Every online businessman needs content. Whether it is meant to drive traffic to his website for PPC purposes, or whether he plans on using the same to help sell his digital products, he would need content to convey his business message.

But original content is rarely cheap. Often, online businessmen have to pay around $5 to $15 for a 400 word article. And a single article is not enough for their purposes. They need at least 20 of them to jumpstart a content site. They need at least 50 of them to combine as an eBook. The amount quickly becomes inaccessible to most online businessmen, especially those who are just starting out.

This is the reason why PLR products have become widely popular in recent months. PLR stands for private label rights, which basically means the right to alter, alienate, or otherwise dispose of the said products anyway you please.

There are some advantages and disadvantages in availing of PLR products, however. Let us take a look at them, as well as the solutions around the problems.

Benefits:

* PLR products are cheap. Since you will be sharing the expenses with other purchasers, you wont have to contend with the total cost of production by yourself. An eBook ghostwritten by a freelancer, for example, can range from $200 to as high as $1,000. But a PLR eBook sold to many people can be sold for a cost below $100.

* PLR products can become excellent search engine fodders, if youre in PPC business. All you have to do is to rewrite 25% to 50% of the pieces to avoid being tagged as dupe content.

* PLR products make excellent backbones for your own works. Since the thoughts and the flow of the ideas are already there, it would be easier for you to work on them and come up with totally unique content.

* PLR products give you total freedom to alter the contents thereof, as well as resell them for any amount you feel is justified. This means that you could combine PLR articles, for example, to come up with your own eBook. Or in reverse, you could separate some parts of a PLR eBook to come up with several articles or e-courses. The possibilities are endless, and you have full liberty to proceed as you wish.

Problems:

* PLR products, if used for website content without changing at least 25% to 50% of what is written, will be susceptible to search engine filtering because of duplicate works. This can lead to a lower page rank for your website, or worse, a de-indexing for your web pages. Since 80% of your traffic would come from the search engines, this would be a dire consequence indeed.

* PLR products may be difficult to resell. A lot of other people would purchase the same product, and each one of them would be your competitor. Imagine if 2,000 people have purchased the same PLR product, youd have 1,999 businesses competing for the same market.

* PLR products, if used for article marketing without changing at least 25% to 50% of their content, will be rejected by most article directories. A lot of article banks these days employ a script that weeds out similar submissions. The rejection of your PLR articles would be the least of your worries, as worse things can happen, including the outright banning of your account.

Solutions:

* Treat PLR products as the base for whatever marketing tool you have in mind. If you desire articles for web content or for article marketing purposes, use your PLR articles as basis for an improved work. Most of the information that could be conveyed is already there. Youll be able to save a lot of time on research and organizing your thoughts. Try to rewrite the pieces, and effectuate a 25% to 50% change to their content.

* You could try article wrapping as well. Pinpoint the main information of the PLR article. This should be somewhere in the middle. Often, PLR articles have information wrapped between an introduction and a conclusion. Just change the introduction as well as the conclusion, and youre good to go.

* Hire freelance writers to rewrite your PLR products. Since the base information is already there, freelance writers can charge you as low as 25% of their normal rates.

* Mix and match. Do not hesitate to combine two or more articles to come up with a work that is seemingly different from the original materials.

PLR products are great options, especially for budget-conscious online businessmen who are need of content in large amounts. The disadvantages presented by their nature should not dissuade anyone from considering them as viable solutions to a great need, as there are several solutions that can work around the problems that come with their nature.