Archive for the ‘Images’ Category

For months the curators and technologists at the Library of Congress have been working together on a spectacular (and welcome) revamp of the Prints and Photographs Online Catalog. The online collection can now be found at the easy-to-remember address of www.loc.gov/pictures/ — with many images available for downloading.

Some of the new features include creative new ways to browse their 1.25 million online prints and photos, such as grids that give a quick overview of dozens of images at once and even a slideshow format that lets you toggle bibliographic information on and off.

The interface is reminiscent of other existing sites that offer powerful ways to search for and display images, such as the ever-popular Flickr.  In celebration of this new milestone, the LOC has posted a new set of highlight images from the Library called “Meet More Treasures.”  They consider it a thank you to all of those who have found value and pleasure in the Library’s priceless collections of more than 14 million pictures (both online and in their physical collections). I for one am grateful since I’ve found value (in the form of income) and pleasure from this site. Many of you have as well

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I am ALWAYS on the lookout for new product creation ideas, and recently I found a use for Public Domain images that, quite honestly wasn’t even sure was possible for the average person. Boy was I wrong! The site I found is certainly one to check out…and it’s one that I plan to do some serious experimenting with.

The site is called Spoonflower (http://www.spoonflower.com) and it allows you to create your own fabric. Now before you begin thinking that I’m going to tell you all to get into the custom dress-making business (yes, I can actually sew rather well…Mom was a career seamstress), hear me out for a little bit. The idea of using Public Domain images to create your own fabric isn’t cool because of the fancy material you can make to sew your own clothes…oh no… this strategy is cool because of ALL the things you can make with fabric…like furniture and wall coverings, purses and bags, dolls and stuffed animals (using vintage patterns of dolls as the image for your fabric), pillows, camera and cell phone cases…the list goes on and on. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of products you can create from custom fabric apart from clothing! As a matter of fact, I just shared one with my daughter related to her Native American regalia! Below is an example someone created on the site using Public Domain images as a pattern.

So if you find yourself thinking, “Hey…I could do this, and this…,” write those thoughts down and then take action! And if you get any great ideas, share them in the comments below! Let’s see how creative you REALLY are!

This past week, Google announced some exciting news that will definitely impact your ability to find quality Public Domain Images…for the better! They extended the functionality of Google Image Search (http://images.google.com/) to now include the ability of filtering search results based on Usage Rights. To access this new feature, you will want to click on “Advanced Image Search.” The Usage Rights option is located toward the bottom of the page. With this new feature, Google provides us with a few options:

• Not filtered by license (default)
• Labeled for reuse
• Labeled for commercial reuse
• Labeled for reuse with modification
• Labeled for commercial reuse with modification

The choices are based mostly on the Creative Commons licenses associated with the page. The option WE are most interested in is the final choice, “Labeled for commercial reuse with modification.” This choice provides the greatest return of Public Domain images out of all the selections. One caution though…not EVERY image result is going to be in the Public Domain. The majority of results will be, but I strongly encourage you to read the license on each page.

I performed several searches using this filter and was super pleased with the results. I found some amazing Public Domain images from a wide variety of sources…and I quickly realized that the implications of this new tool are vast for product creation. Below is one example of what I found, along with the included license…indicating that the image was indeed in the Public Domain. I feel confident in saying that this new search strategy will definitely become a regular part of my research and product creation efforts for sure!

My great hope is that more people will realize the income-producing potential of image-based products…especially in these times! I remember back in the mid-80’s when times were tough for my family. There was no internet, only the local flea market in Smithville, NJ. Selling Public Domain image-based products (maps, photos and more) paid our bills and provided the extra spending money we never would have had otherwise. Now with the ease of website creation and sites like CafePress, Zazzle and eBay, the opportunities are ONLY limited by your imagination.

I recently braindumped my years of experience working with images for product creation into a 200+ page e-book titled, “Easy Money Picture Project.” It is loaded with tons of methods and strategies for using images from the Public Domain to create successful, profitable products. These aren’t examples based on theory, they’re actual case studies from successful ventures I created, or that others have used to create additional income from image-based products and services. For a limited time, you can claim your own copy of “Easy Money Picture Project” for a full $100 off the regular price by using coupon code EMPP100.

Click here to get started TODAY!

As a former commercial photographer and graphic designer, I was naturally drawn to the images side of the Public Domain first…even before books! It was from selling images that I made my first dollars from the Public Domain…thousands of dollars actually! Of course, images (photographs, illustrations, fine art, ephemera, maps, etc.) are those images whose copyrights have expired or that did not qualify for copyright protection. For this article, I want to focus on the latter option…how to find images that do not qualify for copyright protection.

Many people do not realize it, but most content created by our Federal Government does not qualify for copyright protection because, when created as a part of a Federal employee’s regular duties, the content is paid for by taxpayer’s dollars and is therefore “owned” by the people. Simply stated, that means that you are free to use Federal Government-created content (books, images, videos, audios, etc.) in any way you see fit because YOU paid for it! So let’s take a quick look at what your hard-earned money paid for in the way of image resources.

There are a TON of image resources available online (and offline) related to images…in this article, I’m going to focus on two of the best. One of my personal favorites is the U.S. Government Photos and Graphics site (http://www.usa.gov/Topics/Graphics.shtml) Most of these images and graphics are available for use in the public domain, and they may be used and reproduced without permission or fee. However, some images may be protected by license, so you want to make sure you thoroughly read the disclaimers on each site before use.

When you visit this page, you will discover that it is actually a directory of government website links where you can locate photographs and graphics. Nice of them to make it easy for us…guess they should since we paid for it! As you scan down through the list, you’ll quickly discover that there are LOTS of photos available to you from this portal…literally hundreds of thousands of them!

Some of my personal favorite websites listed on this page include:

America’s Historical Documents (http://www.archives.gov/historical-docs/)

Earth as Art (http://earthasart.gsfc.nasa.gov/index.htm)

Grand Canyon National Park (http://www.nps.gov/archive/grca/photos/index.htm)

National Park Service (http://www.nps.gov/pub_aff/imagebase.html)

Portraits and Stock Photos (http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/pix/)

There is another Government-image site that I really enjoy digging through called “Government “Resources for Science Images” found at the Sciences Reference Services (http://www.loc.gov/rr/scitech/selected-internet/imagesources.html). This is another image portal site for Government-produced image content specifically related to the sciences. Yes, I admit it…I am a science geek…always have been! Anyway, there are a few sites that were also included on the previous resource website, but there are many new sites listed here as well. One of my personal favorite sites from this portal HAS to be the USGS Maps and Imagery site (http://www.usgs.gov/pubprod/) the very first Public Domain anything I sold (and made a lot of money from) was a USGS map of Atlantic City that was reproduced by the printing company I managed. Having access to big printing presses has its advantages! I was selling these maps 20 years ago at flea markets…now you can download them digitally and sell them literally anywhere! And again…because you paid for their creation, it’s your legal right to do so!

I always say that you can’t find what you don’t know to look for, and I hope that this brief article has peeled back the curtain just a bit to what is available to you image-wise courtesy our Federal Government (and your tax-payer dollars of course). In a future article, I’ll share some ways you can profit from all the image content found on these sites, but until then, let me leave you with one simple thought: Where do you think ALL the books, posters, t-shirts and all the other Obama-related products available out there got their image content from? You guessed it!!

In my popular e-book, “Easy Money Picture Project,” I go into great detail on how to locate and use Public Domain image content to create successful, money-producing image-based products. In the book I share a long list of websites where you can find Public Domain images of all types, how-to sections for actually creating products from Public Domain images, case studies of those who are using Public Domain images in successful business ventures and SO much more. I normally sell this 200+ page e-book for $97, but for a limited time, you can get it for $30 less HERE.

I’m always on the lookout for new ways to find Public Domain content, so I’m always researching and testing new strategies and tactics. When I find something I like that works well, I tell you about it, and in this post, I want to tell you about one of the new websites I’ve been experimenting with. It’s producing some promising results for locating Public Domain images.

TinEye does for images what Google does for text. Simply put, TinEye helps you find images that are the same or similar to an image you upload or link to on the site by using sophisticated pattern recognition algorithms. TinEye searches for your image on the web by comparing its fingerprint to the fingerprint of every single other image in the TinEye search index, which currently includes around 701 million images.

There are some obvious benefits with this service if you are searching for people who might be infringing on your image copyright, but I’ve been experimenting with ways to use it for parallel searches. What I mean by that is I upload a known Public Domain image at the TinEye website and then see if it shows up on other sites. I figured that it could be a great way to find Public Domain image repositories of which I was previously unaware. Seems to work…grin.

Let me give you an example of the types of results it can produce for you. I recently uploaded a classic Edward Curtis photograph at TinEye. You’ll see it pictured below.

Then, when TinEye finished analyzing the image, it returned results like the ones below.

You can see that it’s obviously the same image but in a variety of forms. Very cool. Anything interesting trait I found with the searches is that by using similar versions of the same image, you will often achieve different search results. I tried color variations, size variations, etc., and I’m still testing possibilities.

In summary, TinEye is still a new service and they have a ways to go in being viable for the average user The site does have a LOT of potential, especially once they increase their image database, which is currently kind of small (even at nearly a billion images). So I plan to continue to experiment with it to see what’s possible to discover with it in the Public Domain.

Tony

Spontaneity in business can be a good thing, but the smart information entrepreneur ALSO plans ahead, and that’s what this post is about. It’s August (already) and there are a lot of theme and holiday-related product opportunities coming up that you can take advantage of, but NOW is the time to plan for them. The great news is that there is tons of Public Domain content waiting for you to explode these opportunities into your bank account!

In the United States, the next few months will bring Labor Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day, not to mention Fall and Winter themes. If you’ve been thinking about tapping into the power of these times of the year, it’s best to NOT wait until the last minute. Start planning (and executing) your holiday strategies now…and make sure you include the Public Domain!

Here are a few product ideas to consider:

Holiday Recipes: In order for you to really hit a home run with this one, look for the unusual recipes…cultural foods, theme-related treats (101 Christmas Cookie Recipes from Around the World), Etc. There are thousands of recipe books available in the Public Domain.

Ghost Story Collections or Urban Legends: Collect together stories from around the world that relate to this genre. This is a huge market and the Public Domain offers thousands of books and stories.

Victorian Christmas Images: Collect together vintage Christmas postcards or greeting cards and offer them on a CD. You can create beautiful, CD or DVD products using Kunaki.com and there are tens of thousands of these types of images available to use in the Public Domain. You can start your research here: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Holidays

Holiday Traditions: Create an audio series of holiday traditions that can be read from Public Domain books and magazines. There is a crazy amount of holiday-related content awaiting you in Public Domain magazines that NO ONE is using. Be the first!

Movie Extravaganza: Produce a collection of theme-related Public Domain movies and offer them as downloads for iPods/iPhones or on DVD. There are lots of classic holiday-related movies in the Public Domain, from “Night of the Living Dead” to “Santa Claus Conquers the Martians.” Don’t forget “Ozzie and Harriet’s Christmas.” Spend some time and www.archive.org.

Crafts: Craft ideas will always be popular! Look for unique ones, like Christmas origami or Native American crafts from corn, etc. You’ll find lots of useful Public Domain ideas at http://books.google.com.

Greeting Cards: I’ve made some decent money making my own Christmas Cards from Public Domain images to sell in packs. People love something different from the norm…so give it to them. You can print the cards yourself on an inkjet printer or have them produced through Cafepress or Zazzle. Have fun with them…Unique, inspiration or comedy will always win the day.

I hope you realize that there is SO MUCH holiday-related content in the Public Domain. You could literally just focus on these types of niches and do quite well every month. Use some imagination and creativity rather than copy what others are doing. Spend some time on Google Trends (http://www.google.com/trends) to see what keywords have been popular over the past few years during certain holiday time periods. And MOST important of all…Get Started NOW! Don’t wait until a few weeks before the holiday and then decide to make a product to sell. Do it now! Otherwise, you’ll miss a LOT of sales!

My “Public Domain Code Book” is perfect for finding all types of Public Domain content…from books and movies to sheet music and audios. It contains well over 250 links to Public Domain-related websites and is now selling at a much lower price. Claim your copy here: http://www.publicdomaincodebook.com.

If working with images is your interest, then you have to invest in a copy of “Easy Money Picture Project.” It is the most complete, comprehensive book on working with Public Domain images on the market…period…and includes tons of website links for images, step-by-step how-to’s and much more. Check it out: http://easymoneypictureproject.com.

Tony

Here’s a cool opportunity for all you who love Public Domain artwork and photos…now you can use them to create your own SHOES! Zazzle has teamed up with Keds to create an on-demand system for designing your own sneakers. You can check it out here: http://www.zazzle.com/kedsstudio.

 My ONLY disappointment with it is that you can only create women’s and children’s shoes…bummer. I can see where this could be addicting. The price point is a bit high (it starts at $60), but then again, you’re designing your own shoes!! If they add men’s sneakers, I’m going to lose a LOT of money and have a LOT of sneakers…lol. Then you’ll have to call me Tony, the Bad-Ass Shoe Pimp. I think I’m going to e-mail them.

BTW…while I was at UnSeminar5 this past weekend, I had the thrill of getting to know Eric Farewell…amazing marketer and equally amazing photographer. Eric offered to shoot new headshots for me so I took him up on it. The result is below. If the boy can make this mug look good, he MUST be freakin’ brilliant!

I came across a bunch of background textures that are in the Public Domain so I thought I’d tell you about them so you can have fun with them too! Download them all HERE!

You’ve probably noticed that I talk a lot about information content for online and offline businesses. There’s a good reason for that…you can’t have an information-based business without information! Now that’s obvious! There are other marketers that focus on list-building (need that), traffic (need that), or other strategy or “trick of the month” but without CONTENT, nothing else matters.

I personally believe that the Public Domain is definitely the place to start for YOUR infomation and content needs, especially considering just how much information is available in the Public Domain. I like to call it the One-Two (Three) punch. “One” referring to Books, “Two” referring to Magazines and “Three” referring to Images. With books, magazines and images JUST from the Public Domain, you have access to enough “stuff” to create literally millions of products. Of course, you probably only NEED to create a few.

I often receive e-mails from different ones who aren’t sure where to begin, or what niche to start with, so I’ve listed some general niches that have a lot of potential for products and have tons of content in the Public Domain. I also listed three examples for each one, knowing full well that many of the general niches have dozens or even hundreds of sub-niches. So think of this list as a starting place as you read down through it.

• Hobbies (collections, crafts, visual arts, etc.)
• Research (genealogy, historical, science, etc.)
• Sports (vintage, tips and tricks, personalities, etc.)
• Animals (pets, training, care, etc.)
• Historic (major events, famous personalities, technology, etc.)
• Trades (architecture, building, DIY, etc.)
• Health and Beauty (skin care, exercise, natural products, etc.)
• Communication (writing, linguistics, public speaking, etc.)
• Medical (remedies, homeopathy, herbal, etc.)
• Food (recipes, farming, nutrition, etc.)
• Transportation (trains, planes, automobiles, etc.)
• Bizarre (paranormal, UFOs, unexplained, etc.)
• Literary (poems, short stories, authors, etc.)
• Arts (dance, acting, painting, etc.)
• Science (alternative energy, how things work, everyday science, etc.)
• Religion (ancient texts, translations, discussions, etc.)
• Family (pregnancy, child-raising, relationships, etc.)

Just for the sake of it (and for example), I decided to pick just one broad niche (Sports) and drill down into it as far as I could into sub-niche possibilities (please note that this is not exhaustive but will still help paint the picture I want you to see). Below is the method to my madness:

Sports => Baseball

LEVELS: Professional => Minor League => College => High School => Little League => T-Ball

Then you have:

• Equipment [glove styles, bats, pendants, uniforms, etc.]
• Officiating [rules, umpires (great and notorious), etc.]
• Baseball in Other Countries
• Historic Teams
• Famous Players
• Managers / Owners
• Parks / Fields
• Great Plays
• World Series
• Scandals
• Improving Your Game
• Collector Stuff [stamps, baseball cards, patches, hats, programs, etc.]
• Baseball-related Novels and Books
• Photographing Baseball
• Songs Related to Baseball

Within each of the items above, you can often go even deeper. Think about all the teams and players to have played the game. And consider the fact that, to create your Baseball-related products, you would have books, magazines, newspapers, ephemera, photographs, paintings, audios, films and more at your disposal. And that’s JUST Baseball.

So I hope you can see, once again, the huge benefit the Public Domain offers you for your information and content. No other source of information compares!

In “Limitless Blog Content,” I break down exactly how to find a massive amount of content for your niche or sub-niche. The content is there…waiting for you to grab it as use it. Best of all, you won’t have to worry about duplicate content. You can learn more about this fresh approach to content creation HERE: http://www.limitlessblogcontent.com.
 

I’ve been finding a lot of terrific Public Domain images lately on Wikipedia.org. Not all images there are in the Public Domain…some are licensed CC or GNU…but quite a few images have been release into the Public Domain by the copyright holder. As a matter of fact, Wikipedia has become my “go-to” place when I need images for my blog posts. I talk about this in much more detail in Limitless Blog Content.

 I was experimenting with search terms on Google to see how easy (or hard) it would be to gain quick access to the Wikipedia Public Domain images through Google. Here was one keyword string I used to gain some interesting results. You should try it:

 ”hereby release it into the public domain” wikipedia

 All the images on my “Does Your Dog Do This” blog are from Wikipedia and nearly all of them are from the Public Domain.

Another fun trick for “scaring” up Public Domain images is to go to Flickr.com and do a search for “Public Domain.” Last I checked it produced over 19,000 results. Here is another cool Flickr trick: Go to Flickr’s Advanced Search (http://www.flickr.com/search/advanced/) and scroll down to the bottom. You’ll see a couple check boxes for Creative Commons. Check both “Only search within Creative Commons-licensed photos” and (this is the key!) “Find content to use commercially”. Then scroll back up to the top and type in whatever keyword you’re searching for. Every result returned can be used commercially (that means to make money from). Very cool. Oh, and BTW…expect a LOT of results!