Advertising
A Few Ways I’ve Used Public Domain Content
No, I’m not Irish but I do have some Irish ancestors back generations ago.
Admittedly, I know very little about Irish culture or history. From what I have read, St. Patrick was the foremost patron saint of Ireland though not “Irish” himself. He is credited with bringing and spreading Christianity to Ireland more than any other single person around 400 AD. Much of what is known about Patrick’s legendary life comes from the Confessio, a book he wrote during his last years.
Why do I bring this up? There’s a wealth of interesting, valuable, cool, and wonderful content in old books. In fact, old magazines, newspapers, greeting cards, images, music, artwork, films, and many other types of content are all a treasure trove of wonderful material that you can sell, give away, discuss on your site, and use in a multitude of ways in your online business.
I’m, of course, talking about public domain content – “PD” for short.
There is a sad misconception about public domain material in general. It is that public domain content is simply old, worn-out, and useless stuff that has no relevancy in today’s culture. What an unfounded belief!
Public domain material is everywhere and you can use it very profitably in your business if you have a little creativity and you know where to find the repositories of public domain content. It really is quite easy to use public domain once you understand what it is.
Forget the notion that public domain content is only “old” outdated material. Much of what the U.S. federal government prints is in the public domain. Additionally, creative writers and artists dedicate new things they produce to be in the public domain. PD is not just “old” or vintage works.
What I would like to do is share some of the ways I’ve personally used public domain content to just give you a very small sampling of what is possible – this is by no means an exhaustive list!
Here are ten ways I’ve used public domain material:
1. Break up a book into “single idea” articles or reports and post them with your own keywords and branding so that you get backlinks and some visitors to your web site.
2. I love vintage graphics and so do others (see all the big sellers on eBay and Etsy). But don’t just make a collection of graphics — use them in your advertising, as ebook illustrations, in banners, etc. It’s easy to strip old text from great graphic images. You can also simply get some great ideas from vintage ads for your own modern-day creations without actually using the graphics.
3. There are millions of old music sheets available that are a real novelty and many people (singers, musicians, patriots, Christians, etc.) will buy them to get access to forgotten or unfamiliar tunes.
4. Pick the right kind of “evergreen” content to go after. Things like home remedies, survival tactics, and gardening still work today just like they did a hundred years ago. The lesson is — public domain is hot in certain niches so you must do some work to find out what niches still excite people and sell best. Old movie posters is an example of PD content that people love to frame and display.
5. There are tons and tons of great resources put out be the federal government, some as new as this year. I know a guy selling a 30 page report to small businesses on a tax related topic — it came straight from the IRS and anyone could get it FREE. The point is, he found it, marketed it, and is now reaping the reward. Lots of freely available stuff on the Internet is never found by folks because they don’t know where to look or they are fine with paying a small fee to have it handed to them on a silver platter. That is especially true with collections of tightly niched resources (like a package of 20 ebooks on all aspects of how to raise chickens).
6. Did you know that there are many magazines in the public domain? Talk about a goldmine of resources. These magazines contain articles anyone can use to make great “how to” information products, content for a niche membership site, short report content, and on and on …
7. Most marketers do nothing but pitch sales messages to their email lists. Why not present great niche content to your subscribers as a way of nurturing your list? Good public domain materials take very little re-writing. Your customers will appreciate it given to them freely and will probably not know that it’s PD.
8. There are lots of pulp fiction stories from tabloids in the public domain. These are the exact kinds of content that could make short 20-40 page Kindle books selling for $1.99. You’d be surprised how good some of these are at drawing interest (and most have a “national enquirer” type graphic and headline that you can also use.)
9. I have found dozens of collections of “royalty free” artwork on DVD that can be used for any purpose. The images could be used on note cards, calendars, posters, wall art and even things like tee shirts, coffee mugs, and tote bags (think Cafe Press, Etsy or Zazzle.)
10. Why not find an obscure niche and hunt for related public domain material to compile into a collection and sell? Cooking is a great niche and how much has it changed over the years? Yes, there have been some innovations in equipment, but you could focus on 100-year-old fantastic recipes made from all natural ingredients just like great grandma used to make. Sell 500 recipes on a DVD with associated artwork.
This is just a scratch of the surface of what’s out there. I’ve said too much, I suppose. Can’t give away all my secrets! Now go out and be creative and find your sources — they are freely available to anyone who is willing to put in a little effort to uncover them and then turn them into something unique and desirable.
To your online business success,
Steve Browne
www.SteveBrowneDirect.com