Public Domain Product Ideas

Do you know a child who loves bugs? Betcha didn’t think those six legged creatures were crawling around the public domain. Guess what…they are and they offer myriad product opportunities.

Check this out. Go to archive.org and do one of two things. You can head to this book directly – Smithsonian Scientific Series - Insects Their Ways and Means of Living, or you can search texts with the keyword Insects and/or bugs.

The Smithsonian puts together a fantastic book. Inside you’ll find is an abundance of wonderful bug pictures and plates. These amazing images can be used to create coloring books - online downloads or print. They can be used to create fantastic wall art – imagine a giant grasshopper on the bedroom wall of a little boy. Or dragonflies and butterflies for little girls. There are pictures of roaches and bed bugs but I cannot imagine a parent putting those guys on the wall – however if there’s an audience here’s the opportunity!

The book is divided into sections and each bug receives full attention. Readers will learn all they ever wanted to know about the notorious Cockroach or the Termite. The images can be used to create stencils, cross stitch patterns, stickers, and iron-ons.

The text, all 431 pages, can be segmented into smaller insect books for children. And we all know how much children like to collect things right? Create a series of books, one for each major species, using the content in the Smithsonian Series and you’ll be able to create and sell a whole series all about bugs.

You can use some of the inside images for book cover art and create a truly professional product. Children are captivated by bright colors and all things gross, creepy, and crawly. Girls of course tend toward ladybugs, butterflies, and dragon flies. Boys probably prefer spiders, ants, grasshoppers and the more wiggly bugs. This book has it covered – whatever gender you want your product to appeal to.

Remember, children like to collect so bug trading cards using the information inside the book for your content and the images for the card graphics may be a great way to sell more than one product. You could create cards for each type of bug. There are hundreds of spider species for example and each species could be a specific card. The only thing you have to do to create the products is sort through the information and decide what each card will highlight and then find a printer nearby to create the cards. Quick product at a very low price – that’s the magic of public domain.

You have heard it before… “A picture is worth 1000 words”. But, let’s face it. History can be a dry subject.

No matter how interesting the events, it is sometimes a real challenge to make historical stories appealing. Yet there is much we can learn from history.

Pictures and images can tell a story much better than words can. Let public domain images help you tell a story.

The Library of Congress has created a beautiful collection of images which they call “American Memory.” You can find the website here http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/browse/index.html

The site is organized so you can browse by category like religion, sports, war, literature, maps and so on. You can also browse by time period, region, or by medium like photos, sound recordings, books and so on.

This website alone is a fantastic source to create visual history books.

For example, the architecture category offers 9 collections including one titled Panoramic Photographs which has amassed almost 4000 photographs from 1851 to 1991. Within the larger collection of 4000 images there are smaller divisions such as national parks, disasters or farms.

Each image has listed the copyright and reproduction rights to the image. For example, this image about National Conference, World Wide Prohibition, Columbus, O., Nov. 19th-22nd, 1918.

Visit their rights and reproductions page for information about identifying rights. As a side note if a photo is cataloged as a ‘government photo’ there are no copyrights associated with the image.

This collection of photographs lends itself quite nicely to visual historical books, coffee table books and niche history buffs.

Browse the amazing images, note the ones you’d like to use for your public domain product, and then take the necessary steps to make sure the image is free and clear. It’s a little more work than standard “Public Domain Content” sites however the images are spectacular and quite worth the effort.

Click here to learn more about Public Domain Graphics.

Do you have a hobby? Couldn’t you use the love of your hobby to find and create a new Train Hobby Information Product?

Just recently digitized are several books about Railroads and Trains.

The links for the latest railroad interest books:

http://catskillarchive.com/rrextra/jjtoc.Html

http://catskillarchive.com/rrextra/toc.Html

http://www.archive.org/details/notesonrailroada00adamrich

http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=moa;idno=AFT9301.0001.001

photo credit: Crazy Railfan

How could you use this information? Use the content with pictures for a website… Record some of the information into an audio book… create a collection of pictures and the Public Domain information to create a bonus product.

If you have a Railroad or Train Hobby passion… why wouldn’t you take that love and create a business around it?