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Is MRR Legit?
Is MRR legit? You might have heard about MRR (master resell rights) and you’re wondering exactly what it’s all about, and whether it’s a scam or not.
If you’re in the online business space, you might have been seeing MRR around lately. When I first came across it, I was interested but skeptical.
As someone who has been making a full-time income online for close to seven years now, I’ve seen a lot of scams and shady practices in my time.
And since I sell digital products myself, I was particularly intrigued by the concept of MRR, since it’s mainly used for reselling digital products.
So here’s a deep dive into MRR, and whether or not it’s legit.
What Is MRR?
First of all, let’s talk about what MRR even is in the first place.
MRR stands for master resell rights.
It’s used for digital products such as online courses, ebooks, and templates. It means you can buy the product and then have the right to resell it to others.
Normally, when you buy a digital product, it’s for personal use only.
But with master resell rights, you are buying the product for yourself and you have the ability to then sell it to others if you’d like to do so.
You can also modify the product, add your own branding, determine the price you sell it for, and so on. So you can basically make the product your own.
What Are Some Popular MRR Products?
If you’re looking for examples of MRR products, here are the ones I see popping up over and over again. All of these are MRR online courses:
- Digital Wealth Academy
- The Roadmap
- Simply Passive
- The Ultimate Branding Course
- Passive Profit Millionaire
These courses all cover similar topics, like digital marketing and passive income, which you can use to start your own online business.
However, most people just buy these types of courses in order to resell them. (This is something I talk about more in-depth later on in this post.)
You can also buy ebooks, templates, and software as MRR products.
Is MRR Legal?
A common question many people have is whether MRR is legal or not.
And it’s a good question! The concept of master resell rights seems to go against everything you’ve heard about intellectual property and copyright.
You can’t take someone else’s product and sell it as your own… or can you?
I’m not a lawyer, and the legality of master resell rights is a nuanced topic, so I’ll let you read this concise blog post from a lawyer instead.
Basically, the concept of master resell rights is legal, but you’ll need to do your own due diligence and make sure you understand the license of the product you’re buying. You can’t necessarily do whatever you want with an MRR product.
And I’ve seen some MRR products for sale that definitely don’t seem legal. One example is an Etsy shop I came across selling thousands of stock photos and videos as MRR. The seller seemed pretty shady to me and I don’t believe that they really owned the copyright to all of those photos and videos.
So you can’t just take an MRR product at face value.
You’ll need to research and determine if the product is really MRR or else you could have an unpleasant copyright issue on your hands.
Is MRR a Pyramid Scheme?
MRR is not a pyramid scheme or an MLM (multi-level marketing) scheme.
Pyramid schemes (and MLMs) focus on having a small group of people at the top recruiting downline members who must “buy in” to the scheme.
Only the people at the top make money, and the people at the bottom lose money. There’s no tangible product in a pyramid scheme; it’s all about recruiting people to buy in to the scheme and then having those people recruit others, and so on. A Ponzi scheme is a classic example of a pyramid scheme.
In the case of common MLMs (think Amway, Avon, Herbalife, Mary Kay, Primerica, etc.) there is an actual product being sold (like makeup or nutritional supplements) but the vast majority of members still end up losing money.
This is because MLM “sellers” are really the customers — they have to buy the product themselves, and then attempt to sell it to others.
The way that higher-ups in MLMs make money is by recruiting a large downline, not actually selling the products, which is what makes it a pyramid scheme.
So no, MRR is not a pyramid scheme because there’s no focus on recruiting others or building a downline. You’re just selling a digital product.
However, it feels like a pyramid scheme because most people in the MRR space are selling MRR courses about how to make money with digital marketing, and then their customers turn around and start trying to sell the same course.
No one is actually using “The Ultimate Branding Course” to start a business in a totally different niche, for example — they’re all buying it so they can start reselling it themselves using the same tactics and claims.
THAT is what feels shady about MRR… but it doesn’t have to be that way!
Is MRR Oversaturated?
Short answer: yes, most MRR products are oversaturated now.
There are hundreds, if not thousands, of nearly identical Instagram accounts and websites trying to sell the same handful of MRR courses.
Another way that MRR somewhat resembles a pyramid scheme (even though it still technically isn’t) is because those who got in early are at the “top” of the pyramid and have been able to build an audience and sell more products than those who are just now getting started with MRR products.
The most popular MRR products are very oversaturated at this point.
It’s hard to stand out at this point, and I’ve seen many MRR sellers start offering personalized bonuses to anyone who buys their course.
At that point, you’re doing a lot of extra work trying to sell the same flimsy “Digital Wealth Academy” course that everyone else is selling.
Is MRR Worth It?
In my personal opinion, some MRR is not worth it.
Many people don’t realize how much work actually goes into successfully selling digital products (even if they are MRR digital products.)
It’s not a get-rich-quick scheme and requires a lot of set-up.
For example, to sell an MRR course, you’ll still need to set up a course platform so your customers can access the course. You’ll need to set up a payment gateway. You’ll need to create a sales page. Oh, and one major thing…
You will also need to build an audience from scratch.
This is really hard to do if you’re selling the exact same products as hundreds of other people and using the exact same claims and tactics.
When some MRR sellers even start creating their own unique digital products to include as bonuses with the MRR course they are selling, that’s even more work! At that point, you should really just create your own digital products.
What I Would Do Instead of MRR
Instead of selling MRR digital products, I would highly recommend creating your own digital products (like online courses or ebooks) to sell instead.
Since you already have to do the work of setting up the course, setting up a payment gateway, writing the sales page, advertising the course, and so on… it’s not a stretch to just create your own product at that point!
You’ll make a lot more money in the long run if you can establish yourself as an expert and create a unique offer, rather than selling the same course that thousands of other people are already trying to sell.
It’s also cheaper to create and sell your own products.
Most of the popular MRR courses are priced at around $500, which is a big investment to make. And that’s just the cost of the course itself.
You can end up spending a LOT more money to sell an MRR course. Whereas with creating your own course, there’s zero monetary investment (only your time.)
Or, if you want an even easier way to get started making money online, I’d recommend affiliate marketing. This is another area of online business with a lot of scams and shady practices, but affiliate marketing is legit.
Simply put, affiliate marketing allows you to earn a commission on products if someone purchases that product using your unique affiliate link.
To get started with affiliate marketing, all you need is a blog (which you can start for under $40) so it requires a much smaller investment.
When MRR Actually Makes Sense
Okay, let’s talk about when MRR might actually make sense for your business.
If you’ve already done the work of starting a blog and building an audience through your email list but you don’t have any products to sell yet, MRR might be an option for you. And I don’t mean the shady version I talked about above!
When I think MRR is worth it is when you are buying simpler MRR products to sell to your existing audience where it would be a good fit.
For example, let’s say you have a personal finance blog and you want to start selling products but you aren’t super skilled at graphic design yourself.
In this case, you could go to Etsy, search for “MRR budget planner” or “MRR debt payoff printables” and find digital products that you can buy and resell as your own. These are simple products that would be a natural fit for your audience.
Buying the master resell rights for a smaller product like this is usually inexpensive (under $20) and then you can sell it on your own blog at a price point like $5 as many times as you want. To me, that’s definitely worth it!
Of course, you’ll still want to do your due diligence and read the license carefully, but this is a situation where I think MRR makes sense.
Is MRR Legit?
Hopefully this helped you understand what MRR is, and whether or not it’s worth it.
Master resell rights are legal and are not a total scam or a pyramid scheme. But it’s something that is not going to be worth it for most people.
I fully believe you’re better off investing your time in creating a more sustainable business rather than trying to sell oversaturated MRR products.
Or if you do use them, buy simple MRR products you can sell to your existing audience rather than trying to build a whole “brand” around selling a scammy course. This is going to be more sustainable and profitable in the long run.
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