On one of the Internet Marketing forums I visit regularly I came across a post from somebody that basically said two things:

1) You cannot make money from Public Domain material in the self-help niche because it is overcrowded

2) You cannot make money selling ‘old’ niches such as blacksmithing.

The poster offered no evidence – just another ‘guru’ posting their warped views of the world. Well let me tell you it is complete and utter rubbish. There are LOTS of people making money in both of those niches. Don’t believe me? Well let me show you some examples – yes real world examples. I love showing actual PROOF as opposed to rhetoric – these ‘gurus’ kill me – never any proof.

Lets start with the good old self-help niche. I just love selling to this crowd. Take a walk down to your local book store - incidentally, your book store can be one of your best sources of ideas! Go to the self-help section. It is normally SEVERAL shelves of books – of yes, nobody is buying all those books? I’m sure the store wouldn’t waste valuable floor space if these weren’t selling like hotcakes!

So what sells in this niche. In this case I am going to fall back on a real old classic “Think and Grow Rich” by Napolean Hill. Arguably the most famous self-help book amongst entrepreneurs. This text is in the public domain. So surely giving it s available freely online there is NO way it is selling on Amazon right? Wrong! I see many copies for sale including this one:  http://www.amazon.com/Think-Grow-Rich-Landmark-Bestseller-Now/dp/1585424331/

What I like about this one is they didn’t just  take the text and sell it, they added some of their own work. According to Amazon this is ranked at #635 in Books. Holy Cow! This is the 635th best seller in ALL BOOKS that Amazon sells!!!! Think about that – how many thousands or millions do they sell???

I am willing to bet he added maybe 20% (probably less) to the original book and he has an amazing best seller! It is also #7 in “Business Life” and #18 in” Success” not too shabby! There also the plain old copies of the orginal with little or no changes, still selling well – take a look for yourself. Yep no doubt the original poster in the forum was right, this old self-help stuff doesn’t sell!!!!!!

So what about some of these really obscure niches like blacksmithing? Surely he is right and they don’t sell? Well lets take a look at good old Ebay. Well a quick search on “blacksmith” then looking at the completed item reveals a treasure trove of items that are selling! Look at this one for example: http://cgi.ebay.com/Blacksmithing-Blacksmith-Forging-Repousse_W0QQitemZ180449758506QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUS_Nonfiction_Book?hash=item2a03a4cd2a#ht_526wt_1174

Now am I 100% sure this is in the Public Domain – no, but I am about 95% sure and with a little investigation could prove it, but I’ll save that for another day! Look at this seller – there is a LOT to learn from him.

So back to the original poster – yes please keep thinking in your limited way and spreading the message to stay out of these PROFITABLE niches so other people (wink, wink) can make money from them!

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