. By eliminating distractions and having a strong call-to-action you should improve your conversion rate.

4. Consider using a template
There are many squeeze page templates which can be downloaded from the internet and many of them are free. By taking a pre-made squeeze page it gives you something to work from. Later on you can adapt, test and tweak the page.

5. Include a privacy policy
Many people are wary of handing you their name and email address, so even a simple line on your squeeze page saying something like “I take your privacy very seriously and I will never pass on your name and email address to anyone else” can increase the effectiveness of your offer.

You can get two squeeze page templates together with a thank you/download template when you purchase the EZ List Building Blueprint – your blueprint for building an enormous list of hungry buyers.

Is there really anything more to be said about creating a squeeze page? Don’t we know how to do this from the very first hour we get involved with Internet Marketing?

You’d think the answers would be “No” and “Yes”, respectively.

You’re much more likely to be nearer the truth of the matter if you reverse the order of those responses.

The thing is, when most people look to the idea of getting involved with Internet Marketing, they have no idea of what to do. All they can see are the dollar signs.

They will have come across a squeeze page without realising it, when they are putting their email address in the opt-in box. But they probably won’t link that experience to the idea of building their own subscriber list.

A squeeze page is simply a tool to help build that list of subscribers, and yet many successful marketers admit their own failure to implement this simple task when they first started online.

And yes, it is a simple task – when you know how to do it.

There are hundreds of “how to” books on creating a squeeze page but I’ve recently come across one in which the writer uses his offline background to great affect when sharing his own knowledge and experience in this important area.

Nic Penrake is a senior copywriter, author, writer of feature films and a TV series. So I guess you could say he’s good with words.

He’s now making a name for himself as an Internet Marketer and he’s put his skills to great use in “Power Up Your Squeeze Page“, a 43 page report packed with stuff you can put into action immediately.

He admits it doesn’t cover every single aspect of list building. However, there is more than enough to not only get you started but to take you past first base to where your business and income will definitely grow.

Nic’s techie experience is limited, but that is to our advantage. This is because his explanations of creating a squeeze page, the intricacies of the all important opt-in box, the setting up of a sales funnel, has a clarity that I have rarely come across anywhere else. And this is also due to his writing skills which are not to be underestimated.

He has that appealing style of being knowledgeable and experienced and at the same time very approachable in his writing.

And how many IM reports have you come across which have phrases such as, “some fairy dust“, “place of light and sweetness” and “the mouth of the fly trap“. And yet when reading, it makes perfect sense. I found it so delightfully refreshing – it becomes contagious!

There is one particular strategy in the Advanced Techniques section, that I’ve seen used many times but I honestly didn’t know how to implement. But Nic provides the code that you can copy and paste and you will find your opt-in rate will improve dramatically.

And finally, although this has nothing to do with the content, a small point to note.

How many of us have used unattributed graphics in our reports and eBooks? You will find on page 2, Nic credits the graphic artist used for his report’s cover and I find that an indication of his integrity and honesty as a marketer.

Take full advantage of the special offer Nic Penrake is extending to get your copy of “Power Up Your Squeeze Page” and forget all the other “how to” reports. Go to www.Power-Up-Your-Squeeze-Page.com.