Video Marketing
 

Hi everyone,
I've been in business since May 2002. I produce, shoot and edit my own videos that I then put up for sale on my web site. For now my videos have been in the upskirt/panty fetish niche, but I want to (and will with my releases in 2004) branch out into the more broader market so that I can compete with DreamGirls and other softcore companies of the like. My question is this, I've been busting my ass since May 2002 and made just over $3,000 in 2002 and unfortunately less in 2003. I've talked to other video producers (even those in my own niche) and they make enough to do this full time ($40,000 a year). What am I doing wrong? Does anyone have some ideas as to the best way to market my videos to the public? I've tried Google Ad words, Overture, banner exchanges & links, TGPs, and newsgroups (bad idea) with no change in sales. This is frustrating to me because I've shot with 2 Gallery magazine centerfolds (from 2002), all my content is original and many customers have emailed me expressing how pleased they were with my videos. Also, many first time customers buy all the videos I have on my site with their very first visit! So, I know I have something good, I just have run out of ideas as how to get the word out to video buyers that I exist. Any and all suggestions to better marketing, especially from those that have marketed videos, would be welcome!
Thanks

Are you marketing these videos to surfers or webmasters?

I'm selling them to surfers. I'm hoping that some of the other web masters here sell videos (tangible goods not video on demand) on their sites and they can share some marketing strategies.

Hi sabufan,

Thats surprises me..... I always thought your "content" was nice.:D

Is it just that people dont buy videos anymore?

DD

I'd offer some help, but I suck at selling hard goods to surfers :(

Hey Dave (love your site),
Yes, I think this could be part of the problem because I get a handful of emails every month from new surfers asking when I'll have DVDs available. Well, I can't invest the nearly $4,000 to get 1,000 copies of my first title printed up if I have no funds coming in... it's always something.

Hi sabufan,
can you show some examples of your videos or just our site, where you sell it? Does you have a pay site or how do you sell your videos? If you make really good stuff, why don't you want to sell it to webmasters, not to the serfers?

I don't care about a CD as long as I can download them with their licenses.

What do you charge?

Would you be interested in setting up an affiliate program?

This board is a good way to get the word out. :)

Sorry, but I'm not interested in selling content or anything like that.

Sabu, because of the power of the web, and your perfect marketability, have you thought of a profit sharing, rev sharing or straight payout program that would entice affiliates to sell your product for you, for an oppratunity to earn some revenue on their side?

Gotta spend it to make it.

That's a good idea but to be honest, I wouldn't know how to get something like that started.

Sabufan: The selling of video as content is a very good way to improve your overall bottom line, and to help create a "brand" for your product. Imagine for example a fetish site plug-in featuring the "exclusive Sabuvision upskirt videos"... offer your plug in with a retail upsell, and away you go. Suddenly you have exposure up the ass.

Selling older material as straight content (vid clips, stills, etc) is another way to bring more income for your material. This money can be the (near) pure profit on top of a break even video project... maybe sell semi-exclusive 10 sets per video 1 year after it is "released", and don't include all of the material, just enough parts to make it work out. 10 sets even at $100 each is an extra 1k income for each video, which can greatly change the overall profit outlook. As semi exclusive, you should be able to bring in a bit more. You might want to farm the actual sales out to someone else, and give up some of the income - but you will still be getting money for nothing, if you know what I mean.

Finally, making distriubtion deals with fetish oriented distribution labels might also help - but they are rare and usually not moving enough product to make the real big dollars.

It's all about identifying all the different potential income sources, and not getting yourself trapped in a single low turnover revenue stream. Direct marketting is the donkey work of video sales, you are really doing this the hardest way possible, IMHO.

Alex

@sabufan
As it was already mentioned, try to keep your sales on a larger ground and the overall income will be what you are looking for. If you need any help selling your content to the european market, we probably can help you by doing this: http://www.norespect.com/en/broker.html

Greenguy, I need some advice
 

Greenguy,
I'm interested in hearing your experience with selling content to webmasters. I may be interested in doing this. I want to know how to get started and if it would be possible to keep my content branded, meaning even if I sold images and video on demand to webmasters, their members would know that the content came from my site: candygirlvideo.com
Thanks, and forgive me for being such a newbie...