Bill Myers - The Video Marketing Letter - 8 months of newsletter (Catlett, VA)

Bill Myers - The Video Marketing Letter - 8 months of newsletter

The Video Marketing Letter100 Bridge Street. 27Hot Springs AR 719011-501-321-1845 Chapter 1From Group M. studiosWednesday 12 38 P.M.July 12 1989 Note Remember that this was written in 1989 however the concepts are still valid. Telephone numbers may no longer be valid to contact the vendors. Check the Internet. Note There are 8 months of newsletters that are bound in this book. Whatever information I have posted is all that I am going to post. If you want to read the rest of it you will just have to buy it. Kingston - Books 15 - IMG_ 7881 Dear Friend and Subscriber .. (page 1). Note some of the information is in briefThis is the new desktop video newsletter. I guess the first thing that you probably notice is that I dropped the nice structured layout and opted for a personal letter approach. I think you ll like this new format. I ll be able to give you more real information about video production in a manner you can use. After you read this letter if you want give me a call and let me know what you think. Anyway before you get started you might want to get a hi-lighter pen nearby because I think you will find some things in this month s letter you will want to follow up on. Oh by the way this month we re focusing on the business side of video next month we ll provide more technical stuff. Let s get started.If you plan to sell a video for Christmas 89 market you must start planning now The magazine advertising cut-off date for most monthly magazines is usually 90 days prior to the issue cover date. September has already passed November and December just weeks away. So you must hurry if you want in on this Christmas market. We re going to be in it.We have placed several ads for videos we are selling in Entrepreneur magazine. Business Opportunities magazine Satellite Watch Amiga Video and Video maker magazines and all of these are 1 6 page display ads. Yep this is expensive almost 4 000 worth of ads.But if I guess right the 4 000 in ad expense should sell 800 to 1 200 copies of the videos at 30 each. And that means a cashflow of 36 000 Which means after expenses my 4 000 investment may net me 24 000 in less than 90 days. That s more than 2400% return on my investment. Do you know of any other legal investment that pays 2400% (if you do call me ). And that may be on the low side. What if only 1% of the 2 million readership of the magazines I m in decide to buy my video That would mean sales of 20 000 copies of the tape Which would gross 600 000 Are you getting interested Your tape could do as well or better I know people who have shot tapes that have sold over 10 000 copies (and used amateur equipment ). Of course there is no guarantee that your tape my tape or even Hollywood s latest tape will sell that many copies. As a matter of fact most tapes won t. On the other hand there are 62 million VCR s in the U.S. and during the Christmas selling season as many as 200 million Video tapes may be purchased. And the only way to get a piece of that pie is to have your tape on the market in time. Now is the time to get started and in the next few pages I m going to provide you the blue print you need to get a part of this action. Even if you don t want part of this 10 billion dollar pie read on. You may learn something.If you want in on the Christmas market this is what you must do ..(page 2)You must come up with a good marketable topic for a tape that you can produce. You must create an effective display ad that you can place in a magazine in magazines that your target market reads. You must contact the magazines that you want to advertise in and ask for the media kit with the current rate card for display advertising. This will tell you their ad rates are and what kind of circulation they have. Before you commit to advertise in any magazine be sure to find out what their read circulation is. And never never agree to pay the posted rate for your ad. The posted rate is just the starting point. We always ask for and usually receive discounts for pre-payment of the ad agency discount frequency discount and first time advertiser discount. After we get all these discounts we ask for more and usually we get it. (I m not opposed to asking for a bigger discount to save another 50 to 100).Once you ve negotiated your ad rates and then reserve space in at least the October November and December issues of the magazine of your choice. When you send a letter of commitment ask to have your ad placed on the right hand side of a right hand page toward the back of the magazine this is where you have a better chance of being seen. OK now that you see how the process works let s take a few moments and look at creating your own video for this Christmas.The most important and most critical thing to do is pick a good topic for a video the topic of your video will make you or break you. Before you get started you need to know about your potential market. For most of us that will be the 240 million Americans and the rest of the people on this planet with access to electricity and a VCR. All of these people basically have one thing in common. They are human and motivated by the same factors. The psychologists tells us that the following motivates people money sex love health beauty power respect recognition peace of mind adventure and enlightenment. Any topic that offers to satisfy the desire for one or more items on that list has a chance to succeed. To narrow this list down lets pick the first topic money. If you do a video on how to make money doing something (almost anything) you will have an audience. So there s your topic. Here are some examples ..(page 3)How to make 100 000 a year from your small farm. How to earn big bucks being a glamour model photographer. How to collect all the money the government owes you. How to make big money working overseas. How to earn a prosperous living running a flea market. How to marry for money. How to get rich at the horse races. Some of these topics may seem to be ridiculous to you but think about it first. If you began promoting a video on How to Marry for Money . Don t you think that you might attract some media attention You ve seen People magazine and its counterpart the evening news. You know how they love little stories like this. You might expect them to mention that somebody is now selling a video on How to marry for Money . And it would attract attention and buyers. The thing could snowball into a mega-hit with sales in the hundreds of thousands. People would buy out of curiosity or just to show their friends. the place to look for topics and at the same time pick up a script for your video is down at your local library or used book store. Your video must have value. The information should be accurate and helpful to anyone who is interested in your subject matter. This is important. And don t make promises you can t keep in your advertising this can get you in trouble. Instead try to offer more than your customer expects. Throw in bonuses to keep them happy. If you treat your customer right it will pay off. Developing Video TechniqueOK now you have a topic but maybe you aren t quite sure you can put a video together. So I ll show you right here.Learning how to shoot videos from trial and error takes a long time and is expensive. If you have the time and money to attend several months of technical schools then by all means go ahead. But their is another way.The easiest way to learn how to put together a video doesn t cost much and it can raise you work up several levels of professionalism. Here s how.. Most local libraries have a video lending section. Even the library in the small town I live in does. Go down to the library and take a look at their video selections. You ll find mostly documentaries 15 minutes to two hours long. Pick out two or three of the tapes that are 30 minutes or less that look interesting to you. Check them out and take them home.When you get home sit down with your wife partner or friend turn the sound off on your TV .. (page 4)And watch one of the videos. As you watch don t try to follow the content of the show. Instead closely examine how the scenes join together (fades dissolves wipes cuts) the length of each scene and any graphics used. Pay special attention to and extra effects. When the video is over take a break and think about it could you do this (Could you take several scenes edit them add graphics and end up with a complete production )Watch all three tapes the same way ignoring the content but concentrating on the assembly process. After watching them all consider which of the three tapes you like best. Then watch that tape again but this time take careful notes of each scene (and any special effects in any scene). I use a special form to do this and I ve reprinted it on the next page. Make several copies of this form and use it to keep notes.Remember watch the video again with the sound still turned off and keep careful notes. These notes will be very valuable to you When you get done with this process you will have a complete shooting and editing script for a video documentary. That script can be a gold mine to you. You can use it as a pattern or recipe for you next video.This script will give you everything you need to know to put together a series of scenes and create a video documentary. Your notes will let you know how long each scene should be any graphics or special effects needed and the in and out transition effect of each scene. This is everything you need to know.The pattern or recipe can be your template to use when you produce your own video on any topic Using this process you will be able to assemble a professional looking video regardless of subject matter and that s very important. Once you feel confidant that you can put together a professional looking video the rest becomes easier.You may think I am over simplifying the whole process. But I m not. What I m trying to do is teach you technique and this is most important. Without knowing technique no matter how much skill you have with the camera editor and special effects equipment you will have a hard time putting good video together. With it you can make bad camera work look acceptable and good camera work look professional. So this is important. More important than what type of camera you are using what type of computer you are using. This may be the most important thing about video production you ever will learn.You may think that using someone else s video as a pattern for your own video is wrong or unethical or at the very least uncreative. Well that s not the way to look at it. Just as the English language has structures that must be follower in order to tell a story that other people can understand video has its own rules. And most producers use these same rules. Once you understand the rules then u can be creative. But just as you would not want to start writing a book in a language you don t understand you don t want to try to create a video without understanding the language of the video.By the way if you watch enough short video documentaries you ll soon see that just as there are some that are really good there are some that really stink. And these should be watched just to figure out what went wrong. You can learn a lot from other people s mistakes just watch my videos and you can learn a lot from what I do wrong Here s something else you might look at while down at the library there are a lot of videos down there that contain footage shot by the U.S. government of wars space and the other things to government is involved in. A lot of this footage is public domain which means you can use it in your own video. But be careful though before you decide something is public domain find out first.Video Shooting & Editing Script .. (page 5) 25Ok now let s get on with the rest of this letter .. (page 6)Putting together the ads to sell your video.After choosing your topic creating your ads is the second most important thing to do. Now I m not going to try to tell you how to write a good ad in this letter there are plenty of books on that subject (not too many good ones though). Instead I m going to show you the ads we will be using this fall for two of our video products that you are familiar with. (By the way don t order these tapes from me if you subscribed to the quarterly videos you will be getting these tapes as part of that package).Notes about our ads Notice the graphic you should always have a graphic in your ad that grabs the reader s attention. We hope the one we use will grab the attention of anyone interested in either computers or video. Notice the headline. Notice the quote. Notice the bold product names. Notice the Special offer. Notice that I am making it easy to buy. The money back guarantee builds confidence and keeps me from having unhappy customers. Notice you can call for a FREE sample and more information. The point of the whole ad is to give no reason for people not to buy. Come this Christmas season and the ads come out I ll find out if I did good or not.I write the ads myself. I ve used advertising agencies before and I never was satisfied with the results. The agencies always seemed to be more concerned with how much money they could make from me rather how much money they could make for me.When I do my own ads I compose them on a computer print them out on a laser printer and then paste in the graphics. Then I show the ad (pasted in the magazine I plan to run it in) to other people and ask them what they think. I m not looking for compliments when I do this what I want is to have someone point out problems to me.I d rather have a boring problem-free ad than a catchy ad with problems. Problems like no phone number no address no price vague descriptions and other killer stuff. Ok back to the work of creating videos. TECHNICAL UPDATE .. (page 7)I added some new software to my system this month. Not so much that I needed new software but I was curious if any of the new stuff really lived up to all the claims that the companies make in the advertising. Here s what I found out Video Effects 3-D The latest release of this program has finally reached the market. This is still the best effects program for most video makers and the new release offers improvements primarily in speed (which was needed) Broadcast Titler by Innovision Although I am quite satisfied with Pro Video Plus Gold as a character generator many people were asking me about Broadcast Titler so I went ahead and bought it. Maybe if I hadn t already seen Pro Video Plus Gold I would have liked this program but to me Broadcast Titler is not even in the same league with PVP. In the first 30 minutes that I used the program it crashed three times Live by A-Squared systems and Invision by Elan Design I saw a tape that a friend had put together using the Live Board and I knew I wanted this product. The board and the software are really powerful. And can be used to create some neat special effects like color shift mirror image colorization and frame grab - effects suitable for music videos and maybe for some commercials. (We used this in DTV NAB and will show it off again in DTV IV). Although this is a unique product it only has limited practical applications.Digi-View Gold The reviews and the ads finally got to me so I ordered a copy of Digi-View Gold the Panasonic copy camera and the copy stand (about 400 total). This setup allows you to digitize color or b w photographs that then can be used with paint programs or other programs or other programs that can accept IFF images.Buy Out Music I finally broke down and bought a complete library of buy out music. I chose the Platinum series of CD s from 27th Dimension. Their library consists of 7 CD s packed with various music formats with lengths ranging from 2.5 minutes to 5 minutes perfect for video And legal to use without the fear of copyright violations. Dimension offers a free sampler CD to anyone that is interested. 1-800-634-0091. There will be a few of us who earn anywhere from 50 000 to 500 000from our videos this Christmas season. Are you going to be one of us or one that just watches .. (page 8)In the next issue of this newsletter I will be looking at how to develop a topic and I plan to present over 100 different video topics that you could use for your first video. By the way anytime I give you an idea or information here don t be afraid to use it. Just like the idea on How to Marry for Money . Somebody will eventually do that video and make a bundle. I hope it is one of you.Anyway next month we will look at video topics more software and technical stuff and take a look at setting up your own studio. Till then Bill MyersA note from Howard Walker For those of you looking for a computer editing system have a look at this one that I found in a demo on You Tube s www.youtube.com watch v t6yQwLuoO3w Chapter 2 (in brief)From Group M. studiosWednesday 12 38 P.M.August 14 1989 Dear Friend and Subscriber .. (page 1)It s amazing how time seems to pass when you re staying busy. Do you realize it is already August the summer is almost over the year is almost gone and in less than 4 months we ll be celebrating the beginning of 1990 Less that 4 months away Like I said time sure flies when you are staying busy.We finished and shipped Desktop video IV last month. Most of you have already received your copy of this latest tap on the subject of desktop video and judging by the response we received from those of you who have seen it it is a much better tape that DVT II. I appreciate all your calls especially from those of you who pointed out how I could improve the next tape. Granted our tapes still won t get us to Hollywood yet but the production qualities have improves enormously since the original DTV I (shot in the bedroom of my home). By the way if you have ordered DTV IV and have not received your copy or you purchased DTV II and would like to upgrade to the latest tape call my office today We have tapes ready to ship to you.I spent a great deal of time in the studio last month editing DTV IV & trying out several new pieces of software for the Amiga. Every time I go into the studio I learn something new and one thing I learned this time is the three best pieces of dtv software out there still the old standbys Pro Video Plus Gold Video Effects 3D and TV-Text. With these three programs an Amiga and a gen-lock you can put together a very good looking video. We ll talk about software and hardware later in this letter.Last month I promised I would provide you with 100 ideas for money making video topics. Now if you ve been reading this newsletter very long you know that I consider the topic of the video the most important element more important than the type of camera you use your skills in editing or how good you create graphics. Quite literally the topic of your video can make you or break you.Marketing the right video topic at the right time can make you rich. People will be willing to stand in line to give you your money they ll ignore minor production problems they ll ignore minor production problems they ll forget the little editing errors if the topic is good enough. On the other hand if you pick the wrong topic you won t have to worry about the quality of your tape because you won t have many buyers You ll probably lose your shirt advertising the product and no matter how good a tape you ve put together it won t matter you ll still lose money. And worse than losing money you ll lose a much more valuable commodity time and momentum.I found out the hard way. I spent three months developing what I thought was a great topic for a video how to assemble a low cost personal greenhouse (or food factory) for under 100.00. I thought was a great idea everybody would want a greenhouse I bought ads in several farming publications (Mother Earth News Organic Gardening etc.) and waited for the orders to roll in. Except they didn t. After 90 days I had only received two orders a total of 60. Not much of a return on an investment of over one hundred hours of my time and over 1.000 in ads.Fortunately during the same three months I had promoted other video tapes that did sell well so all (page 2)was not lost. But still it hurt. My idea didn t work and I didn t know why. I wanted a greenhouse to grow fresh vegetables in why didn t anyone else I never figured that one out. But what I did begin to understand was people buy what they want not what they need.If you try to sell a video about something that everyone needs you can count on it being a failure. But if you can figure out what people want you ll have a winner on your hands Ah I know it sounds too simple. Let s take a look at it this way. Suppose I could show you how to live longer by eating right. That s what you need to know. You wouldn t buy the tape oh you might say you would but when it came right down to it you d spend your money on something else that you really wanted.Now if I did a tape on How to buy confiscated Porsches or Mercedes cheap you might buy that tape. You probably don t need a Porsche that does 184 mph but you might want one. And you might buy the tape. Now don t laugh I put together a book called Smuggler s Blues which showed how to buy at government auctions and it sold several thousand copies. So I know the demand is (or was) there for that kind of stuff. Now more about your topic. Here s the key point The Simpler the Better. By focusing on just one idea for the video and presenting just that one idea you can develop a product that will appeal to a specific customer. OK here s the list of 100 money making topics that might work for you VIDEO TOPICS .. (page 3)MoneySecurityBusinessAdventureVideo ComputerSelf RelianceLove & MarriageUnusual OK I know what some of you are thinking weird weird weird this guy is weird ..... (page 4) Maybe you re right Maybe you re right but if you want to be successful in this business you must have an open mind and be willing to try the unusual. The more the unusual the video the more the more attention it is likely to attract and the more and the more attention that it is likely to attract and the more customers you ll likely end up with.I m not foolish enough to consider myself an expert on picking up good topics (If I were I d be rich) but if you have a topic you are going to promote and you want a second opinion give me a call. You may not like what I tell you but I will give you my honest opinion and that could save you some time and money. New Directions in Attracting Customers Last month I wrote about advertising in magazines as a good way to promote your videos. For many videos this is the best way. But for others it simply won t work. It is sometimes very hard and expensive to reach the exact market your tape is intended for with magazine advertising. But there is a way to do it with your partner Uncle Sam.You see thanks to Uncle Sam you can have a copy of your ad personally delivered to the home or business of your potential customer by an employee of the federal government for only twenty five cents. Yes the U.S. Post Office in all its wonderful and marvelous ways will hand deliver your ad to your customers for twenty five cents (or less). And it usually only takes a few days from the time you send it till your customer has your ad in his hands This means that instead of waiting for months to see if there will be any response to your magazine ad you will know in a matter of days whether your potential customers are going to buy your product. Imagine sending out 5 000 letters and within just 10 days receiving 800 orders Pretty exciting isn t it Direct mail can be a good way to raise cash quickly And that is why direct mail is so great for video If you have a video for a specific market try direct mail. There are several companies that sell mailing lists that can provide you with the names and addresses of different consumers by categories such as profession geographical location buying habits marital or family status. Lists are available on pre-gummed labels or on computer disk (preferable).Three companies that offer mailing lists and free catalogs are American Business Lists 1-402-331-7169Alvin B. Zeller 1-212-689-4900Dunhill Mailing Lists 1-800-223-6454 Back to Videomaking Last month I promised to show you how to avoid paying retail for ay video equipment or studio supplies you need. And here s how. First buy the equipment and supplies as a re-seller. Almost everything you buy for you video business is intended to be resold (to your customers). This qualifies you as a reseller which means you should be buying directly from distributors and saving money in the process .. (page 5) You can buy blank tape at real discounts if you are a re-seller. For example quality blank tapes in quantities of 10 starting at 2.20 for five minute length going to 3.30 for two hour Sony s. Here s some sources call for their catalogs Qualitone 1-800-431-2490 & 1-800-833-8884Webb Electronics 1-913-492-6772Snyder Distributors 1-800-777-1040 These three companies are distributors they generally sell to the retailers who in turn sell to consumers. Buying directly from distributors can save you a bundle. But there is a small catch. Some distributors will want to know your tax-id number before they sell to you or send you their catalog. This should not be a problem. Most of you either already have a tax-id or will be getting one in the near future.Most distributors are eager to sell to you and don t make it too difficult to buy. Some even accept VISA MC although most favor COD. Of course distributors don t charge you any tax.One problem you will find with most distributors is that they usually don t carry the expensive video components from the name brand manufacturers. For example finding a distributor of high-end Sony equipment is almost impossible. But it can be done. I ve located a Sony dealer who will sell me anything in the Sony catalog for 100 over distributor cost. I ve promised not to print his name here but if you need Sony stuff call me and I ll get a price quote from him. By the way all the Sony Hi-8 equipment is back ordered and there is a two month waiting period at the distributor level. This problem is expected to ease by Christmas. Be sure to shop around and don t be surprised to find some of these companies selling products at below distributor prices (they buy in BIG quantities ). As for Amiga hardware and software we ve got a problem. Commodore hasn t been too successful in marketing the Amiga in the U.S. although the Amiga is a major seller in the rest of the world. Because of the U.S. sales lag it s sometimes hard to find a real Amiga dealer anywhere. But there are some good mail-order firms selling Amigas (Infotronics 1-203-263-5350 Computability 1-414-357 8181). If you want a bargain on an Amiga just wait. Rumor has it that Commodore is about to cut prices on the Amiga 500 and 2000. I believe these rumors. Last week I found a real live walk-in Amiga store selling the Amiga 2000 for 995 and the Amiga 500 for 495. Of course by the time you add a second disk drive a monitor and .. (page6)Enough memory to run anything you will be back in the big bucks. Still the prices seem to be falling on the hardware. Amiga Software bargains are everywhere all you have to do is look. The best prices are usually the Mail order houses where you will generally save 40% off the list retail price. Back in the Studio I get a number of calls each month asking me what kind of computer set-up it takes to begin adding graphics to a video. Many of you who have seen DTV IV already know what I m going to say here but it bears repeating for those of you who haven t gotten your computer equipment yet. Here goes As a minimum you will need the following hardware My Choice of Software would include My choice of Video equipment would be My choice or studio equipment would include Studio Hints Notes from the studio .. (page 7)As I mentioned earlier in this letter I spent much of last month in the studio taping editing adding graphics and trying out several new pieces of software. This is a summary of what I learned Broadcast Titler from Innovision still has some problems.Pro-Video Plus Gold is still the best program for character generation.TV Text is one of the low-cost relatively unknown programs yet it is one of the most useful on the market.Video Effects 3D is the special effects program that can take input from other programs and create special effects involving rotations spins and tumbles zooms similar to beginning graphics seen in most news programs.Movie Setter is a simple low cost animation program that is easy to learnEditing a 120 minute tape is hard work especially if you try to get it right. I don t use an edit controller because I haven t figured out how to add graphics between edit points so I edit manually. This involves a lot of pausing on the recorder and source player and then trying to synchronize graphics on the fading video.I had some problems getting my Panasonic AG-1830 recorder to synchronize with the studio quality JVC BRS610U Recorder I am using. This seems to be a common problem synchronizing equipment by different manufacturers. Since everything we use including our 10 deck duplicating system is Panasonic I ve decided to use the .. (page 8)New Panasonic 1960 and sell the JVC BSRS610U S-VHS recorder. It s a great unit but not compatible with the Panasonic 1830 and 1960 units.Back In the Studio Again We ve started production on DTV 5 Desktop Video for Profit . This tape will primarily cover how we and other people are using desktop to make money. The tape will go into detail on selecting a money making topic developing a marketing plan placing ads direct mail considerations writing a script shooting the different scenes. Editing the tape and duplicating the final product.Next Month We ll be looking at different sources for used inch equipment and taking a tour of a real video production studio to see what kind of equipment is used by the pros. We ll also review the new Neriki S-VHS gen-lock for the Amiga the Panasonic 1960 S-VHS editing deck and some additional dtv software. Chapter 3 (in brief) From Group M. studiosThursday 7 35 A.M.September 14 1989 Dear Friend and Subscriber .. (page 1)I know the newsletter is a little later this month but boy do I have a good excuse. You see in addition to publishing three newsletters producing one video managing the marketing side of this video business and trying to keep my girlfriend happy (that s probably the most difficult task ) I had a 48 hour video adventure you won t believe. Last week beginning on Wednesday afternoon and continuing through Friday evening I was invited to tag along with an NBC News camera crew and production unit as they prepared a segment for the NBC national evening news. What an opportunity to learn about video production These guys really knew video and they were willing to let me come along on an assignment and ask all the questions that I could come up with. It was great NBC News decided that they would do a feature on the growing phenomenon of women using handguns for self defense so they had their research department start looking for sources of information. It wasn t long before they contacted Sonny Jones (the writer editor of the newsletter Women and Guns).When they arrived at the offices of Women & Guns (which is part of our offices) I introduced myself told them about the Video Marketing Letter explained about our efforts with desktop video and shwed them our studio. They seemed like pretty nice guys so I asked the big question Could I tag along and ask a few questions take a few pictures and write about this in the newsletter And surprise They said Yes .So what did I learn form this once in a lifetime experience Many things that should help you and I do better videos. Here is a brief summary Notes from 48 hours on location with NBC News ..(page 2)The freelance camera crew from West net Video uses the best equipment money can buy. Because the network demands good video regardless of conditions the West Net crew always packs and uses a portable lighting system.. When shooting outdoors every attempt is made to use favorable daylight conditions when available. Before any camera shot is made the audio is always checked. The crews us a number of mics. When possible they used a wired boom mic to get best results. Using a professional crew is expensive. The union standard rate was for a camera and sound man with their own equipment was 1 100 per day plus expenses. The producer scriptwriter was responsible for providing the camera crew with a list of camera shots he wanted making sure the continuity of each shot was correct making sure that everybody was at the right place at the right time and in general making sure that everything was going well and within budget. The overall budget fro the two minute 45 second news segment was a little over 30 000. That works out to over 10 000 per minute of finished video It took almost 3 hours to shoot what will mostly likely be less than 20 seconds of video footage ..(page 3) But it had to be right. Last month I promised you I would talk about how the professionals put together a short video production .. (page 4)Two months ago we placed ads in a number of publications promoting our latest video productions Desktop Video for Profit and Desktop Publishing for Profit. We invested over 4 500 in 1 6 page magazine ads in several publications.We followed the basic marketing steps that we covered in Desktop Video for Profit. Just as a reminder I ve reprinted them here again.You must select a topic that people are willing to pay to see on video You must determine if there is a way to reach potential customers economically with you advertising. If you can t go back to step 1 You must have some way to take orders for your product. You should have a phone number a real address and be able to accept charge cards and COD. You must place test ads for your video before you actually produce it Based on the response from you test ads either abandon the project or begin writing a script. Once the script is written determine whether you can produce the video or whether you need to have someone else do it If you have gotten this far it s time to start marketing the video usually with ads in magazines or newsletters or direct mail campaign Once the ads are in place now is the best time to produce the video. It s important to keep it simple and clean. It s best to work within your limits. And now the fun part filling orders. Duplicating tapes processing checks and bankcards shipping the product. If you can do the above in the right order YOU can make money marketing videos But if you are like most of the people who I have talked to you won t do it right. As I have said before we don t even start production on a video until we have received at least 100 orders for it. If we can t sell it we don t shoot it. We learned how to make our video business very profitable we ve gotten used to having the funds .. (page 5)Needed to buy new equipment pay the rent and feed ourselves regularly. And we like it. So we approach our business like a business ilke a business and it pays. Putting together a simple industrial videoLast month we spent some time with a local video production house to learn how they used their equipment to put together basic industrial videos.During our visit they were about to put together a six minute video for a client to be used to show local tourists how pottery is made in a local tourist attraction.On location using just one camera they began shooting the video. Each scene of the shooting list was set-up and taped twice from each of the three camera angles. About 60 minutes of footage was shot. It was in the studio that the real magic began. The first thing that was done was to take a blank tape and black it by recording input from a camera with the lens cap on and the audio system unplugged. This prepared the tape for insert editing.Then once the video tape was blacked the client approved script was read by a professional announcer and recorded over the blacked tape. Since the narration was timed beforehand it covered the full 6 minutes as needed. Adding narration before adding video makes sense once you ve seen it done. It may seem like a crazy idea but it sure makes for a smooth finished video.Once the narration was added it was time to add appropriate video. Using an edit controller video was inserted to match the audio narration. It was pretty easy to do. All that was required make sure that whatever was being spoken about on the audio was being shown on the video. An edit controller was absolutely necessary here because of the sheer number of insert edits many edits were made to show different angles and perspectives of the same shot.The editing went very well especially considering we weren t using time base corrected video. I did learn a new term flash frame . Flash frame is the effect that results when you edit in an unrecorded frame of video. Even one frame destroys the continuity of the video. Flash frame usually occurs when you try to edit too close to the end of a recorded scene. Most video edit controllers are accurate to plus or minus 5 frames. But if plus or minus goes the wrong way you may end up with flash frame. With over 60 edits we only ended up with two. By tightening up our edit points in the controller we were able to re-edit without any flash frames .After we were satisfied with the video we went back and added background audio from buyout music. This final touch really gave the finished product that professional touch. The right music can make a big difference in the video.Later when the finished product was shown to the client he said he was very pleased and impressed ..(page 6)He gladly paid the bill which amounted to 750.00