Business In The Information Age - Creating eBooks From Public Domain Works

Start A Work From Home Business By Turning Your Ideas Into Dollars With Public Domain Works

The High-Tech Way

This is probably the best option you have, and the most likely one you will choose. Why? Well, because…Internet….

Where would we be if there was no Internet? Probably sitting at home, twiddling our thumbs, our minds and bums going numb.

Seriously, the Internet is one great source of public domain works. What is more, it is available to anyone, as long as you have the knowledge and the patience to plow through the great amount of information that the World Wide Web regularly churns out.

But the Internet is big, huge, HUMONGOUS! Where do you start?

• Turn on the Search Engine

Search engines seem as good a place as any to start looking for public domain works. They are websites that allow you to perform simplified online search with the use of powerful Internet search tools called searchbots.

Google remains to be the most popular and effective, though it is a relatively new face in the search engine industry (It burst into the market a little more than ten years ago, back when Amazon and Ebay ruled the online marketplace.)

However, if you want more results, try doing the same search using multiple search engines, like Altavista, Dogpile, Yahoo, and MSN.

For a list of more search engines, you can even do a search on “search engines” first, jot them all down, then do your search for “public domain” on each one of them. For sure, it is going to be a lot of work, but such is the fact when you are trying to yield as many results as you can.

For starters, use the following keywords when searching:

• public domain music
• public domain images
• public domain books
• public domain movies
• public domain works
• public domain library
• public domain software

You can get plenty more variations of the keyword by using tools like Google’s Keyword Tool (previously known as “sandbox”). It would be interesting to vary your keyword sometimes for more search possibilities.

**A word to the wise -- It is probably not a very good idea trusting just any site that comes up during your search. Generally, information coming from the Library of Congress is much more reliable than those coming from websites with tacky titles like “My Friend’s Cousin’s Pet’s Vet’s Husband’s Homemade Recipe for Business Success.” If the exact same title comes up in more than one search, then that work is probably public domain, but it is always good to verify first.

• Talk it Out

Besides regular websites, public domain works are also available in boards with public posting access, e.g. forums, message boards, and e-groups. Just do a search for “public domain forum,” substituting “forum” with message boards, list, group, news, community, etc.

**Just remember: Before you join any group, forum, or community, browse through the forum posts and member profiles first to determine if the members are easy to talk with and are not averse to answering questions (okay, a lot of questions) from newbies like you.

• Go Right to the Source

When you do your search for public domain works, you will find that many libraries and groups today are offering you a wide range of creative works all in public domain. Countless copies of works without copyright protection are digitized, archived in online databases, and made freely available to the public.

According to them, this is to help ensure that the information these types of work contain are freely available to scholars, educators, students, and the general public.

As a tip, you can use the following direct links to resource sites for more public domain goodness:

• HTI.umich.edu/p/pd-modeng/bibl.html – This is where you can get publicly available modern English collection from the Humanities Text Initiative, a unit of the University of Michigan’s Digital Library Production Service.
• Bartleby.com – For a collection of online reference books, this site is the place to go. It also contains literature (fiction and non fiction), verse, quotations, and books in the public domain.
• Ibiblio.org – A collaborative project between the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill’s MetaLab and the Center for the Public Domain, Ibiblio.org is a database of freely available information, including software, music, literature, art, history, science, politics, and cultural studies.
• Readprint.com – As a free online library, this site offers thousands of free books that a student, teacher, or even the classic enthusiast can use completely without charge. It has an author index which allows you to read free biographical information about them.
• Gutenberg.org – Currently up to 18,000 free public domain e-books available from classic literature, treatises, notes, to discourse and all of it in downloadable e-format.
• Retrofilm.com – An online catalogue of film works in the public domain, including movies, television, shows, cartoons, musicals, documentaries, and more. The site, however, does not provide copies of film footage to private individuals as it is mainly a service for television broadcast companies. However, you can use the site to search for titles and then go look for copies of them somewhere else.

What Is The Public Domain? By Attorney Lloyd J. Jassin Copyright protection does not last forever. That is why copyright is often called a "limited monopoly.” When copyrights grow old and die, the works they protect fall into the public domain. Subject to certain exceptions, public domain works may be freely copied or used in the creation of derivative works without permission, or authorization, of the former copyright owners.

The article "Business In The Information Age - Creating eBooks From Public Domain Works" continues on the next page ...

If you are interested in starting a home-based business creating ebooks and other information products from public domain works, don't forget to visit our "resources" section, where you can download an inexpensive application called "Public Domain Researcher." Public Domain Researcher is a super little application packed full of Public Domain Resources. This is a desktop based research tool you can use to access over 20 online Public Domain resources at the click of a button. As a bonus, when you purchase "Public Domain Researcher", you'll also get a downloable version of this entire article series.

Alternatively, if you would like to start a home-based business immediately using the information you have learned in this article, click here to access hundreds of public domain ebooks you can resell (and keep 100% of the profits).

<< Previous    1...   2  3  [4]  5  6  ...19    Next >>