Make Videos Money!

• Producing How-to-Videos! (Details followed in the following articles!)
  
  
• How Do You Make Money Videotaping Weddings?
  
  
• How Do You Make Money Providing "Inventory Video Taping" Service?
  
  
• How Do You Make Money Producing Cable TV Spots? (Believe Me I Don't Know About It!)
  
  
• How Do You Set up and Operate Your Own Videotape Rental Store?
  
  
• Other Moneymaking Video Services!

Ready? Let's ride those wild horses, cowboy!

This article about Producing How-to-Videos! is one of old free stuff on the internet I have received some years ago. I recently opened the package to find this article with so many articles about how-tos- videos. I have just rubbed the dust ;-) from those articles to publish them here for your sake. You might have been looking for such ideas to implement.

Some other articles about different businesses in the package are posted at the following lenses:

http://www.squidoo.com/apartment-cleaning-services
http://www.squidoo.com/business-financing-services
http://www.squidoo.com/buy-sell-used-cars-trucks
http://www.squidoo.com/carpet-cleaning-services
http://www.squidoo.com/DISCOUNT-CARDS
http://www.squidoo.com/garage-sale
http://www.squidoo.com/mobile-locksmith-services
http://www.squidoo.com/window-washing-services
http://www.squidoo.com/womens-business-credit

I have built them using the power of my squid lenses network here.

Note to consider: Since those articles are written some years ago, so it is obvious that some prices on products are not available in the markets today. The idea is to highlight the process to any video production. So, consider this note and search your local market for prices today.

A Florida video-grapher produced a How -To wedding planner tape and sold over $250,000 worth of videos in just 12 months. Think about it: If you sell your video for $25, all you need to do is sell around 80 videos a week, or 325 videos a month to gross $100,000 a year.

A typical "small" production can sell as much as 1,500 videos a month, or 18,000 units a year, at $25 each.

It's the Topic: If there is one single factor that makes or breaks a How to video, it is the choice of topic. Another factor to consider is the length of the material. To remain interesting the average how to video must be fast paced and relatively short not exceeding 45 minutes. Videos that are more successful are no more than 30 minutes long. A video can effectively cover a topic and remain interesting by this tolerable length.

Duplication cost The length of your video also affects your duplication cost. Following is a rate structure for duplication charges based on set quantities for a factory-load VHS tape:

Length 1000 2500

10min $1.50 $1.15

20min 2.10 1.80

30min 2.50 2.00

The shoot. Who's going to do the shooting? If you decide to do it yourself, where will you get the camera? What format are you going to shoot it in?

The average cost of renting a 3/4 inch U-Matic camera, with wireless mics, and standard lighting equipment is around $495 a day. A camera person with an assistant will cost an extra $250.

The Editing. Once you've shot all the footage you need, you edit the work, assembling the footage in an orderly and coherent fashion that will effectively deliver the thought. Depending on how you shot your footage, editing can take 20 to 50 times the estimated finished length of your video. this means a 10 minute video may take 4 to 5 hours to edit, and so on.

Studio time ranges from $40 to as much as $100 an hour, depending on the special effects you want to have available for your editing project.

Packaging Full color printed sleeves start at around 40 cents apiece if you order 1,000 or more. You also need face labels on your tapes, as well as shrink wrapping for protection.

This is a fabulously profitable business that's still in its infancy. And for sure, if you want a business that takes no special training, expensive office set-up or large investment -yet is capable of showing almost immediate profits - this is it!

Now is the ideal time to get started with your own Video Taping Service. It is easy to purchase and learn how to operate, as well as maintain the necessary equipment.

The technological improvements built into the equipment, and the operating procedures have been so simplified that almost anyone with the ability to read, can study a video instruction manual for a couple of hours and immediately produce professional quality, highly marketable video tapes.

Without a doubt, video tape technology has replaced Super 8 home movies as the most-desired memory-saving system.

One- and two-person video taping services around the country are reporting gross earnings of $50,000 to $100,000 per year. One operation we looked into, reported an in come figure of $800,000 during the preceding 12 - month period. They were accepting taping jobs from all quarters and keeping 4-hired teams busy.

Marketing imagination, organization, and attention to detail are the keys to success in operating this business.

Ideas and requests for new things or events to tape and pre serve for later playback/viewing, are coming in faster than one can list. Then, there are so many things to remember and minor details to take care of, that the only way to operate successfully is with a series of checklists ... for the person selling the service as well as the man or woman on the recording camera.

However, do not let mentioning of details to remember, scare you off. On the contrary, you will find video equipment easy and inexpensive to practice on, especially when compared to attaining a comparable degree of expertise with film.

You can use the same tape over and over again, and this is definitely a business where the phrase "practice leads to perfection," applies without qualifications or reservations.

To start a video taping service, you will need a video "porta-pack" recorder, and at least a half dozen tapes.

Check around in your area. Start by "reading up" on all the available equipment used for video taping. A trip to your public library and a few hours browsing through the periodicals on video equipment should give you added interest and a basic indoctrination.

Next, check out the suppliers listed in the yellow pages of your telephone directory. A few phone calls to those places listed, plus a few in-person visits, should supply you with enough catalogs and "idea material" to keep you very busy for a week or more.

These elementary learning steps are necessary as the foundation of your business.

You should be able to buy a good quality video porta-pack recorder for about $850, with blank tapes for $20 or less. When you buy, always dicker with the dealer - explaining to him that you're in the process of establishing a video taping service, and if he will include a supply of tapes with the recorder, or at least give you an especially good price on them, you'll probably buy all your tapes from him.

It may not be your regular way of buying things, but when you are starting a business, every dollar counts, so always shop around for the best prices.

Once you have your video recorder, take it home and start practicing with it. Think of yourself as being on a job for a homeowner or an insurance company, taking a photographic inventory of the house and/or the occupant's possessions. Practice by making a tape record of your own household furnishings. Make a tape, then play it back and criticize your work. Then do it again, and again, until you have a tape you can use in sales presentations to homeowners and insurance companies.

Video tape recordings of this kind are becoming extremely popular with homeowners and insurance companies alike.

Then, look through your weekend newspaper and make a note of the girls announcing wedding dates. Open your telephone directory and call these girls on the phone.

Ask them if they would mind if you came to their wedding and made a video tape of it, without any obligation to them of course.

So you go to the wedding, introduce yourself and practice making a video tape of the wedding ceremony.

Take the tape home and criticize it. Keep this up until you have a tape you're reasonably proud of, and then call the bride.

Ask to come over and let her see the tape. Explain to her that you're just getting started in the business, and you simply want her comments and suggestions. Chances are, when she sees the tape, she'll want to buy it.

While you are in this learning phase of your new business, visit an apartment building and arrange with the manager to make a video tape of her showing the apartment to you as a potential renter.

Contact a couple of property management and real estate firms, and do the same thing with condominiums and houses for sale.

You might want to listen in on the police radio frequency, and make tapes of auto accidents, particularly those involving injuries. Another idea might be the taping of golfers practicing at the local driving ranges.

Other ideas include any kind of sports practice session, birthday parties, special anniversaries, baptisms, bar mitzvah's, publicity stories, sales presentations, and "fireside chats" by company presidents or general managers.

These are just a few idea suggestions you might want to pursue. You may find a certain kind of video taping assignment especially enjoyable and want to specialize in that area. Or you may want to leave the door open for any kind of assignment and handle each as the opportunity presents itself.

Whatever you decide, there are a few "sure success" points to keep in mind as you begin to sell your services. Remember, the idea of having a videocassette system in one's home, is gaining in popularity every day.

There are already some two-million videocassette recorders in American Homes, with an estimated 100,000 being sold to new customers every month.

Further estimates indicate that by 1990, at least one half of all U.S. households will own either a videocassette recorder or a videodisc player. All of this means your market is growing and it is expected to continue growing through the end of this decade.

Virtually everyone would like to see himself as a star in a home movie. Thus, when you show him a video tape of himself in the starring role, he will either buy the tape on the spot or want you to make a similar tape for him.

Regardless of false modesty, everyone likes to show pictures of himself, and explain to his friends the different highlights of his or her life. With this understanding about your prospect in mind when you make a sales presentation, your closing rate should be quite close to 100 percent.

The best way to sell your services is to run a regular ad in your area newspapers. Such an ad might be similar to this one:

Whatever your idea or assignment, we can handle it for you! No job too large or too small! We are experts at taping weddings, anniversaries, birthday parties and other special occasions. Commercial assignments also welcomed. Your satisfaction is guaranteed, so give us a call - 123-4567, right now!

When you receive calls in response to this ad, your objective will be two-fold: Find out what kind of taping job they have in mind, and set up an appointment to show them an example of the kinds of tapes you can produce for them. Show them an example of your work. Once you have met with them, and sown them a demonstration tape, you should have the sale in your pocket.

Never meet with a prospect in a selling situation without some sort of demonstration tape to show him. Try to match the tape you show them, as closely to their wants and needs as possible. Wedding tapes, you have made for prospective wedding clients, and shots of golf practice or instruction to golfing prospects.

Besides an ad in the newspaper, and the yellow pages of your telephone directory, make copies of the ad and get it up on the bulletin boards in your market area. Send news and publicity releases to all the media in your area, definitely, whenever you have an unusual or special kind of assignment.

Have some impressive business cards printed, and hand them out to whomever, and as often as you can. The slogan on your business card might read: Have Video Tape Recorder - Available for ANY kind of assignment - You name it and I will tape it...

Radio and/or television advertising will probably be more expensive than the resulting job assignments will sustain, so be very cautious when considering this type of advertising. However, it will very definitely be advantageous for you to pursue guest inter views on just about any kind of broadcast talk show.

Talk show appearances and free write-ups about your business in your local newspapers are promotional angles to reach for at every opportunity. Always be on the lookout for promotional ideas and gimmicks that will result in area-wide publicity for your services.

The bottom line is simply this: Do not be adverse to creating a story or set of circumstances if it results in a talk show appearance or newspaper write-up for you.

How much should you charge for your services? Basically, the going rate in most large metropolitan areas is about $5O per hour you spend on the assignment. Thus, you are going to have to learn to estimate pretty accurately just how long each job is going to take you to produce a quality recording.

It is always a good idea to check out what other video taping services in your area, or in a comparably sized city in your neighbouring states are charging.

Newsletters and trade publications serving businesses of this type are available, however, we don't know of any that have attained national prominence as of the date of this report. Check with your equipment supplier on any that he might know of...

Success with a business of this kind does not require an office set-up or any special education or training. You can start it on a part-time basis from your home, and parlay it into a full time, very high profit profession. The prestige this business will afford you is similar to that of a doctor.

Starting with a young couple's wedding, if you follow up on each sale properly, you'll probably end up making tapes for the birthdays of each of their children, school graduations, anniversaries, more birthdays, family histories, last wills & testaments, and into a whole new cycle with each generation.

You will need imagination, an affinity for people and selling moxie. Imagination is important because in many instances, you will have to suggest an idea for your taping services. Although just about everybody would like to have a taped record of some event or part of their life to pass along to future generations of their family, most will not be able to decide what to tape until you suggest something to them. You will also find that almost no one is aware of even half your capabilities until you make suggestions.

Taking pictures of people requires an ability to get along well with people - get them to relax, and immediately feel comfortable in your presence. You've got to be persuasive while exercising a great deal of tact and diplomacy. Make friends easily and quickly. Be aware of, and understanding of wants, desires and ambitions.

Actually, selling and getting along with people, are almost synonymous. Life is an on-going program of selling yourself to achieve your own wants and ambitions. Read a few good books on the art of selling, such as: HOW TO SELL YOURSELF by Steve Girard; and HOW TO SELL ANYTHING TO ANYBODY by Tom Hopkins. Remember, selling is really just a matter or recognizing someone's needs and then satisfying those needs with a product or service.

Your customers will automatically accept it as fact, that you have the professional knowledge and equipment to fulfil their needs. All you have to do is reassure them, listen to their reasons for these needs, and in closing the sale, become a good friend to them.

And that's it - the plan that can enable you to get started with your own Video Taping Service. By following our suggestions, and with a bit of energy as well as persistence, you should be able to begin with very little start-up investment and quickly begin to realize the fruits of your own profitable business.

If you have any questions, or run into special problems, please feel free to call me or drop me a line. Having laid it all out for you, the rest is up to you - Your future is in your own hands.

This is, in my opinion, THE business to get into with your videocamera. You only need one camera, decent video skills, little expenses and supplies, and, if done right, very low marketing expenses. Besides your videocamera, you'll need an instant camera and an engraving tool, which together should be able to be found for under $100.

Here's the business in a nutshell: You videotape household and business inventory and valuables for insurance purposes. Then, if a robbery occurs, the owner has a video documentation of the missing valuables for law enforcement and insurance agents. Your primary prospects for this service will be upper-income families and businesses that specialize in high-ticket items or have a high investment in equipment.

The first step you should take to run a property inventory taping service is to meet with your area law enforcement agencies to find out what regulations, if any, they have.

Remember, you will be going into other people's houses and will have full knowledge of their valuables.

If you have endorsement from the law, your customers can feel comfortable that you won't use this knowledge for the wrong purposes. The person you want to meet with would be the one in charge of neighbourhood watches or community services.

Normally, police agencies are enthusiastic supporters of services like this, as it makes their job easier. Others to meet with include insurance agents, private detectives, fire officials and attorneys.

Not only will you gain valuable information from them, you will be building up a network for referrals. Be sure to keep a good record of who you meet with so you can send them business cards, brochures and periodic reminders of your services.

While meeting with insurance agents, take care of your insurance requirements. You should carry liability insurance, and you should also get bonded. The extra expense is worth it, as it will both help to get business and will protect you and your customer.

Your service will be ripe for publicity, so prepare a good press release. You should be able to find a good book or two on publicity releases at your library. Get these releases to every daily and weekly newspaper in your area, as well as local business magazines and television stations.

When your service is written up in the papers, keep a clipping of each article to use in your marketing materials. Send a copy to all the insurance agents, attorneys, private detectives and law enforcement agencies in your area. You WILL get referrals from this!

Another idea for publicity is to set up a booth at local home and garden shows, preferably in the home protection areas, alarms, etc ... This will establish your name in the minds of consumers.

If you do not mind public speaking, offer to give short seminar on home inventory protection and how your service can help prevent theft. You can prepare one presentation that can be given numerous times at different community-related functions and locations, such as country clubs.

Now for the meat of the service. When you set up an appointment with a customer, make sure they know you will be charging by the hour, so it will be to their advantage to have things such as jewelry, china or antiques laid out and ready to be taped. Take your video camera with extra tape and batteries, an instant camera with plenty of film, your engraver, forms for listing valuables, and a three-ring binder for the forms.

When taping valuables, be sure to get a clear picture of them, including any distinguishing characteristics. Be sure to fill out your forms completely, listing special features or characteristics, such as type and weight of gems, etc.

Jewellery is probably best photographed with your instant camera, as is any small valuables. Large antiques and other primary household items are easily videotaped. Be sure to get any brand names and model numbers clearly taped.

After taping the individual items, walk through the house. Be sure to get any computer and video equipment, phones, TVs, art and other items that would be tempting to thieves. Engrave the client's social security or driver's license number on the back or bottom of items that won't be damaged by doing so.

Record all this on the forms, including the location of the engraving and all serial numbers. If the home is burglarized and police recover the stolen goods, this will help the client get his or her valuables back quickly and easily.

Do not forget to tape the outside of the house, including patios, walkways and landscaping. This can help the client establish value in case of vandalism.

In businesses, videotape the office equipment, as well as the offices themselves, inside and out. In specialized businesses, be sure to tape any special equipment.

A good idea is to provide window stickers for your clients that tell potential thieves that items in the house have been marked and recorded. These stickers can be purchased or printed. Your local law enforcement agencies may even be able to provide these to you at a low cost.

When through taping, give the tape a quick run-through to be sure everything is OK, then give it to your client, along with the binder. Encourage them to store these in a safe deposit box, in case of fire.

How much should you charge? A typical mid-sized to large home should take two hours, at most, to tape, if the owner has prepared everything ahead of time. You can charge anywhere from $50 to $150 per hour, depending upon what your local market will bear, with $75 per hour a good figure to start with.

You should be able to see how this business can add up!

In your marketing materials, stress the fact your charge is a small price to pay, considering it is a crime deterrent and will result in far less stress and time on the customer's part if a mishap does occur.

You can feel good that you are providing a service, which will help people in bad times. Remember to be professional while in the client's home, do not make any comments, which could be construed in bad ways, and be assuring about the safety and reliability of yourself and your service.

There is a huge potential market for wedding videos. Just look in your local paper any summer week and see how many weddings there were. Since almost every household in the country has a VCR, you can bet that almost every wedding has a video.

Keep in mind, though, that there is also big competition in this field. If you want to make it, you'll have be sure of two things: you have the skills necessary, and that you can offer more in your area.

There's more to taping a wedding than just setting up a camera and turning it on. If you're married and had a video taken at your wedding, I'm sure you'll agree. You, the photographer, can expect to be dropped into an environment of potential conflict.

Last minute spats between the bride and groom, conflicts between family members, still photographers, all can be a source of headaches for you.

The best way to prevent problems is to set up a meeting with the bride, groom, close family members, and, if possible, any other photographers that will be at the service/reception.

This way, you can find out exactly what the family wants, any special shots they will want, any unusual parts to the ceremony that they may want on tape, how many people will be involved, and other issues.

Keep in mind, the family will be paying you, so they will probably want to TELL you what you can or can't do. If what they want is reasonable, don't fight it. That makes your job easier. But, if what they want is unreasonable, be honest with them, but, by all means, be tactful.

If you can meet with the other photographer(s), discuss where they need to be to get their best shots, so you and your camera won't be in the way. Also, this will help you with your planning so they won't be in your video, and you won't show up in the photos. This brings up the subject of planning.

Planning is all important when it comes to wedding videos. You will be producing something that the couple will want to view over and over, that their family and friends will be seeing. It's your best advertisement. So, you will want it to be the best it can be.

If you know what the ceremony will be like ahead of time, and what special shots the couple and family will want, you've got the ball in your court. Be sure to attend the rehearsal, so you can set your equipment up and plan your camera angles. Since you've planned your work, all you have to do is work your plan.

Here's an idea of the equipment a well-stocked wedding videographer should have or have access to:

Before implementing the following steps, it is necessary to say, however, a good video camcorder like one of the Hitachi camcorders on this page is good to do the job. However, the first lines in this module, are for those who would still like to use the old video taping fashion.

- At least two VHS camcorders with high-quality low-light functions
- At least one VHS VCR for editing and dubbing
- At least one free-standing light for each camera
- A tripod for each camera, preferably ones with a large range of heights
- At least two twelve hours of batteries for the camera
- The best quality wireless microphone you can afford (one for each camera)
- All necessary cables, with spares
- Extra tapes, the best quality available.

Do not let this list scare you. If you do not own all this, you do not have to rush out and empty your bank account. You can either rent what you need, or barter your services with someone who has the equipment. Then, pick up the stuff you need piece by piece. Also, keep your eyes open for good quality used equipment.

Other equipment you may want to consider would include:

- a good video editor deck, for putting your finished product together;
- a film-to-tape camera attachment (can be used to create a montage of scenes from old home movies of the couple when they were kids
- a great service to offer, a unique marketing point to offer; and a graphics/title generator.

Special event videos are much simpler and a lot less worry than videotaping a wedding ceremony. In many cases, you'll only need one camera, one microphone, and little or no editing. You'll charge less, of course, but your profit margin will be higher.

You can provide this service to any professional person or group - attorneys, salespeople, financial advisors, professional speakers, anyone who must give a talk, presentation or lecture before a group of people. Workshops, meetings, conferences, reunions, all are potential jobs for you.

As it goes with weddings, meet beforehand with the person or persons you will be taping, both to get their permission to tape them, if necessary, and to get a feel for what they specifically want on tape.

If all they want is a tape of their speech, then all you'll need is one camera (two if you want a spare in case of problems), one microphone and a tripod. Set your equipment up well ahead of time, to allow for testing. Be sure to have the subject of the tape do a test of part of their speech, so you can be sure the microphone is set right. It's important to have clear sound for event taping.

For panel discussions, meetings and other group events, you will want to have a camera pointed at every person, or possibly at every two people, as well as one at the whole group. Make sure your microphones can pick up every person.

When you edit the tapes together, try to have the speaking person on screen as they speak, unless that would mean too many rapid changes, which can be disorienting to the viewer.

If taping an interview, the subject of the interview is more important than the interviewer. While it is good to cut in a reaction shot of the interviewer from time to time, keep the focus of your tape on the person being interviewed.

Unless you need to use multiple cameras and heavy editing, you should charge less for event taping than you would for wedding taping. There are a few reasons for this.