One word of caution though, and this is very important. If you go to a site online that claims to have public domain works or information and the title of the site is "Joe's Little Odds And Ends" you might want to be careful about accepting what Joe has to say about what may or may not be a public domain work. No offense to Joe, but you just have no way of knowing if he is an expert. This is why, in this series, I am not going to give you any list on public domain works, because I am NO expert on this. Copyright notices lapse and are applied for all the time and there is no way anybody can keep up with it on a daily basis. That's why, if you want to find out if something is public domain or not, you go right to the sources. And there are several reputable ones.
University Of Michigan - This is probably one of the best places online to go to find public domain works of modern English collections. There is a lot of information at this site and it's easy to get lost. So take your time. If you have problems finding your way around, email them. They're very helpful.
Bartleby - This is another big one online. Bartleby has a ton of works that are in the public domain, including the American Heritage Book of English Usage, Grays Anatomy (sound familiar?), World Factbook, and so much more. Too much to go into here. Bartleby is a virtual gold mine of public domain works.
Ibiblio - This site has a treasure chest of public domain works including art, geography, biographies, (how many life stories have been made into movies or books?) language, literature, natural science, reference, religion, and the list goes on and on. Most people who want to do life stories of somebody will come to Ibiblio for their materials.
Authorama - This site specializes in books by a number of authors whose works are in the public domain. These books include those written by authors like Hans Christian Anderson, Aristotle, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Lewis Carroll (who authored Alice In Wonderland), Charles Dickens (which explains all the Christmas Carol clones of the past 50 years or so), Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Ralph Waldo Emerson, the Grimm Brothers, Mary Shelley (author of Frankenstein, and yes it's public domain) and the list goes on and on.
Are the lights starting to come on? Do you see now how many people actually use public domain works to create some of the masterpieces of our era? All it takes is a little imagination.
Writing hundreds of promotional articles can be an arduous task. Fighting procrastination and writers block just adds to the problem. Sometimes the many hours of research and proofreading is more than enough to break even the most determined author. Getting the creative juices flowing is just not possible and the idea of simply downloading an article seems more attractive, but that would be plagiarism or tantamount to stealing. But there are other options and we will explore some of those here.
Have you ever heard about public domain? These are articles created by professional authors that have declared their works to be public domain, which means anybody can use it for whatever purpose they want.
While most authors would prefer to copyright their work for their rights, there are also a number who doesn't mind sharing their work. Public domain articles are not owned by anybody and can be used and abused by anyone. The writers have waived their rights to their works and it is out there for the public to make use of.
You can use public domain articles in helping you write your articles. With the public domain articles you can simply edit them to your own style and rewrite them as you please to make it suitable for your needs. All the ideas and outline are there already just rewrite the piece in your own style and prose.
This is probably the easiest way to write articles. You don't need to scour around the library or the internet for hours for information and start an article from scratch. For webmasters who are looking for targeted content to fill their site and to generate a high ranking for search engine results, they can just modify the article by infusing keywords and keyword phrases related to their niche.
One good factor in using public domain articles for your site or for any project is that you save a lot of money. You loose the need to hire experienced and seasoned ghost writers that other webmasters use. While a single five hundred worded article would only set you down 10 to 15 dollars, this cost will drastically increase when you consider the hundreds of articles needed.
For those who need articles to generate newsletters or ezine content, public domain articles are a real time saver. You do not need to pay writers to ghost write articles for your newsletter or ezine. You can simply copy the articles and place them on your newsletter and ezine.
Public domain articles are a virtual untapped resource that many people fail to realize the true value. The power of articles, keywords and keyword phrases have been deemed invaluable these past few years for many internet based businesses and sites that want to rank high in search engine results.
The number of article and content ghost writers has grown significantly due to the rise in the demand for unique content. As ever more and newer niche topics have arisen, the demand for new, quality content has not abated. An industry has been born in service of this worldwide demand.
Public domain articles have given a great alternative for those who are cash strapped as well as do not have the time nor the skills to create content for themselves. Searching for public domain articles is as easy. You can use search engines and directories for the topic or subject that you need.
There are many instances of books and articles written as many as 100 years past that contain information just as relevant today as when they were written. Many of these resources can be used word for word. Just be sure to provide the proper credit and present the information as a service and not as your own ideas.
Both Almin Cehajic & Eric Lorence are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Almin Cehajic has sinced written about articles on various topics from Legal Matters, Pets and Writing. Almin Cehajic is experienced webmaster and resell rights products marketer. He writes informative articles on various topics, especially on resell rights business. If you are interested in resell rights business visit his new website. Almin Cehajic's top article generates over 14800 views. to your Favourites.
Eric Lorence has sinced written about articles on various topics from Banner Advertising, Acne and Bodybuilding Supplements. E. S. Lorence is a free lance writer, author, and Internet entrepreneur based in Alpharetta, GAVisit for thousands of interesting and info. Eric Lorence's top article generates over 40500 views. to your Favourites.