Courtney Speaks

Who are your online mentors?  Mine have changed over time but have included Kelly McCausey, Lynn Terry, and Jimmy D. Brown.

If you are undecided if you should start a work at home mom business or what type of online business then you need to follow Kelly.  WAHM Talk Radio is a great start.  Also check out her mastermind group, Mom Masterminds.  Kelly does a great job of helping you figure out where you want to go and how to get there.

If you to learn how to make money as an affiliate marketer, then Lynn Terry is your go-to gal.  Check out her blog ClickNewz and click over to her free forum, Self-Starters Weekly Tips.  If you want more one on one interaction, considering joining her Elite group.  I’m a member and just love it.

Jimmy D. Brown is more of an all around guy.  What drew me to Jimmy D. Brown in the first place was the fact that he was a Christian as well.  And he wasn’t afraid to share that fact within his online business.  He is the type of entrepreneur I strive to be.  Not to mention he has some great guides all on different topics.  You can find out more about him at his blog, Jimmy D. Brown.

When you need support, answers, and direction where do you go?

I’ve been listening to God and making changes in my online business and unfortunately while I was making some of those changes this blog got neglected.  But no more!

Thanks to some great referrals my web design and development business is really taking off.  I’ve have got awesome clients and they are not afraid to tell their friends about my work.  This is great news, but it sure does keep me busy.

After talking with a good friend online I have decided that I have to learn how to let go.  Let go of those projects that are not what God is wanting me to do.  While I’ve been focusing on what God has been telling me to do, I still have some other projects that are taking up valuable time.  So I’m letting those go and boy is it hard to do!

I mentioned last week that I started a new blog, WP Geek Girl, and while WordPress is one direction I believe the Lord is leading me in, I just don’t have the time to update another blog.  So I’m moving it to this blog.  You will be seeing much more posts about WordPress in the near future.

It’s hard work to put God in the forefront of your business but it is the only way to become a success.

You ever feel like life is conspiring against you and nothing goes your way?  That was me this past week.  Nothing went the way I had planned.  I was not as productive as I would have liked to have been either.  I completed one goal from last week and that was posting everyday on this blog.  Hopefully this week will be better.

Goals for this week:

• Post everyday on this blog
• Write 2 articles for article marketing
• Complete a web design for a client
• Launch my new site

How was your week?  Were you productive?  Did you accomplish your goals?

I have one other tidbit of information I wanted to share with you.  Have you ever wanted to learn about Wordpress and web design?  Or about how you run a successful web design business online?  Well Kelly McCausey is hosting a free webinar about this very topic!  The webinar is about Blog Evangelists which is a membership program designed to teach others how to launch and run a blog design business to serve their local small business community.  I have take this membership course and was very happy with the lessons and information learned.  So if running a web design company is something you have ever thought about doing, check out the free webinar on January 19, 2010.

Thanks for sticking with me this week while I explained what PLR is, if it is ethical to use, how to use PLR, and sharing with you how I rewrite PLR.  As promised today I have a some additional resources for use in learning more about PLR.

Where to find good quality plr:

• Christian Mom PLR is my site where I sell Christian based content.
• EasyPLR.com is a site where you can find PLR articles on almost any subject matter.  From Internet Marketing, mom topics, to video games, this site has a little bit of everything.  I am a happy customer of EasyPLR and will continue to use them in the future as well.
• MostlySanePLR.com is a site where you can find PLR e-courses to offer to your mailing list.
• YummyPLR.com is the answer to creating great food related content on your website.
• PLRFoodContent.com is another site to find food and recipe related PLR content.
• AllPrivateLabelContent.com is a site where you can find not only PLR articles, but PLR templates for press releases and research bundles.  They also have content specific memberships such as: All Green Content, All Mom Content, All Marketing Content, All Health Content, and All Finance Content.
• PLRforChristians.com is another site that focuses on Christian based PLR content.
• MomPLREbooks.com is a site that sells complete PLR ebook packages for the mom niche.
• PLR.me is a site that sells personal development PLR content.

Additional Resources:

• PLR for Podcasts – free e-course explaining how PLR can help you start a podcast internet radio show.
• Easy Private Label Articles eCourse at EasyPLR
• How To Create An Ecourse In Only One Day by Jimmy D. Brown
• How To Make A Fortune With PLR

Do you have questions or concerns about using PLR?  Do you think it is something you you would use in your blogging efforts or in your online business?  I’m really interested in hearing your opinions about PLR.

Rewriting PLR really isn’t as hard or time consuming as it sounds. It can actually be done pretty quickly. The main purpose of rewriting PLR is to make the article sound like your own.  You want to interject your personality and writing style into the article.  Your readers will never know that the article was a PLR article.

I use PLR content and this is how I rewrite any articles I want to use:

1. Change the title – Rewriting the title is the first step for me.  I read the PLR article, determine what I want the purpose of the article to be, and then create an appropriate title for that article.  I must admit, I often change the titles after I am done with the rewrite, because sometimes articles just come out differently than we planned.
2. Break the article up into sections – If the PLR article is not already broken into paragraphs I do this now.  Or if the paragraphs are long, I break them out.  You want to have a clear introduction, body, and closing.  The body can be multiple paragraphs if needed.  If the paragraph deals with two different thoughts, then it needs to be made into two paragraphs.
3. Rewrite the introduction – You can actually do this in two different ways.  You can rewrite each sentence or rewrite the entire paragraph at once.  I personally like to rewrite the paragraph at once.  I read the introduction and then summarize the introduction into my own words.  This is my new introduction paragraph.
4. Rewrite the body – Going paragraph by paragraph, I apply the same technique I used for the introduce for the body of the article.  I summarize the content into my own words.
5. Rewrite the closing -  While I do some summarization in the closing of a paragraph, I also try to add something to make it relate more to my readers, an affiliate recommendation, or a question for my readers to answer.
6. Add a photo – I love seeing photos in a blog post.  It helps to visual concepts and ideas and if the right photo is used can add value to your article.

Using PLR articles can save you time in creating content even if you have to rewrite the PLR articles.  It takes some of the stress off of you on having to continually brainstorm ideas for posts and articles.  I am not a natural writer.  It is not something that comes easy to me.  Using PLR makes it easier for me to consistently create new content for my sites.

Any questions so far?  Tomorrow is our last day on the PLR series and I will be explaining how to find quality PLR and sharing some additional great resources.

As discussed in the last two posts this week, you have learned what PLR is and if it is ethical to use PLR.  In continuing with my series this week about PLR (Private Label Rights) I am going to answer a popular question in dealing with PLR.  Why should you use PLR content if you are going to have to just rewrite it?

There are a number of ways you can use PLR without rewriting it but sometimes rewriting the content is good too.  Here are some suggestions:

• Create a vlog – Yes you can take your purchase PLR content and create a video with it, just use the PLR article you purchased as your outline and you are ready to go.
• Create a podcast – Same goes here as with creating a vlog.  PLR content make great scripts for recording audios.  If you want to learn more about using PLR in a podcast, check out my free e-course, PLR for Podcasts over at Christian Mom PLR.
• Brainstorm ideas – Use PLR content as an opportunity to brainstorm ideas for other posts or articles.
• Research – If you purchase quality PLR content then you can use the content for solely research purposes.  If you purchased an article on dog grooming, use the points in the article to craft your own article.
• Create a e-course – Take a pack of articles and use the main points as a e-course or put into an auto-responder to stay in touch with your mailing list

The list really could go on and on.  If fact you can download a list of 101 Ways To Use PLR Content written by Ronnie from PLR.me.  Tomorrow I am going to cover the basics of rewriting PLR.  And yes, it is really is worth it to rewrite PLR content.

Remember in yesterday’s post I mentioned that using PLR can be a bit tricky for Christians?  As a recap from yesterday’s post, PLR stands for Private Label Rights and is content that you can purchase and then use as is without giving the writer credit.  You can claim the content as your own.  You purchased the right to do so.  So basically you are taking credit for writing something you did not write.  The question of if PLR is ethical is a controversial one.

Nicole Dean from EasyPLR also created a video answering this question.

As a Christian blogger or business owner I think we have to be extra careful with the way we use PLR.  It is imperative to rewrite any PLR content you purchase.  If you use PLR as is and then your reader reads the exact same information, word for word, on another site, what does that say about your blog? Probably not good things.  Not only does it put your writing in question but also your morals.

Well then what good is PLR if you have to rewrite it?  That’s a good question and I will tell you answers tomorrow!

This week on the blog I am going to share with you what exactly PLR is and how it can help you as a Christian blogger or online business owner.  As a Christian business owner using PLR can be a little tricky at times, in my opinion.  Because my faith takes front stage in everything in my life, including my online business, I don’t want to take a chance by doing anything that might tarnish my testimony or have others believe I am not who I say I am.

First we are going to cover the basics, specially what is PLR?  PLR stands for Private Label Rights. Private Label Rights (PLR) articles are privately branded articles that you can use on your website or blog without having to add an author credit bio box. PLR  Articles can be posted to your blog or website as if you had written the articles yourself.  PLR content is not just limited to written articles though.  If you do a search on Google, you can find PLR content on software, video, graphics, and even blog themes.

Nicole Dean from Easy PLR has created a great video that answers the question, “What is PLR”.  I would highly recommend that you take a few minutes and watch it. Nicole explains it a lot better than I ever can.

Any questions so far?  If so, just leave a comment and I will answer them.  Tomorrow’s post will be about why using PLR can be a tricky especially for Christian bloggers and business owners.

As I promised last Saturday, I am going to start sharing my weekly goals with you all.  It will be nice at the end of the week to see what I have accomplished and if I haven’t accomplished them, it will give me a chance to reflect on why I did not.

So here are my goals for the week:

• Post everyday on this blog except for Sunday
• Write 2 articles for article marketing
• Complete 2 portions of work on a JV project (will be so excited to share more about this in the near future)
• Launch my new site all about Wordpress (I’m really excited about this too.  You all know how much I love Wordpress )

So what are your goals for week?  Can I help keep you accountable?

Do you have your family’s support for your online business and/or blog?  Are they an encouragement or hindrance to you and your business?  My husband is supportive when I’m making money and less so when I’m not.  I don’t really blame him though.  He doesn’t understand the way the Internet Marketing world works.  I’m still learning myself.

Running my online business and blog is something I enjoy doing, even when my income takes a dive some months.  I love being able to stay home with my kids but I need something that is my own and separate from the kids.  My online business fills this need.  It allows me to be creative and interact with other adults, even if it is just online.  As along as I’m happy my family is happy.

One thing I struggle with is not letting my love of blogging and such to take over my life.  My family and kids will always come first but it is easy to let blogging and Internet marketing to take up too much space in my day.  There is a balance that I struggle to achieve at times.  That is when the support of family comes into play the most for me.   While my online business is important to me, my family is more important, and they constantly remind me of that.

Another thing that has helped me is prayer and God’s guidance.  I believe I am following God’s will in my life through my online business and that makes balancing everything so much easier.  If I feel like the Internet is over taking my world, I turn to God in prayer and ask Him for strength.  After all, God is the reason I am even able to have an online business.

So, does your family support you?  Do they understand why you run an online business or blog?