Distribution Rights For 2012

I know this subject is very common and has been discussed many times over the years, but being a subject that relates to my site and business I feel compelled to lay it out for you.  Let’s start by explaining what exactly marketing rights are before we get into the process of distribution.

What Are Marketing Rights?

Marketing Rights simply put are the distribution value put on a product or service.

A license is created determining the extent of that value by the creator or copyright holder. What this means is when you buy a body of work from an author a specified set of rules are designed to keep that work at a profitable level for all involved. Restrictions are placed on the body of work to help keep the value at a fair market price.

"Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large. (Approved October 2007)

American Marketing Association Board of Directors. Accessed 2012."

Evolution:

Ever since 1995 when the internet became a free for all playground for the world to experience new forms of communication, a new breed of business was formed called Internet Marketing. This new boom was based on 4 elements. 1. The creation of content for sale. 2. The creation of online services for sale. 3. The ability for profit share from spreading the word, IE: (Affiliate Marketing) and 4. Distribution, IE: (the license to resell).

Back in those early days the most common form of rights were Resale Rights and the price was not cheap. You could easily buy a copy of an early how to report but in order to become a reseller you paid quite handsomely for those rights. Now in 2012 things have changes quite a bit. First of all with more and more product hitting the mainstream the market has become congested and saturated with everything you can think of. More and more people have turned away from this form of distribution in favor of creating content and selling advertising by creating links on there sites and gaining a percentage of the advertising revenue. This has become the top dog and changed the way the Marketing Rights for content is distributed.

Marketing Rights Broken Down By Category:

Below you will see a complete breakdown of all distribution rights and their detailed use.

(PUO) Personal Use Only:

This is a license that only allows you to gain knowledge from the publication. This license does not give you the right to resell in any way. This is a full copyright product and has complete restrictions so you would be wise to follow what the license dictates as not to do so could easily lead to lawsuits on copyright infringements. It is very rare to find a license agreement because there is none with this type of product.

(GR) Give Away Rights:

In short what it says is it. You have the right to distribute the product for free. In most cases you do not have the right to resell. In rare cases you have both. You can resell or give away but the license terms will let you know what you can and can not do. See a sample of a license below.

(SAMPLE)

By owning resell and giveaway rights, you may freely distribute this report

to anyone you wish, resell it for any price and keep 100% of the profits, or

use it as incentive to build your mailing list. The choice is yours.

The only restriction is that you cannot modify this document in any way

without permission from the author.

(RR) Resell Rights:

You have the right to redistribute this publication and keep all the profits from your sales. This license will usually come with many restrictions. You will not be able to transfer the resale rights to this product but only sell the product for personal use only (PUO). In most cases you will have a price range that is suggested as to keep the product at a fair market value. Again you will be expected to keep the publication intact and all documentation with a pre-written license for (PUO) to your customers. See a sample of a license below.

(SAMPLE)

[YES] Can sell software as is and keep the full 100% profits

[YES] Can package it with other paid products

[YES] Can pass on resell rights

[YES] Can pass on master resell rights

[NO]  Can offer Your Own Rights to rebrand for others

[NO]  Can give/sell the rebrander away

[NO]  Can give a way the Software

(MRR) Master Resell Rights:

With (MMR) you are awarded the exclusive rights to a product. The owner will usually give you full control over the license. You will be able to transfer that license to your customer. In many cases you will find a breakdown of what you can and can not do with said product. You may also receive more than one license to resell to your customer. You may see (PUO), (RR) and (MRR) all will be followed by a recommended price value. See a sample of a license below.

(SAMPLE)

What You CAN do

[YES] Can be bundled with other products

[YES] Can be offered as a bonus

[YES] Can give reports to your clients and/or customers

[YES] Can give them to your affiliates to publish to promote your products

[YES] Can be used for opt-in bonuses (newsletter signups, etc.)

[YES] Can be added to paid membership sites

[YES] Can be offered through auction sites

[YES] Sales letter can be edited

[YES] Squeeze page can be edited

[YES] Can sell Resell Rights

[YES] Can sell Master Resell Rights

What You CAN NOT do

[NO] Can sell Private Label Rights

[NO] Add to free membership sites

Recommended: Please try and keep the value of the product high, by not selling the whole package for

less than $11.00 anywhere.

 

(PLR) Private Label Rights:

 

The (PLR) license is one of the most versatile forms of distribution rights. In most cases you not only have the right to resell the product or publication but you also have the right to put your own name on it or rework the work entirely and create your own new product from it. In this day and age this is the most sought after license for the marketer looking to purchase for maximum profitability.  See a sample of a license below.

(SAMPLE)

Private Label Rights Terms & Conditions

[YES] Can be edited.

[YES] Can put your name as the author.

[YES] Can be broken down into articles.

[YES] Can be used as web or e-zine content.

[YES] Can be added into membership sites.

[YES] Can be sold in any format.

[YES] Can be packaged.

[YES] Can be offered as a bonus.

[YES] Can be given away (in any format).

[YES] Can be sold on auction sites.

[YES] Can offer (Master) Resell Rights.

[YES] Can resell Private Label Rights.

[YES] Can be published offline.

In short, you can do literally anything you want with this product

 

(PLR-MRR) Private Label Rights With Master Resell Rights:

 

This is the only no restriction license you will ever find. What this means is that you virtually own this product. You can basically do whatever you want with it. Break it down, turn it inside out, give it away, use it as a bonus item or anything. The only restriction you may or may not see is that the original author or creator wishes to remain anonymous. Usually you will see an exclusive license like this from a self employed ghost writer who is basically a researcher writing reports for profit. See a sample of a license below.

(SAMPLE)

[Yes] Can be given away.

[Yes] Can be packaged.

[Yes] Can be offered as a bonus.

[YES] Can Be Edited Completely and Your Name Put on it.

[YES] Can be used as web content

[YES] Can be broken down into articles

[YES] Can RESELL Articles

[Yes] Can Sell Private Label Rights

One of the things I should have mentioned in the beginning of this article is that these licenses are not just restricted to publications or reports. You will find many of these named licenses attached to software, scripts, mp3 files and movie files. There are many forms of distributions that can be transferred electronically over the internet and if you really understand this information you will also understand that it can be quite profitable. You need only get creative and use all your resources to maximize a very profitable business.

The truth is many buy these publications and really don’t understand what these licenses are put in place for. They just buy blindly as to just make a quick sale and they may just be in profit for a really good and well designed publication or product but if you really want to maximize profit, use the tools that are allocated with many publications and get creative. This is why basic rights have evolved into what they are today.

I hope this article has helped you and gives you a better way of looking at things. It is designed to give you a perspective that is quite frequently over looked. I hear people talk all the time about how the e-book business is over saturated but I prefer to look at it this way.

The market is changing and we need to change with it. It is best to analyze what tools are available and work them to an advantage that will best suit your needs.

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Don Dousharm writes for Exceptional Content Publishing. To learn more and read more on this subject and others just visit.