Trying to Transition from Free-2-Paid Slideshow DVD Creation

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Trying to Transition from Free-2-Paid Slideshow DVD Creation

Postby bmccollum » Fri Jul 31, 2009 12:00 pm

I've been a member of the Proshow Enthusiasts Forum for probably 2 months. I have *thoroughly* enjoyed reading through numerous topics and their related posts since joining the forum.

Earlier today, I was reading the posts under the topic of "Doing Business in This Economy" or something similar to that. I noticed that someone had made special mention of doing a good # of slideshows for elementary / middle / high schools. That pretty much parallels what I'm trying to get involved with locally with various schools if it seems that the interest is there.

Here's a synopsis...

I have an undergraduate degree in Human Resources Mgmt., another undergraduate degree in Marketing, and an MBA in Information Systems. I've been married for 11 years and we have a 5-year-old daughter. My regular "day job" is doing software development for an company that sells inventory mgmt. software primarily to businesses related to the aviation industry. I've been doing software development now for about 14 years, with 8 yrs. of that time being an independent contractor & having written software for probably 10 different companies in our local area.

I got into using Proshow Producer about 3 yrs. ago when I found out that my daughter's Early Childhood end-of-year program at the private school where she attends incorporated a slideshow into the beginning portion of the program. Essentially, they use the slideshow to showcase at least a single picture of all of the children (usually about 100) in the EC2/EC3 "grades" (taken throughout the school yr.), and then they padded the slideshow w/some additional pics. above & beyond the single pics. of ea. child to add some additional length to the slideshow. Show usually runs around 12-14 min. in length & is dual-purposed.... (1) to of course show some great pics. of the children at school throughout the yr. for parents/grandparents/etc. in the audience to ooohh, ahhhhh, laugh & smile at... and (2) to give the teachers some additional "buffer time" at the beginning of the program to finish getting the children assembled in their various groups & dressed & whatnot before they begin hitting the stage class-by-class to sing a few songs & perform the program.

Upon hearing from the teacher that's normally tasked w/assembling the slideshow, I asked if they usually assemble it themselves or do they contract it out or what. She said they paid to have it done a yr. or two but that they typically assemble it themselves, with that particular teacher typically being the one that does 99.9% of the work w/it. Before I could even open my mouth further, she smiled & asked if I was volunteering to assemble the slideshow. I told her that yes, I actually was!

Fast forward maybe 6 months from then and she provided me a DVD with 1500+ photos taken all throughout the school year and included a folder w/the 100-or-so "must use" pics. in order to make sure that at least one photo of ea. child was included in the show.

I used Proshow Producer to assemble everything, picked appropriate music (2-3 tunes throughout) to go along with several different sections of photos I "broke up" the display of pics. by including a trivia section in the middle of the 2 sections of photos & put interesting/unknown/neat facts about some of the teachers in that short section & gave the questions a few seconds to remain on there before revealing the name/picture of the teacher that the previous question/fact belonged to. That section definitely got some laughs / surprise reactions from the viewers of the show once they knew which teachers the facts belonged to.

At the end of the show, I inserted a short video of myself explaining that I was provided around 1500 photos taken of their children from all throughout the school year, that they were all high-resolution photos, and that the parents of ea. child would be given a **FREE** DVD copy of the slideshow they'd just seen to take home w/them at the end of the program... complete w/of course the slideshow on there *and* all of the 1500+ high-res pics. on there in the background in organized folders for browsing on their computer.

The parents were obviously very surprised and long applause and many personal "thank-you's" were offered to me at the close of the program.

The end result is that I've continued to assemble the end-of-year slideshow for the Early Childhood wing of my daughter's school and have assembled them 3 years in a row now and I continue to burn copies for all of the parents of the children & they receive them at no charge.

I have just been doing this for fun & the enjoyment of seeing the parents' reaction to the show & so forth and I don't ask my daughter's school to reimburse me in any way, but they normally do anyway and give me a $50-$100 gift certificate to a nice restaurant in town or something similar.

Fast forward to 2 weeks ago when I finished assembly of a more extensive slideshow to be shown at 2 out of 3 events relating to my wife's 20th high school reunion. I did this one "on the cheap" as well and only asked a mere $5 for a copy of the DVD since this was of course for my wife's class reunion, and again, I volunteered to do the slideshow more out of enjoyment & to help out her reunion committee than I did to make a ton of money off of DVD sales. I've sold about 35 DVDs at present out of the 70-ish people that attended the reunion events and people seemed to really love it when it was shown. It began with a few recent pics. of ea. classmate & their spouse/child(ren) where applicable & had a quick title slide before ea. classmate's 2-3 pics. w/the classmate's name as to help people determine who the pics. were of if by-chance the classmates had changed too drastically since 20 yrs. ago to be easily-recognized. There was then a brief trivia section with some interesting facts/etc. on there for 4-5 of the classmates. Then a section of about 150 "back in the day" photos from their high school days were shown. Lastly, it ended w/a motion background of the US flag flying & patriotic music playing and recognizing/thanking numerous individuals in the class that had served our country in the US Military.

Since the close of the reunion events 2 weeks ago, I've been working on adding pics. taken by myself/others at the actual reunion events themselves & have added 3 additional sections to the existing slideshow w/those very recent photos in there, too. That version of the DVD is what I've made available to people for $5 and I should begin mailing them out in about a week once I'm through incorporating the remaining photos in there. The DVD contains altogether about 1250 "current" pictures of classmates & their families & from the reunion events, and about 600 high school pics. from 20 yrs. ago... all present again behind the scenes of the DVD in organized folders.

So, with this in mind, I've begun contacting various other 20-year high school reunion groups (some locally and some out of state) to see if I can contract myself out to assemble other reunion slideshow DVDs. I'm not wanting this slideshow DVD creation opportunity to become my full-time position, but I'd love to do this on the side on a regular basis for some extra income. I believe the market is there...

I've already received a request to do a slideshow for a Sept. 2009 reunion in VA and possibly another one & have mailed several sample DVDs of my work to a few other groups that requested them. I've maybe sent out 40 emails to various groups thus far.

My thought is to charge the reunion group $100-$125 for a single copy of the DVD to be shown at the reunion, and make available an "enhanced" DVD contain additional photos (i.e. photos taken at the reunion events) added to the slideshow for $10-$15 per copy and then mail those out when completed about 3 weeks after the close of the reunion once I've collected as many reunion photos from people as possible & incorporated those into the DVD.

I have no idea if those charges are way off-base one direction or the other. Any suggestions/recommendations there? For $100-$125 for just the single DVD and no other sales otherwise to individuals attending the reunion, I'd of course absolutely lose my shirt, as I spend a great amt. of time collecting/organizing photos provided to me electronically & even collecting photos from people via the Facebook sites (with permission, of course) to use in the slideshow. But, with moderate sales of individual DVDs coupled w/the sale of the "master DVD" that's shown at the event, I would come out pretty well profit-wise.

I'm also planning on contacting all of the local elementary/middle/high schools around town (there are a huge # of them altogether) to see if there's any interest/market for either end-of-yr. shows for the elementary/middle schools or senior class slideshows for the graduating class.

Not to brag, but I feel like I do some extremely solid, creative work w/the slideshows I've put together over the last several years (have done a few retirement celebration and 50th wedding anniversary slideshows pro-bono as well) & people have genuinely enjoyed them. I don't assemble "cookie cutter" shows and I put a tremendous amt. of time in trying to make the shows as interesting/creative as possible & as flattering to the photos being shown as possible... but without having 200 different transitions or special effects going on to where the intended conveyance of the slideshow itself is completely lost in trying to hit a "wow" factor with over-the-top special effects and transitions and whatnot. I use the technology and special templates and slide styles and whatnot, but I use them sparingly as to not take away from the main thing that the slideshows are supposed to show... the PHOTOS.... and not 200 fancy transitions/effects that eventually make people dizzy.

:-)

With that long, drawn-out amt. of info. (sorry... I type about 90 words per minute), I'd sincerely appreciate any additional insight/comments/recommendations/personal tactics you use for finding business/etc. if you have any of that to share w/me.

I know that people that purchase a DVD I create for whatever type of event would be getting a tremendously-nice keepsake for what I believe is a very reasonable $10-$15 per DVD.

Thanks in advance for reading through all of this and for any time you spend providing me w/any of your collective insight/opinions on all of this.

dnmilikan

Re: Trying to Transition from Free-2-Paid Slideshow DVD Creation

Postby dnmilikan » Fri Jul 31, 2009 9:02 pm

Hello,
It sounds like you have been a busy beaver. You ask some very good questions and I wonder how you have conducted your business when you write software for others? I ask this question having been involved in marketing and creating several businesses during my career.

It seems that one of the common errors that we can make (I have made it myself) is to discount the value of our time and our efforts.

I learned a very good lesson from Frank Carney (one of the founders of Pizza Hut) some years ago. He indicated to me by virtue of his actions that the single greatest commodity that he had to sell was not his pizza but instead it was his time. When I stopped to think about it that is true for each and every one of us. We, each and every one of us, has the same twenty four hours each day...how we value it and how we spend or waste it will often be the sole determiner between success and failure.

What is your time worth? What is your time worth not only to others but most importantly to yourself? Why do any of us settle for a bargain basement valuation on our time when it is we who determine this value?

I probably didn't give you any answers...I don't intend to. I do hope that I have given you something to consider.

Best wishes,
Donald Miller

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Re: Trying to Transition from Free-2-Paid Slideshow DVD Creation

Postby VernonRobinson » Sun Aug 02, 2009 10:33 am

Your approach seems solid, but as Don pointed out, I am not sure what you are actually earning for the time invested. Also, it seems that you have done a lot of pro-bono work. It is often difficult to transition a group from pro-bono to a fee. So I would limit that approach. Definitely use your past work as a reference, but I would be concerned about adding more freebies. Also, the charge of $5.00 for a copy. With the cost of disc, labelling costs, and postage, that is a break even proposition without considering the labor and time invested. In short, unless your goal is to keep creating free slide shows, I am not sure how you make a profit to invest in software upgrades, newer equipment, new styles, etc. Your day job as a software designer may mask those costs, but it should allow you to create greater profit.

Do you see much competition in the area where you are operating? Most people do not have an appreciation for the amount of time it takes to cull the pictures and organize them. Also, it might be ok to use a few of your shows over again. These mini-templates is what will allow you to gain efficiency and improve your earnings.

Regards,
-Vernon

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Re: Trying to Transition from Free-2-Paid Slideshow DVD Creation

Postby joemav57 » Mon Aug 03, 2009 6:12 am

I'm like you. I do a lot of pro-bono work for family and friends. I also do a show for my H.S. baseball team. I give the team's club the DVD's to solicit donations. They usually get $10 a copy to put in their coffers. They have gotten more. On average it brngs them a few hundred dollars in donations. I rely on their group though to provide the photos.

I have however done quite a few "paid" shows. It is usually people who have seen my family's or friend's DVD's wanting something for their family. I charge a set fee depending on the number of photos they want incorporated into the show. My minimum fee is $100 for up to 75 photos. This gets them the slideshow, 2 copies of the show and a disk with all the photos of the show on it. (Most of the photos for slideshows I get I have to scan and enhance, so this gives them a digital copy of the photos as well). I charge $10-$15 per extra DVD (depending on how many they order. This said, I usually get great comments and people wondering why I don't charge more. I do limit my pace on these projects though. I don't want to start a business. Word of mouth has kept me busy enough. I have gotten very creative with my work and I feel if I start doing this as a business, I will lose that creativity (burnout). As Donald and Vernon said in their replies, it depends on what you put into it and what you want to get out of it.

As I said, I've approached this more as a hobby. Your "real" job will also play a factor in the amount of time you have to work on these projects. You'll run into folks who want these shows on the drop of a hat, and in my experience, that isn't going to happen. These shows whether you have templates or not are still very time consuming. I wish you success in whatever you finally decide upon. Remember, it's your time and only you know how to spend it and what is it worth.
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Re: Trying to Transition from Free-2-Paid Slideshow DVD Creation

Postby bmccollum » Mon Aug 03, 2009 8:57 am

Vernon:

Thanks very much for your input/comments!

Yep... over the years, I've done a bit of pro-bono work. I've done that work simply for pleasure and in most cases have just assembled a single DVD for a good friend that's retiring or the example of doing the yearly DVDs for my daughter's school program and the parents, etc. I've enjoyed passing-out the slideshow DVDs at the tail-end of the program ea. yr. to surprised parents who are getting a nice keepsake for no cost to them. The shows I do for my daughter's school aren't ones that I intend on transitioning to a paid project... I'm content to do those at no cost just for the fun / heck of it.

You're definitely right... I earned nothing (or probably LOST lots of $$$) on the $5/DVD project I did for my wife's recent class reunion, but again, I willingly did that at a very cheap cost to her classmates just for fun.

I don't really believe there's much competition around where I live for slideshow DVD creation. I'm planning on contacting a great # of the area schools of all grades (and private schools, too) once school is back in session in a week or so to pitch my "product" to them, so we'll see if I can get any interest from any of them in any sort of DVD (either an end-of-yr. DVD for some program they do ea. yr., a DVD for a group/club such as band banquet/cheerleading banquet/etc., or anything else).

I've also contacted numerous high school reunion groups both locally and all over the country. I've got a group from VA committed to having me do their reunion slideshow for their upcoming reunion in late September. Charging $100 for the master DVD to be shown at the reunion (probably not charging them enough) and then $10/copy for ea. additional DVD purchased by the reunion attendees. Prob. not charging enough for those individual copies either, but I thought I'd start reasonably-priced with a few groups to see how sales went and then increase the costs to other groups down the road at a later date if it seems like I'm underpricing everything.

Thanks again!




VernonRobinson wrote:Your approach seems solid, but as Don pointed out, I am not sure what you are actually earning for the time invested. Also, it seems that you have done a lot of pro-bono work. It is often difficult to transition a group from pro-bono to a fee. So I would limit that approach. Definitely use your past work as a reference, but I would be concerned about adding more freebies. Also, the charge of $5.00 for a copy. With the cost of disc, labelling costs, and postage, that is a break even proposition without considering the labor and time invested. In short, unless your goal is to keep creating free slide shows, I am not sure how you make a profit to invest in software upgrades, newer equipment, new styles, etc. Your day job as a software designer may mask those costs, but it should allow you to create greater profit.

Do you see much competition in the area where you are operating? Most people do not have an appreciation for the amount of time it takes to cull the pictures and organize them. Also, it might be ok to use a few of your shows over again. These mini-templates is what will allow you to gain efficiency and improve your earnings.

Regards,
-Vernon

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Joined: Thu Dec 27, 2007 7:52 pm
Location: Detroit, MI

Re: Trying to Transition from Free-2-Paid Slideshow DVD Creation

Postby VernonRobinson » Wed Aug 05, 2009 8:49 am

Sounds like you have a plan. Best of luck.

Regards,
-Vernon

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Re: Trying to Transition from Free-2-Paid Slideshow DVD Creation

Postby dvdsbybetsy » Thu Aug 06, 2009 5:47 am

I too do many complimentary DVD's; however, the bulk of my business is from paying customers. I have relied on word of mouth and that has worked well for me. Your time and talents are worth money, do not underestimate the consumer. Working with schools, teams, etc. is always a unique task...making sure that each child makes the video can sometimes be difficult. When creating videos for teams and schools I usually have a set up fee and a minimum cost of $15 per DVD. Best of luck in your new venture.

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