This is the first in a guide of four sections where the focus is on sourcing newsletter content on the Internet. The full sequence of topics covered in the series is as follows:
- Copyright Issues
- Help and Guidance Resources
- Subject Research
- Content Providers
1. Copyright Issues
Basic Understanding
It is really important that you have at least a basic understanding of copyright law if you intend publishing something, even if it’s a hard copy newsletter for local distribution only. Mainly to help newcomers to this field, I wrote an article entitled ‘The Meaning Of Copyright’ with the intention of providing just this basic degree of knowledge. It covers the subject simply and briefly but in sufficient depth for the needs of most small business people and ‘newbie’ publishers.
However, if there is the slightest chance that your material might eventually be published on the Internet, either statically, such as on a web page, or for distribution by email (or newsgroups etc), you need to understand that laws other than those pertaining to your own country might apply.
The Global Nature Of The Internet
Americans, in particular, tend to overlook, or sometimes seem to be unaware of, the global nature of the Internet. How many times have you read messages like “Have a great 4th July, everyone!” as the big day approaches, or “Happy Thanksgiving to all our readers” in an email-broadcast newsletter or on a website? The writers of these messages have probably never stopped to think how incongruous such messages appear when seen through the eyes of non-Americans. But when you realize how potentially huge the proportion of readers from other countries is, you realize how important the issue of globalization is and how new and unique an environment cyberspace is. Estimates are that 70% of current Internet users live in countries other than the USA. Not only that but the proportions are changing rapidly as the Internet evolves and citizens of less prosperous nations go online. The day is not far off when there will be many more ‘foreigners’ online than Americans and they will be even more of a minority.
International Conventions
It is not possible, nor necessary of course, to be familiar with all the laws of every country on earth! Luckily they are often not that different from each other anyway (as regards copyright, that is). And anyway, there are international conventions that lay down the accepted principles that most counties adhere to.
What then, is the problem, you might ask? Well, for a start, not all countries recognize these principles. The most important landmarks in the field of international copyright tenets are the Berne Convention of 1886 and the Universal Copyright Convention of 1952, both of which are legally recognized by most Western democracies and other major countries. Unfortunately, as with many similar international protocols, there are dissenter nations. Any documents sourced from these ‘rogue’ states, as they are sometimes called, should be viewed with suspicion from the outset since ‘pirating’ (deliberately copying and distributing copyrighted works for financial gain) is often rife, and even sometimes encouraged.
Almost as bad though, is the problem of lip service to the principles by some states, followed by a failure, for one reason or another, to enforce them. These are issues that will undoubtedly become of ever-greater concern with the growing pervasiveness of the Internet.
The Need For Caution
What is important then, is that copyright ownership questions need to be more carefully considered when sourcing material on the Internet, partly because of the potential anonymity of users, partly because of the speed at which illicit material can be copied and distributed, and partly because of its international nature. For these reasons it is probably best to avoid anything that looks suspect if its veracity can’t be confirmed.
The newness of the electronic medium also gives reason for treating it with extra caution. New laws are coming into effect around the world in an attempt to ‘tame’ the apparent lawlessness of the Internet, including cross-border co-operation in some places, and the fact that prosecutions so far have been few does not necessarily mean that things will stay that way.
Making assumptions based on nationally accepted normal practices is also not a good idea. For instance, any material published by the US government for public consumption is usually ‘copyright-free’ (i.e. in the public domain), but that certainly does not mean that the same applies everywhere. Government publications in some countries are subject to a very different regime of regulations indeed.
Copyright Resources
Looking at the positive side of the Internet leads us to consider and appreciate the huge gains that have been made in the dissemination of knowledge and information. For publishers, whether of the electronic or hard copy variety, this includes the ready availability of help and research resources, content material of all sorts, and data related to the protection of intellectual property itself.
2. Help and Guidance Resources
Writing Your Own Material
If you intend writing your own newsletter articles, or even just the occasional piece, you already know those areas where you might need help. For example, some people have no trouble putting their thoughts on paper but, when it comes to spelling, they are practically dyslexic. Others can spell even the most difficult words but have trouble stringing them together in grammatically correct sentences. And even the most proficient of writers need reference material from time to time.
One of the great things about the Internet is that anyone can now access whatever assistance they require without even leaving the keyboard. It’s like having a vast library of reference works right at your fingertips. In fact it’s better than a conventional library because the interactive nature of the electronic medium allows for greater flexibility in terms of describing nuances, illustrating examples, explaining details and so on.
URLs that you might find helpful when writing your own copy appear below under the headings: General Writing Help, Writing Courses and Training, Dictionaries and Thesauri, Writing Style and Grammar, and finally Other Writing Aids.
Outsourcing Work
For those publishers who need to outsource work, whether it is to contract a writer, editor, artist, proofreader, or some other writing or editorial service, things are not quite so easy—but it only takes a little perseverance to get very satisfying results. Obviously, the main problem is that services are easily offered but it takes a little investigation to be sure that the person or organization you choose is capable of producing to the standard you require and within the parameters you set. It is the same in the virtual world of the Internet as it is in the real world. However, as with the copyright issue covered in Part One, extra care is required when communicating, and especially when carrying out transactions, online. The worldwide nature of the Internet offers incredible scope and a huge range of options but the opportunities for gain are available just as much to the unscrupulous as to the honest. The old maxim ‘Let the buyer beware’ has every bit as much relevance as it ever did.
URLs that you might find useful for outsourcing work appear under the following headings: Writing and Editing Services, and Photographers and Cartoonists.
Publishing Resources
The range of resources available to publishers of all types is immense, not least in the area of most interest for our purposes: desktop publishing, and more particularly newsletter publishing. This is not really surprising when you consider that the growth of this particular industry is closely aligned to the growth of computers and their rapid adoption in the modern workplace.
URLs that publishers may find of use are grouped under the headings Desktop Publishing Services, Newsletter Publishing, Publishing Courses and Training, Graphic Services, Fonts etc, Stock Illustrations and Clipart, and Publishing and Graphics Software.
Ancillary Services
Under the heading Ancillary Services are found thumbnails for those other items related to content, or that can vitally affect the presentation of it, but that don’t fit comfortably into one of the slots mentioned above.
The Resource URLs
Included among the thumbnail sketches are some of the more popular and well-known sites and mailing lists that provide help and guidance for writers and publishers. Popularity though, is no guarantee of quality, so I have included some personal favorites of mine as well as interspersing some that are completely new to me. It is, therefore, a somewhat random collection and you need to bear this in mind, as well as the fact that it is has been put together to help only non-professional and occasional writers.
‘Cyberspace’ is an ever-changing and evolving environment and thousands of sites get added and hundreds deleted every day. This means that there might be many better places to go for help by the time that you read this and some of those mentioned might even have dropped out of sight (though I hope not many; I have tried to restrict the list to the tried and tested). Nevertheless, these URLs will give you an idea of the range of services available and should prove a good starting point. Many of them also provide their own hyperlinks to other resources worth exploring.
Searching The Internet
What follows is a very small selection of representative URLs but many more resources of these types exist on the Internet than appear in this article. They can be found on various ‘portal’ and directory sites.
Most of the sites that were found in the course of research whilst planning this article are archived there. More still can be found by conducting your own Internet search and this is what will be covered in some detail in Part Three below.
3. Subject Research
Database Without Structure
Making the most of the Internet is a matter of making use of the (often) huge amount of data available on practically any subject you care to mention. The drawback is that it is sometimes harder and more time-consuming than expected. There is a lot of information ‘out there’, some of which is neatly sorted and categorized in databases (the owners of which may or may not charge you for access) but, because the Internet is not organized hierarchically, there is no central authority directing ‘where’ things should ‘go’. The data then, is only of use to you if you know how to find it.
Logic dictates that the easiest way to do this is to use Internet Search Sites (search ‘engines’ and directories), which also have the advantage of being free (to users). After all, that’s what they’re for, isn’t it? The answer, in theory, is yes. In theory it is just a matter of entering in key words and bingo!—up pops a list of places where documents containing those words can be found. Unfortunately though, it just isn’t that simple!
Volume of Data
The main problem is the sheer volume of data available on many subjects. When your search result consists of literally thousands, or even millions of links, you might get the (understandable) feeling that you’ve gone from a paucity of facts to a state of information overload. In other words you may be only a little better off because you are now faced with having to do a further search—of the search results! Not only that but, because of the volume of data and number of sites, it’s practically impossible for the Search Sites to keep ahead of changes constantly occurring on the millions of pages they index, not to mention the thousands of new sites coming online every day.
‘Spamdexing‘
Sometimes the ‘volume of data’ problem manifests itself in unexpected ways. It is common, for example, to get totally irrelevant results that do not seem to have any of the keywords you are searching for. This is often caused by ‘spamdexing’, which is an attempt on the part of some website owners to artificially ‘load’ their pages with common, sometimes hidden, keywords even though they might have little or nothing to do with the content of their site. They do this in order to get a high ranking (in other words, for their site to appear within the first 10 or 20 links returned) in all search results, knowing that any links lower down the list, even if they are more relevant than theirs, will invariably get overlooked. People get very annoyed when their searches turn up a load of rubbish and they usually blame the search engines even though the real culprits are more likely to be the owners of those rubbish sites trying to cheat the system. However, there is one search engine doing a good job of trying to rectify this kind of cheating and, as a result, the worst of it has now changed for the better. That search engine is Google and it is the main reason for its current domination of the search engine field.
Search Options
Search Engines
The problem of irrelevant search results is most common with search ‘engines’ other than Google. The reason is that their entries are gathered automatically by Internet robots (called spiders) and processed into their databases electronically.
Nevertheless, they have certain advantages over manually processed databases:
- They can ‘spider’ the web 24 hours a day for 365 days a year, which results in many more sites being indexed than would be possible otherwise.
- They can index individual pages on sites rather than just the ‘root URL’.
Directories
Does this mean that search directories, or ‘portals’, as they are now sometimes called, are better because they use real people who are not so easily duped? Some people once thought so, but the problem is once again one of volume. Because of the time involved, a database whose entries are checked manually necessitates some fairly strict rules and this can lead to a tendency towards bureaucracy and a lack of flexibility. The end result is often that fewer sites get indexed overall and amongst the missing might be some perfectly good ones—and even some veritable goldmines of information. Meanwhile, other sites with little or no worthwhile content manage to mysteriously achieve positions of prominence, presumably by appealing to a sense of what constitutes a ‘good’ site on the part of the reviewer.
4. Content Providers
Types of Providers
Individual Suppliers
Writers, artists and other creators of original works such as experts in particular fields, are well represented on the Internet. In a quest for articles covering obscure topics, this can often prove a most fruitful area. Searching by subject will usually turn up a host of such individuals, many of whom may have works available for download. Those that don’t may be willing to make some previously or privately published work available to you for a consideration, such as a small payment or even just a promise to include their byline (which should go without saying anyway). Some authors, artists and photographers display samples of their work on their own web sites and free material is often made available as a means of publicity—or even out of sheer philanthropy.
Co-operatives
There are a number of ‘exchanges’ on the Internet, some in the form of websites and some being ezines (electronic newsletters), that are set up to allow creators of original works and publishers to interact. Publishers use these facilities to find material and to post messages about their copy needs. Producers use them to display specific works with inherent reprint permissions provided their byline is included. The ‘exchange’ relates to the mutual benefit derived from such an arrangement.
Similarly, there are websites and ezines that are set up as ‘showcases’ or galleries, where writers or artists can post samples of their work for perusal or download, sometimes together with their resumes. As might be expected, though, most of the people using such facilities to display work either have a commercial interest (i.e. they are pushing a product or service) or they are new (i.e. unpublished) and many of the sites themselves are the creations of ‘wannabe’ authors.
Press Release Services
Use of the Internet by journalists and the media is expanding faster than practically any other area of activity on the net. Press Release Services are at the forefront of this phenomenon and the services on offer are growing more comprehensive by the day. Material on some sites is restricted to bona-fide journalists who must produce credentials to verify their right of access but many are open to anyone who may wish to use them. Some are ‘private’ sites available only to members (usually for a fee) but most offer some, if not all, of their services at no charge.
Syndication Services
For the purposes of this article, the term ‘syndication’ covers any collection of ready-made copy that is put together for publishing under license, usually through a third party. Such collections may be packaged by subject, type, author or by any other grouping imaginable, but the commonality is that the syndication service provider manages all transactions between creator and user. Some services specialize in certain areas or types of copy whereas others cover the whole gamut of content provision. Most Internet syndication services concentrate more on content for websites than for newsletters but they can still offer a valuable service to newsletter publishers who need to contract for bulk content. Having said that there are one or two that do specialize in newsletter copy.
Types of Content
Many of the links in this article point to resources that encompass various forms of electronic publishing, but the focus in this series is on content in relation to newsletter publishing, whether hard or soft copy. The links included in this article are meant to give you some idea of the range of resources available and some less well known sites have been deliberately intermingled with better known ones. Also, the various ‘types of providers’ mentioned above are covered where possible. The links themselves are a very small representation of the ever-growing number of resources available on the Internet.
Articles
From the point of view of newsletter publishing, the most sought-after form of content is probably articles that cover the topics of greatest interest to the newsletter’s readers. Fortunately, there are many providers of articles on the Internet. Whether they cover topics of interest to your readers, however, is another matter. If your newsletter covers online marketing, for example, you will find a ready abundance of providers of such material. On the other hand, if the main subject of your publication is very tightly ‘niche-specific’, particularly if it’s a somewhat obscure interest, you may find that suitable copy is much harder to find. Having said that, however, there are thousands of potential sources and many ways to search out what you need.
A great many articles suitable for newsletter content are available on the Internet at no charge provided that the rules of accreditation are observed. On the other hand, there is also a lot that is for sale or available under license. The much-quoted adage “you get what you pay for” may no longer be quite as true as it once was but nonetheless care must be exercised if you want information, especially text-based data, of a certain quality and lucidity.
There are an awful lot of people on the Internet who seem to have persuaded themselves that they are experts in fields in which they are really learners. There are others who, though they might well have expertise in their subject, have difficulty expressing themselves clearly through the written word. Price, or the lack of it, just as in the ‘real’ world, can sometimes be a very rough guide as to what to expect. It can only be a rough guide though. Excellent quality original copy is often provided at no charge on the Internet as a way of ‘showcasing’ a creator’s work.
Fillers From Press Releases
Short articles gleaned from press releases can prove very useful because they are so subject-specific. Two major advantages to newsletter publishers is that they are free and that it is normal practice to allow editing without fear of violating copyright (the proviso being, of course, that the core message remains clear and that contact details, if any, remain essentially intact). They are often ideal for sidebars, for instance, or for any occasion where a short piece of text might be called for to augment an original story.
Newsletter Fillers and Features
Two other items that can be used to enhance most newsletters are ‘scatter’ fillers (such as quotations, jokes etc) and regular features (such as crosswords, quizzes, horoscopes, and so on). They have an important part to play in most popular newsletters so don’t make the mistake of undervaluing or dismissing them as trivial or irrelevant. They can be a valuable help in ’rounding out’ a newsletter and are often a real hit with readers.
Illustrations
Clipart is not an ‘online’ phenomenon; many of us were clipping and pasting ready-made line art long before the Internet was first thought of. Nevertheless, newcomers to publishing (and the net) might be forgiven for thinking it is. There are literally thousands of clipart sites in cyberspace and some of them are huge, with tens of thousands of pictures available for download. There are also many more sites that concentrate on other types of graphics such as cartoons, photographs, ‘fine’ art etc.