I’ve had many conversations with marketers interested in using Public Domain content in tandem with marketing affiliate products.
Most marketing guru’s will tell you to sell high ticket items as an affiliate and look for large commission percentages to boot!
I don’t dispute this advice. It’s good advice… if only we could all be successful selling those large ticket items on a regular basis.
You can make a “decent” income selling low priced items as an affiliate. Yes… you have to sell a boat load to make the mortgage payment every month – but it can be one part of your multiple streams of income.
If you have enough of those little streams of income – they can (and will eventually) add up to a very nice “large” river.
I was recently introduced to a new affiliate program. It looked like a nice little niche book market program to join.
The Krause Publishing Company just joined the “Google Affiliate Network”
The Krause company has this to say on the website:
Krause Publications was formed in 1952 when founder, Chester Krause, rolled out the first issue of the cornerstone Numismatic News publication, which today continues to have a strong presence in the coin-collecting hobby.
Twenty years later, an 800-page Standard Catalog of World Coins made it’s debut and the rest…is history. In the nearly 35 years since that massive catalog rolled off the press, our list has grown from just one title to more than 750 titles in print.
We pride ourselves in supplying collectors and hobbyists with the information and instruction they need to enjoy their hobby even more. There’s something for everyone from antique collectors to comic book collectors, old cars fans, hunters and shooters, sewers and quilts, coin collectors and more.
Krause Publications joined the F+W Publications, Inc. family in July 2002.
Why did I find this interesting?
One of the books they sell on the site:
The idea I had was to build a website all about rug hooking using Public Domain Material.
This is one of many books about making rugs already digitized and available online:
http://www.archive.org/details/craftofhandmader00hickrich
Here is the point where you have to choose:
If you become an affiliate of Krause Publishing and market books from that website your customers will be paying full price for the book. Which is good… you get a higher commission on a higher priced book. Right?
This is a great looking website.
They sell quality products.
The site is easy to navigate… and easy to buy from.
But!
Would your customers be unhappy if they found this same book with a hefty discount on Amazon?
And….
Would your customers be unhappy if they could qualify for free shipping?
What do you think?
Is it worth a few pennies more to have unhappy customers?
Something to think about…
About The Author:
 Debra Conrad is an online entrepreneur, information publisher, and author that has been using Public Domain material to create profitable products and businesses since 2007. She is also co-author of "The Public Domain Treasure Hunter's Survival Kit" available here. For more info Debra, click here. |
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{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
I appreciate your article so much. My problem is being patient to do the SEO and wait for the results. They do eventually start coming in. LOL
I love your post Deb, always great!
Don’t have a web site and don’t know how or where to begin to get one. I can barely point and click. So, can you help me get started from here without this costing me an arm and a leg? Are you willing to take a 60 year old from start to running. I can type a little and consider myself to be, preaty much, computer illiterate. Hey, thanks for at least reading my email.
Debra, I hace tried to contact you on the contact address that you have ,when you send me the Blogs about “Easy to write Articles”, but my browser keeps saying that htere is no such address.
I do want to contact you as regards Public Domain Magazines. I have bought the “Public Domain Treasure Kit”.
Regards Harry Deitch (Sydney, Australia).
Hi Harry!
The best way to get your Public Domain related questions answered is by using one of the following three methods…
1) Create an account and log a support ticket using our support desk at http://www.thoughtrocketpublishing.com/support
2) Send an email directly to support@piratesofthepublicdomain.com
3) Send an email directly to support@publicdomaintreasurehunter.com
Any one of these three methods will work well for getting any questions you have answered.
Thanks Harry!
Logan Andrew
I would like to know if you have any information about 1879 violin information
Hi Adrianne, I know that Deb appreciates your comments very much ~ let us know how else we can help!
Hi Roddy,
If actually building a website is the concern, don’t sweat it. If i can do
it, anybody can. It just takes a willingness to learn and a little bit of
time. You can usually even take a course at a local community college that
will teach you how to build simple websites or you can pickup a how-to book
at your local bookstore. It really isn’t hard – you just have to spend a
little time to learn how.
You can also buy templates cheaply that will get you up and running fast.
You can just buy a website template or even download a free template, edit
it, and then upload it to your hosting account and your done.
Search for “website templates” in google.
Hi Beth Ann,
I’m not an expert on violins by any means so I’m not familiar with the significance of the year 1879 in relation to violin history but a quick search at archive.org revealed tons of public domain books related to violins and violin playing.
As an example of just one great text I found check this out…
“Violin Playing” (1915) Dunn, John, 1866-1940
http://www.archive.org/details/violinplaying00dunniala
A little digging around archive.org will reveal many Public Domain books about violins including all elements of history, construction, and playing.
Archive.org is just one Public Domain resource we use daily in our hunt for Public Domain treasure – there are literally thousands of sites out there just like this that have massive amounts of Public Domain works for download.
For a detailed list of the Public Domain repositories we use to find Public Domain GOLD check out…
http://www.PublicDomainTreasureHunter.com
Interesting article, even if its bottom line seems to be, you can’t use PD to sell books. I’m a 70-year-old IM wannabee who so far is a failure (long story), but I’m planning to give it another shot this summer after my teaching job is over.
Roddy Horton: Quite a number of successful website builders have moved to WordPress for all their sites. WP is blog software, but you can have “regular” pages and lots of other good things. I switched to WP after taking the Static Blogging course, and my recommendation to you is to buy (from Amazon!) a book on WordPress.
And for website hosting, I recommend one of the cheap plans from Hosting Zoom, e.g., 20 websites for $5.95/month.
Lane
Hi Doc, it’s great to hear from you!
I wanted to thank you for your insights here and provide a little more clarification.
Your comment –
You may want to read the post again just a little closer. Quite the contrary, you absolutely can use Public Domain content to sell books.
What Deb is describing here is a powerful yet under-utilized affiliate marketing / content strategy. Pick a niche topic, pick an affiliate product to promote that caters to that niche, find public domain material on that topic to use as content in your niche blog. Visitors to your blog arrive to read your posts and are exposed to your affiliate product offering. Test, tweak, increase conversion rate until satisfactory and you’ve got a nice little “cash machine” on your hands.
Promoting affiliate products using Public Domain content is a great monetization method for those that are not interested in actually creating their own products (or those that haven’t quite ramped up to that yet) and don’t have the time / desire to write their own content.
With regards to learning how to blog, this is an excellent recommendation – well said!
However, although I cannot deny the SEO benefits of blogging, static html used in conjunction with optin pages, sales pages, and landing pages for paid advertising will ALWAYS be in any serious direct response marketer’s arsenal. I would suggest a mastery (or at least a functional familiarity) of both.
Thanks Doc!
hmmm… maybe I was NOT clear in this original article.
I use public domain material to get “customers” to my website. It’s the “words” on the website (not the product) that may get them to visit when they do a search on Google or MSN etc.
Public Domain makes it easy for me to fill my website with lots of relevant content and “words” for the search engines to help those customers find my website.
And by using lot’s of content… I get more visitors without having to pay Google for advertising.
The Public Domain info is often “not” the complete answer they are looking for.
If they want “MORE” info – they will find lot’s of products to choose from on the website.
I make a bit of cash every time they buy.
Easy !