It just never ceases to amaze me in the different ways people are making money with Public Domain works.

I’d like to introduce you to one of my favorite sites: http://www.shorpy.com – check it out.

This site is full of Public Domain vintage images. They are mostly taken from the Library of Congress (www.loc.gov) – which, incidentally is a an AMAZING source of Public Domain material.

A couple of things to note.

Firstly, this site is Pagerank of 6 – yes a freakin 6. For anybody who is unaware of Pagerank take a look at Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PageRank

But let me tell you that is no easy feat and it is done for the most part with just Public Domain material. I suspect the flood of comments he gets also help as well!!!

Secondly he has some ad’s on his site to monetize the traffic. Also he sells copies of the prints.

Finally he links to some other sites (all selling Public Domain material) – they are very good and all concentrate in the graphic area:

http://vintagraph.com/

http://www.plan59.com/main.htm

He (or she!) has spent a lot of time collecting and cleaning up these images but as you can see they are superb – just a great example.

Let me know what you think of them. Also if you have ANY questions about making money with Public Domain material drop me a comment and I’ll do my best to answer it.

Onwards to your success!

Simon