Sell Public Domain Content – Editing For Maximum Results With Minimum Effort

Remember when I said that “Compiling Public Domain Content For Ebay Is Toooo Easy“? Well – that “was” the easy part.

I made sure to have all the content organized and the copyright documentation finished before I went on to the editing.

Over the last several days I’ve been working on editing this folder of “goodies” and I was making the process “an enormous pain in the butt”.  I knew if I didn’t figure out a better system I wouldn’t stick with this business for the long haul.

What Are Your Customers Looking For?

After a few days of struggle (I’ll explain below) I had to sit back and think about this product from the customers point of view.

The specific type of products we are creating use”Vintage Books” (and/or images, video, audio, magazine articles etc.).  We ARE Selling Vintage Books! That’s what the customer is buying. The customer knows they are getting books that are no longer copyright protected – and they know these books are scans of the original books.

The customer expects “Vintage”.

What was I thinking?  Why should I spend hours converting public domain content via OCR just so they look clean, fresh and “new”?

This is where you get to slap Debra with a wet noodle (please don’t use a baseball bat – it might really hurt!).

I do have this spiffy PDF Transformer - and it works really well… but not perfectly.  I was transforming the PDF and then going through and editing.  This is great if you are going to be using the content for blog posts or products (like a Kindle Book) – but not necessary for the types of products we are creating to sell on CD/DVD.

I had to “re-think” what I was doing.

I already had the answer staring me in the face… but I had to get my “mindset” under control and then learn from the master himself.

Steve Poke Showed Me The Simple Editing Process

I went back to Steve Poke’s course and the answer was right in front of me.

First – I went through the video set related to editing. I could see that I was over thinking the process and he simplified everything.  I could now see exactly what I needed to do with each piece of content for maximum results and minimum effort.

BUT!

Steve uses a piece of software that I don’t have… and I didn’t want to invest in another bit of software.  I tried Nitro PDF Professional last year (the free trial) and was happy with the results.

While watching the video’s I heard Steve say that the process should be just about the same with Adobe Acrobat.  Yippee… I already have Adobe Acrobat 9.

It took a bit of imaginative thinking  to figure out exactly where all the “editing options” were on Acrobat – that would match what Steve was showing. After about 2 hours I hit on a system that worked for me.

One of the things Steve Poke recommended was > cut out the extra markings – pencil, library stamps etc. I could not figure out how to do that with Adobe Acrobat.

I did figure out that I could edit those pages in Adobe Photoshop… and it was stupid simple.

Lickety Split – I was editing entire 300 page books in 20-30 minutes. Perfect! And… this is content I can deliver to the customer and be proud of.

The Content File Is Finished – Sort Of

I ended up with 11 books for my first compiled product (instead of the original 13) and I have a cool bonus already edited as well.  I’m finished – but I could Add More.

I decided to go on the hunt for a few public domain magazine articles related to my “niche” – just to round out the product to it’s maximum potential.

I might be “over-thinking” this project again… but I want to be as “different” from the competition as I can and still not overwhelm myself in the process. Work smarter – not harder is my current mission. *giggle*

I’ve had some side-tracking during this process…

1. I’m still creating bundles of products to sell on Amazon – these bundles take time and effort. So far I’ve done very well with my bundles – and this new batch does Not contain food.  (good – because I don’t need to worry about expiration dates and chocolate melting)

2. I’m documenting this entire process here – and that takes time away from product creation.  It’s always good for me to share – and documenting let’s me go back in time and see how far I’ve come.

3. I get sucked into those rabbit holes. I’ve found fantastic stuff available in the online archives – I am filling up space in my brain with toooo many ideas.  And -  I keep finding out about books that haven’t been scanned and uploaded anywhere that will make perfect additions (or single products) to my current niche product ideas.

All the finding – documenting- filing – editing is finished… now what?

Before I do anything else… I will make this file into a product (on an actual disk) and make sure the first product actually “plays” exactly how I am imagining. I want the customer experience to be as perfect as possible.

I also need to share some thoughts on “Product Branding” – which you need to think about Before you create your first product.

I’ll walk you through the idea next time we chat…

I’m having fun and enjoying the ride so far.

p.s. If you have any hints – tips or questions about editing… be sure to hit reply below and share.

If you missed any of this series click here “Sell Public Domain Content“.