Anything classified as “public domain” is free to use for your own purposes.  When you hear the term “public domain” in the realm of online business, it is being applied to creative works of some type.  This may include books, movies, works of art, music, images, photographs, etc.  The reason public domain works are so valuable is that they can often be converted into information products that you can sell for a profit.

How to know if a work is in the public domain

Copyright laws vary by country, so you will need to become familiar with the laws in your country before you utilize public domain works.  In the United States, there are three general rules for evaluating the public domain status of creative works:

1. Works published in the United States before 1923 are in the public domain.
2. Works created after March 1, 1989, even if not published, are copyright protected for 70 years after the author’s death. Works made for hire (corporate authorship) after March 1, 1989 are copyright protected for 120 years from creation or 95 years from publication, whichever is sooner.
3. Works published in the United States between 1923 and March 1, 1989 are also copyright protected, provided that the formalities are observed.

To help clarify the rules, use the following guidelines when determining the public domain status of a work.

A work is in the public domain if it was:

• Published before 1923 
• Published between 1923 and 1978 without a valid copyright notice  
• Published between 1978 and March 1, 1989, without a notice and registration 
• Published between 1923 and 1963 with a copyright notice but author failed to renew it (According to a report, only 7% of copyrights issued through 1958 were renewed)

A work is not in the public domain if any of the following conditions apply:

• Published between 1923 and 1963 with a copyright notice, properly renewed before its expiration for the first 23-year protection term 
• Published between 1963 and March 1, 1989 with a valid copyright notice 
• Published or created any time after March 1, 1989 (Works after this date are deemed automatically under copyright protection)

Where to find public domain works

1. Using your favorite search engine, search for the following keywords. But, always be sure to double-check any results to be certain the works are actually in the public domain.  Failing to do this can land you in hot water for copyright violations.

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

2. Check some of the more well-known online public domain sources:

• bartleby.com
• ibiblio.org
• readprint.com
• gutenberg.org
• retrofilm.com

3. Research for available books at your local library that meet the public domain criteria.

Once you’ve found some material that you can use to put together a product of your own, there are many ways to go about creating a great product.  You can produce ebooks, audio CDs, videos, newsletters, membership websites, etc.  The sky is the limit.  So, do some research up front to find a good niche, dig into the public domain and find some material to make a product for that market, produce the product, and make some money. 

Of course, this is an oversimplification of the steps involved.  But it should provide you with enough information to get you started in the right direction.  Public domain works have created fortunes for many individuals and businesses throughout the last century.  You, too, can utilize the public domain to build your own information product empire.

In the last post, I talked about using the Build a Niche Store script as a way to quickly create a site that can begin generating income quickly.  Although the script is extremely simple to use and provides a great way to generate affiliate income, there are a few things that should be done to get traffic to the site in the beginning.

It’s true that the store script will create SEO-friendly URL’s that will help you to get traffic from search engines using long-tail keywords.  This is because the affiliate listings included in your store will typically include products closely related to your site topic.  These items will have titles and descriptions that provide content for the search engines to index.  When I first checked my site logs, I was surprised to see all of the keywords that were bringing visitors to my sites.

But, you must first make your site visible to search engines or you won’t have any traffic at all… 

To begin, I used the included WYSIWYG tools to add a few content pages.  I did some research on my site topics to create several articles that would be relevant to my visitors.  If you prefer not to write the content yourself, you may also use PLR content or articles from an article directory.  You could also hire someone to write the articles for you through a site like Elance.com.  Just be sure that the keyword you intend to target is mentioned in the article a few times in a number of different ways.

Next, I used the script’s page listing tool to add relevant product listings to each of the pages.  You can do this by selecting the specific product category number from eBay’s category list, or you can enter your own custom search term.  (Just be sure to check eBay to make sure the search term you use will actually return a list of products.)  Adding these listings will add relevant content to your page that may include some keywords you may not have even considered.

Next, I used IBP to submit my sites to all of the major search engines.  Because it often take weeks for your site to be indexed, you want to be sure to do this as soon as possible.  I know that you’ll often read that you shouldn’t do this because search engines will rank you higher if they find you through links into your site like from blogs or forums.  I’ve tried it both ways, and I find that submitting the sites up front with a good tool like IBP works best.  At least I haven’t had any problems getting my sites indexed - and quickly.

Finally, I write articles related to my sites’ topics.  I’ll make a few different versions of an article and submit them to sites like EzineArticles.com, GoArticles.com, and ArticleCity.com.  You can usually submit 3-4 unique articles on your topic to the top article directories to begin getting a few good links into your site.  You don’t really need to submit to hundreds of directories, especially now that search engines are smart enough to ignore duplicates.  Be sure to include a link to your site in your author bio because that will drive traffic back to your site.

You can then follow up by making relevant posts to blogs and forums, wihch include a link back to your site.  You’ll also want to alter the anchor text on the links when possible.  For example, if your site is about model airplanes, you might want to change between the anchor terms model plane, model airplane, or model aircraft.

NOTE: If you’re not familiar with the term “anchor text,” it’s the word shown in the browser that is linked back to your website.  The HTML looks like this: 

<a href=”http:\\www.profitwithyour.com\”>Make Money Online</a>

You replace the website address with your own, and the words between the >< brackets is the anchor text.  In this case, the anchor text is “Make Money Online.”

There are dozens of ways to get traffic to your site.  Using the technique I’ve outlined here will get you going quickly without a lot of effort.  You can always write more articles and continue to post in blogs and forums to increase the number of links.  Add to this numerous ways to get traffic from sites like StumbleUpon, Digg, Squidoo, MySpace, and YouTube, and you see just how quickly you can start building a steady flow of traffic to your new online store.

If you’d like to make some money online, but you’re not sure where to start, I’ve found a system that just might be what you’re looking for.  It’s easy to install, it works just like advertised, and it can start making you money within a few weeks - maybe even in a few days.  It’s also fun to work with because you can use it to build as many sites as you want for any niche you might want to target.

I bought the system myself a few months back after reading a testimonial by a top online affiliate guru.  I know she’s made millions as an online affiliate, so when I read her testimonial of the product, I became interested in checking it out.  After buying it, I found it to be a bit clunky and difficult to install.  But I was able to get help in their forum to get my first site running that first day.  But that was an older version.  The new version is excellent.

They provide free upgrades to new versions, and I picked up the latest version a few weeks ago.  It’s slick because installation is quick and painless and the interface is very nice.  You can build a complete website using WYSIWYG tools and you can quickly and easily add SEO-friendly affiliate product links for any niche you choose.  You can also easily add AdSense code to the content pages for some additional revenue.

I feel good about telling you about this one because I’ve tested it myself, and I know it really works as advertised.  In fact, I’m so confident in the system, I’ll make you an even better offer.  If you buy the niche store system using my link and click here to send me a copy of your receipt, I’ll send you a detailed blueprint for finding a good market and getting your new site ranked in the search engines.  Plus, I’ll provide you with a link to a video where I’ll show you step-by-step how to install and manage your new store.  I’ll even show you how to customize it to make it uniquely yours.  There are so many other people using this system that you’ll definitely want to make your site unique. 

If you’re interested in checking out the system for yourself, you can find the details at:

www.profitwithyour.com/buildaniche 

You can check out one of my quick example sites at http://www.learntoplayguitarnow.com.  I built that site and had it online in under 30 minutes.  I have many other examples that I can share with you if you’re interested.   And I’ll say again that this is the first system I’ve used that was this simple to set up and that actually started bringing in money within the first couple of weeks.