How to Rewrite PLR Content in Five Easy Steps

by Dean Williams · May 18, 2017

You’ve heard that you should rewrite PLR content to make it more original. But how much should you actually change?

Do you rewrite everything or just parts of it? Should you use PLR as the foundation for something new, or is it enough to simply change a few words and phrases?

The most effective approach is to treat PLR as source material rather than finished content. Keep the useful ideas, remove what you don’t need, add your own experience and examples, and reshape the material for your particular audience.

In Short: Rewriting PLR isn’t simply about changing words. Combine useful material, remove unnecessary information, create a new introduction and conclusion, then add your own examples, ideas and writing style. The goal is to create something genuinely useful and distinctive from the original PLR.

Here’s how to do it in five steps.

Step 1: Combine Multiple Sources

One of the easiest ways to create something more original from PLR is to combine information from several sources.

For example, you could compile several related PLR articles into a short report. You could take relevant sections from several ebooks and use them as research for a new guide. You could even combine ideas from two or three articles to create a completely new article.

Don’t simply copy and paste the pieces together. Decide what you want the finished content to accomplish first, then select and reorganise the material that helps you achieve that purpose.

This immediately begins turning the PLR into something that’s specifically designed for your audience.

Step 2: Delete Unnecessary Information

PLR content won’t always contain exactly what you need.

It may include outdated information, repetition, unnecessary explanations or sections that aren’t particularly relevant to your audience. Remove them.

This does more than make the finished content different from the original. It can also make it more focused and useful.

Ask yourself whether each section helps the reader achieve the purpose of the article, report or guide. If it doesn’t, either improve it or remove it.

Step 3: Write a New Introduction

Once you’ve reorganised the material, write a completely new introduction.

Don’t simply tell readers what they’re about to learn. Give them a reason to continue reading.

You could highlight the problem they’re trying to solve, raise an interesting question or explain the benefit they’ll receive from reading the content.

For example:

“You’ve bought a bundle of PLR articles. Now what do you do with them so your website doesn’t look exactly like everyone else’s?”

That immediately identifies the problem and gives the reader a reason to continue.

Your introduction also establishes your own voice from the beginning rather than allowing the original PLR writer’s style to control the article.

Step 4: Create a New Conclusion

Your conclusion shouldn’t simply repeat the introduction.

Use it to reinforce the most important point and help the reader decide what to do next.

There are several ways you can do this:

Give the reader one final useful tip. Add something practical that reinforces the value of the content.
Encourage the reader to take action. Tell them what they should do with what they’ve just learned.
Lead naturally to the next step. This could be another article, a related resource, your mailing list or an appropriate product.

A good conclusion makes the content feel complete while helping the reader continue their journey.

Step 5: Tweak the Content to Make It Yours

By now, your content should already be substantially different from the original PLR. But parts of it may still sound as though somebody else wrote them.

This is where you make the content genuinely yours.

You can:

Remove or replace words, expressions and phrases you wouldn’t normally use.
Add your own examples to make ideas easier to understand.
Include relevant personal experience or observations where appropriate.
Add your own tips, opinions and ways of approaching the subject.
Update old facts, examples, tools and references.
Rearrange sections so the information follows your preferred structure.
Use comparisons, metaphors or analogies that fit your own writing style.

This is much more effective than simply replacing individual words with synonyms.

The objective isn’t to disguise where the material came from. It’s to use PLR as a starting point for creating better content for your particular audience.

How Much of a PLR Article Should You Rewrite?

There’s no percentage that makes PLR content original.

Changing 20%, 50% or even 80% of the words doesn’t necessarily make an article better. What matters is whether you’ve added something worthwhile.

If the original PLR contains a useful explanation, you don’t need to change it merely for the sake of changing it. Instead, look at the article as a whole.

Could you improve the examples? Is anything outdated? Can you explain an important point more clearly? Is there something missing that your audience would find useful?

Those changes create far more value than mechanically rewriting every sentence.

Can You Use AI to Rewrite PLR Content?

AI can certainly help you work with PLR more efficiently, but simply asking AI to “rewrite this article” isn’t necessarily enough.

AI can help you reorganise material, suggest new angles, identify gaps, simplify complicated sections, generate questions and develop alternative examples. You can then review, fact-check and edit the result so it fits your audience and your own publishing style.

Think of AI as another tool in the rewriting process rather than a substitute for deciding what the finished content should actually say.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need to rewrite PLR articles before publishing them?

That depends on the licence and how you intend to use the content, but rewriting and improving PLR is usually worthwhile. It allows you to adapt the material to your audience, update outdated information and differentiate your version from other people using the same source material.

Is PLR duplicate content?

PLR can be sold or licensed to multiple buyers, so other publishers may have access to the same original material. That’s one reason it’s sensible to customise and improve PLR rather than publishing the supplied version unchanged.

Can I combine several PLR articles into one?

Yes, provided the licence permits the way you intend to use the material. Combining related PLR articles can be an effective way of creating a more comprehensive article, report or guide, particularly when you reorganise and expand the material around a specific topic.

Should I change the title of a PLR article?

Usually, yes. A new title allows you to position the article around the particular question, problem or search intent you want to address rather than using the same title supplied to every other PLR buyer.

Final Thoughts

Rewriting PLR doesn’t have to mean starting again from a blank page.

The real advantage of PLR is that much of the initial research and content development has already been done for you. Your job is to decide what is useful, remove what isn’t, update what has changed and add enough of your own knowledge, examples and perspective to create something better suited to your audience.

Follow these five steps and PLR becomes more than content you purchased. It becomes raw material you can shape into articles, reports, emails and other resources that support your own business.

To learn more about using PLR content for maximum effect, download the free special report below.