Share|

We constantly hear that it is necessary to add good quality content both to your websites and to your blogs.

Good content will attract search traffic and keep your readers and customers on your website.

….and Google loves good content.

However, writing this good content does not come easy for inexperienced writers.

I am sure you have sat there, as we all have, in front of a blank screen with an equally blank mind wondering what to write about.

Nothing comes to mind, so you decide that perhaps you should perhaps try later….
….and another day passes, another day with no content produced for your blog, an article, or an addition to your web pages

If you are struggling to create products or content for your internet business then public domain may be the answer you are seeking.

What is public domain?

Public domain works is freely available material which is copyright free and can be used to create your content or digital products.

Public domain is normally defined as creative works or intellectual properties which are not copyrighted, ineligible for copyright or with expired copyrights.

This means the material is public property and as such is available for anyone to use it, for any purpose, at any time.

Public domain is a very powerful source of content.

You may take this copyright free content, repackage it, create a product and sell it.

Content can be printed works such as books and articles, films/movies, music and images.

The following applies to the USA only.

With regards to other countries you would need to do your due diligence and check out the public domain definition i.e. UK, Australia, Canada etc

However, anyone anywhere can use this US public domain content.

Expired copyright comes 99.9% from just two categories:

  • Published before 1923   Fully in the public domain. No problems.
  • Published 1923-1963    About 85% in the public domain. Dependent on renewal of copyright by the creator.

Yes, there are plenty of great books with great content written 50 – 100 years ago! There is nothing really new. Just content that sometimes needs a bit of updating.

Perhaps the language and the images are a little bit old fashioned so your first step would be to read through the book and update the language where necessary, if that was what was required.
Sometimes the book can be used as it is depending on your niche.
Take a look.

Alternatively, you can access numerous articles and books and skim off content.
It always good to remember that ALL US. government content is freely available and be used to gather content for articles

Other works in the public domain can be books donated by authors:

  • P.T.Barnum
  • US Federal Government employees in the course of their duties.

Finding Public Domain Material Print Books

Gutenberg – has 30,000 free ebooks that you can download.
Google Books – recent court case has slowed things down but OK now so you can check out public domain.
Authorama – Public Domain books you can read or download.

US Federal Government sites

http://www.usa.gov/ – a mine of endless information, freely available.
http://ftc.gov/
http://pueblo.gsa.gov/
http://www.google.com/unclesam

Take a look.

WARNING:

Check to see if anything is copyrighted by looking at the bottom of the page, the author … check, check!
As in all business matters you always have to do your due diligence.
As mentioned above with books published between 1923 -1963 it is necessary to check whether copyright has been renewed.

Checking out Copyright

  • Do it yourself.
  • Hire a qualified firm of lawyers

You can check it yourself (cheaper) but this will take time, or pay a company to do it for you (quicker and more expensive).

Current rates seem to be around $90 for checking whether a copyright has been renewed and it takes about 2-3 days.

The company that a lot of internet marketers use is:
http://www.thomson-thomson.com/
1-800-356-8630
(not an affiliate link :) )

Do it yourself is quite painless

Copyright search

1950-1963

www.copyright.gov/records/

An excellent source of information and with a (large) downloadable list is Google at:

http://booksearch.blogspot.com

1923-1950

Catalogue of Copyright Entries
http://www.digital.library.upenn.edu/books/cce/

So, to sum up what can you do with Public Domain material?

You can make:

  • Articles
  • eBooks
  • Audios
  • Videos
  • Blog Content
  • Autoresponder content
  • Bonuses
  • Upsells
  • Backend sales
  • Prizes

How can you do it and get the work into the form you want:

Digital Material

  1. Type it yourself.
  2. Get it scanned by a 3rd party  – www.previewservices.com (UK), www.pdfdocument.com (USA))

You can produce as:

  • Audio books (read it yourself or hire voice talent)

(www.voice123.com, www.voiceovers.co.uk)

  • Manuals/Reports (spiral bound/ring binders)
  • Home Study Courses (DVDs)

Finally, if you don’t want to do it yourself you can join one of the Public Domain sites, for example  Public Domain Resource which have been set up, where for a monthly payment you will be supplied with ready to use Public Domain material.

Well, I hope this is of interest to you and I will finish by saying:

Take a look!

Disclaimer:
The advice contained in this post does not constitute legal advice. This information was prepared using the best efforts of the author, but cannot be warranted in any way.

You must do your own due diligence in using this information.

Technorati Tags: , , , , ,

Related Posts:

  • No Related Posts

Tagged with: • • • • •

Filed under: General

Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!