Tag: Amazon

How to Self-distribute Online: Using E-junkie to Create an Automated Business Part 2

Here is part 2 of PMD  J.X. Carrera’s  post on how he uses E-Junkie to distribute a film that he made while doing the actual fulfillment himself.

3:  Advertising using Google Ads

Making my tutorial would be useless if no one knew that it existed, so I launched an ambitious advertising campaign that utilized first-tier ad services like Google Adsense and Yahoo SM, as well as several second-tier ad services that most people never hear about.  Everything except Google Ads was a waste of my time and money.  Maybe 97% of my sales came from Google Ads, 3% came from Yahoo SM, and I never got a single sale through the lesser known second-tier services.  (Yahoo SM is supposed to be a quality service, but for some reason, it just didn’t work for me. )

I focused all of my efforts on Google Ads and dumped the rest.  On Google Ads, I created several different ads, experimented with dozens of keywords, analyzed the results, and tweaked continuously over the course of a couple of weeks.  I soon settled on the best performing ad and keyword combination that was bringing in a decent 1-2% click-thru-rate.  On average, I pay about 40-60 cents every time someone does a google search and clicks on my text ad, which links them to my website. Purchase rate after click through hovers around 6%, and about a quarter to a third of the revenue generated from Google Ads is circled back into advertising on Google Ads.

4: Amazon as a Supplemental Revenue Stream

Many writers, such as Jed Riffe, have already done a great job articulating the how-to’s for listing a product on Amazon, so there’s not much need for me to dive into it. But it is worth mentioning that the revenue generated from my DVD listing on Amazon is a fraction of the revenue generated from the sales on my website.  All the Google Ads link to my website, not Amazon.

5: Retail Outlets Can Diminish Your Revenue Stream

Although I began focused on creating an automated business, I also desired to have my video tutorial stocked in a retail outlet, thinking that it would help me generate hoards of cash.  Perhaps this desire also stemmed from a subconscious need to prove that my video tutorial was good enough to exist in an established brick-and-mortar outlet — not the best motivation.  I approached one of the buyers for a large retail outlet based in New York City, and sure enough they bought a box load of DVDs from me at $19.50 each.  At the time, I found this to be extremely gratifying.

Then I noticed an odd occurrence, which was the sales generated from my website took an unexplained dip.  Upon investigating, I found that this retail outlet was selling my tutorial through their own online website at a discounted price.  People who had discovered Crash Course: Final Cut Pro were now buying it cheaper elsewhere, which means I was being undercut and making less money than before.  After that, I significantly decreased my tutorial’s retail presence.  Sometimes, there’s value in being the exclusive or semi-exclusive seller of a niche product.

4:  Self-distribution Overview

For clarity, here’s a quick rundown of all the steps for this automated business:

An aspiring editor or filmmaker google searches the phrase “final cut pro tutorial,” they see my text ad, click it, and go to my website. If they buy the tutorial as a download, the money gets deposited in my Paypal account and E-junkie sends the buyer a link to download the Quicktime file.  If they buy a DVD instead, Paypal sends me a notice that I have to package and mail out a DVD.  My Google Adsense account is linked to my Paypal account, so revenue made from the tutorial pays for the advertising.  Whenever Google Ads runs low on money, it just charges my Paypal account automatically.

As I write this post, everything sounds a bit too easy. The truth is, setting up things like Amazon, E-junkie, and Google Adsense may be time consuming, but not actually difficult in terms of brain power needed. Creating good content, however, is usually both time consuming and mentally intensive.  By far the hardest part of my automated business was the actual creation of the tutorial.  Curating information and trying to figure out how to best teach an idea simply and effectively is painstaking.  It makes me think of the quote by Mark Twain: “I didn’t have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.”  But I wanted a hard-hitting tutorial that editors would recommend to their friends and that I could be proud of creating.  I also took the time to make sure the copy, design, and functionality of my website portrayed a sense of professionalism that would allow customers to feel safe and secure when purchasing from me.  In the end, all the hard work paid off: I’ve sold hundreds of DVDs and downloads, and have received incredibly positive feedback from customers.

5: Wrap up

I started Crash Course: Final Cut Pro with two humble goals: 1) that I would be able to wake up every morning, walk over to my computer, and see money deposited in my Paypal account because someone had purchased a tutorial while I slept, and  2) that I would add genuine value to the filmmaking community by helping to train aspiring editors, giving them a learning tool that I wish I had while first learning Final Cut Pro.

What really makes Crash Course: Final Cut Pro unique, however, isn’t just the content, but its immediate availability as a DRM free download.

Creating and selling a Quicktime file is a lot easier than creating and selling a DVD, yet many filmmakers seem to be reluctant to make their movies available as a download.  I believe this stems from an overblown fear of piracy.  As far as the indie world is concerned, I believe you’re losing money by not offering your video as a download.  There have been many times where I would have purchased a movie instantly had it been available as a download, but since it wasn’t, I moved on to viewing something else.  Briefly stated, people want to watch video in the format of their choosing, and with services like E-junkie, it’s now incredibly easy for filmmakers to quench this desire.

Guest Post: How to Maximize Revenue Selling on Amazon

Today’s guest post comes from filmmaker Jed Riffe who I met this year at Slamdance. He told me that he was surprised at how little money filmmakers make selling their films through Amazon and that he had a system that maximized return from Amazon sales at 80%. I of course immediately asked him to write a post to tell other filmmakers how to do it – and he has generously obliged:

How independent filmmakers can maximize their profits selling and fulfilling DVDs on Amazon.com by Jed Riffe

There are two main options that I use to sell DVDs: 1) Self fulfillment for the orders from my websites. 2) Self fulfillment for the orders from my Amazon. I don’t use Fulfillment by Amazon and I will tell you why:

Self Fulfillment from sales on my websites:
I have three documentary film websites that sell DVDs directly to customers (www.jedriffefilms.com) and a consumer can go online to my websites, read about each film, see one or more trailers or clips and if interested, purchase a DVD. On my websites I sell DVDs of my seven, nationally broadcast documentaries for $24.95 plus $10 Shipping and Handling and any applicable state sales tax. I use Paypal as my shopping cart and pay them a fee of $1.31 or approximately 3.75% for each sale. It is easy to fulfill these orders myself. I drop the DVD and a list of all the films in the Jed Riffe Films Collection in the mail and it is done. I spend .25 cents for the mailing envelope and $1.92 in postage and pocket the rest $31.47.
Continue reading →

Guest Post: Fulfilment Options from Breakthrough Distribution

First off – the next Totbo workshop is in Vancouver in just 2 weeks: February 26 and 27th being organized by DOC BC with support from the NFB and British Columbia Film.   If you are in the Vancouver area – I hope to see you there!

Today’s guest post is from Jeff Rosen from Breakthrough Distribution who helps clients replicate their DVDs and  connect with fulfillment companies.  For those of you who have bought the book from my store – you’ll perhaps remember one of the bonus gifts when you buy the book is a discount on replication provided by Breakthrough Distribution for purchasers of the book.   In the aftermath of the Neoflix debacle, Jeff has taken the time to outline a few fulfillment options for filmmakers:

E-Commerce & Fulfillment Suggestions

DIY: If your sales volume is low and/or you want to maximize the amount you make per sale, fulfilling from your office or home is the most cost-effective option. You can set up PayPal (or other shopping cart/payment account) and ship orders as they come in. This allows you to control the funds, manage the relationship with clients, and ensure your products are sent out on time.

Amazon Fulfillment Services: Amazon provides several options, ranging from simply storing and shipping your items to providing payment processing, customer service, and listing products on Amazon.com. These options range from fulfillment fees of $3.50 for a single DVD to 55% of the total sale amount. You can see these options at http://www.amazonservices.com/content/fulfillment-by-amazon.htm#pane-example-dvd (Jon’s note – On Thursday I’ll have another post about how to maximize fulfillment through Amazon.

Transit Media (TM): If you are seeking to have a reliable third party handle all aspects of fulfillment, we recommend Transit Media, www.transitmedia.net. TM has been in business over 30 years and provides e-commerce/fulfillment services to 100+ film distributors and independent producers; this includes Women Make Movies and New Day Films. We have been working with TM for approximately 18 months and have 35+ clients there that are happy with their services.

TM sets up your shopping cart at no cost, provides an integrated payment processing- fulfillment-customer service platform that enables filmmakers to simply and easily sell any merchandise (DVDs, CDs, t-shirts, hats, posters, etc.) quickly and easily from their websites. When a customer purchases a DVD/merchandise from your site, TM processes the payment and ships the products(s) domestically or internationally. Transit manages all customer service questions/issues related to the purchase. Accounts are reconciled on a bi-monthly basis = you get paid every 2 weeks. There is no set up fees, monthly minimums, or hidden charges. TM takes phone orders and purchase orders and provides unlimited customer service.

Handling Fees + Actual Postage:

  • Home Video Sales: $7.00 per order (DVD, CD, poster, etc.) + actual postage. This includes an unlimited number of items.

You can charge any amount you want to the customer for shipping and handling. For example, you charge:

o   $25 for your DVD + $7 for shipping/handling = $32 total revenue to you

o   Transit charges you $7

o   Postage is $2

o   Transaction fee of 5% = $1.35

o   $21.65 net revenue to you

  • Canadian Home Video Sales: $10.00 per order  + actual postage.

TM processes phone, Internet, fax and purchase orders at no additional charge.

Transaction Fee: In addition to shipping/handling fees, there’s a fee of 5% on the total transaction/sale. This covers the cost of processing payments, order processing, reporting, accounting and customer service.

Expedited Service: additional fee for overnight (FedEx), international orders, and other premium shipping services.

The contact person at TM is Jim Knox

Jim Knox
Transit Media
P.O.
Box 1084
190 Route 17M
Harriman, N.Y. 10926

TMCNDY@aol.com

(P) 845-774-7335

To obtain special rate of $7 (normally $8.10), please mention to Jim that you were referred by Jon Reiss/Jeff Rosen/Breakthrough Distribution

Resource:
If you have questions about Transit Media or have other needs (e.g.,
DVD replication, authoring or outreach) please call (310.425.2312) or email Jeff Rosen @ jeff@breakd.com

DVD Replication

Includes glass master, replication, full-color on-disc printing, full-color cover printing, black DVD case, assembly and overwrap. Shipping and freight charges are additional.

• 1,000 units: $1.09/unit

• 2,500 units: $0.95/unit

• 5,000 units: $0.92/unit

• 10,000 units: $0.82/unit

• 25,000 units: $0.68/unit

Turnaround: 10 days from approval of check discs and artwork. Continue reading →

Totbo Workshop Twitter Winner 1: How Can We Help Filmmakers?

Posted on by Jon Reiss

Here are the winning questions for the Totbo Twitter Contest – providing 3 free passes to my workshop in NY this weekend:

    Question:

@Zaffi What as filmmakers is the best thing we can do to support other filmmakers? #dist2010

    Answer

I love this questions – because it is about giving back to the community which I feel is especially important in this transitional time. Here are my top three quick things filmmakers can do:
Support filmmakers – go to their Live Events, buy their merch.
Promote filmmakers that you like to your networks – be a curator.
A very simple very helpful thing: Review and rate a movie you like on Amazon, IMDB, BoxOfficeMojo, etc.
Be open with your data and techniques. I created a website: www.ultimatefilmguides.com so that filmmakers could share information about distribution and marketing. Rate and review distributors and services. Write up your own case studies – use it and spread the word.

King Corn is Amazing. How filmmakers should help each other.

So I finally saw King Corn, I know long overdue, especially since I know the filmmakers.

Ted Hope is always commenting on how we have to help curate each others films to help each other. Here is what I did to help King Korn:

I twittered about it – which then went on my facebook updates.
I gave it 5/5 on Netflix (where I watched it)
I went to IMDB gave it a 10/10 and wrote the review below.
I cut and pasted that review and posted it on Amazon and gave them 5/5 again.
Filmmakers need to do this for one another. It does take a little time but as we all know these rankings matter and it can only help.

My post on IMDB:
This film is a must see for anyone interested not only in food
production and food policy in the United States, but also what ailes
(sp?) us as a nation. The US government, and the agricultural industry
has unfortunately created a system that is out of whack. While we spend
less than at any time on food, we are spending more and more on
health-care (the one point I wish the film had made more directly).
This film should be seen by all Americans. I saw another comment that
quiblbed with the particulars in the film. The film is not a doctoral
thesis, it is a piece of art trying to raise awareness. I also thought
the device of the two filmmakers staking out an acre of corn and
following it through the year as a spine to the story was quite
wonderful, as well as the animations that they did with a still camera.
As far as I know you can also get the film to screen in your community
from the film’s website. I highly recommend it – would be great food
for thought.

Which now that it is on my blog, has been posted 3x.
Jon
But to make up for it I did the following things which took me all of 6 minutes.