Update (October 2026): I’ve refreshed this article to reflect changes in content creation, including how AI prompts can help you develop blog posts. I’ve also updated the recommendations to reflect the resources I use today.
If you run an affiliate marketing blog, you’ll know that creating content takes time. You need to find suitable topics, research them, write the articles, add images and links, and then promote what you’ve published. Keeping a blog updated while managing the other parts of an online business can be quite a challenge.
One option that has been around for years is to use PLR articles. PLR stands for Private Label Rights, and these are articles that you can purchase or obtain under a licence that allows you to modify and republish them, subject to the terms of that licence.
PLR can provide a starting point when you’re short of time or struggling for ideas, but simply copying an article into WordPress and pressing Publish isn’t necessarily the best way to use it. If you want your blog to stand out, you need to put something of your own into the content.
What Are PLR Articles?
PLR articles are pre-written pieces of content supplied with rights that allow you to reuse them in specified ways. Depending on the licence, you may be able to edit the articles, add your own name as the author, publish them on your website or use them in other marketing materials.
The advantage is obvious. Rather than starting with a blank page, you have something to work with. A collection of articles covering your niche might give you several ideas for blog posts, email newsletters or other content.
However, PLR licences vary, so you should always check what you’re actually allowed to do with the material. You shouldn’t assume that every PLR package permits unrestricted editing, redistribution or resale.
There’s also a practical problem. Other marketers may have purchased exactly the same articles. If everyone publishes the material without making meaningful changes, their websites can end up carrying very similar content.
That doesn’t mean PLR is automatically useless. It means you need to think about how you’re going to use it.
Don’t Publish PLR Articles Without Editing Them
The biggest mistake you can make with PLR content is to treat it as a finished article that requires no further work.
Read through the material and decide whether it actually says what you want to say. Check any claims, statistics, product recommendations and links. Remove anything that is outdated, irrelevant to your audience or inconsistent with your own experience.
You should also consider whether the article answers the questions your readers are likely to have. A generic article about affiliate marketing might be technically correct, but your readers could benefit more from an explanation of how you’ve approached a particular problem yourself.
For example, suppose you’ve obtained a PLR article about building an email list. You could add an explanation of the methods you’ve tried, the tools you currently use and the mistakes you’ve made along the way. You might also include screenshots, examples or links to relevant resources on your website.
The finished article would then contain information that readers are less likely to find in exactly the same form elsewhere.
You don’t need to rewrite every sentence simply for the sake of making the article look different. The aim is to make the content more useful, accurate and relevant to your audience.
Make the Article Fit Your Blog
Another problem with ready-made content is that it may not fit the particular audience you’re trying to reach.
If your blog focuses on affiliate marketing for beginners, for example, you might want to explain technical terms that an experienced marketer would already understand. If you write for people who have been online for several years, you may prefer to concentrate on practical details rather than basic definitions.
Your writing style matters, too. Some PLR articles are full of exaggerated claims, generic motivational language or recommendations for products you wouldn’t use yourself. There’s no reason to retain those sections just because they came with the original article.
Change the title if necessary, reorganise the sections, add useful examples and remove anything that doesn’t contribute to the subject. Make sure the introduction tells readers what they’ll learn, and that the conclusion gives them a sensible next step.
You should also add relevant internal links to other articles on your blog. This helps readers discover more of your content and gives your posts a better connection to the wider subjects covered by your website.
What About Search Engines and Duplicate Content?
Publishing an article that is available on several other websites doesn’t automatically mean that your site will be penalised. However, search engines aim to provide useful results, and a page that offers little beyond material available elsewhere may have difficulty attracting or retaining search visibility.
Changing a few words or rearranging paragraphs isn’t necessarily enough to make an article valuable. What matters is whether the finished page provides a worthwhile answer to the reader’s question.
Before publishing, ask yourself what someone would gain from reading your version rather than another version of the same article. Perhaps you can provide more detail, explain a concept more clearly, include your own experience or answer a question the original author overlooked.
There’s no guaranteed formula for ranking in search results, but creating content for people rather than simply filling your blog with articles is a sensible starting point.
Using AI to Help Develop Blog Content
PLR is no longer the only way to get help with content creation. AI tools offer another option, allowing you to develop article ideas, organise your thoughts and produce an initial draft that you can then edit.
You could ask an AI tool to suggest topics for your niche, create an outline for an article or help turn your own notes into a more organised piece of writing. You can also provide it with background information about your website and audience so that the result is more relevant to your business.
Of course, AI-generated content can be just as generic as an unedited PLR article. It can also contain factual errors, make unsupported claims or produce writing that doesn’t sound anything like you. The fact that an article is new doesn’t automatically make it useful.
I prefer to use AI as a tool to help with the writing process, while retaining control over the subject, the information included and the finished article. My own experience and judgement still have a part to play.
There’s also a difference between asking an AI tool to write something on a broad subject and giving it a more detailed starting point. A well-designed prompt can specify the intended audience, the structure of the article, the questions it should answer and the information that needs to be included.
That brings me to something I’ve been exploring through my own online business.
A Different Approach to Blog Content
I’ve moved away from offering a PLR article service, but I still recognise the problem that PLR was intended to solve. Many affiliate marketers know they should publish useful content regularly, yet struggle to find the time or inspiration to do it.
That’s one reason I’m interested in using structured AI prompts to help develop blog posts.
As part of my Evergreen Funnel Club membership, I’ve introduced a monthly Blog Post Template service. Members receive a PDF containing approximately five templates based around a particular topic. They can choose a template, copy the prompt into their preferred AI tool and adapt the instructions to suit their own website.
The idea is to give members a useful starting point rather than another batch of finished articles to publish unchanged. You can provide your website URL, explain who your readers are, describe your preferred writing style and add your own experiences or opinions. The AI can then use those instructions to help develop a draft that is more appropriate for your blog.
I’ve explained the service in more detail, including a demonstration of how it works, in my article Evergreen Funnel Club Adds Monthly Blog Post Templates.
The templates aren’t a magic solution, and you still need to check and edit the resulting content before publishing it. However, they can make it easier to get started, particularly when you’re staring at a blank WordPress editor and wondering what to write about next.
Build a Blog That Reflects Your Own Experience
Whether you use PLR articles, AI prompts or your own research and writing, the same principle applies: your blog should offer something useful to its readers.
Ready-made content can save time, but it shouldn’t remove your responsibility to check the information, make sensible editorial decisions and ensure that the finished article fits your website. Your own knowledge, opinions and experience are often what make a piece of content worth reading.
For affiliate marketers, a blog can become a valuable long-term business asset. It gives you somewhere to publish helpful information, explain how you use the products you recommend, answer questions from your audience and create content that you can share with your email subscribers.
You don’t have to write everything from scratch, but you do need to take ownership of what you publish. Use the resources available to you, develop a process you can maintain and concentrate on making each article worth your readers’ time.
David Hurley
#InspiredFocus
