In today’s what’s up Wednesday, I talk about three separate topics. This was brought on by my recent purchases I made to improve business opportunities and operations. Whenever I find things that are useful or a complete waste of money, I like to share them with you. PLR, website automation, new WordPress theme, oh my!

The PLR video package advantage:

I recently got a PLR package to help me save time. As always there is a fine line between PLR that is helpful and PLR that is a complete waste of money and time.

Making it unique

The biggest issue I have with PLR is making it unique, even if it is the best stuff out there. I want to add my voice and put in at least an introduction and summary. If graphics are included, then I will modify it with my own (brand) so it doesn’t look like what everyone else has who got it.

Bad PLR

In the past, I have used some really bad PLR as a reference when looking for topics to share. But I would end up eating away my time having to completely rewrite it to even make it tolerable.

TIP: It would have been better if I would have just used the title as inspiration and started the article from scratch. That's what I end up doing anyway, because bad PLR actually takes more time to dissect  and correct it.

Analogy time: bad PLR is really not useful because it is like buying a dilapidated house. Not only do you have to rebuild, but you have to tear-down the old structure first and get it out of the way before you can start building. With an empty lot, you can just start building it which saves time (and money).

Quality PLR

What I really like is quality PLR creators who limit the number of packages they will sell, which is a good thing if you are a buyer and don’t have the time to modify it. Too much of the same thing online makes it harder to distinguish yourself from the crowd (noise). But the real advantage I have with this latest package I got is this; the creator of the package knows more about the subject than I do and put together a great course. All I have to do is some minor modifications along with graphic changes and it will be ready to go. Not only does this help save me a tremendous amount of research time, but as I am going through it, I am being helped as well. I see how it is put together and I am learning more about the topic that is helping me become more of an expert! Talk about a win-win!

Side Note: One thing I have learned early on in life is this – if you know more about a topic than someone else, then you are an expert to them. So if you are pressed for time, just knowing a little more than your audience can help you go far.

Amazon automation: Fresh Store Builder, and the new Prosociate plugin

If you are not already aware, one of my biggest rants about using Amazon site automation is that most “solutions” leave you wanting. They don’t keep item prices current once posted. They keep discontinued items on your site or don’t let you know when an item is currently “out of stock”. And they post products that don’t offer you a commission (Amazon’s list of excluded products) which is ridiculous!

Fresh Store Builder

The only automation solution I found to date that addressed all the above issues is Fresh Store Builder (FSB), yet I am not happy with it. As an Amazon associate, I like to do product reviews and then link to that item on Amazon. FSB up until now didn’t really allow you to build a site based on a review site, it was setup to look too much like an eCommerce site, yuck! That was until version 5 was released, and is now available to us regular customers. The latest version supposedly allows you to build review style sites which includes their latest review style theme within it. This theme is also responsive so you can appeal to mobile customers as well (finally)! I plan to update my version this Friday because it will take some time. Even though FSB uses the WordPress platform, it is a separate software program complete with its own built-in system, no plugins! So updates can be somewhat tricky.

Note: the FSB creator also offers a plugin you can use with your own WordPress install and theme. But I have also noticed more complaints on the forum from customers with that plugin than with the store.

Prosociate plugin

Now to turn your attention to another Amazon automation solution that was just recently reintroduced with it’s latest version called Prosociate. It is a WP plugin that I bought to test because of all the claims it made that addresses all my issues and the price was right. I picked one of my Amazon sites where I will test this latest innovation. I also ended up having to install Woo commerce for Prosociate to operate. Woo commerce is free. Once I had all items installed that are needed to operate Prosociate, I then activated Woo commerce on my test site, and another issue immediately developed (theme not compatible). I’m sure you can relate to this when installing something new! Due to this issue, I now had to search for another theme that would be compatible with Woo, yet keep the custom features I had with the current theme, which leads me into the next topic…

New WordPress theme I found and am excited about!

After two days sorting through the many themes I looked over online, I found a theme called Generate Press. It has all the elements I wanted; customization, responsiveness, two columns (can do 1 to 4 columns) and is Woo commerce compatible. What I liked even more was the base theme is free. However to make the theme fully customizable, I had to buy customized plugins specifically made to enhance the abilities of the theme. Yet, I didn’t have to pay an arm and a leg to get the 11 plugin bundle either (cost $20). There was another plugin option available, the do-it-all plugin for $30, which I skipped and regret doing so, because it saves time rather than setting up and having to install 11 separate plugins that came with the bundle I got. I have only had time to do the initial setup of this test site. So far, I really like it. The price alone sure beats most other premium themes, especially the popular ones costing $200 or more. So I will keep you updated about how well this all integrates together; theme, plugins (including Prosociate), and Woo commerce! Whew, that is a lot to digest in one post, I know! How about YOU? Do you have any experiences with PLR, Amazon automation that you would like to share below?