Public Domain Alchemy:

Turning Public Domain Content Into Pure Gold, Part 2
by Ramon Ross

As we stated in part one of this series, using Public Domain content to help build your online or offline business provides numerous opportunities for expanding your reach into virtually any niche market out there. It also can explode your income in ways that you may not even be considering. There are numerous ways to use or repurpose this material into products that will add to your bottom line.

In part one; I began discussing the first five ways you can use public domain books to develop new products. Here are the next five ideas:

• Update or rewrite material for new product
In can be much easier to write or develop a new book if you have an existing foundation and public domain books can provide that for you. You can use this method to create new products by:
a. Updating archaic or outdated language, facts or dates
b. Using the table of contents as an outline for developing your new book
c. Rewriting the existing text so that it reflects more of your own personality

Example: Sun Tsu’s Art of War has been rewritten into a number of excellent, updated new books, including The Art of War for the 21st Century by Dan Lok.

• Use content to develop a How-to Course
There are many classic “how-to” courses that are available in the public domain. I’ve found them on a wide variety of topics from how to speak in public to how to prepare a deer hide to make leather. Many of these can easily be updated for use as part of a high-end information product package.

Example: A number of individuals have used the book, The Master Key System by Charles Haanel as an excellent, modern-day how-to course.

• Book-based How-to Courses or Training Classes on DVD
In the last example, we talked about using classic public domain “how-to” courses to develop new, updated products. The best way to take this to the next level is with video. By videotaping the processes outlined in the “how-to” book, you add huge value to your new product. And with today’s digital technology, it is becoming simple to step up to this next level of product.

Example: I recently helped a friend who is a massage therapist take a classic book on Swedish Massage and develop it into an instruction video course.

• Use content to develop Mini-Course autoresponder
Finding and using a niche-focused public domain book as an autoresponder series on your webpage can be a great way to draw traffic to you site, add value to your message and build your mailing list. People love free stuff and using an excellent resource like a public domain book can add credibility to you and your product line.
Example: You could easily take a public domain book on horse grooming techniques and use each chapter as a new message in your “Horse Care” autoresponder series.

• Use content to develop Homeschooling curriculum or supplements
There is tremendous value for education to be found in many of the books currently in the public domain. While you will not find information on the latest fads or technologies, many books that were considered “ahead of their time” or just plain “out there” are now providing foundations for some of today’s hottest topics. There is also a high value in many of the more historically accurate accounts of the past, compared to many of the “overviews” used in today’s classrooms.

Example: A quick trip to an educational store will show you the value and growing use of public domain books in the education marketplace—especially when it comes to classic literature and historical texts.

You can learn additional ways to turn Public Domain content into pure gold here: The Public Domain Code Book