Insights
6 min read

What is PLR? Everything You Need to Know about Private Label Rights Content

By Haley Davidson

Founder & Content Strategist, Gaia Content

If you’ve been looking for a new side hustle idea, you’ve probably heard a lot of buzz around PLR licensing and are starting to wonder “What is PLR?” 🤔

PLR stands for private label rights, and it refers to the type of content that you sell alongside specific usage rights (otherwise known as a license agreement). But, the gist of it is, that whoever buys the content from you can generate their own business with it. 

And vice versa. If you buy PLR content from someone, you can make your own business with it with little to no extra work (making it a really popular AI business idea).  ⛱️

Are you ready to learn how to make money with PLR content? Let's take a closer look at what PLR is and how you can leverage it to grow a profitable side hustle.

In this blog:

PLR vs. other digital content rights

If you've been researching PLR, you may have also run into terms like MRR and resale rights. While these things are similar to and related to PLR, it's important to know the difference before you dive into selling PLR content online.

  1. Master Resell Rights/Resale Rights (MRR): Buyers and anyone they sell this to can resell this product all they want, but they can’t edit it. Only the owner has the right to edit this product. 💪

  2. Resale rights (RR): The buyer has the right to resell over and over again, but their customers don’t. 🚫

  3. Private label rights (PLR): Buyers can resell and edit the product to their heart’s desire. 🤯

Most business owners prefer PLR because it allows them to grow a truly scalable online, e-commerce business. If that sounds exciting to you, keep reading for more guidance on starting your own PLR business!

5 PLR products to start selling today

There are all sorts of different private label rights products that you can create or take advantage of. To help you get started, we’ve come up with a list of six different examples that include everything from printable planners to online courses: 

1. Printable planners 

If you want to plan on making some extra cash, look into creating some printable planners. 🖨️

Whether it’s your everyday 9-5er or a teacher helping a student out, people are often looking for digital products to get a bit more control. If you can bring to the table thoughtful and eye-catching designs, you’d be doing them a favor.

2. Social media templates 

With all the planning that goes into generating content alone, give social media mavens one less thing to worry about. 🤳

It’s tough making sure you’re closely sticking to a cohesive aesthetic, and that’s why a lot of content creators reach out for templates to make it easier.

All you have to do is come up with one design idea and implement it across a whole suite. 

3. Ebooks 

Tell writer’s block to shove it with PLR ebooks. 😎

If you’re having trouble getting past that first page, PLR content can be your new best friend. With the right outline and lingo already booted up, you’ve got the right inspiration and toolkit for a digital marketing takedown.

This is also a piece of content that you can slightly tweak and then offer as a giveaway item in exchange for signing up for your email list as one of many lead magnets that you might choose to employ in your email marketing strategies.

And, if you have any special insights into a niche, this might be your time to write and sell a PLR ebook to help others out.

4. Articles

Are those SEO and marketing-related tasks getting more and more unavoidable?  🧾

Take a look at PLR articles. You can buy just one or a set to make affiliate marketing or content marketing a breeze. With some extra SEO optimization on your part, you’d be good to go!

And if you’re a copywriting wizard, help those number people out by generating those PLR articles.

5. Online courses 

Don’t start from scratch when lesson planning. 🧑‍🏫

You can use pre-made slides under a PLR license and customize them to suit your needs. This way you can speed up the time it may take you to start from scratch.

Plus, this can be a great opportunity for content creation for anyone skilled with PowerPoint or a slide deck.

The pros of selling PLR content

Private label rights licensing is a creative new way to get an online small business off the ground or to power your pre-existing business. But is it right for you? Before launching your PLR side hustle, consider the benefits (and downsides) of creating and selling PLR online.

1. Great for side hustle beginners

The name of the game with private label rights content is you want to make the type of content that could be used by a large group of people and can easily be edited. And it’s a breeze to start generating that kind of content. 🍃

You also don't need any advanced design or copywriting skills to get started with PLR. This is content that's already been created by someone else—so you just need to add your own "spice" to it using an AI-powered design tool like Canva, and then you can start selling right away.

As far as business investments go, PLR content is especially appealing because you don’t have to invest a lot of money upfront. You can pay as little as $2.70 for one piece of content on sites like PLR.me, for example.

2. Low time commitment 

You can get started and finish quickly when you’re making PLR content. Especially with the advent of AI-powered tools like the ones mentioned above, it’s easy to whip out high-quality content in record time. 🕰️

Plus, you choose how much you want to work. You’ll never have to create more content if you stop feeling like it. All you have to do is make sure you're never creating content that is low quality.

That’s good news especially if you’re working a full-time job on top of this new PLR venture.

3. Endless idea library 

You’re never going to be an expert on every subject. With PLR content, you don’t have to be. 🧠

If there is any niche that you are particularly skilled in or have developed insights for, your buyer can benefit from your expertise. Or, if you’re looking to reach a new audience quickly and don’t have time to get into the nitty-gritty of it, quality PLR content can save the day.

The cons of PLR

While PLR content is easy to create and sell, there are some negative factors that you should keep in mind before you take this new business for a test drive. Here are a few obstacles to keep in mind as you consider beginning your PLR journey:

1. Saturated market

PLR is no secret. And because of that, it might be hard to make your content stand out. 💃 You'll need to learn the basics of branding (and develop an eye for graphic design) to make sure your PLR content stands out.

The good news is that as more PLR content is created and shared online, the more options you'll have to choose from when it comes to buying new PLR to sell to your own customers! Again, you just have to make sure your brand is unique enough to attract buyers and beat your competition.

2. It can take time to build your revenue

There are lots of false promises that people make when it comes to driving profit from PLR. Implying that it’s light work for extremely lucrative sales is simply untrue. 🙊

Most PLR gets sold at a rather low price, and on top of that, it can be hard to get noticed (as we mentioned). It’s not impossible to get rich fast with PLR, but it's definitely not guaranteed. You will need to put in some time and effort to build a thriving PLR business.

3. Plagiarism risk and SEO hits

A lot of people repost PLR content after buying it...instead of rebranding it and adding their own unique twist to the content. This leads to a lot of duplicate content online, which is not just a plagiarism nightmare but will ding your SEO rankings—after all, search engines reward original content. 🤓

That's why it's so important to put in some time to make your PLR content special. PLR provides a shortcut—you don't have to start entirely from scratch—but you're unlikely to be successful if you try to sell that content as-is, with no changes.

4 fast tips to help you drive profit with PLR

Most people hope to generate anywhere $1-10K a month from passive income ideas like this one. And with plenty of entrepreneurs claiming to make over $10K a month with PLR with the right strategy, this venture seems promising. 🙌

Whether you’re reselling or creating a PLR product here are four quick pieces of advice to help you to get those clicks rolling in:

  1. Open up a virtual storefront on Shopify to streamline payments and drive organic search traffic to your PLR content.

  2. Sell your PLR content as printables on Etsy (this is one of the easiest ways to make sales fast—you don't need to worry about coding or designing a separate website).

  3. Upload your PLR content to popular PLR marketplaces PLR.me and PLR products.

  4. Get help from affordable experts on Fiverr or Upwork—they can help you boost your online store's SEO, create beautiful branding, and save you time and effort when starting your PLR business.

Remember to experiment with different strategies and be patient as you get started! You can also learn from PLR experts on YouTube and other social media platforms—these creators have seen success firsthand and can provide plenty of guidance to help you build a thriving PLR business.

The bottom line on PLR

While it may not make you a millionaire overnight, selling PLR content is a simple and fun way to start making money online. Make sure to create a compelling, unique brand to boost your sales and leverage social media, Etsy, and other platforms to get the word out about your exciting new content.

You've got this! We're cheering you on. 🥳

Stay on the money with Relay

Relay is an online banking and money management platform that lets small business owners open multiple no-fee business checking and savings accounts. 

If you're a small business owner, you won't want to miss our . At the start of each month, we'll answer questions like...

  • How close are AI robots to doing your corporate tax filings? 🤖 

  • What's the US central bank doing to make payments lightning-fast? ⚡️ 

  • And is Taylor Swift's Eras Tour saving the economy? 🪩

Subscribe now to find out about all these topics and more!