Whether you write it yourself, hire a blog writer or use PLR, that article you are about to post on your blog is going to cost you. In time or money. For most of us, we think writing our own blog post is the cheapest of the alternatives. But sometimes that won’t be true. Especially if keeping fresh content on your site is becoming a problem due to time or motivation.

For this post, I going to compare the three top methods of getting content onto a website. What I’ve already found is that there is no one right answer.

Writing a Blog Post Yourself

By far this is the cheapest, especially if you are well-versed on your niche. But not everyone writes fast. And some folks I know go blank once they are in front of a blank screen. Then, of course, there’s that big time eater. I don’t know about you, but life seems to get in the way of my writing all too often.

So the first cost to consider when you write it your own is the overall time will take to write, re-write, polish and proof. Only you know how long that takes. Can you prepare 500 to 1,000 words in half an hour, an hour or does it take you two to three hours for the post? I’m going to estimate that at two hours.

Don’t  forget you need to take some time to figure out what you’re going to write about. Now hopefully, you are starting to use an editorial calendar to plan your future blog post. Many bloggers like to spend a couple hours a month planning out their next month of blogs. Not only is that based on what you want to write about, but what you have discovered your audience wants to read. Even if you’re a sit-of-your-pants blogger you need some time to plan. what to write so I’m going to estimate half an hour.

But wait… there’s more to think about. (I know, I know, am I sounding like a Ginsu knife salesman.)  At the very least, it’s important to see how your competitors in your niche are handling the topic. And then three’s keywords. Got to search for those. I’m going to add another half hour to the total.

And if you have to do deep research, well…. there’s another hour or so. For this post, however, I’m going to forego that.

The grand total then, for writing your own blog post is three hours of your time. How you value your time is up to you.

Purchasing Through Content Writing Services

One of the best–and easiest–places I know to purchase pre-written articles is on Constant Content. It’s been around for awhile. Write submit their articles for sale in a variety of topics. The company has editors who make sure those articles are top notch.

You, as a blog owner, can purchase the rights to one or more of those articles for use on your blog or newsletter. There are three types of usage rights available through Constant Content: Usage, Unique, Full Rights. Not all articles have the same types of rights available. BTW, the writers sent their own rights.

Unfortunately, content writing rates are not cheap. Oh yeah, they might be cheaper than hiring a blog writer, but you will need to pony up some money. Especially if you plan to buy more than one article. The more exclusive the usage rights, the higher the cost of the cost of the article. Most of the times, you are going to want a full rights license. That give you the most flexibility. Not only can you use it on your blog now, you can rewrite in different ways to use it, use it on another blog or resell for a profit.

Articles can run the gamut of prices depending on length and popularity. Here are three articles I found on Constant Content for the Work From Home niche.

•  7 Way to Sell More Online (828 words): $80
•  5 Side Business Anyone Can Do For Extra Cash (606 words): $59
• What Does it Take to Work From Home (559 words): $66

Those three articles average out to $68.33 each. So if you were to buy from Constant Content, you would be looking in the $65 to $70 range for one article.

Buying a PLR Package to Use

Another way to get content for your blog is to use private label rights content, also known PLR. It’s pre-done material and it can be had it a lot of formats. For this post, I’ll only be talking about written material, specifically blog posts.

PLR content is written one time, but can be sold to lots of bloggers. But, the majority of bloggers I know don’t use it “as is.” They generally customize it for their needs. Some do very light, light edits, while others will rewrite each line. And then add some.

When you buy PLR you need to think of it not as ready-to-publish, but as your research and first draft. As a writer, I can tell you starting with words on the screen is a whole lot easier than starting with nothing. It gets the juices flowing.

Along with having content that can save you time, PLR is also cheap. It runs about one dollar per page. That works out to about 400-500 words from most of PLR providers I know. They’re also sold in bundles or packs. That might be five, 10 or even 20 or more articles that revolve around one topic.

The PLR can be used as individual articles, combined into a longer post or you can take entire bundles package them into a special report.

A lot of the PLR providers on my favorites list offer a lot more, too. Tracy and XXX at Piggy Makes Bank are specializing in 30 Day Challenges that include 30 days of articles and 30 days of email that can be sent to your list to promote the former.

BTW, don’t miss My Favorite PLR Providers List here.

For this comparison, however, I’m going to figure in a small five pack for $5, such as those offered by Tiffany Lambert. That’s 2,000+ words than can be used individually or mixed and matched.

If you’re not going to do any heavy editing, then it should take you about half an hour to rework a piece of PLR into an article. The more you work with PLR the faster the process will be for you.

So the grand total of customizing a piece of PLR for your blog is $5 (for 5 articles) and about 1/2 hour of your time.

Which Option Is Better?

The truth is, the better option is the one that works for you. In both time and money. In a perfect world, writing all your own blog posts is the best choice. But that’s not always possible. Time. Burnout. And 101 family obligations can muddy up the blogging waters.

The next choice for me would be to use PLR. It’s cheap and once you get the hang of it, it’s super simple.

Buying blog post from content writing services comes in third place on this comparison for me because of cost, but I still consider it a viable option. After all, don’t most us bloggers hope we reach the level of success where buying articles or hiring blog writers in on our To Do List? I know it’s on mine.

Here are some more resources on blogging and writing you need to check out.

• What is PLR and Why You Need It to Save Time and Money?
• How to Use PLR on Your Blog
• How to Create Blog Content… Without Writing it All Yourself

Whatever choices you make, keep blogging!

Till later, folks,