It's frustrating when I get comments from readers disappointed because they posted an article or a video and got very little traffic for their efforts. 

Let me stress that you won’t get a ton of readers simply by publishing one good article or even one great video. Free web traffic comes from writing web content on a consistent basis.  The more content you deliver the more familiar readers become with your writing and the more links there are back to your website.

But don't let creating all that content stress you out.  Below I'll discuss easy ways to produce content without creating a stressful workload, but first let's talk about the best ways to create that content that will bring free traffic:

Article Marketing

Article marketing is one of the most effective ways to generate traffic.  We hear that a lot because it just works. 

The technique is simple; write an informative article and publish it to online article directories and related websites. But for readers and search engines to sit up and take notice, you'll need to pay close attention to the keywords you target in your article.  

For example, use the Google keyword tool and find relevant keywords to use within your article that have a search volume of at least 1,000 to 10,000 searches.  Combine a list of about 10 to 20 keyword phrases.

Next go into Google and type your keywords in, in quotes. For example, “How to grow roses”. Narrow you keyword list down by selecting the keyword phrases that have less than 10,000 competing results. Once you settle on a keyword phrase use it in the title of your article and use it only a few times throughout the body of your article.  

Next, submit your article to article directories like EzineArticles, goarticles.com and articlecity.com. Also try sending your article to other websites in your industry. If they like the article they'll be glad to post it on they website or blog. Having other websites post your article is how you'll get relevant one-way links and free targeted traffic.

Video Marketing 

Again, consistency will be your friend. You probably won’t be able to get a flood of traffic by submitting one video. But if you can make one informative video a month you'll become familiar among your followers.  

Videos don't need to be technical productions. I've created videos in the comfort of my office with my simple Olympus 1010 camera that has video capability. My videos are never more than just a few minutes long and I can have a video made in about 30 minutes.  Once your video is made, it's a simple process to submit it to YouTube, just follow their simple instructions. 

With each new video you make you'll see more traffic and backlinks coming in to your website.   

Search Engine Optimization

SEO is perhaps the most powerful method to get free traffic. It’s also the method that takes the most time, is the most competitive and has a certain amount of randomness factor to it.

There are several key factors that play into getting your website highly ranked. Having great unique content is one. Having a ton of backlinks to your website is another.

Finally, selecting the right niche, sub-niche and keywords can make a world of difference.If you have unique and innovative content, other people linking to your website consistently and you choose a market with not too much competition but enough traffic to make it worth your while, then you have a good chance of having your website make it to the top of the search engines.

Easy Ways to Create your Content

There are 4 ways to produce content:

1. Create content yourself. Probably the most effective way to produce content but it does takes more time and work  If you're a writer it might be your favorite way to get content written.  I like to write, but I don't always feel inspired that's when I move on to #2 besides the fact that you need to feel inspired. But if the mood strikes me I try to act on it. 

2. Hire someone to create posts and articles.  On occasion I use ghostwriters.  I've had my share of bad writers but it's a process finding someone you really like, but once you've found one, it's a big help. 

Ghostwriters will charge anywhere from $10 to $25 per article.  What I do is have my ghostwriter deliver "x" number of articles per week then I have my Virtual assistant submit those articles to several article directories.  Do that consistently for 2 or 3 months in a row and your traffic will definitely increase. 

3. Use Private Label Rights content- The benefits of using PLR are tenfold. I purchase PLR content and simply rewrite it in my own words. This type of content is great in a pinch for something to post quickly. I'll add some of my own knowledge to the content which makes it useful and of course unique. 

4. Request guest blog posts -  Send out a request to your mailing list or in your favorite free advertising forum for guest bloggers. Specify the topic you'd like guest posts to cover.  Specify that not all submissions will be posted but for those that you pick you will include their name and website.

With the exception of #1 these methods are practically done for you.  Your job will be to set the process in motion. With just a few hours a week you could have 2-3 blog posts and articles ready to go each week. Once you develop a schedule it will be easy producing content consistently which will be generating for you more free traffic than you'll know what to do with. 

Since I do a lot of writing for my websites and blogs I've seen the benefits of using PLR in my marketing efforts, that's why I asked my friend Tiffany to step in and share some of her thoughts with us on using and benefiting from PLR.  Enjoy ~Ms. Liz

Tiffany Dow, former Ghostwriter to the Gurus, launched the PLR Minisite where marketers can find a wide variety of niche PLR topics for as little as $1 per page, with no membership required. The site sells articles, email autoresponders, blog posts, eBooks, reports and more!

5 Benefits of Using PLR in Your Marketing Efforts

If you’re new to the world of Private Label Rights (PLR) – you’ve heard of them, but aren’t sure if they’re a good thing or a bad thing when it comes to your marketing – you’ll be happy to hear about the 5 top benefits PLR can inject into your online business in an instant:

1.) PLR helps you establish a connection with your audience quickly.

Hire a ghostwriter to create an eBook, and you’ll likely be waiting at least 4-6 weeks. A batch of articles? No telling how long it’ll take you to get them back – it all depends on how many other clients are in line. But when you buy PLR content, you get to download the zip file instantly and upload it to your server to sell or use as search engine fodder.

A ghostwriter would have to take time to work you into his or her schedule, conduct ample research, make an outline to work from, and then start on the written work. PLR is completed by the time you find it, so your only time invested is whatever it takes you to post it online.

2.) PLR helps you showcase expertise when you have none.

There are many niches that have ample profit potential, where you, as the prospective marketer, have little (if any) expertise. If you’re buying from the best PLR shops online, you won’t have to worry about the content or product lacking in its research.

Now if you buy from just anybody, then you risk putting your reputation in that niche on the line. You want to be assured that whatever the topic – from dog training to herbal remedies – the writer behind the PLR work has spent time ensuring the content is accurate and that it won’t harm anyone, in the case of medical topics.

3.) PLR helps you with a springboard for unique content.

PLR is best optimized when it’s rewritten. The rules depend on who you’re buying your PLR from, but in most cases the more you rewrite it, the better. You want unique content for your site. Some PLR providers will limit the amount you can alter it, some will force you to rewrite it by a certain amount.

Strict rules on changes like this can be a burden to you, so try to buy from a PLR provider that’s flexible. For example, if you were buying PLR to use in your email autoresponder campaign, you wouldn’t be as concerned about rewriting PLR as you might be if it was going to be web content competing against others in the niche who may own the same PLR.

4.) PLR helps you launch a readymade product that you can sell.

Whether it’s sold as a ready made product or you have to compile a batch of relevant articles into an eBook, PLR allows you to launch a product for sale without having to do all of the hard work of researching an idea and writing about it.

Don’t forget that you can turn written PLR into multi media format products, too. For example – take a how-to PLR eBook and create a video course where you’re capturing the screen or making a different type of video while reading from or summarizing the eBook’s content.

5.) PLR helps you keep your budget intact without going overboard on spending.

A ghostwriter can cost upwards of $30 per page. PLR can cost as little as $1 per page. The savings are dramatic, and for those just starting out in the Internet marketing arena, PLR can be a lifesaver. No matter how much you spend, if the content reflects poor quality, it wasn’t worth the money you invested – even if it was free PLR.

The benefits of using Private Label Rights far outweighs any negatives, such as competing with others using the same content. With the right PLR shop, you can have a cost-effective, convenient way to launch and grow your online empire.

Creating quality content for your website or blog has to be a priority.

Just ask any internet business owner and they’ll tell you that poorly written, uninteresting, dull content won’t drive visitors to your website or help you become profitable.

But how hard is it to create quality content?

Quality content  has to be unique and original and for someone that hates to write, they’ll probably tell you it’s very hard.

But here’s a secret, not all content has to be completely yours, some of it you can extract from PLR.

Whoaaa! Not mine?  Didn’t you just say content needs to be unique and original?

Of course, but let me explain…

PLR stands for Private Label Rights that is  written by a ghostwriter and is typically sold in packs of limited numbers.   You can buy PLR content for your website, edit and publish it without being required to link back to anyone or give anyone credit for writing it.

PLR is basically a starter package that you can quickly customize to your own style of writing, all PLR does is give you ideas and content that makes it easy to adjust the content to your own voice.

You can add your own personal ideas and experiences to the content, you can insert examples, photos or case studies which makes the content completely unique to your own writing style.

Warning: Never, ever use PLR content exactly as you get it, always customize it.

There’s nothing stopping you from using PLR right out of the box, but I never recommend that, first of all you run the risk of lower ranking if you use content word for word that others will potentially be using as well.

Your site won’t be banned for using content that’s found somewhere else but your content page won’t rank as well in the search engines either.

Customizing PLR content

When I need to write a blog post or I’m in a pinch to do a guest post or write an article, I’ve got to act fast. That’s where having PLR content on hand comes in handy.  I’ve got content right in front of me that gives me ideas to write about.

The content also contains tips and strategies and topic information that I can customize.

But you might be wondering how that makes creating quality content easier, after all you have to customize it.

Well first of all I don’t have to come up with ideas on your own.  PLR content provides topic ideas.   Secondly customizing content is a lot easier that trying to come up with writing it on your own.  For example,  I can rephrase a paragraph and put it in my own words a lot easier than I can write a new paragraph from scratch.

But also I can add to the paragraphs my own ideas and personal stories.  It’s like a catalyst for helping me think of things to write.

PLR is an awesome content strategy when used correctly so learning how to use private label rights content and employing good search engine copywriting strategies will help you develop unique content that you can create quickly and is affordable.

If you’re thinking about using PLR content, learn how to effectively use private label rights content first.

People often frown on using PLR content mainly because they don’t know how to use it.

If you’re not a writer or don’t like writing content for your website or blog, using private label rights is an almost perfect alternative.

I say almost because there’s a method for how to use Private label rights content and using it incorrectly won’t be of much benefit to you.

Private label rights content usually comes in the form of articles or ebooks.  It commonly comes as unformatted Word or text files that you can add to or rewrite any way you like.

One reason PLR has become so popular is because it can be much cheaper than hiring a ghostwriter.

For example, one article written by a professional ghostwriter might cost you $25-$30 whereas a pack of 10 well-written PLR articles or e-book might cost you $10-$15.  Also a quality PLR merchant will almost always limit the number of quantities sold, that means if you use it exactly as you receive it, which BTW I don’t recommend but we’ll get back to that, there will be limited copies floating around on the web.

What You can do with Private Label Rights Content

PLR is excellent for creating ebooks, guides or courses as an incentive for getting sign-ups to your newsletter, email list or simply as an occasional free gift for your subscribers.

It’s perfect for making posts to your blog or for writing articles that you can post on your website or promote affiliate links.

A private label rights ecourse or ebook could be broken up into several articles for your website, blog or newsletter, conversely you could combine articles to create an ebook, ecourse or training guide.

How Not to Use Private Label Content

Don’t use PLR content straight out of the box.

Remember I mentioned that typically only a limited quantity of PLR article packs, courses and ebooks are sold?

That’s to limit the content from being found thousands of places on the internet.  Even though it’s not recommended to use PLR content directly out of the box, people still do it.  In fact any time you purchase PLR articles you will immediately find that exact same article in other places.

Using it right out of the box dilutes your content meaning you won’t get much recognition from the search engines.

Instead craft your PLR to your specifications and make it something unique to you.  Add your ideas, expertise and personal insight.  Your readers will enjoy your content that much more and they won’t be bored with reading the same information they find other places.

It’s also worth noting that it is prohibited by most article directories to submit private label rights articles as your own.

Any article directory worth their salt can spot PLR and they won’t accept it.   In fact you could be banned from that directory all together. Once you’re out it’s hard to get back in so don’t take that chance.

What will Make Your Private Label Content Stand Out

Add tidbits of personal insight and ideas to your content making it as unique to you and your point of view as possible.

Add comments, include personal experiences and offer personal strategies. For example, if you write an article or guide on how to get whiter teeth, demonstrate your personal experiences.

Don’t always write about what you like either, if you’ve tried something and didn’t like it, say so.  Your readers will appreciate your honest opinions.

Try linking to other resources.  If you’ve discovered places where your readers can get more in-depth information; link to those resources and explain why you like them.

Where to Find Good, Quality PLR

I do use PLR, it gives me ideas and some basis for what to write about, but I’m also careful to use PLR that is well written and won’t take me long to customize.

Using anything else would be a waste of my time and money.  Here’s a list of my suggestions and reviews for where to buy PLR content for your website.

If you’re looking to buy PLR content for your website that isn’t junk and won’t waste your money, then I’ve got some great resources for you.

I use PLR on a fairly consistent basis so I’m always on the lookout for content that well-written and affordable.

Over the years I’ve narrowed down my choices to the following sites mainly because they consistently deliver quality, interesting well written content and graphics as well.

These sites also cover a wide range of topics so I’m never in a bind for where to find content I need.

Some of these sites are subscription based, some offer content you can buy as you need them and some offer both.

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- All Private Label Content 

Alice Seba and Mila Sidman host the All Private Label content site which has some of the best quality PLR articles and how to guides that span 35 niche topics at affordable prices.  You’ll also get one complimentary access to their private members only forum for one month.  Great deal for the price.

Here’s where to buy PLR content at All Private Label Content

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- Easy plr

My good friend and colleague Nicole Dean puts together some of the best PLR articles, reports and ecourses specializing in home/family, moms/kids, internet business/marketing. Her articles packs are professionally edited and are some of the best written at prices you won’t beat anywhere else.

Here’s where to buy PLR content at Easy Plr

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- Plr.me

Ronnie Nijmeh of PLR.me hosts this membership site specializing in self-help and personal development private label articles and content.

Each month you get 30 extremely well written articles, 30 inspirational affirmations, 20 inspirational desktop wallpapers that you can be re-branded, sold or given away as a bonus, and 5 PDF documents such as handbooks, reports, guides and worksheets that include graphics and images needed to promote your PLR content.  All in all, this is a superb package with affordable pricing.

Here’s where to buy PLR content at Plr.me

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- PLR Niche Content

PLR niche content is brought to you by Stephan Everest. They have articles that range from animals and pets to Weddings. I especially enjoy their travel content.  Each article pack comes with quality ready to use graphics too.

Here’s where to buy PLR Niche Content

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- Infogoround

PLR subscription service.

Bryan Winter is the mastermind behind Infogoround. Provided are 8 topics of interest and 40+ content categories. You’ll also receive over 250 PLR articles and each month you’ll receive 2 plr packages that includes one plr ebook and 1 public domain book and the corresponding private label sales letters and a professional graphics to correspond with every private label product.

If you can’t find articles on Infoground that you need simply post your request and they’ll have it written for you. Great service, highly recommended.

Here’s where to buy PLR content at Infogoround

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- Yummy plr

At Yummy PLR Nicole Dean teams up with Arika Lewis to create some of the tastiest PLR.  As the name implies you’ll find cooking related PLR content that you can sink your teeth into.  This is a membership site that provides monthly content in the form of 10 Cooking & Food Articles and 30 yummy recipes.

Membership to the site is limited however they do have article packs that you can grab for a one time fee.  If you have a cooking or cooking related website you won’t want to miss this.

Here’s where to buy PLR content for your website at Yummy PLR

Content is King. No doubt we've all heard this before.

The search engines are teaching us that in order to attract visitors you must offer useful, fresh, quality web site content that people, as well as the search engines, crave.

One of the best ways to generate web content is to use articles, but let's be honest; finding an article in an article bank, placing it on your site and forgetting about it is not going to cut the mustard in today's online marketing environment.

Remember, we said your web site must offer useful, fresh, quality information. Your site won't qualify by uploading rehashed articles that can be found all over the internet or worse yet, articles that are aging like fine wine on your site. You may get a few visitors at first but overall you risk losing value and credibility with both viewers as well as the search engines.

Good, quality web site content can be summed up as offering useful information that is current and offers new or interesting points of view. There are several ways to accomplish this and writing articles is an excellent way of adding content but if you're not a writer, and believe me most people are not, there are several ways to add content that is not found everywhere, yet will offer a new and fresh perspective.

Here are a few ideas for writing web content that is unique, is useful and holds reader interest…    

- Use Editorials
Editorials are articles written offering a personal opinion. Editorials are often food for thought and invite viewer opinions. Urge guests to your web site to write relevant editorials for placement on your site. You will often get good feedback and comments that keep your site interesting and colorful.

- Have articles written for you
If you're not a writer, don't give up; simply find someone to write the articles for you.  There are tons of great copywriters and website content writers out there begging for work.  In fact you could even place a request on our homenotion forum for an article writer and you'll probably get several responses from writers that visit our forum every day.   If you feel better about using a service, Elance.com is an excellent resource for writing exclusive articles just for you, and it can be done for as little as $5-$10 each.

- If you’re an affiliate marketer, use content articles provided by the merchant
Good affiliate merchant programs will often have content articles that you can place on your site. Not all merchants offer this service, but it's a worthwhile benefit for those that do.

The drawback here is that the articles will most likely be used by other affiliates so they won't be exclusively written for you but they will be limited to only affiliates so duplication will not be as great as coming from an article bank.  These types of articles are typically very informative and you can include your affiliate links within the articles.  This is an excellent way to get relevant, useful content and promote your affiliate links as well. 

Use PLR Content
PLR content or private label rights are hot right now.  Depending on the quality of the content it’s the perfect way to get relevant content and then customize it for your specific writing style.  It’s easier than writing it yourself and cheaper than having it written for you.  

The goal is to find quality content, not junk, I stress that point because with the popularity of PLR …there’s a lot of junk out there, so demand quality or your efforts will be worthless.

- Exchange articles with guest visitors
Invite visitors to exchange articles.  Ask visitors to provide you with an article that you can place on your site or blog in exchange for an article that you provide them.  If you exchange articles in this fashion don't exchange articles that have been submitted to article banks, this helps ensure article duplication is kept to a minimum, it’s also a good idea to keep these article exchanges to a minimum of 50 sites.  

- News Stories
Keep your site up to date with the latest news stories related to your site topic. Use news stories that are relevant, useful and timely. Simply find a news item you wish to use and write a brief 2 to 3 line summary on your site, then include a link to the full story. Remember to keep the news articles recent and relevant.

- Interviews
Depending on your web site topic, find someone that is well known in your topic of interest and ask them to consider conducting an interview with you. Compose a number of relevant, burning questions that many people would be interested in and compose an answer and question interview. You'd be surprised at how many interested viewers you might attract.

- Product or book reviews
If you endorse a product on your web site, go the extra step and purchase the product yourself. Use the product and write a useful review. This not only adds useful, original content, it creates credibility and establishes you as an informative resource.

- Post a forum on your site
This often gets lots of interest because people can post comments, questions, and opinions. It will also keep viewers returning time and time again to keep up on the latest forum entries. It's also an excellent way to make connections and build joint ventures.  But the best part is the content is candid, unique and fresh.

These are only a few ideas for generating articles and content that is relevant and fresh, however there are not rules here, if you put your thinking cap on you could certainly come up with many more creative ideas for getting relevant, interesting content that your site visitors want to read.

If you've been using reprint articles but want to go the next step without having to completely write your own articles, PLR (Private Label Rights) is an excellent alternative. However there are a few things to consider when using a PLR service. 

Nicole Dean of Easyplr.com has some tips for how to decide what's a better alternative for you along with some PLR considerations…     

PLR vs. Free Reprint Articles: Which is Best?
by Nicole Dean

Content is always in high demand. Right now the focus seems to be on Private Label Rights (or PLR) articles. PLR articles are pre-written and sold in packages to online businesses looking for content. The big selling points of PLR articles are that you may edit the articles and that there is no author bio required (so they don’t have any outbound links).

Compare PLR articles to free reprint articles. Free reprint articles from places like ezinearticles.com or freeaffiliatearticles.com are written by people who have something they’d like to share. (Or, they are sometimes written by people just publishing junk, in the hopes that they’ll get some incoming links. But, good article directories will delete those, so we’ll focus on the good ones here.)

So, which is better? Honestly, each has its place. Sometimes you’ll find an excellent free reprint article that you’ll want to share with your readers and you won’t mind a bit having an outbound link, especially if there is an affiliate program associated with it. The free reprint article added value to your readers, and you didn’t have to write the article. That’s what free reprint articles are all about.

Other times you’ll already have an idea in mind for a topic and you’ll just want a boost getting that section of your website done. If you run across a high quality PLR package on that niche, you’re set to go.

So, how do you know which PLR service or membership to choose? Here are some guidelines to follow:

1. Some PLR sites offer a monthly membership where you receive a grab-bag of articles – on any topic. If you already know what you need, this may be a waste of money. Other PLR sites will list topics and you can buy the articles in a shopping cart. That ensures you receive the articles you need when you need them.

2. Are the articles written by professional writers with experience? Or are they outsourced to the cheapest overseas help they can find – no matter the quality? If the articles are going to be a reflection of your business, you’ll want to ensure that the articles are well-written.

3. Who’s running this thing? Is the PLR site run by someone who knows about content or someone who thinks they can ride the content wave and make a quick buck? Make sure you’re hitching your wagon to someone who knows what they’re doing.

Those are just a few tips to keep you from wasting money on a PLR site that you can’t use. Continue to use free reprint articles, but look into PLR articles as well. They can both benefit your website and your business.

Nicole Dean of Easyplr.com invites you to check out her Easy PLR Articles –where you’ll find high-quality PLR articles on niches sold in very limited quantities.

Writing web content isn’t like writing for a newspaper or a magazine where your readers are all human.  Writing for the web means you have to appeal to the search engines too.

In fact you have to do both well if you hope to achieve better ranking and more traffic.

So how do you develop web content that the search engines will appreciate and your readers will love?

Start by looking at what makes each of them tick…

The search engines look for keywords, links, uniqueness and precise relevance while your human visitors want easy to read information that isn’t compromised with overused keywords and information that doesn’t make sense or is hard to read; that’s just poor writing.

Writing effective web content needs to reach both audiences.  It’s a balancing act but with a little practice you can be cranking out great content that not only ranks in your favorite search engine, it will rank well among your readers.

Understand your audience

Before you ever begin to write you need to understand your audience. Know what they are looking for, what their interests are and the questions they have in their mind. Doing that will help you know what information to include in your content.  

Write Conversationally

The search engines look for uniqueness and the best way to give the search engines unique content and interest your audience is by speaking in your own voice. Write as though you were writing a letter to a friend. Mention your own personal experiences, your likes and dislikes.  Your readers will better identify with you and they’ll find your content more interesting.

Make Your Content Easy to Read

People read all day long so when they are researching the web they want a web page to get to the point quickly.  They want concise, direct information.

To enhance readability keep your sentences short and to the point.

Keep your paragraphs to no more than 3 or 4 sentences and keep one idea to a paragraph.  Compose sentences in active, not passive voice.  Active language is more concise and to the point and much easier to understand.

For example:

active: Suzi slapped Tommy (preferred)

passive: Tommy was slapped by Suzi (not preferred)

Keyword Research is where writing web content starts

Don’t guess about what keywords to use when writing web content.  Keyword research tools are easy to use and they give you a wealth of information on what keywords people use to find content.

Use a good keyword research tool like Wordtracker, which has a free trial, and select a keyword phrase that has at least some search volume.  Using generic one word phrases may prove to be too competitive instead use more descriptive keyword phrases.

The term ‘Shoes’ for instance, is way to difficult to rank for, just type in the word ‘shoes’ into Google and there are millions of websites competing for that single term.   But ‘womens walking shoes’, on the other hand, is much more focused and it’s actually a term people type into the search engines.

The phrase may be searched on little less but it’s much more targeted because only women interested in womens walking shoes will type it in.  That phrase also doesn’t have as many web pages competing against it.

Optimize your Web Pages

Search engines rank web pages, not web sites, so it’s important to optimize each page of your site carefully.

Once you know your keyword phrase you will optimize your web page using that phrase by using it in the URL, title and description of your page.

For example using the’ womens walking shoes example’ your page URL will look like this:

http://www.yourwebsite.com/womens-walking-shoes.html

Use your keyword phrase in the title and description tags of your page as well.

On the actual text of your page, use your keyword phrase in the heading or <h1> section and use it within the first paragraph of your content.  I suggest using it once within the body of the content and again once in the last paragraph.

For added site benefit use your keyword phrase as anchor text on at least 3 other pages of your website.

Most successful internet marketers will tell you that writing for the web is more about offering quality, useful, unique information first, then tailoring it for the search engines second.  I agree, but that’s where good Search Engine Copywriting will be your biggest and best asset for driving sales and traffic.