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A common misconception is that Indian cuisine consists entirely of curry-based dishes. While the term curry in general refers to the distinctive spiced dishes of various regions in Asia, it’s often used specifically by Europeans and North Americans to refer to dishes made with curry powder. In fact, one could even go so far to say that the (ignorant masses) general populace thinks that adding curry powder to any bland dish makes it palatable to Indian sensitivities. Or (worse yet) that curry is used as a cover up for food of questionable origin or preparation.

Which brings us to today’s topic: resale rights. In my opinion, and without meaning to offend anyone of Asian origin or inclination, resale rights are the curries of online marketing.

Let me explain.

What Are Resale Rights?

Broadly defined, “resale rights” are the rights to sell a product that someone else created. Resale selling is different from affiliate selling because resellers interact directly with the customers — in other words, the reseller is the vendor. In affiliate selling, the affiliate is not the vendor and is merely acting as a sales agent for the vendor.

There are different kinds of resale rights. Private label rights, for example, allow a reseller to pass a product off as their own creation. PLR articles, for example, can be used to create content-based sites that make money via AdSense and other advertising programs. Master resale rights let you sell not only the product, but also the rights to resell the product. And there are umpteen variations that we can all lump under the general category of “resale rights”.

Resale rights are not unique to Internet marketing. Book and music publishers often sell resale rights to other publishers. And retail selling is perhaps the simplest use of resale rights that everyone understands.

Resale Rights for Online Products

Resale rights for many software and infoproducts are readily available today. On my hard drive I have well over a hundred different products with resale rights, most of them obtained from free membership sites like Mr. OverDeliver and MyFreeGiveaway. I’ve only been able to review a few so far, like Desktop AdSense Cash Machine (review) and Keyword Niche Power (review). It takes time to sort through all those products and find the ones that are worthy of a review.

Every day, more and more products with resale rights appear on the market. Sometimes it’s the same products you’ve seen elsewhere, but in different form — remember those private label rights? — but many are entirely new products. So why are online marketers so hot for resale rights? There are two reasons, one obvious and one not-so-obvious.

Reason 1: Back End Sales

You’ve surely come across free e-books and software before. Just recently, for example, I offered a free copy of Google AdWords Made Easy to my readers. These free products exist primarily to promote, directly or indirectly, other products, products that are not free. This is the “back end” of the sales funnel, so to speak. Give away a product, or sell it cheaply, and make money from the other things you sell to the customer. (For Google AdWords Made Easy, for example, the back end sale is a product called Keyword Elite, which I hope to review here at some point.)

Again, giving things for free in the hopes that you’ll become a paying customer isn’t unique to online marketing — how many free samples have you had at the grocery store? But the cost of giving away product online is basically nothing, so it’s much more prevalent.

The problem with free products is that there’s no money upfront. But with resale rights you can get some money immediately and then make more money later. You also get motivated sellers who get to pocket more of the profit from selling resale products than they would through normal affiliate programs. They can also (depending on what resale rights were acquired) market the product differently, set their own prices, add their own material, etc.

Reason 2: Switching the Market

Here’s the real reason so many products are sold with resale rights. Recall that in Understand Your Meta-Market I described the two online meta-markets: consumers and resellers. When you add resale rights to a product you are changing the meta-market. You’re not targeting the end consumer, but rather the reseller. You’re pushing the product out instead of waiting for consumers to pull the product. It’s a very clever model.

The Curry Analogy

And now you understand what I mean when I say that resale rights are the curries of Internet marketing. Want to spice up your sales? Mix in some resale rights to your products and your product will all of a sudden appeal to a whole different demographic.

The fallacy, of course, is thinking that resale rights will hide product flaws. Better you spend your time creating a better product than tempting others to resell a poorly-made product. If the dish isn’t tasty without the added curry, you’re doing something wrong.

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