| When it comes to the types of public domain | | | | 4. Clip art collections - Clip art is basically line art or |
| projects you can create, the limit is really your | | | | simple drawings. As with the stock photograph |
| imagination. Lets look at seven different ways | | | | collections above, clip art collections are very |
| you can use public domain materials to build an | | | | popular and can be delivered in a variety of ways. |
| income stream. | | | | A great example of using public domain clip art (or |
| | | | really any public domain material) in printed books |
| 1. You can republish a public domain books as is. | | | | is Dover Publications. They have a huge catalog of |
| You can either physically print it or offer it in | | | | books - republished public domain works and |
| electronic format. If you offer the book in | | | | compilations of public domain materials. |
| electronic format, packaging it as a PDF file - like | | | | 5. Prints/Posters/Maps - Prints is a very large |
| this course - is the best way to go. If you choose | | | | area of the public domain and with modern |
| to offer a printed book, you have a few options. | | | | printing equipment, you can actually run a highly |
| You can print it yourself on demand and use | | | | profitable print shop in your house. Prints can |
| inexpensive binding equipment (spiral binding) that | | | | come in all sizes - anything from postcard size to |
| you can buy from any office supply store to | | | | huge posters - and can be offered on a variety |
| make a professional looking book. You can go to | | | | of papers and materials - even canvas. So what |
| a local printer and do very short runs of the book. | | | | can be printed? The list is almost endless. You |
| They will even do the binding for you. It will | | | | could print civil war photographs, old maps NASA |
| typically be spiral bound at such low volume runs | | | | space mission images, Military images, fine art |
| as it is quite cost effective when producing a few | | | | posters. You can even combine elements of |
| dozen at a time. You can approach a specialty | | | | images and build your own unique images for |
| printing company and get a larger quantity printed | | | | printing - like a series of motivational posters with |
| in any type of binding you want. This is the most | | | | moving scenes and motivational quotes blazoned |
| cost effective way but you have to be ready to | | | | across the top of the poster. |
| purchase and inventory a large number of books | | | | 6. Calendars - Every year people buy millions of |
| to make it worthwhile. The last time we did this, | | | | calendars about a huge variety of topics. Why not |
| the efficiency point was 1000 books but this was | | | | take some of the public domain photos or |
| back in 1995 and there are more options available | | | | artwork you have access to and design and sell a |
| nowadays. | | | | calendar to a specific niche? For instance, you |
| 2. Audiobooks - Did you know that there is a | | | | could make a WWII D-Day calendar with photos |
| website that has public domain audiobooks that | | | | of events related to D-Day with descriptive |
| you can download and use as you wish? In fact, | | | | captions below it. Or a generic WWII calendar with |
| as of June 2008, they reached 1,500 books in | | | | the photos and captions of the most famous |
| their catalog of audiobook downloads. There is no | | | | events of WWII and short historical blurbs in the |
| cost to use this amazing service. You can learn | | | | various date boxes highlighting important days in |
| more about this project at Also, don't think you | | | | the war? |
| are limited to what is on the Librivox site. Any | | | | 7. Cards - There are a variety of cards that can |
| book in the public domain can be turned into an | | | | be made of public domain images. These include |
| audio version, packaged and sold to interested | | | | postcards, playing cards, flash cards, sports cards, |
| customers. | | | | etc. The key to success in the card business is |
| 3. Stock photograph collections - Creative people | | | | again to theme the cards to an interest that you |
| of all types are always looking for additional | | | | identified. For instance, the Library of Congress |
| royalty free stock photo collections that they can | | | | has a great collection of baseball cards from |
| use for projects. With literally millions of | | | | around 1900 online. An enterprising person could |
| photographs in the public domain, you could gather | | | | use them to make decks of playing cards and |
| themed groups of photographs and offer them | | | | market them during baseball season. Lots of folks |
| as stock photograph collections to interested | | | | who like baseball play cards and would be thrilled |
| customers. You could package these in a variety | | | | to have such a unique pack of cards to enjoy |
| of ways. The simplest way is to put them on | | | | while playing their game. Or maybe you could |
| CDs or DVDs and sell them in that format. But | | | | republish the cards as a limited collectors set. Or |
| you could also offer a digital download site where | | | | use them as the basis of an early baseball trivia |
| people pay for each photograph that they | | | | game. Or a set of postcards. As you can see, |
| download or a membership site where they pay a | | | | there are a number of ways you can use cards |
| one time or monthly fee to access all the | | | | with public domain images to make interesting |
| photographs in the collection. | | | | products. |