There seems to be a lot of interest lately with filmmakers selling their DVD's online.

Why? I think one reason is because there is a potential to profit $10-$15 per unit

sold directly to consumers, vs. $2-$4 per unit if you're working through a traditional 

DVD distributor.

The key of course is this - you can't just slap up your DVD on a website and expect

sales to come to you. It takes a LOT of work to generate traffic to your site, and 

then have a compelling enough offer to CONVERT that traffic to sales.

I've seen some filmmakers attempt this and sell only a small handful of DVD's. By

contrast, I've seen other filmmakers sell upwards of 50,000 units. What are the

filmmakers who sold 50K units doing differently? TWO THINGS:

1. They are either spending 3-4 months prepping their online-only launch by

tweaking their website and their offer just so, and lining up 2-10 promotional

partners who are going to help drive traffic to the site and convert buyers. Or...

2. They are spending 6-12 months on the road with the film, doing screenings,

generating press, building their mailing list from scratch (rather than relying on 

partners), and staying connected with their audience through email updates and

newsletters, seeding them along until....(BAM!) they launch the DVD.

So you can see in either scenario it takes time and dedication to pull this off, plus

it might take an upfront investment if you want to hire a team to help you execute

your plan. But if done right, the rewards can be great.

I'm in the process of pulling together a few case studies from filmmakers who are

using either of these 2 methods outlined above, and hope to be able to compare

results soon to see which method consistently produces the best financial results.

The Online Only Launch?  Or ....  The Screenings Tour Launch?

Anyone have any results they want to share on which worked better for you?

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Now granted, some of you might be sitting there saying "I didn't get into filmmaking

to have to sell my own DVD's online!"..... and rightly so. But hey, I'm not telling you

you HAVE to do this, it's just ONE WAY to insure that you can make a profitable

film rather than one that doesn't make it's budget back.

But it does take a special kind of film to be able to pull off launching your own

DVD in the first place, so this certainly isn't for everyone.

By Stacey.

Tags: Sell Dvd Online