Private Label Rights: 4,444% ROI
Private label rights means: you sell someone your product and give them permission to rename and repackage the book under their own name.
Here is why offering private label rights guarantees you will stay poor forever:
(Keep reading below to watch a SECOND video that shows how I ended up making $1200 from this venture in 24 hours... in other words, I made 44 times my money back!)
Go to eBay and search for "private label rights" or "master resale rights."
You will find all kinds of e-books and software that originally sold for $100... for under a dollar.
If you offer private label rights to your products, your hard work is going to end up in the eBay graveyard.
Here is what I did today:
8:46 AM: I saw a product for sale with private label rights and I bought it.
10:00 AM: I work a day job so during my mid-morning break, I quickly edited the Word document to change the e-book name. I also changed the name so I would appear as the author.
I ran into a roadblock... he provided layered graphics so I could easily change the name on them... but I didn't have the correct fonts installed on my system. I uploaded the files and went back to work.
11:30 AM: I got out of a meeting at work and took my lunch break. During that lunch break I found the CD with the fonts I needed, changed the graphics, setup the payment buttons, and sent a quick mailing to my list of 11,000 subscribers telling them about the product.
I should note that it took me years to get this list built up by releasing product after product. This is also a list that is very relevant to the product and therefore very interested in it.
Are you still building some generic incestuous list of internet marketing leads? Stop that now!
11:54 AM: The first sale rolls in as I eat the last of my re-heated macaroni and cheese (cooked it the night before... this ain't no crappy "boxed" stuff!). I hop in my car and drive the half mile down Monte Vista Avenue back to work to arrive right at noon.
That's It!
The rest of my work day consisted of working at my day job. I didn't do any other internet marketing work.
The Result:
A $27 investment on a private label rights product, in the morning, launched just before lunch and broke even before 12:30 PM.
By the time I checked that page after the end of the work day, I brought in 110 sales from a 12-cent dimesale which totals $732.60 (before fees)!
Where on Earth can you LEGALLY pay $27 and get $732.60 back in just a couple of hours?
I'm sitting on $700 profits for 20 minutes MAXIMUM of work on my part... I just made the equivalent of a week and a half of pay from my day job... during my coffee breaks!
Meanwhile, poor Jake has sold 8 copies at $27... which makes $216, minus $20 to run the WSO, minus whatever it cost him to write the sales copy and create the graphics... maybe he didn't break even.
Oh Well... Thanks for the Cash, Jake!
What lessons have we learned today, kiddies?
Lesson #1: Offering private label rights is a great way to devalue your product.
Lesson #2: If you can find someone dumb enough to offer private label rights for a product that happens to match your list PERFECTLY, grab it as soon as you can and put it up for sale that same day.
Lesson #3: You HAVE to do it that same day. By "put it up for sale" I mean the order link is live and you send a mailing out to your list. If you "wait" even one extra day, you won't feel like doing it anymore. I guarantee it.
You have to be faster than a speeding bullet when it comes to buying (and using) private label rights products... before someone beats you to it.
Can you please comment below and tell me if...
- You've offered private label rights in the past (and regretted it / didn't regret it)
- You've bought private label rights... did you forget to actually use them? How much money did you make?
Filed in: Product Launches
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- Private Label Rights: Bad Idea! | Information eMarketing | September 10, 2008
I bought PLR rights last August to a software program and set up a nickel sale – and offered resell rights (to the re-branded software) as an upsell.
Half the money came from the nickel sale, and half from the upsell. Total in 3 days: $1,000. The PLR software package: $27. Advertising costs: ~$200. (I had no list at all).
I made another $400 in “indirect” commissions from affiliate links within bonuses I offered with the product.
That being said: I’ve bought more than one PLR / Rebrand / Resell package that I have not turned around and sold. You are right, do it right away or you won’t feel like it later!
What’s your take on resell rights? (Not PLR or Master Resell Rights)?
–Andy
When I got started I was very stingy about resale rights but it still hurt me. Selling RR is a great way to raise a bunch of money quickly if you don’t care about selling your product anymore.
You get a bunch of money at once but now you have all these new competitors.
Great post Andy! Buying up PLR material is a great way to turn a profit as you clearly demonstrate in your post.
Personally I don’t like to buy resell rights products – but selling RR to your own products, which you’ve created with PLR material, is a much better strategy.
You have full control of the content of ALL the material involved and get maximum benefit in terms of being able to direct people to other affiliate offers.
By selling products you’ve brought resell rights to, you are offering up free advertising to the original vendor, which I don’t like.
Just my thoughts,
Will
P.S Your previous post was great – I nearly fired myself!
Good advice, Robert…
Although I’ve never OFFERED PLR to my products, I have been very successful with PURCHASING PLR. Getting 100 times what I paid for the PLR within the first week of launching it is not unusual.
But you’re right about being quick. The sooner you get your PLR reworked, live and ready for purchase, the more profits for you – especially in the first initial weeks of going live. Not too many people have shared that ‘quickness’ secret regarding profiting with PLR.
Another thing I would add is that picking an ‘evergreen’ PLR product (more difficult to find) – something that there will always be a market for, or that will not go out of ‘style’ – Is a smart choice for creating a more ‘residual’ long-term income stream from a one-time PLR product purchase and setup.
Deborah
Robert Plank is my hero.
I’m ashamed to say that I have tons of PLR sat on my hard drive doing nothing. I have started setting up WordPress based websites with PLR articles lately, and earning Adsense from the content someone else wrote. I guess I’m just lazy lol.
Robert,
The thing about it is there is often more to PLR than what’s on the surface. For instance, if someone was creating a guide to use on their own website or to advertise to their own list, offering a limited number of licenses to others isn’t such a bad idea, considering it essentially pays for your time even before you sell it on your own site.
Having said that, there is also a reason why people sometimes limit the number of licenses offered. We know, as marketers, that only a handful of these buyers will actually do something with the product which means the distribution is even less than the number of licenses permitted or sold.
And sometimes, it’s just a matter of writing and releasing something that can help people either in regards to learning, or in making money by having a decent product to sell. I would also think, that if you are able to take someone’s work and turn such a large profit from it, I would think twice about implying they are ‘dumb’ and show a bit of respect for their work, and heck, for them.
But maybe that’s just me.
Then why sell the PLR for $27… why not $197. When you price it at $27 you are devaluing it big time.
You also have to consider that many people on Warriors’ lists (the buyers of your product) are other Warriors. So when you offer PLR on a forum where everyone knows everyone else, you take the piss out of that product launch big time.
Do you see John Reese selling PLR to Traffic Secrets or Kern selling PLR to Mass Control??
Selling private label rights is EXTREMELY short-sighted. I have a problem with THAT and I think that is dumb. I don’t mean any disprect towards you. It’s a great book.
Well…
I was one of those “”suckers”… I grabbed your package..
you are right… if I don’t do it now the likelihood of me ever doing it is slim…
I sell an evergreen PLR package on ebay, I’ve sold over 150 copies as a digital download, just re-converted it to a CD version..
I purchased it on a CD of reports… I paid $8 for the CD.. it sat around for 3 years…
one day my Wife said to me.. “I want to sell stuff on eBay, how do I get started”
I told her to sell digital downloads.. nothing happened (she did nothing)… a couple of weeks later I loaded the CD to see what I could find… to help her out.
I made a selection… tweeked the package… created a listing page and offered it for $4 on ebay… the rest is history… I just missed becoming a Power Seller in March…
BTW> it took me maybe 3 hours to make $500 over the past 11 months.. this is only one product.. I have 5 or 6 packages.. some do much better then this..
I am now in the process of converting my digital products over to CD packages… for sale on eBay…
my first CD package isnt quite ready (I dont have any inventory) I have already made a couple of sales..
It’s all about doing something…
I’m dont make a lot from my offerings individually but collectively… it beats looking for work… or driving in the rush hour commute…
JOe
PS>> I dont have any clocks in my house… I dont need them..
Hey Robert-
I undertand what you did- but by telling us about this PLR you are (imho) making a big mistake.. because…
now i know you didnt write this. which means that your product is probably 99% similar to the ones available all over ebay and the net for a penny or on membership sites.
now the fact that you are making videos (possibly, you say) does in fact make it your own product in a way no one else can…
It’s actually a pretty good book, written by a Warrior.
I wanted to keep it a secret, but flipping this PLR product gave me such a good feeling… it felt like robbing a bank. When I wrote my first PHP e-book (like Jake just did) I would have been doing backflips to get $1000 in a month… much less a day.
Heck, selling PLR is something that a younger poorer me might have done.
I just couldn’t keep this one a secret (though I did consider charging money for this post).
I learned that trick from Steven Schwartzman. I read a book he wrote on PLR years ago (not sure if he ever released it).
He buys private label rights products, hands them off to a ghostwriter to rewrite them and then improves the sales copy himself.
That’s kind of what I’m doing — using my own skills to make improvements — but one reason this promotion worked so well was because I beat everyone to the punch… the other PLR rights buyers PLUS the product originator!
Robert,
My WSO’s are always high quality, low cost. If I release something like that, it’s only available there and only to a limited number. It would be “dumb” if that was my main source of income, and thankfully, it’s something I do only to help other warriors, not with my focus always on the bottom line.
I also do my own graphics, copywriting, etc.. so the cost (other than the WSO fee itself) is very low. I’ve made over $600 from the WSO at this point, and that’s for a guide I had to write for my own community anyway, so not a bad deal.
I do agree however that allowing PLR to be transferred or being sold on eBay, etc is ridiculous, and shows that the product isn’t valuable to the author, however when it’s released in a community of friends on a limited basis and without the income being the priority, it puts things into a new perspective, which is why I felt this was more of an attack, than a case study, especially with my name used the way it was without accurate details, for instance, this product was not permitted to be sold on auction sites, so your reference to eBay was a bit misleading.
So, buy my product, spin it and make a killing.. that’s what it was there for, and I applaud you for doing so well with it. I was really impressed yesterday to see you take such swift action and even commented about it to a few of the warriors who were asking.
Now, having said that, you wouldn’t see me selling PLR to my networks upcoming software release. Any kind of product that costs you a lot of time and/or resources to develop should never be distributed outside of your own network, that should go without saying, and it’s not a fair comparison to John selling PLR to Frank, not even close.
Jake, this wasn’t an attack. I can understand why it looked that way… I can be kind of abrasive.
Thanks for clearing that up about it not being allowed on auction sites.
I hate it when people say things like that. You are involved in internet marketing to make money.
You can’t deny that your product is now heavily devalued. I see in the terms that you also allow it to be sold with resale rights and even master resale rights… how insulting to those of us who paid for PLR.
In my experience, many marketers are idiots who don’t know the difference between MRR, PLR, full rights, and passthrough-MRR.
p.s. If there’s anything I can do to make up for insulting you, please let me know.
I think there are various PLR products that would be much more expensive, it depends on what the seller is aiming to achieve. If you sold a few copies for say $197 each then there would be fewer copies floating around the Internet, and the product would have a much higher value.
Hi Robert / Jake,
I am going through the report now and love it! I hope you plan on releasing a PERL version as I am currently “sucking” my way through some remaining homework lessons left to do from the local community college course for Fall semester.
(By sucking I mean as in, I know that the more indepth programming ISN’T going to be MY cup of tea!)
I figure its great information to learn and have some knowledge about since I am involved in Internet Marketing and websites, etc. but I will leave the REAL programming to the both of you to do for me! 🙂
Anyhow, its great to see a bigger picture for the tunnel vision we can get from being in our own little IM world, and the fact that there are many ways BEYOND just an income that PLR and MRR can be useful and profitable for anyone.
Keep up the great work!
Many Blessings,
Jerold Johnson
Los Angeles, CA
What a great debate.
We learned a few things here. Lets summarize.
1. Flipping PLR Works.
Robert saw a good product with PLR rights, knew he had a list of people who would be interested in it, took swift action and made a killing. Well done.
2. PLR Can Be A Win – Win
Jake made his $600 from the WSO which he is happy with, and got some more people on his list of buyers (right?). We all know how Robert won.
3. There Will Be Other Winners
As Robert mentioned earlier, those who change the product around (and make it their OWN) have their own unique product with very little effort. As Robert mentioned above I’ve done this (only I hire people to do it for me). Gotta love Internet Marketing.
4. Robert Liked The Book And Knew His List Would Benefit
I have no doubt in my mind that if he didn’t think the book provided value he wouldn’t have sold it. Make sure if you sell a PLR product it’s not total crap.
I used to sell PLR rights to my products. In fact, I sold PLR rights to HyperSplitter years ago (For $297! each). Only a handful of people bought it, it was NOT devalued, and that was a real win win. In fact, Willie Crawford sold it as a main component of a firesale and made well over $10,000 with it.
There are two sides to the coin. One obviously makes more money than the other…but both are happy.
I haven’t had much success with offering ebooks as plr.
But with softwares I can get profits of 300% or more. I have regular plr buyers who buy whenever I offer one. You can set higher price for softwares than ebooks.
Indeed offering PLR is a great way to devalue your product.
After I sold a limited PLR licenses I usually end up selling my sales page sites for that particular product.
It’s more like an escape strategy.. lol 🙂
Vince
Robert, No worries, I’ve got thick skin 😉
Jerold, thanks for the comments, I appreciate it. I dropped you a line earlier today, btw .. As for Perl, you’ll never see a guide released by me on that subject (bleck!), heh.. maybe Robert will release one though (hopefully with PLR, haha..)
Even though I’m older (but apparently not wiser?! :P) than Robert, I am definitely impressed. Any fellow coder who takes his skill-set and figures out how to market it the way he does, has my respect. As someone who worked for many high tech companies as a programmer myself, I saw my work consistently make other people money. Deciding to take a risk, and step away from the security of a 9-5 and focus on developing and marketing my own brand was difficult but very rewarding, so I love seeing others moving along that path as well.
So, Mr Plank; No harm, no foul.. however, a quick ‘thank you’ note the next time I let you “rob the bank” would suffice, LOL
All the best,
Jake
Hah! Perl otherwise known as the “write-once-read-never” language. The only reason you’re learning that in school is either:
A.) They haven’t updated their cirriculum in 10 years, or:
B.) They’re training you to get a job that is FORCED to use Perl because they’ve used it for so long and switching to something else would cost big bucks…
Okay, so just say “No!” to PERL programming, then huh?
Cuz looking through the “RobJak” PHP report, this is the same premise along the lines of PERL. So I should just be sure to learn all the Javascript and PHP that I can…! Works for me.
Next class starts in 3 weeks. This is the 3rd class to receive a certificate in webdesign.
“CISW31 — Secure Web Servers:Plan, install and manage secure Web servers using server side programming language to manage secure databases.”
Sounds wonderful doesn’t it?
The two of you are now OFFICIALLY put on standby for my needed Life-Lines, okay? 🙂
Take care guys.
Many Blessings,
Jerold Johnson
Los Angeles, CA
Another thing I have seen recently…
you release a product, say javascript on PHP.
you sell MRR (not private label rights.) after sales start slowing down.
people register the product (even though they ahve purchased it from someone else.)
you release an upgrade – from version 1.0 to 2.0
these people pay YOU the upgrade fee!
esentailly, by thinking it from a marketing angle, you can turn a product into many more future buyers and listbuilders and name recognition, even if you are no longer making money off your product from each sale. (or offer a lite version, say just chapters 1-5, as a MRR- then hit them with the upgrade offer after 3 days of registering or something… or put an automatic upgrade offer into the program that poops up after x days.)
let me know what you think of my post!
🙂
Paydex
Hi Robert
I have previously done a bit in Resale Rights, but would agree with you that price dumping is one of the biggest threats to online income.
However, I would advise people to BUY a resale rights product under the special circumstance that you might have a similar product and the master resale allows for inclusion as a bonus. Much can be said about bonuses. Many of them are boring, but sometimes something truly excellent does come up and you end up buying the product to get the bonus…. 🙂
Anyway, I am truly reshaping and restructuring and Resale Rights won’t be a part of what will be sold when the new webshop appears at my site. Affiliate marketing pays more and brings less hassle both in setting up etc.
Keep up the good work. Looking forward to your next article as you have far more than the 10 comments you promised would kick you back to your dashboard. 😛
Carpe Diem. 🙂
Come on Robert,
Where’s your next post?
aargh!
🙂
Robert/Jake:
Very interesting post here. If this is regarding the Beginning PHP ebook (The timeframe sure looks right), it isn’t even Jake’s work. It’s mine. I offered it as PLR on the Warrior Forum back in July / August of 2007. It’s a good alteration though, it took me about 5 pages to realize that it was the guide I wrote.
-Dave
Dave, seriously? This is the “I Hate PHP” book?
If that’s the case then Jake Riley CLEARLY violated Warrior Forum rules that you must be the originator and not a resale rights or private label buyer. What a jerk.
Jerk, Robert? Not quite, although I know you’d like to believe so and I really wish that weren’t the case.
I was googling for my name as I do once in awhile and came across this post so thought I should reply even though it’s nearly a month old.
I rarely ever release WSO’s and when I do they are typically guides or reports that I outsource to have written for my list, or to serve as PLR. This was the case with Dave’s book, and once it was brought to my attention, I yanked the salespage, offered him compensation and spoke with the WSO moderator to clarify the situation. While the person who re-wrote it had every right to do so, with a PLR license, I wouldn’t have featured it on the WF if I knew it was a previously released WSO, but I didn’t.
I am an honest player, and am fully aware of the WF rules, and up until that incident, I had always followed them (I thought I was at that time as well, but obviously not). Those who really know me would never doubt I would never release someone else’s previous WSO to make a few bucks, but I hadn’t read Dave’s book and I wasn’t aware that the guide I paid for from someone else was originally written by him. In fact, I put part of it through Copyscape as I usually do and nothing came up.. like Dave said, it was a pretty good re-write.
Anyway, thought I’d drop in and respond.
Congrats on your new house, btw.. well earned, well deserved.
Jake
Robert;
Yes, Jake’s eBook is originally the PLR version of “I Hate PHP”, offered as a WSO.
He and I have spoken about it after I found out about it on Earn1KaDay.
Jake’s violation, come to find out, was not technically his doing. From our discussion, Jake hired someone to write a PHP beginner’s guide. Apparently that writer was a little less than honest and rewrote “I Hate PHP” and sold it to Jake as 100% original work. So, Jake got the shaft. Unfortunately, since the title was very new and not around the net yet, Copyscape would have most likely yielded nothing.
Like I said, Jake and I have since discussed this, and we are on good terms 🙂
Congratulations on the house, and I very much enjoy your work!
I would have really appreciated him contacting his buyers about that issue, at the very least.
I’m not doubting what you say is true – but how can it be proven?