A Question About Making and Selling Videos Online

[Polar Bear Guy]

Hi, hope this is posted in the right place...

I'm new to DVD video but I managed to make a DVD video about Polar Bears. I want to it sell online to raise funds to help save them from the effects of climate change.

The video's turning out really well. It's still in development but it's almost complete and now I want to be ready to get the finished product out into the online market.

I ran across a product called DVD automator which is a PHP script that creates a custom website and totally automates the manufacture and fulfillment of DVD's online. http://offto.net/DVDAutomator/

Basically, you create your DVD, list and upload it to Kunaki.com, promote the website and then the rest is handled by the system and the profit is delivered up front via PayPal.

This would be ideal for me if it works because I have a full time job (I'm a writer) and this is something I'm doing in my spare time. Once the website is up I want to be able to devote the bulk of my free time promoting the website and not packing and shipping DVDs.

Here's the copy off the website:

"CD + DVD Automator is a PHP script that makes it easy to sell and deliver your CD's and DVD's 100% HANDS-OFF! Using CD + DVD Automator you can sell your content, scripts, software, videos and more through PayPal then have them burned, printed and delivered to your customers automatically by Kunaki.com's fulfillment service! You never have to burn CD's or DVD's, print the CD /DVD jackets"

Anyway, my question is, has anyone used either DVD Automator or Kunaki?

If you were doing something like this, would you consider using a website script like this or would you recommend something different?

The script is less than $50 but I'm not a programmer and I'd really rather spend the money on the bears than on a useless script.

Any opinons anyone?

[videopoo]

Personally it doesn't look the best way to get your title out to people who want it. Very amateur looking site so why would I trust them with my title. How is your title marketed? Just get your title replicated, make a 1000 units and sell them through a distributor.

The plight of the Polar Bear is big news these days, I'm sure lots would be interested you just need to find a way to find them. Call people who run websites about the bear and sell with them. Now that your hard work is complete don't think your work is over - selling your title is the most challenging part.

But have fun doing it

[lordsmurf]

That site almost looks like a scam.

You need somebody to make you a good site (an e-commerce model, from the sound of things), somebody to edit and author a professional quality DVD, and then get a replicator to make 1,000 copies for about $600-700. More if you want art sleeves.

I actually specialize in this sort of work (digital convergence and e-commerce), but I'm booked for a while. As far as replication goes, contact www.newcyberian.com

[guns1inger]

Any site that uses testimonials is suspect. Any site that looks that bad, and uses testimonials from people who look to be even more dodgy, should be avoided like the plague.

[Polar Bear Guy]

Thanks for the comments guys!

Yeah, that site does look tacky I'll admit but it looks like it was done by a programmer. I've known a few of those guys during my time and most of them are technically brilliant but very graphically challenged, LOL

I'm not sure I would hold that against him but I understand where you're coming from...

I considered going the bulk replication method but there's too much up front cost. This is a project that's non-profit so we need to keep spending down to the barest of minimums. As in no cost/low cost. Every dollar we give to someone else up front is better off going right to the bears since there's no guarantee of any returns on the investment.

The on-demand route seems like a much better way to go for us. That's what appeals to me about the DVD Automator/Kunaki method if it works.

No up front costs for Kunaki, $50 for the script, a few dollars for hosting, some web design and a lot of promotion.
The system handles the rest. Oh and maybe the odd customer issue which the system would give us all the data for that side.

I looked at CafePress for this but they only do CDs and not DVDs. I already use them for other merchandise like t-shirts etc. and they're excellent in my opinion.

I'm going to do some more research on this product and whatever other similar products I can find and I'll report my findings here for the sake of anyone else that cares to know about it.

In the meantime, if anyone else would like to add their comments, please do...

[Video Head]

Have you considered Amazon.com?

[Nelson37]

Do the first 50 or so yourself, in order to make the up-front costs. Local marketing will give you a feel for the larger market. Try your local vets, the SPCA, the PETA people, lots of folks would help with this for reasons which agree with yours.

What exactly do you intend to do to "help" the bears, import snow?

I am reminded of efforts to "help" the deer population, feeding them during harsh winters. What this actually did was to keep the deer numbers higher than nature would have allowed, overpopulating the area, leading to overgrazing, starvation, and spreading disease. More deer suffered in a more heinous fashion than would have if the numbers had been allowed to naturally decrease.

I got nothing against polar bears, or condors, for that matter. Condors evolved to eat dead wooly mammoths and such, the simple fact is we don't have too many dead wooly mammoths laying around any more.

[lordsmurf]

IT people don't understand promotion, marketing, or communication. It never works. You do VERY MUCH need to hold crappy visual quality against him. People are still overly swayed by look and feel, so you must adjust accordingly.

It is almost impossible to have single discs pressed "as you go". Those are burns. You don't want burns if you want to distribute on a professional level.

That "script" thing, by the way, sounds like complete bullshit. There is no such thing as a script that can control all of that stuff. You require software and setups to burn discs completely separate from how a website operates. You need an e-commerce solution that is heavy on the promotion, and those guys aren't going to cut it.

If you use somebody like that, you'll quit within a year, in failure.

[Heywould3]

create your own branch of a charity for these bears then get on PBS or your local cable/tv networks and promote and ask for donations of services as well as money to get started. slow going but your best bet. these things are free to you. you could also call your local am stations and tell them your deal. they might put op some info on their web site as well as give you free plugs where you can ask for help again.

[oldandinthe way]

Don't waste your time on PBS stations. All of their promotional items are puchased through commercial sources at terms which are more onerous than any Walmart vendor has ever faced. Low $, slow pay etc etc.

With only a single item to sell, don't expect an easy time with pay per download merchants like Apple, Amazon etc.

Selling video downloads on Google Video is an idea, but just about any of their pay downloads can be downloaded for free with a little effort.

Frankly I'd really recommend pressing and packaging the DVDs and a direct mail campaign with a good mailing list. Perhaps coupled with a cheap website with instructions for mailing the donations. Pay for this by looking for a big donor who likes the concept of selling the video.

[ozymango]

First, good luck with all your hard work!

Second, I've got a friend of a friend who works to save chimpanzees in Africa and yow, you've got your work cut out for you -- it's one thing to get people to say "I care," it's quite another to get them to part with $$$.

So I'm coming from the perspective that this is all gonna be about marketing and lots of volunteer help and the technical stuff is the least of your work. Anybody can put together a website and make a DVD -- the tools are available and mostly affordable -- but it's the time and effort that's gonna make or break you. And trying to do this all by yourself ... ...

Here's my philosophical view: What you're trying to do, bottom line, is "sell" people on saving the polar bears, for all sorts of good reasons (and I for one am totally supportive of your mission, based on a trip to your web site). The DVD will be yet another sales tool, but you've already got enough selling on your own plate -- you need to sell this DVD and web part of things to somebody else to do for you, preferably on a volunteer basis.

And then let them take care of it. Because if you can't sell one interested person with web experience and/or one person with video duplication experience, to work with you on this, then you'll never be able to sell the DVD to anybody else. If that made sense.

Again, people will tell you about what they can do and all they're interested in and that's fine, but the proof is in the pudding, you need to find somebody willing to donate his or her own time to help in this -- somebody with web experience, somebody with video experience, maybe it's two or more people, maybe it's one person -- or you'll never be able to save any bears.

I don't mean this to discourage you at all -- I say this as somebody who's had a lot of experience in real-world marketing and what it takes to get other people involved in what you're doing. It's hellaciously hard work, and frankly most people are:

1) Lazy
2) Selfish

Which is not inherently a bad thing, but it means that the way you get people to help you or listen to you is to appeal to their laziness and/or their selfishness, i.e. make it mean something to them, get them interested, give them lots of credit, and then you'll save lots more polar bears.

Good luck!

[Video Head]

IT people don't understand promotion, marketing, or communication. It never works. You do VERY MUCH need to hold crappy visual quality against him. People are still overly swayed by look and feel, so you must adjust accordingly.

It is almost impossible to have single discs pressed "as you go". Those are burns. You don't want burns if you want to distribute on a professional level.

That "script" thing, by the way, sounds like complete bullshit. There is no such thing as a script that can control all of that stuff. You require software and setups to burn discs completely separate from how a website operates. You need an e-commerce solution that is heavy on the promotion, and those guys aren't going to cut it.

If you use somebody like that, you'll quit within a year, in failure.

Smurf makes excellent points.

Have a duplication service press your DVD's and package them for you. Unless you are skilled and experienced in product development you will have a struggle developing a professional product.

How is this script site going to handle your online marketing? If no one sees or can find your site, you will never sell a thing. Online marketers specialize in ensuring your site appears in the top # of sites on the popular search engines. # is determined by how much you spend. If you (or they) do not understand the importance of metatags and keyword search spiders in having people find you, then you could be in trouble doing it yourself. The sheer time involved on a daily or weekly basis to ensure that you appear in the first # entries in a Google search can be daunting.

Have you done a Google search for "save the polar bears". Look at who pops up on top (WWF) and the first 10. Being an activist in this area maybe you know some of these people and can get them to work with you helping to market and sell your video. They are already very visible and involved with the people who would likely purchase your video. Could save you alot of time and $'s that could be used for the bears.

[videobread]

Anyone can make a video on any subject. Selling it AND making a profit is another story. Find a video distributor to and let it go.

[Video Head]

Anyone can make a video on any subject. Selling it AND making a profit is another story. Find a video distributor to and let it go.

Yes. Paramount would probably pick this up in a minute. The problem would be that it would be on alt.binaries.scriptkiddies.multimedia.bears.white. polar.introuble.pleasesave a week before it hit theatres...

hmmm...could be a distribution route.

[stevenlohrenz]

I use Kunaki for all my video and software fulfillment. I've sold hundreds of their dvds and cds and never have had a complaint about the quality. It has completely changed my business and I have a lot more time for marketing and developing new projects. Plus, for a Amray case, cover, shrink wrapped and with your own UPC code for $1.60 - there isn't anyone else out there that can beat them on price for short run dvds. And since you have a UPC code & shrink wrapping, you can drop ship from Kunaki to Amazon.

I developed and offer a piece of software similar to the one that you quote above (PayPal Kunaki Integration Software) with another version for WorldPay coming out soon.

I highly recommend Kunaki but in this instance I don't believe that the software is going to do you any good.

Kunaki has a 'Publish At No Cost To You' Service where you can upload your dvd to their site for free and then sell it using their own shopping cart. The bonus for with this is they currently don't charge any transaction fees for credit card processing and the 'handling fee' of $3.00 that they charge per order is passed onto the customer. In short, your costs are fixed at $1.60 per disc. They collect the money and then (I believe at the end of each month) send you a check = quantity * (your price - $1.60). Here's an example of on of Kunaki's shopping cart page: http://kunaki.com/sales.asp?PID=PX00Z48SXW.

The only reasons to get my software or the CD+DVD Automator is if you:

1. Want to use split or multivariate testing software to optimize your sales page. (Google Optimizer, MuVar, Kaizen, etc)
2. Want to offer an affiliate program with Kunaki.
3. Cannot wait to get the check from Kunaki or cannot cash said check easily (I live in Ireland and cashing American checks is a hassle I don't need).
4. want to offer multiple disc sets through Kunaki.

As to the calls of 'bull' and such about the script being able to do all of that it doesn't - Kunaki offers an XML web service that the scripts interact with - Kunaki has all the software and equipment for burning, packaging, labeling and shipping the discs. The software simply makes it easy to integrate with their Web Services.

In short, from what I can gather - save the $50 for the polar bears!