PLR and Ghostwritten Articles: Are they Ethical?
Recently, in an interview, I was asked “Is it ethical to use private label rights and ghostwritten articles?”
Let me step back a moment and explain… Private label rights (or PLR) articles and ghostwritten articles are used by web owners as a method of outsourcing some of their content.
* PLR articles are packages of articles that are pre-written and sold to more than one person.
* Ghostwritten articles are articles that are written by someone else just for you that you can put your name on and are not sold to anyone else.
In both cases, you are allowed to edit the content as much or as little as you’d like and use the articles on your website, blog, or in your newsletter.
So, back to the question. Is it ethical? My answer was, “usually, yes”.
If you’re using the articles and saying “written by me” without changing anything at all, it may bite you in the butt later, when someone else does the same thing. Does that make it unethical? Not really. It’s just not smart. Can you use the article as it is or edited slightly, without saying it was written by you? Of course!
Most PLR packs are written by ghostwriters. Ghostwriters are professional researchers and writers. If you purchase well-written, informative PLR or ghostwritten articles and share them with your readers, don’t you all benefit? Your readers benefit by getting great information. You benefit by saving time. Is it any different than hiring a graphic designer or webmaster? Not in my opinion. Heck, most politicians don’t write their own speeches. They leave that to people who are professional speech writers.
Of course, you’d want to only use top-notch articles and not “sell-out” just to pump out blog posts or web pages quicker. We recommend you research thoroughly before choosing any ghostwriter or PLR service.
Here’s what to look for in a PLR service so you don’t waste your money:
1. Make sure the articles are written well.
2. Make sure that you know what topics you’ll receive (instead of some grab-bag of articles).
3. Be sure that the people running the program have some experience in article writing themselves, so they know what they’re doing.
There’s no point in doing everything on your own, especially if you dislike writing. All successful business people outsource the tasks they are not good at or dislike. Check it out. It might take some pressure off you and allow you to spend more time with your kids. And, that’s definitely ethical.
Nicole Dean is the owner of EasyPLR.com – where you’ll find high-quality PLR articles sold in very limited quantities. The PLR articles at EasyPLR are professionally written and professionally edited — top quality at an affordable price.
If you’d like to learn how you can profit from PLR on your blog,
just click on the image for a direct download.
If you would like to find out more from Nicole about how outsourcing can make you more productive, and at the same time give you more freedom… Check this Out:
I couldn’t agree more, Gene. No matter how good the PLR content, it isn’t written to be an end product. It is written in a “non-personal” way.
PLR is, however, a highly valuable research tool, in that it allows you to gather information together in a workable format very quickly and easily.
Nicole, great post! It always amazes me when people use PLR material without changing a thing, and adding their name to it as author. It’s bound to bite them in the butt. It’s a frequently overlooked thing that can really hurt ones reputation.
Your PLR material is among the very best on the market. Even so, it is so important for a buyer/user to change it up a bit and add an individual personality to it, before claiming authorship.
Keep up the great work Nicole, and Teresa! 🙂
Gene
Nicole and Teresa,
First of all I have to say that Nicole’s PLR is top notch. It is easy to rewrite and work into my, email and special reports.
I love Nicoles answer. It depends. So true. Having good PLR makes life easier so using it in an ethical manner is not hard.
Thanks Teresa for the guest post.