Webmaster Resource Center

Content Gleaning

You've heard it before. On the World Wide Web, Content is King! So where can you find content? Well, I have found many resources for content. Pictures and graphics are great for added interest, but can be slow in loading.

Books

Books are a great place to start. Almost anything written before the twentieth century (which started in 1901) would be public domain. (Just be careful that you are quoting the original book, and not a movie based on the book. For more information on this, Click Here.) That means all of the great classics; Shakespeare, Dickens, Twain, R. L. Stevenson. You can quote any of them freely. That is why they are so popular with movie makers. These are great stories with no royalties to pay out. You can pick a theme, (I like fantasy fiction) then find everything you can that will fit into that theme. Gothic is very popular. That opens up all the great horror classics; The Headless Horseman, Dracula, Frankenstein, Ghost, Werewolves, and so on. To see a sample of how I used a piece of classical literature, click here. Library of Congress is a good place to start. For books, click Here. To check on the copy right laws, click here.

Your Own Imagination

Let's stay with our Gothic theme. Know any old ghost stories? (Hamlet has a ghost in it, from the very start.) Do you remember the stories that you heard, while sitting around the campfire? The retelling of an old favorite can work. Any urban legend you can think of is fair game. Stories that are local legends are especially good. Perhaps not everyone has heard it before. The more you can embellish it, the better the story will be. If you are very creative, you can start a new story from scratch. Who knows? If you tell it convincingly enough, it may become new a legend. You will want to copy right your original work. Click Here to learn how.

History

Do you know a historical event that is related to you theme. With our Gothic theme, perhaps you could tell of the life of a gothic writer; Mary Shelly, or Edgar Allen Poe. Perhaps you grandfather saw ghost on the battle field during the war. Personal and family history can make great content. Fresh and original, it would set your site apart.

Other Web Sites

Free web graphic are easy to find. Start with a search engine. Clip Art could be used to illustrate your ghost story. Remember that pictures and graphics are usually used to enhance your content, not as a substitute. While my sites use lots of graphics, I also have lots of text to tell about the site. Be careful to check out any and all copy rights, before using material from other web sites. Some will be free for the taking. Others may be used only on free sites. Many ask only that you acknowledge the artist. You may be required to provide a link to the artist site, (Remember, Target Blank). Project Guttenburg, at http://promo.net, has many ebooks available, that you can use for Free. Name the author, book title and, publishing date. Don't even try to pass it off as original work.

Affiliate Merchants

Affiliate Merchants will provide you with all kinds of content for the pages on your site. Tell about products, and/or use descriptive text links. You could also, give a short history of the company. To see an example of how I added Affiliate Merchant content, click Here