Free Content You Can Use on Your Website

Free Content to Use on Your Web Site

Free Content G

reat content is hard to come by, yet is probably the single greatest factor determining your web site's traffic and popularity. I wanted to give you some time to digest all the information in my newsletter series "Writing Quality Website Content". If you missed that, I invite you to follow that link to read the entire article. If you've already started your own content, then these sources may give your writing the oomph it needs to become great web content.

THE PUBLIC DOMAIN

Definition from Wikipedia: “Public domain comprises the body of knowledge and innovation (especially creative works such as writing, art, music, and inventions) in relation to which no person or other legal entity can establish or maintain proprietary interests within a particular legal jurisdiction. This body of information and creativity is considered to be part of a common cultural and intellectual heritage, which, in general, anyone may use or exploit, whether for commercial or non-commercial purposes.

If an item ("work") is not in the public domain, this may be the result of a proprietary interest as represented by a copyright or patent. The extent to which members of the public may use or exploit it, in relation to which proprietary interests exist, generally is limited. However, when a work's copyright or patent restrictions expire, it enters the public domain and may be used by anyone for any purpose.”

ere are some Public Domain Sources:

Project Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg is a library of 18,000 free ebooks whose copyright has expired. "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes", "Pride and Prejudice", "The Time Machine", "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer", and "The Canterbury Tales" have all passed into the public domain.

This means that you can put these on your website or even sell them in electronic or book format.

Archive.org
At Archive.org you can find thousands of works that are currently in the public domain. Want to put some cartoons on your web site? Take a look at the "Film Chest Vintage Cartoons", which is full of classic animated cartoons from the 1930's and 1940's. The collection includes Popeye, Porky Pig, Bugs Bunny, Woody Woodpecker, The Three Stooges and Betty Boop. They also provide tons of other reproducible content including:

Brick Films: Commonly called "LEGO Movies". Brick films are dedicated to the art of stop motion animation.

SabuCat Movie Trailers: The world's largest collection of theatrical trailers.

Feature Films: A large number of classic feature films and shorts.

Universal Newsreels: Newsreels were shown before every feature film in the pre-tv era.

Computer Chronicles: Was the world's most popular television program on personal technology during the height of the computer revolution.

Net Cafe: Television series covering the revolution during the height of the dot com boom.

All of these content sources are available for you to put on your website.

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

The Prints & Photographs Online Catalog (PPOC) provides access to about 65% of the Division's holdings, as well as to some images found in other units of the Library of Congress. Many of the catalog records are accompanied by digital images--about one million digital images in all.

Not all images displayed in this catalog are in the public domain. It is YOUR obligation to determine and satisfy copyright or other use restrictions when publishing or otherwise distributing materials found in the Library's collections. In some collections, only thumbnail images display to those searching outside the Library of Congress because of potential rights considerations. See the Library's Legal Notices for more information.

CREATIVE COMMONS

Definition from Wikipedia: "The Creative Commons (CC) is a non-profit organization devoted to expanding the range of creative work available for others legally to build upon and share. Every creative work receives copyright protection as soon as you put pen to paper, hit save, or press record. Because of this, no one can use that work without express permission from the author."

Creative Commons provides a new content license that allows you to share your work with others. If you want, you can even allow other people to expand upon your existing work. This allows for creative co-authorship.

The Creative Commons license has made piles of content available for use on your web site. Whether you are looking for audio, images, video, or text, you can find an abundance of reusable information within the creative commons.

To search for content to put on your own web site, go to CreativeCommons.org.

GOVERNMENT WEB SITES

Works produced by the U.S. Federal government are not copyrighted. If you obtain a government document from the net, you are free to copy and distribute the document. There plenty of great content about finance, retirement, health, business, and traveling on government web sites.

To search for content offered by the United States government, go to http://www.google.com/unclesam.

ARTICLE DIRECTORIES

There are thousands of writers on the internet and many of them would love for you to reprint their articles on your website. You can find thousands of free web articles at the following article directories.
GoArticles.com
EzineArticles.com
ArticleCity.com

INTERVIEWS

Interviews can be one of the best sources of quality content for your site. Simply interview industry professionals and post the recording and transcript on your website. This allows you to create original content very quickly.

Don't be afraid to ask for an interview, most experts would be delighted to speak with you. Remember, this is probably one of their greatest passions. If you ask them politely, your chances for landing an interview are good.

You can conduct an interview in person, over the telephone, or even through an e-mailed questionnaire.

RSS FEEDS

RSS is changing the way we consume information online. In addition, it has also provided thousands of new content sources for the online publisher. RSS is simply a file format similar to XML that is used by publishers to make their content available to others in a format that can be easily understood by web publishing software and content aggregators.

By using RSS feeds, you can enhance the content on your site without ever writing a single word. And remember, on the Internet, content is King.

Want to put Amazon products on your site, updated news from the New York Times, financial advice from Motley Fool, or press releases from PRWeb?

This is all possible with RSS. No matter what type of information you are looking for, RSS can provide you with a constant stream of updated content for your web site.

To search for an RSS feed to enhance your own website, go to Syndic8.com. You can even mix and match a variety of RSS feeds at RSSMix.com.

FACTS & STATISTICS

Looking for facts or figures to put on your website? Take a look at some of the sources below. You'll likely be surprised how many facts, figures, and definitions are available in the public domain.

The CIA World Factbook provides a number of statistics on countries, territories, and dependencies. Each profile tracks such demographics as population, ethnicity, and literacy rates, as well as political, geographical and economic data.

U.S. Census Bureau: One of the largest repositories for data and statistics related to the U.S.

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica: One of the best encyclopedias ever written was published over 90 years ago. Search over 40,000 articles, all of which are available for publication on your own site.

1913 Webster's Dictionary: A searchable interface of the 1913 public domain Webster's dictionary.

PRIVATE LABEL ARTICLES

Private label articles can be bought for pennies per article. This is possible because they are sold in bulk.

Many people criticize these articles and have declared them as worthless. However, private label articles can be very powerful when used appropriately.

Unless you have hours of free time every day, it is unlikely that you are going to be able to create the amount of quality content that your web site deserves. This is where private label content enters the picture.

You can use private label articles to:

Add content to your web site.
Acquire hundreds of inbound links by syndicating the articles to article directories.
Create a free report for your visitors and other website publishers.
Create an information-packed RSS feed.

However, the key to using private label articles effectively is to optimize them. Straight out of the box, these articles are near worthless. To give them value, you must add your own touch.

Inject your personality into the article. Combine multiple articles and do some additional touch-ups to ensure that the article is in top shape for your readers.

Once you are finished you can add your resource box and send it off to article directories and website publishers.

If you are looking for one of the top private label article providers, go to InfoGoRound.com.

IMAGES

Quality images can make your content much more inviting and keep people at your site for longer periods of time. Fortunately, there is a site that offers thousands of pictures completely free of charge. Find it at Stock.XCHNG

QUOTES

Quotes can give your website a special touch. Quotes provide interesting content in addition to an element of credibility. Many web site owners like to add related quotes to their web site simply to engage the reader's attention.

To find some quotes for your website, go to QuoteLand.com.

P.S. Notice the definitions in this article? They all come from Wikipedia.org. Wikipedia is a Web-based free-content encyclopedia project. It exists as a wiki, a website that allows any visitor to edit its content.

There you will find over 1 million articles ranging from Greek mythology and Egyptian history to business, health, and technology.

Go to Wikipedia.org for a huge collection of articles you can reprint on your own website!