In recent years Google has slapped the Duplicate Content Penalty on websites with similar content, causing numerous websites to take a serious nosedive in their search engine rankings.

This serious problem has alarmed thousands of webmasters who used to be content with their affiliate and Adsense income due to the fact their websites were ranking well in the search engines. Now with the dreaded Duplicate Content Penalty in front of our faces, creating quality content is the next thing to do to help address the problem.

But not everyone can write original content from scratch. Some smart marketers knew about this problem and addressed this need by creating membership websites that give articles that can be changed to their
customers' liking.

This is a good solution to all of us who would like to paste high quality content on our websites with little effort. After all, writing high quality articles can take hours – from researching the topics and materials, researching relevant keywords, to writing the articles themselves and proofreading. By taking advantage of these PLR article membership websites, duplicate content penalty is already out of sight.

Or is it? With numerous article membership sites that limit their services to a number of people, you should be aware that the solution to the dreaded Duplicate Content Penalty is not just addressed by simply copying the articles from these exclusive membership sites and pasting them on your own. With the others receiving the same articles, you would face the risk of being detected by the search engines since your fellow members may have been content enough not to modify them even by a bit.

It means that even though PLR article membership sites give you the longed-for high quality content that search engines and your actual visitors love, you should keep in mind that all your investments in these PLR article membership sites, which you deduct from your online income, will be wasted if you do not change their contents to make them different from the others who get the same articles.

It will not cost you an arm and a leg to make them unique. If you want to make them unique right away you can change the title of the article into something more attention-grabbing. Changing the keyphrases will also help. Using your own set of relevant keyphrases more prominently will make your article stand out from the rest of you co-members who probably will use the same keyphrases.

Usually the first paragraph of the article is an introduction of the meat and bones found in the main body of the article, so you can change that, too. The introduction is also the area where you can inject your
personality by changing the tone of the article into something conversational.

If you happen to know something about the topic, it's all the better. You can add your own thoughts into the main body of the article. If the article is a "how to" type and is written in paragraphs you can turn it around by listing them instead.

Aside from the introduction, the last paragraph is another area where you can make major changes. Usually it is a conclusion of sorts that just re-states the main points of the main body, so you can make it different by creating the last paragraph in your own words.

PLR articles are a heaven-sent and a time-saver to us busy internet marketers. But the cost of these monthly services will not be worth it if you will dump them in your hard drive, forget about them, or simply copy and paste them on your websites while hoping you'll escape from the search engines' prying eyes.