Generating Adsense site from a book?

Finding instant content for adsense site from books

[brandalot]

I just found a site that looks like it must be an old book that someone got the right to put online and pepper with adsense ads.

Do people do this? Are there books out there where publishers and authors are willing to part with these online rights for a piece of the action?

-- Gary

[farmboy]

Sounds like a publication in the public domain.

Even with the "content" on your site, you still need visitors.

FarmBoy

[zerotre]

There are hardcopy publications of the 1940's and before that should be no more protected by copyright issues. As an example I personally own a 2-volume encyclopaedia of great historical interest, a 10-volume encyclopaedia organized by theme, with a great many historical photos, geographically localized; a number of very ancient books, never republished, that I find fascinating for both the language and the mind view; some years of a late 19th century newsletter with comic strips and caricatures of VIP's of the time.

These resources if decently transformed into web pages would be a great contribution to the Internet community, considering that also Wikipedia is using the 1911 Britannica in many archeological and historical descriptions, and many other websites and projects are just doing that.

I am inclined to say that:
- if there are actually no copyright issues anymore and the publication was never reprinted (which would otherwise restart the 50-year copyright running again for the new publishers - but this is valid in my country jurisdiction);
- if after all the scanning and OCR the text is thoroughly corrected for spelling and punctuation, and maybe notes supplied to put the content in its historical perspective;
- if the publications are decently organized for the end-user, segmented into pages, with menus and intuitive navigation;

Then the output might be considered as new content as any research on old or ancient sources and treated as such under all points of view, and of course also monetized with Adsense or other marketing tools.

Consider also that whoever republishes can take steps to protect all the work - in my country (Italy) also what is published on the web is given the status of printed publications by law courts, and a simple way to protect the rights would be to secure a CD of the work with a timestamp and deposit it with a notary.

[farmboy]

There are hardcopy publications of the 1940's and before that should be no more protected by copyright issues.

"Should" is the key word in that sentence. You're clearly stating an opinion.

You're not going a step further and claiming that because the law disagrees with your opinion, that's justification for ignoring the law. Right?

...restart the 50-year copyright running again for the new publishers - but this is valid in my country jurisdiction);

FYI, it's not 50 years in the U.S.

---------------

FWIW, keep in mind that if someone takes a publication legally in the public domain and publishes it online for the purpose of showing and earning money from AdSense ads, that's in violation of the AdSense stated Policies.

If you take that route, just be aware you're risking your account and future earnings.

FarmBoy

[jetteroheller]

I published half of my first and last book written 1992 to 1993.

First edition was 2000 books, but the publisher went bancrupt, just as he should distribute my book. So I had to do all selling myself.

2005, I put first half of the book in a subdomain of my main domain.

$3074 so far with AdSense.

When I look on the normal royalties at publishers, a 20.- EUR book is for 10.-EUR in the bookstore, 10% for the author.

So AdSense brings me the equivalent of 3 sold books per day. When I find the time to publish also the second half, maybe 6 books per day.

That's very good for a book published 1993.

[jomaxx]

FWIW, keep in mind that if someone takes a publication legally in the public domain and publishes it online for the purpose of showing and earning money from AdSense ads, that's in violation of the AdSense stated Policies.

This would NOT be a violation of AdSense policies. Only an absurd reading of the TOS could support this conclusion.

That "specifically for the purpose of showing ads" clause should be scrapped. It's meaningless. If you choose to interpret it broadly enough, it could apply to every single page anywhere that has AdSense on it.

[potentialgeek]

A few years ago, I started writing a book. I didn't finish, but I put it online, because it still had value. Others agreed, and linked to the book. Eventually it got a government site link, PR5, and top SERP for a relevant two-word phrase.

Several months ago, I added Adsense. It started to generate about $10/day with ads on about a dozen pages only. This is far in excess of what I would expect to earn from royalties if the book had been in print.

I think I might write another book... if only I could find the time.

If you have an old manuscript in your attic, you might want to dust it off and upload it.

p/g

[imstillatwork]

"These resources if decently transformed into web pages would be a great contribution to the Internet community, considering that also Wikipedia is using the 1911 Britannica in many archeological and historical descriptions, and many other websites and projects are just doing that."

I have full set of 1911 EB.... thin pages, smells old, leather covers.

Hmmm..

[Paris]

This is the kind of stuff that would work better with non-ficiton books, naturally. I have an unpublished novel that I was at one time entertaining putting online.

The problem with fiction, though, is that the ads will probably be all over the map and there is little incentive to leave a page if you are in the middle of story.

However, my wife has a master's thesis that I figured would be a natural. It's the kind of research-driven content that would lead to attractive ads.

I guess the one thing that's held me back is that it would take way too long to handcode HTML, page by page.

Are there any good programs that do this? Free or otherwise? I'm guessing that there will still need to be some webmaster input -- since you don't want pages spliced at innopportune moments -- but I have word processing files that may actually have value.

[gibbergibber]

The problem with copyright-free content is that by definition anyone can legally copy it, so there's absolutely nothing you can do about it if someone clones your site.