Use Public Domain Information to Start a Clippings Agency

Clippings can be modern or old but bear in mind modern types are quite easy for people wanting information to locate for themselves.  It’s far harder for anyone to locate really old information about their favourite subjects.  This is where the public domain comes to the rescue.  And because this information is out of copyright and in the public domain you don’t need to have a reproduction licence or any other permission to copy information to distribute.

It’s a good idea to create information packs about specific subjects and events and ask a standard price across the board.  My daughter does this on eBay, selling what she calls ‘Doggy Bags’ which include pictures, articles, newspaper cutting, puzzles, and lots of other printed bits and pieces about individual dog breeds.  She only needs one copy of a particular item, in the public domain, which she can then copy to add to hundreds of doggy bags she might sell on eBay each year.

Here are more markets for you to consider for your standard content clippings bundles:

#  Target private individuals and families requiring information relating to family members in years gone by.  This is usually for genealogical purposes but you’ll also find people specialising in creating clippings packages for First Name or Second Name research.

#  Target business owners and industrial research companies needing historical  information and specific businesses or about commerce or industry in general.  This information is often required to create mementos for visitors or as historical memoirs to celebrate some major business milestone.

#  Target writers of articles and novels, and other genre, all of whom need research material, some more than others, and not all have time, inclination or facilities to do research themselves, etc.

#  Other potential clients include: scientists, genealogists, teachers, antique specialists, hobbyists, etc., etc., etc.

#  You might specialise in certain subjects like: genealogical matters, astrology, fishing, gardening, recipes and cooking, and so on.  Your service will probably be marketed through magazines targeted at your specific audience.

#  Write compilations which almost all magazines and newspapers require, sometimes in profusion.  For example, ‘100 things you didn’t know about X (a specific location)’ can be compiled from clippings and rewritten in minutes and targeted at publishers in the appropriate area.  The same exercise can be carried out for countless locations all over the world.  It can also be created from information about millions of different subjects.  Although you can use modern publications, you could be asked to pay a licence by individual editors and publishers to copy and distribute their information.  So focus on public domain items instead and you can copy as much as you like and charge whatever you like.

#  As touched upon earlier you could target people sharing a common surname and compile as many cutting and clippings as you can find on each marketable surname.  People are interested in others bearing the same name as themselves, even where there is no actual blood relationship.  Name research is a highly profitable venture, especially in the United States.  The business takes several forms, including analysing the origins of names and highlighting stories about others, preferably famous individuals, bearing the same name. 

Starting with fairly common names like Wright, Brown, Smith and Jones, keep everything you find relating to these surnames, and file them in large envelopes with the name marked on the outside.  When you have enough - at least 20 different cuttings - compile them into some appropriate format: book, scroll, picture book, postcard or greetings card.  Now have a direct mailshot produced telling prospects exactly what you have and how much it costs.  Send the letter to everyone with that name in the local telephone directory.  Later, branch out into non-local directories, and later on consider marketing the venture overseas.  This is the kind of thing you could franchise to other areas.  As soon as you’ve finished work on one name, send out everything franchisees need to market the product to people in their area, while you move on to creating products for another common surname. 

#  You could start a ‘People Like You’ series of books including living and dead, famous and infamous, real and imaginary people all sharing a common surname.  Taking Wright, as an example, your book could be filled with pictures, stories and anecdotes about people like Orville and Wilbur Wright, the American aviators, and Frank Lloyd Wright the architect who built the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo and the Gugenheim Museum in New York.  For titles, use something like ‘Wright Through the Years’ or ‘The Good, The Bad and The Ugly’ as a generic title for all books in the series.

#  Copy and package advertisements by subject or profession.  For example, we found dozens of advertisements from butchers, dressmakers, soap manufacturers, and more, in a pile of old ‘Illustrated London News’ publications from the early 1900s.  The entire bundle of twenty plus magazines cost £3 and included ten or more full-page prints and posters per issue almost all of which sold at between £5 and £30.  The more successful items we listed in categories described as ‘Hot’ in eBay’s regular Hot Items report.  Those categories included specific condiments, such as Mustard; soap and perfumery advertisements went like a bomb under ‘Advertising:Chemists’, and a huge number of sporting prints, mainly horse-racing went like hot cakes under Collectibles:Horse Racing.   That’s better than lumping them together under Antiques:Prints. 

#  Here’s another great idea for out of copyright advertisements, especially smaller classified ads.  We made our very own book, a best selling marketing book both on and off eBay, which we called ‘HEADLINES THAT NEVER DIE’, which was simply a collection of headlines we had taken from out-of-copyright sources.  We simply typed them into a Microsoft ‘Word ‘document under categories, such as Travel, Children, Soaps, and so on.  We also scanned some of the best advertisements into the ‘Word’ document to make the book visually appealing. 

#  Look for information printed long ago about firms still in existence which can be used in that firm’s advertising literature.  Testimonials, for example, and favourable comments and recommendations about a business or its product are highly effective advertising tools.  Almost all direct marketing firms include quotes in their advertising literature.  Take a look at the next mailshot you receive.  Then keep an eye open for useful material to cut and offer to clients.