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Over in England, a Pro-Tibet protester has actually attempt to grab the Olympic torch from the carrier. This really has nothing to do with Web or Graphic Design or Blogging, but it should highlight the seriousness of the issues surrounding China, Tibet and human rights. Personally, I’m against China’s rule over Tibet, but at the same time I believe the Olympics are a time for celebration, and not for politics.

If you’re just looking to quickly set up a few niche sites, whack some adsense or maybe pepperjam ads on it, and start raking in the cash, you’re gonna need some content. If you can’t write this content yourself, you’ll need to find content from another source. Here are your options.

Free content (Creative Commons)
Free content and article sites are the first place you should look. Covering nearly any topic you can think of, these places are a treasure trove of content for those of you who can’t write your own.

• Articlebase.com - 345,028 articles at current count.
• Articlebiz.com - Run-of-the-mill article site, layout’s a bit messy in firefox.
• Articlecircle.com - Not as good as the first two, still OK.
• Articlecity.com - Lots of ads :( but articles are OK.
• Amazines.com - Messy website, articles are passable.
• Freearticles.com - Nice domain, bad layout.
• Articles-hub.com - Just another article site..
• Flickr.com - Search for photos under a Creative Commons (CC) license, so you can use their content. Eg. Click here for Creative Commons, or here for for Creative Commons for commercial use.
• Stock.xchng - Free stock photo library.
• DeviantART.com - As well as having a great stock photography section, most deviations are also embeddable, similar to youtube.
• Stockvault.net - Similar to stock.xchng, a free stock photo library.

Premium Content (Stock, etc.)
As well as free articles and content, there are also other “premium” pre-written/made content available, usually known as “Premium Articles” or “Stock Photos”.

• iStockPhoto - Probably the most well known and reputable paid stock photo website in existence.\
• Lonelyplanetimages.com - Leading travel stock photography website. Excellent general usage stock as well.
• Shutterstock - like iStockPhoto just not quite so big.

Hire Writers
Even better than buying pre-made/written content or using free content, is paying for someone to write/make some content specifically for you. You’ll find plenty of freelance writers and photographers both on line and in person who are willing to do work for you, often for relatively low fees.

• ODesk.com - Hire freelance writers, etc, on a per-hour basis.
• Guru.com - Hire freelancers here.
• Project4hire - Hire freelancers for many different tasks here.
• Freelancerchina - A freelance website claiming to focus on freelancers from china, but seems to have them from everywhere.
• Web Forums - Web forums such as webmaster-talk and sitepoint have “marketplace” sections where you can hire people and freelances, or sell your services.

So, hope that helps out all you “newbies” in getting into the game. But remember: writing your own content is always the better alternative!