How to Make Money Selling Hot Niche Info Products That You Can Get For Free
A few months ago, I started a secret experiment that has lead to a very lucrative part time business venture that anyone can do.
I located a product that I sell on the Internet for between $7.00 and $25.00. The best part about this plan is that I get the product for free. Now, I had to do a little work to get this product into a “sellable form” but once that work was done (it took me about a day) I can keep selling this product forever. And, I can also find other products on the same and similar subjects and sell them as well.
My product is an info product — no NOT one of those reprint rights products you find all over the internet. This is something extremely unique that targets a hot niche market.
The product I am selling is called…
Illustrated Doll Making Instructions
That’s right! It’s a 28 page manual on how to make dolls. I found this manual in the Public Domain.
If you have never heard of the Public Domain, you are in for a real treat:
You probably already know that most US Government Printing Office publications are in the Public Domain. This is because these publications were funded with US taxpayer money so WE ALL own them and as long as there is not a copyright notice on the publication we can reprint and sell them.
That is pretty common knowledge — but did you know there are many, many, MANY regular paper and ink books on popular topics that are also in the Public Domain?
Because of US Copyright laws, just about any book published in the US BEFORE 1923 is IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN! And, almost any book published in the US between 1923 and 1963 is also in the public domain IF its copyright was not renewed within 28 years after the date of publication. There are several places online where you can review the US Copyright code for yourself.
This means if you find a book in the public domain on a particular hot niche market, you can LEGALLY copy, republish and sell the book!
How Do You Find These Public Domain Book?
Here is one resource I use to find books that are in the Public Domain: http://www.abe.com
Abe Books is a network of used book dealers. You can search the inventory of ALL the book dealers in the network by using the Search Tool at: http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchEntry
Let’s say you are looking for books in the Public Domain about the craft of Tole Painting. (Tole Painting is a folk art method of painting decorative designs on tin or other metal objects, such as utensils, coffeepots, and similar household items. It was popular years ago and is starting to see a resurgence of interest.)
Using the link to the search tool above enter the keyword phrase “tole painting” into the keyword box. Also, enter the date range 1800-1922 in the Published Date. Why enter a date range? Because if a book was published BEFORE 1923 (in the US) it is definitely in the Public Domain and no copyright search is required to see if the work was renewed.
Note: If you would like to search for Public Domain works published between 1923 and 1963, you can research the copyright and renewal information online but it is quite a bit more complicated. I cover this topic in depth in my Public Domain Video Series at http://www.publicdomaintreasurechest.com/
Back to our Tole Painting example: Click the Start Search button and it will bring back all the matching titles. In this particular example there is one book listed:
TOLE-PAINTED GARDEN FURNITURE (ISBN:0806972858) Bingham, Areta Bookseller: AVON HILL BOOKS (Cambridge, MA, U.S.A.) [Shipping Rates & Speeds] Price: US$ 16.00 Book Description: Sterling 1902. As New in As New dust jacket. Illustrated with colored photographs. worksheets and detailed patterns. ; 4to; 144 pp. Binding is Hardcover. Bookseller Inventory #9777
(Note: your search results will vary depending on the current inventory of the book dealers)
This looks like a great book on the subject of Tole Painting! We can see that it meets the criteria for a Public Domain work: It was published in 1902 — well before the 1923 “drop dead” date for published books. And it was published in the US — Cambridge, MA to be exact. It is very important to only look for books published in the US as copyright and Public Domain laws vary with other countries.
There is no doubt this book is in the Public Domain.
Now, you can purchase this book from the dealer for $16.00 plus shipping and handling if you wish but there is another way to get this book for free if you are limited on funds. Here’s how:
Print out all the information about this book: the title, author, publication date, publisher, ISBN number and call your local library. Tell them you would like to request this book through Inter library Loan. They will search for the book through a network of participating libraries and if one of the libraries has a copy, they will loan it to your library branch who will then loan it to you.
Now, since this is a loaned book there is a limit on how long you can keep it — usually 10 days — but that will give you enough time to check it out and determine if it looks like something you would like to sell. Then you can CAREFULLY scan the loaned book or purchase a copy from an Abe.com listed used book dealer.
Getting the Book into a Sellable Format
You will need a scanner that has Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. (Most do — check your instruction manual) Set your scanner to scan each page of the book into an MS Word document. This will put the text into the Word document and allow you to edit it as needed. Once you have the book converted into digital format you can print it out or convert it into a PDF document to resell. To convert to a PDF document you can use the free software at www.pdf995.com
Your republished public domain work does not need to be fancy. People are interested in the information contained in it — not pretty production values. My Illustrated Doll Making Instructions manual is just 28 pages (8 1/2 x 11) printed on one side in black and white that I print from my home LaserJet printer. I tuck the pages into a binder and ship it off to the customer. My total production cost is about 50 cents and I have made as much as $25.00 a copy selling this item on eBay.
You can sell these products on eBay and/or with a website. I suggest starting off with eBay and if it takes off you can create a website and sell it on the internet. If selling from a website, you can use Google Adwords to drive traffic to the site.
Additional Resources:
http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/copyright.html
http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ22.html
http://www.fonerbooks.com/2006/08/republishing-old-cookbook-with-expired.html
http://www.geekphilosopher.com/MainPage/bkgAbout.htm
http://www.ivanhoffman.com/expiration.html
http://www.copyrightexpired.com/