Finding free videos to download


Finding and Using Public Domain Videos

Whether you call them movies, videos or film, the concept is all the same and the profit potential is very real. The public domain is home to countless films from a large range of genres and producers, some are classics and some are dogs. As an entrepreneur working with public domain material it is your job to decide which are the best for the purposes of making a profit.

Just because a movie or video clip is a classic or popular does not necessarily make it good business. As you become a little more comfortable and knowledgeable in this type of work, you will find that the money is in how you use and market each work, not in its popularity.

As you dig through the resources I will be providing you with below, consider that there are many other places not covered and left for you to explore. You'll need to know the names of the films first. Think back to your childhood, what was your favorite movie, which one most influenced you? Ask your family and friends for old titles they liked.

Where to find some of these great public domain films

Let's face the facts here, just as with all of the other public domain materials, you are going to have to do some work to find the truly great ones, or the ones that will be of the most value to your projects. If this process were really easy everyone would do it, and the competition would be so great that you wouldn't make any money. So the fact that some of this may be a little harder is actually a benefit because it weeds out those that are less interested in creating a real business and only looking to make a quick buck, which rarely happens by the way.

Aside from looking into the resources that I have given you below, you may also consider hitting the search engines as an alternative for finding even more resources. As I have said many times throughout this ebook, make sure you wrap your search terms in quotation marks. This tells the search engines to only show you results that contain those exact keywords, and really helps to narrow your results and remove some of the garbage search engines tend to collect.

You may also check out classic film collectors sites and the like, write down some of the older titles and then perform searches to verify if those particular works are in the public domain. If they are congratulations, you have just stumbled on to a potential gold mine, because you already know that there are collectors and a fan base for anything you may create or of course recreate.

1. Public Domain Torrents has built a great portal of some of the classic movies to be found within the public domain. One of the neatest and most unique things they have done with their site, is to reformat old films to be compatible with popular new devices such as the Apple iPod and Sony PSP. This is a perfect example of blending a classic piece with brand new technology, I love it and you should really keep this in mind when thinking of ways to profit with your public domain material.


2. OpenFlix is an online directory of public domain movies. You can browse through the movies by genre which includes Westerns, Horror, Independent, Comedy, Action and more. Each film has some great information like year created, who starred in it and such. They do not allow you to download videos for free, but you can take the titles and then search the web, for free downloads or more information.


3. Wikipedia has some great resources for public domain movie hunters. Not only can you find some great information about the public domain, you can also browse public domain films by the year they were created.


4. The Public Domain Movie Database is another great place that is host to tons of public domain films. You can browse the database by genre, and again there are no movies to download but simply use this as a tool for finding out what is in the public domain.


5. Emol.org has a very nice database of public domain movies that you are permitted to watch and download. They have digitally recreated some of these films for your viewing enjoyment. All of the movies are categorized by genre and include extra information about the history and cast of the film.


6. Desert Island Films has put together a very nice directory of not only public domain films, but television shows as well. As if this wasn't enough, they also have a printable list with hundreds of popular public domain titles you can print and use as a reference sheet.


7. Public Domain Flicks has a lot of great public domain films available for download in their directory. You can browse by newest additions or browse through all of the titles in alphabetical order.


8. Reel Media International is one of the largest distributors of public domain films in the world. Keep in mind that they do not sell to the public, but you can view their inventory. You should also take note that this is a very real business idea someone has put together for using public domain material, imagine the potential.


9. You can write down movie titles you have found during your research and then search for them on Google Video. I have found a lot of old public domain movies on the popular video search engine.


10. Internet Archive has over 30,000, yes thousand, public domain and open source films covering virtually every topic imaginable. This is a great place to do some research and really get a better understanding of what the public domain offers.


11. Archive Classic Movies offers free downloads on an assortment of classic public domain films.

How to make money with public domain films

Public domain films are truly one of the easiest types of materials to make money with. This is mainly due to the fact that there are just so many classic movie buffs around the world. They have extensive groups of collectors and admirers, there are even conventions held throughout the year to honor these old films. All of this attention will allow you to have a ready made customer base if you create a great product or really capture an amazing idea.

1. Simply converting a classic film to a digital version and burning it to a cd may be enough to make the sales you want. Think about the public domain film distributor that I have listed in the resources, this is how they have built their business. By remaking these movies and burning them to dvd or cd people are now able to watch and enjoy these as they once did. You can market these new digital versions virtually anywhere online or off, and find a good market.


2. Take the movie covers from popular horror flicks or any other genre film and blow them up into movie posters, for collectors. This is a unique way to capitalize on the popularity of a film and really make something the fans would otherwise not be able to obtain. The costs involved in this process would not be very high, you could bring the photo to a print shop and have them run hundreds of copies for little money.


3. Create a web site directory of public domain films just as the others have done in the resource list. You can charge per download, just offer information about the movies and sell advertising or even just give everything away for free, and make advertising money on the side. By allowing others to upload their favorite public domain movies, you will also cut out some of the work for yourself.


4. Turn these classic old films into plays and dinner shows. If you are already in this business it would not be very difficult at all to write up a screen play and re-in act it. Its unfortunate that here in the United States you don't find nearly as many dinner theater establishments as you use to. You can even create the screen plays and just sell them to others through eBay or your own web site.


5. Use the films for clipping sound bytes and audio clips to use in other projects. You can even clip enough of them to build your own sound effects database and allow others to download them for use in their multimedia projects.


6. Burn entire sets of classic cartoons like Bugs Bunny on to one disk for parents of small children. If you haven't noticed, the cartoons these days are not what they used to be, so many parents may truly appreciate this work. You can then market them from your own web site or on eBay for a large profit.


7. Put together an ebook as a collectors guide for vintage or classic movies. You can list popular titles and then provide resources for where they can purchase them, including your own web site if you have taken the time to convert any of these to digital format. You are taking their money twice by doing this.

Some examples of films that can be found within the public domain

There are many wonderful classic films, cartoons and even television shows to be found within the public domain. The list below is just to give you an idea of what types of work you can expect to find through your own research. Also while looking at these titles below, think back to how popular all of these were and still are, this may help you understand the true earning potential.

1. Who doesn't the classic tales of Betty Boop that now reside in the public domain.


2. How could you ever forget about Tarzan.


3. Crime didn't stand a chance when Dick Tracy was watching over things and now you can put him to work for you.

4. Even from within the public domain you can rest assure that Charlie Chaplin is still up to the same old antics.


5. Growing up I was a huge fan of Flash Gordon and he is now in the public domain.


6. Spinach may not help you strengthen your business, but it sure did give Popeye a boost.


7. Sherlock Holmes is still solving crimes in the public domain.


8. Do you remember Abott and Costello's version of Jack and the Beanstalk.