One of the nice things about the government, is that they create tons of free content for us publishers. That is, since it comes from the government, it's public domain.

What kind of content?

Most of it is news oriented, like alerts and announcements.

For example, I publish a community blog for my hometown, Menifee, CA. So one day I visited the website for the California State Department of Transportation, otherwise known as "Cal-Trans". Everyday they send out alerts in the form of PDF documents, notifying the public of road construction projects. The photo above is an example of one.

Since Menifee is in Riverside County, I subscribed specifically to receive alerts from this area of the State. I get something from them about once a day. That becomes free content that I can republish on my Menifee blog.

And that's just one example. State and federal government is chock-filled with e-mail subscriptions on a myriad of topics. You only need to visit government websites, and discover what's out there.

I also found that my county has its own e-mail notification system for most of its departments. For example, everytime the fire department publishes a press release, I get an e-mail on it.

Some of them are automated, in that you can visit a government website, and submit your e-mail address, and it's all done. But others, you may have to contact a person at an office, and request to be put on a distribution list. Here in Menifee, I contacted the City Clerk, and asked to receive advance copies of city council agenda items via e-mail.

Others, such as our local Sheriff's department, publishes a "police blotter" on their website, but doesn't offer an e-mail subscription. I have to visit that site regularly to see what's new. Nonetheless, it's news material, and public domain.

So, with all that free content available at taxpayer expense, what websites can you build with them? Will these websites monetize well with AdSense, or with CPM ads, or an affiliate program?

Maybe you can find every city and county law enforcement office in the country that will deliver arrest reports via e-mail. Then you find the most funniest, strangest, or dumbest criminals, and create a "stupid crimes" blog.  ✓