
It seems that everyone is hungry for Ideas For Niche Markets Using Public Domain Products.
Knowing that I am really, really good at digging for ideas, Logan thinks I could teach you a few things about niche markets and the finding of profitable ones to dive into.
Of course, this is a huge topic but I thought I would give out a few good ways to find profitable ideas for niche markets.
The first thing about using Public Domain material is to know if you are working on a profit making idea!
Now… you all know that you must first do research… research and more research, before you even think about hunting for Public Domain material to use for a new niche project.
It’s fun to go to the local used book store, hunt around on eBay or get free Public Domain information on the Internet. But… why waste your time when you don’t know if what your looking at can be used to actually create an income stream?
I promised you 10 ideas didn’t I?
So here we go…
Niche Idea #1 – Hunting & Fishing:
Hunting and Fishing are big… HUGE… niches. My husband is a weekend fisher… along with his friends and his dad, they love to go fishing. Personally, I don’t get the point… but, when he hits a sporting goods store… he is just like me in an old book store. Big Grin on his face and a full shopping cart. His father has come up with some really unusual fishing ideas… things he uses for floats and bait and I don’t know what else… Some of these ideas came from other fishermen and some ideas are ones he remembers from his childhood.The point is… I don’t have to do much research in this niche. I know it’s profitable… and has a huge audience. Public Domain Information: Lures and Bait. There is information on this subject in the public domain.
Niche Idea #2 – Old Movies:
Old Movies are part of several different niches. Baby Boomers and older love to watch movies from their generation. The younger generation seems to have a great fascination with old movies. This is a big niche.What about Joan Crawford? I don’t know if any of her first movies are in the Public Domain… but some of her images are. What if you had a site centered around everything Joan Crawford? Just let your mind go with that idea…..
Niche Idea #3 – Poetry:
Poetry is a small niche. But – Learn to write poetry or Love Poem collections or ??? There are kids in school that need to learn how to write poetry… fast. There is someone in love that would like to send a daily love poem. There are people all over the world that would like to learn the basics of writing poetry. Could you teach someone how to write poetry?
Niche Idea #4 – Wrought Iron?:
Wrought Iron – Yes. I got this idea from my neighbor. He has his own forge! And he is a member of a club that builds hand made iron things. Do you think that is a small niche? Is there public domain information about working with iron? What do you think? Maybe they need to learn how to build their own forge? What tools will they need? What did the old time iron workers use?Maybe someone would like to know about iron chandeliers? What do they look like, what style homes used iron chandeliers? How do you build a chandelier? How do you wire the electricity in a chandelier?
Niche Idea #5 – Saving Money:
Budget and how to live a frugal life? This is a red hot topic right now. Many people have been laid off or lost their homes… Gas is sky high as well as food prices. Do you think some of that old public domain material might have ideas about living a frugal life? I’m not talking about “back to nature”… that’s the next topic. I’m just thinking about – cheap ways to make stuff we use in daily life. Or… how to re-use things instead of throwing them away. People during the depression learned how to stretch everything… and they recorded these ideas for us to use.
Niche Idea #6 – Living Green:
Back To Nature – Going Green! A few generations ago… some things were very “Green”. Household cleaners, food, natural cures for health, disinfecting water, bicycles… what else can you think of that is all about the “Green” movement? It’s happening right now… get on the train.
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Niche Idea #7 – Babies:
Babies. There have always been babies. And homemade baby food. And homemade baby clothes. And homemade baby toys. Plus, babies don’t come with directions… and everyone thinks they might be doing it wrong. Can you find a small niche to fill about babies?
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Niche Idea #8 – Cooking:
Cooking… Huge topic. Baking the best pumpkin pie. That’s a niche. Probably too small. Baking or cooking something like… the strange fish your husband caught. Or something a baby can eat. Or baking in an oven powered by solar energy. Or poems about cooking and baking. Or movies that showed someone cooking or baking. Maybe an entire website based on movies about women in the kitchen and why they loved it?
Niche Idea #9 – Native American Folklore:
Old Indian Legends and how they relate to modern times. It’s a stretch… but is it worth researching? It is if you are interested in Old Indian Legends. Why? Because there is a ton of information available in the public domain on this subject.
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Niche Idea #10 – Florence Scovel Shinn:
Florence Scovel Shinn – What? Who is that? I’ll tell you. She wrote several books that are now in the Public Domain. Books such as, “The Game of Life and How To Play It”, “The Secret Door To Success”, and “Your Word is your Wand”.
I’m not going to say anymore about number 10. You will have to go and search for her works and come to your own conclusions. But…

Clipart courtesy of WPClipart.com
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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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 







{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
I need to know how to search for specific content in the public domain. Say for example I want to write an article on dog training, how do I search for it?
Your biz should be called Thought Rock cuz you guys ROCK!
I have a website called Self-Help-Healing-Arts-Journal (www.self-help-healing-arts-journal.com) and its focus is teaching people how art is a healing tool that can be used by anyone and everyone. Since my readers are mostly women I want to create books and products on emotional healing/self-esteem geared toward women.
My idea is taking a self-esteem PD book: edit, delete, and add to it to create a unique (and copyright-able) book that contains old wisdom and contemporary worksheets and journal prompts. Sort of a wisdom journal if you will.
What I am doing with the PD book to create unique and valuable content for my readers is:
• Editing/changing the gender-text to female. (The problem with most PD books is that they are male-gender biased.)
• Taking out the stuff that doesn’t apply to the focus of my book
• Changing the “God” slant (so many PD books are Christian-oriented) to “Higher Power” and a more universal, spiritual slant.
• Adding beautiful PD illustrations of women and other PD design elements to create some artsy pages. (I have included a page from my book as an example.)
• Adding my original worksheets and journaling prompts for readers to print out and fill in.
So its a combination of timeless content written by an expert, my own artistic design, and original projects. The projects include stuff like: journaling questions, to-do art projects, and beautifully designed inspirational quotes to print out and hang up.
This idea can be used in lots of other subject areas; for example, woodworking. Take an old woodworking book (i’ve seen some nice ones out there in the public domain); add photos and how-to-instructions of a couple of your own projects; change outdated stuff to new ones (i don’t know much about woodworking but i am guessing there are new products that are better); and put a nice cover on it. (And while you’re at it, add some links in the text to affiliate places that sell woodworking products).
Knitting and crocheting would be another great subject to do this with.This idea works with most subjects. You just need to have an interest in the subject matter to come up with your own original content. And it doesn’t have to be that much; just one or two original projects of your own is enough to make it unique and valuable to your readers.
Hi Debra & Logan,
I would be interested in finding out about your trainings on public domain as i am trying to see how i can build a business around it.Please does you website subscription teach this.Please reply.Thankyou.
Kind Regards,
Edward.
im thinking about selling public domain movies on ebay can you help me in anyway
kind regards
Hi Alinah,
There’s definitely a “how to” component of locating public domain works online. It’s mostly just based on efficient keyword strategies (like anything other search you perform online) however a more important question would be…
“WHERE do I search?”
Once you know where to go, finding relevant material is easy.
Personally, I like to find newer public domain content from the 1923-1963 time frame so I spend a lot of time sourcing public domain books from sites like http://www.abebooks.com but there’s also a ton of great stuff available online although most of what’s available online is from the pre-1923 timeframe.
With that said, you can still uncover mountains of valuable material for your projects.
One great site to search is http://www.archive.org
For instance, using your example of dog training, I quickly located the following gems…
Practical Dog Training: Or, Training Vs. Breaking
http://www.archive.org/details/practicaldogtra00hammgoog
The Art Of Dog Training (1932)
http://www.archive.org/details/TheArtOfDogTraining
Training the hunting dog for the field and field trials
http://www.archive.org/details/traininghuntingd00waterich
The encyclopedia of the kennel : a complete manual of the dog, its varieties, physiology, breeding, training, exhibition and management, with articles on the designing of kennels (1913)
http://www.archive.org/details/encyclopaediaofk00shaw
And that’s just barely scratching the surface.
The material in these books is old no doubt, but it wouldn’t take much to freshen them up and roll them into a product or other web-based content – dog training is an extremely evergreen topic.
Hope that helps…
Thanks Alinah!
Hi Cat,
Thank you for this awesome submission. You really struck a chord with me because I use these exact same methods myself. And I love to use pd material from the self-help niche because there’s just so much to choose from!
I also agree totally with your comment about most of these books regarding self-help being male biased. If you haven’t yet, I would recommend checking out anything by Elizabeth Towne. I’m probably preaching to the choir here, but she founded the infamous “new thought” magazine “Nautilus” and being a fairly prolific writer, she wrote quite a few books and of course a good many magazine articles that are now in the public domain. She wrote with a strong feminine voice and style that is just undeniable.
Thanks Cat – you rock!
Hi Edward,
Thanks for the great question.
A free subscription to the Public Domain Treasure Hunter Newsletter basically gets you the following benefits…
1) a weekly newsletter keeping you up to date with all updates released on the PDTH blog for that week
2) assorted quick tips related to Public Domain publishing and online selling
3) special offers reserved only for subscribers
You can read about our individual training products here…
http://www.PublicDomainTreasureHunter.com/training
We don’t have a paid subscription feature so I’m wondering if you are referring to the discussion here…
http://www.PublicDomainTreasureHunter.com/BloggerProfits
Let me know if that’s specifically what you were referring too.
Thanks Edward!
Logan
Hi Eli,
Certainly…
Naturally, the first step is to do some research and identify sellers that are successfully doing the same thing.
Find out who your competitors are. Find out what’s consistently selling well for them (over time – at least one year), figure out what makes their listings tick, figure out what’s working for them ~ then figure out how you can do it better.
A little research first will go a long way in helping to launch and grow a successful venture.
Are you already an ebay seller?
Logan
Hi Logan,
Thanks for the speedy reply.Is your company not the same as the Public domain treasure map.I saw a guy calledjustin gavin doing a youtube video walk through of the contents in the website and it also says a subcribers only website.I also like some of your training courses and would definately be purchasing but would also like to know more about the Public domain treasure map as i learnt from the video they are do some hot selling research for you that you can just download easily in addition to other good stuff.Please can you let me know more about this site and how to be a subcriber.Thankyou.
Kind Regards,
Ed
HI There. Is it not difficult to find out what is worth selling?
Hi Leon,
Thanks for the great question.
It’s really not difficult at all to find out what is worth selling because regardless of what type of product we plan to create, we always perform some very basic (yet effective) market research first to determine the sales potential of the product before we actually spend time creating it.
Just remember that the Public Domain is an excellent, almost inexhaustible source of content but that’s all it is – content. It’s up to you to make the wisest use of this content and part of any information marketer’s job is to…
1) find a market that has demand and a proven track record of buying customers
2) find out exactly what your potential customers are looking for in a product
3) create the exact product that your customer’s are looking for
Using Public Domain material is absolutely the fastest way to create these products by tapping into the billions of pages of copyright-free, proven material that already exists right at your finger tips but…
It’s absolutely critical to research the marketplace first to make sure there is a demand for the type of product you intend to create. It does you no good at all to create a product nobody wants, Public Domain inspired or not.
Thanks Leon!
Logan Andrew
Hi, can u help me where to find pd articles for starting creating your own website to make some income and this particularly when you are a totally newbie on the internet.
this niche seems me a good market, but first where to explore the existing ones and also will it be profitable
all the best
Lucimilena
http://freecontentforwebsites.com/
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