Here is the answer I provided to a client asking the question: “Can you explain to me how it works that I get more setting it up through you (Neoflix) than going directly to Amazon.  Thanks.”

For independent distribution purposes, there are two programs offered by Amazon that are relevant in this discussion: one is called Advantage, the other is Marketplace.

Both programs are fully searchable on Amazon’s site, but with Advantage, Amazon more actively place the product on keyword searches and referrals.  They also require that the fulfillment is done by them.  For their “marketing” efforts, they take about 45-55%, depending on whether they surround the offer with promotions and discounts, such as free shipping.  Our clients have discovered that if you add the cost of shipping the products to Amazon, their net is approximately 40-50%.

The Marketplace program allows a merchant (in this case, Neoflix) to open up a store and place products on Amazon for sale.  The main drive to the product will be keyword search and product ranking (which improves over time as long as the product is selling).  There isn’t the product referral marketing (for example offering people who bought this item also bought that…), but you have a full independent product page where description and reviews are available.  Amazon takes 20% from the sale.  After the shipping and processing fees (Neoflix ships using USPS 1st class vs Amazon shipping using standard mail) are deducted, most clients receive about 65-70%.

The monthly marketplace store fee is about $50, which Neoflix pays.  This saves clients a lot of money–especially if the volumes are not there to justify it.

It’s also possible for clients to be in both the Advantage and Marketplace programs.  We have two clients who are trying that now.

The previous blog touched upon eco-friendly packaging solutions. Here’s an excerpt from marketing materials we distributed along w/ our go-green packaging solutions during Q1 2008.

Eco-Friendly Features:

• Forestry Stewardship Counsel (FSC) Certification – (from the FSC website) FSC Is a non-profit organization devoted to encouraging the responsible management of the world’s forests. Carrying the FSC-certification logo on your print products tells the world that you support the highest social and environmental standards in the market where you use paper. Your purchase of FSC-certified paper and print products contribute to conservation, responsible management, and community level benefits for people near the forests that provide your paper. (for more information, please see http://www.fscus.org)

• Tree-Free Paper (made from mineral composite!) – i-Pak DVD discovered this solution by chance at a trade show for a completely different industry. We are working with them to provide a lower volume solution that can be applied to jobs from clients in the entertainment and educational industries. The paper is of the highest quality, and has a velvety feel and touch.

• Post Consumer Waste (PCW) papers and cases (from 10% to 50%) – Wherever possible, we try to find paper with higher PCW content, without compromise to the quality of the print. PCW in paper content is typically 5-20%, yet every little bit helps. For DVD cases, especially black color cases, we are able to inject cases with up to 40-50% PCW materials WITHOUT compromising the integrity or smell (yes, as in odors sensitive to ones nose) of the case.

• Environmentally friendly, recyclable adhesives – Unlike the conventional pressure sensitive adhesives (PSAs), recyclable adhesives are more dissolvable in water, which is the principal medium used for dissolving paper back into pulp. This makes a better recycle product and lowers the cost of the paper recycling process.

• Soy-based inks – Soy inks is environmentally friendly because it takes less energy manufacture than petroleum-based inks, and theoretically, makes paper its printed on more recycle-friendly. Soy ink also possesses lower level of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which helps reduce air pollution. Some say soy inks results in sharper and brighter color images. The main challenge with soy ink is finding printers who use it on a regular basis. We have located printing partners who are committing to this route.

• Compostable, corn-based label films – While looking over the entire manufacturing line we noticed that a stream of waste was being generated from our labeling process. The label backing film is made from paper with a thin film or a clear film, which we discovered was not recyclable. Luckily we came across a company that produces labels on a corn-based film which was not only recyclable, but also compostable. So theoretically, we can put it into any compost pile and watch it turn into plant nutrient in 3-4 months.

This entry will cover print and packaging for CD and DVDs.

But first, let me quickly address the “hybrid” solution mentioned last time for filmmakers or bands who want to make only 500 units, but can’t seem to find someone who would give them a decent price under 1000 units. (Have you noticed when you get a quote for 500 pcs, its usually only about $150-$200 less than the 1000 pcs pricing?) What you do is ask the replicator or broker to quote a hybrid job: replicate 1000 discs, print 1000 inserts, but package only 500. The secret with most replicators is that their 500 piece price is basically this model I just outlined here, but after you pay them, you only walk away w/ 500 completed products (no extra discs or prints). And the next time you go in for reorder, you’re paying from scratch again and paying over 1.20-1.40 per unit. Using this hybrid solution, you’ll walk away with an additional 500 DVDs and print, so next time when you reorder, you’ll only pay for the packaging, which is usually about 0.25 to 0.30 per unit–saving you over a dollar a piece!

Three commonly used CD and DVD package types:

a. Plastic cases (jewel case, amaray-style case)

b. Digi-pak (plastic tray glued to cardboard), Vacuum formed binders and sleeves

c. Cardboard sleeves

DVD and CDs are traditionally packaged in petroleum-based cases (jewel cases, amaray-style cases, digi-paks), costing between 0.07 to 0.15 each. That is a difficult price point to beat. Cases are mass produced in the hundreds of millions, achieving economies of scale that enables a case made in China to be shipped to the US to be sold–at a profit–for 0.08ea. For most budget-challenged projects, this is the way to go. Add printing for the DVD cover sheet or CD booklet & tray card, you can have a market-accepted print & packaging solution for less than $0.50 for a DVD and $0.60 for a CD, at a relatively low volume of 1000 units.

However, more often now clients are considering ecological alternatives like cardboard sleeves, folders and envelopes with some or no plastic content. The type of packaging you consider is largely determined by the distribution channel or product use. For products that ultimately will go on a shelf in a store, the prevailing standard is a petroleum based jewel case/DVD case. Unfortunately for the environmental movement, in general, the most cost-effective solutions are also the ones that use the most plastic–the traditional solutions like the jewel case and plastic DVD cases will be around for a while. Industry and retail giants like Sony and Walmart are going green so there is movement away from these type of cases. Since there is still a large investment of store displays and shelves designed for plastic cases that it’ll dictate the size and dimension of up-coming alternative packaging. Keep your distribution strategy in mind as you design the product. If you’re planning to go retail, then a plastic case or something similar to it in size, is probably on your horizon. To be fair, many of these cases also use post-consumer waste content, so they’re not totally evil. However, when compared to cardboard sleeve solutions that often don’t have any plastic content, the contrast is blatant.

A kind of a “in-between” solution is the digi-pak. The price is on the high end ($1.80 - $2.50 per piece for 1,000 pcs), but many clients still use digi-paks to present a product that has a higher perceived value. The package consists of a clear or black plastic tray glued to a cardboard sleeve. (here is a image of a digipak from a Wikipedia article) I’ve seen digi-packs designed to hold up to as twelve DVDs. The “Friends” DVD release contained eight or ten discs, in a handsome digi-pak. The cardboard sleeve can be printed on environmentally friendly paper/cardboard, but the tray is typically virgin material petroleum and not recycled material.

Cardboard sleeves are most commonly 4-paneled, called wallets, holding a disc. A single-pocket, 5inch x 5inch, 2 panel, cardboard sleeve commonly used for samplers, but not retail products. Keep in mind the point made earlier about the retail environment. If you want to make a retail-bound CD or DVD in cardboard sleeve, it has to be dimensionally similar to a DVD case or CD jewel case. The 4-panel wallets can be printed in color both sides, offering plenty of room for art, copy, and other information. The sleeve has a inside pocket for a disc. When you design this pocket, make sure it’ll fit a disc snugly, not loosely. We had a client recently who sent us a wallet where the DVD slid up and down the extra large pocket. During shipping that has the potential to scratch the disc. Another implementation of the cardboard is actually not a sleeve, but an adhesive applied foam or plastic hub in the center to hold the disc. The best part about this solution is that in terms of overall cost, a cardboard sleeve solution falls in between a digi-pak and a plastic case, so its kind of a “best of both worlds” approach. I like it also because if you choose the vendors carefully, you can create a very eco-friendly solution. (Read the next blog for more details about green-friendly components in CD/DVD packaging.)

Manufacturing a DVD suitable for selling consists of 2 primary steps, (1) manufacturing the disc and (2) making the “package” that houses the disc. These are the steps after you have an authored disc. For clarification, by “DVD” I mean the combination of the disc PLUS the print material PLUS the labor to package everything together into what is referred to as a “retail-ready” product.

There are two options for manufacturing the disc itself: (a) duplication and (b) replication. Duplication refers to burning the data from a master disc onto a recordable blank disc. Replication involves making a “glass master” or “stamper” from the master disc and then pressing and laminating plastic from some very large and expensive machines. Most replicators charge $150-$250 for manufacturing the glass master, so there is a built-in floor price to replicate. As a rule of thumb, up to 300 DVDs, duplication should have a lower total dollar outlay than replication. Between 300-500 units is a gray area where the duplication price inches closer to replication, and for over 500 units, it makes more sense to pursue replication.

(Duplication equipment for small volume runs from 25 to 300 units.)

The decision drivers for duplication are volume and budget. If you plan to have only few DVDs made for press kits or a small run “1st edition”, or have a budget of less than $1000, then duplication is the better choice. Although the per-unit cost for duplicating a disc is higher than replicating it, your up-front cost will be lower. For example, if you duplicate 100 DVDs in a standard black case, you can expect to pay anywhere from $3.50 - $5.00 per DVD (disc + the packaging). This price range should include the duplicated disc, 4-color printing on the disc itself, a 4-color single-sided cover-wrap for the case, packaging of the case with poly-wrapping (the same clear plastic wrapping material used for cigarette and perfume boxes). For replication of 1000 DVDs with the same printing and packaging specifications outlined above, the price range is $1.20 - $1.40 per DVD.  If you want to see if a quote you received is competitive, you can see our price list here.

(There are different type of DVD cases, choose ones with higher composition of virgin materials vs. recycle materials. Better yet, go w/ 100% virgin.)

Duplication is similar to burning a disc on your computer, except that professional duplicators use faster and higher quantity burners. The major draw-back associated with duplication is the real and perceived quality issues. Duplicated discs results in higher playback failure rates than replicated discs. The three factors that govern quality in duplication are: the quality of the master, the quality of the blank media, and the quality of the equipment. The mastering quality you can control, the blank media you can specify (Phillips, Ri-Data or Memorex are all good brands, and the gold standard is Taiyo Yuden), and you can choose better equipment by proxy by selecting a duplication company with an established reputation. Most duplicators are able to turn-around jobs in 2-5 days, depending on the quantity and time for approval on the artwork. The artwork approval is normally done via a digital file (most common is a PDF). The on-screen color will vary from monitor to monitor, and you should expect the final print on the disc and cover-wrap to have a slight variation. This is true for most low volume manufacturing jobs, so don’t beat-up the duplicator too badly if the colors are not exactly as you had designed it.

Replication begins to make sense when you can commit at least a $1000 budget for the DVD manufacturing. Replication is an entirely different process, with a first-time job requiring the making of a glass master (or “stamper”). The entire process from submitting your master to receiving the finished DVD takes from 7 to 15 business days, depending on the replicator, seasonality, and the time it takes to approve artwork. Replicators are much more insistent about clients submitting an intellectual property rights declaration document which states you have the authority or own the copyright to the content (including soundtracks) being replicated. There are also a host of middlemen “brokers” in the industry whose business is to acquire clients, then source the jobs to replicators and printers. If you are able to work directly with the manufacturer, you will likely save money. However, since you are a small client, you may not receive the customer service or turn-time that a broker who has twenty jobs with the replicator would receive. There are replicators out there who offer a complete package deal, where they will perform the replication, printing, and packaging to give you a finished product just like a broker would. With increased competition the customer service gap has narrowed dramatically over the last three to five years between replicators and brokers, so you’re likely to experience a parity in customer service from either.

Here are pictures of the replication and printing equipment, if you’re curious to see what each looks like.

Replication Machine

High Volume CD and DVD Printer

These are generic questions I would ask a potential duplicator or replicator:

• How long have they been in business under their existing name? (Some less scrupulous duplication and replication companies with the same owner close and reopen under another name to avoid licensing fees or lawsuits.)
• How many projects do they do per week?
• Do they have any pricing specials and what is their most economically priced offering?
• (if duplicator) What blank media brand do they use?
• How many colors can they print on the disc?
• (if duplicator) Does their blank disc have a white base coat or is it silver?
• (if duplicator) Is the disc face printing direct to the blank media or onto a peel-and-stick label that is then applied to the disc?
• What type of paper is the case cover-wrap printed in house or out-sourced? (typical paper is glossy 80 or 100 pound weight)
• What is the composition of virgin and recycled material that is in their DVD cases? (the more recycle material, the smellier and more brittle. I recommend 60-40 higher virgin material or 100% virgin content. It may cost more but the perceived product quality is noticeably higher.)
• Do they over-wrap or shrink-wrap the case? (do not opt to go with shrink-wrapping because placing the DVD case in the heat-tunnel will cause the plastic cover on the DVD case to warp or crease)
• Besides the traditional DVD case solution, what other packaging solutions do they offer?

Next time…

In the next post I’ll cover the printing and packaging aspects of DVD manufacturing and different packaging–including eco-friendly solutions–as an alternative to the traditional black petroleum-based DVD case. I will also explain a hybrid manufacturing solution to reduce the overall price a 300-500 replicated DVD job.

It’s important to draw a distinction between activities that merely sell a DVD and those that help build a business over the long term. For those who pursue DIY, it would be a shame–with all the effort that goes into the process–to come away with only a sale but not a foundation for a long-term business. The former concludes when you hand a buyer the receipt, whereas the latter has no terminal point. A business survives only because of its customer base, for artists, its the fan base.

DVDs can be sold in many ways–on Amazon, in a video shop or even out of the trunk of the car. On the other hand, there is only one way to build a business: by building a customer base. Selling DVDs is a function of marketing, advertising, placement, and promotions. Customer base building includes all the activities of mentioned above melded with a whole other set of activities for finding, building, and maintaining a customer base whose loyalty you keep for life.

DIY filmmakers can take a few inexpensive steps to build the tool set necessary to reach out to a broader fan base. Developing a wide presence via website, blogs, write articles, a social network site, contribution to forums.. Read Brian’s post to see how you can set all this up for about $10. Much of this activity can be automated and maintained by an assistant.

It is also important to create product licensing and merchandising strategies that will enable you to sell to different type of customers (e.g. private individuals, institutions, libraries, and their international variants). With a broad product strategy, you can now implement some creative sales strategies to move the variations through different sales channels, such as wholesale, retail, reseller, affiliates, etc. By doing so, you leverage other people’s efforts to help you build your customer base.

As for selling DVDs, we encourage clients to put DVDs in as many online retail outlets as practical, such as Amazon, so they can sell incremental units to that company’s customer base. However, we strongly advise clients against sending any fans that come to your website away to some retailer’s website. When you send your buyers to a online retailer’s website to buy your DVD, you’re really building their business, not yours. If there is one company in the world that will survive just fine without your help to build their customer base…it would be Amazon.

Using various web-based audience development tools and adapting methods to collect the data that is needed to project sales across multiple channels will allow you to make a more informed choice about how you want to distribute. Do not say “I don’t need to do this, I plan on getting a distribution deal.” Instead, build a core fanbase to give yourself stronger negotiating power. At the very least, this will serve as a “fail safe” should you not get a desirable distribution deal and choose a more favorable “Do-It-Yourself” distribution model. You may even simply want to retain the rights to sell your movie from your own website because you have already pre-established your consumers and can estimate sales.

It’s never to early to start using these tools, and you are probably aware of many of them. In later articles we will discuss how to use these effectively, but here is a list of 10 things you can do right now, for about $10:

1. Go to Godaddy.com and purchase a domain name. Get one that ends with .com. Get your movie title. If it is unavailable add “movie” or “themovie” or “film” to the end. (You don’t need to purchase any other services during check-out.)

2. Sign up for WordPress.com. Make your blog the title of your movie/ domain. Start posting press releases and other articles, such as reviews.

3. Sign up for Youtube.com. Make your username title of your movie/ domain. Post your trailer, or you can do a video “pitch”.

4. Sign-up for an account on Facebook.com.

5. Sign-up for Flickr. Get your username title of your movie/ domain.

6. Sign up for an account at del.icio.us. Bookmark your domain, facebook page, blog page and you tube page.

7. Sign up for a google account, to use their alerts, place connect with people who talk about you.

8. Sign up for Box Office Widget. Place this on your website and on your blog. Use it as your signature on forums.

8. Sign up for Spottt. Place this banner code on your myspace page, blog, and the thank you page from Box Office Widget.

10. Go to Yahoo! Groups and find all the groups that may have interest to your film and join. Participate in the group, rather than just spam the group.

All of the above will cost you about $10, (that’s for the domain name.) You will get a free web-hosting account with Godaddy. You can begin to develop this page as you go, and later “upgrade” this hosting account. Even though you may have a main “business” website, you still want to develop this.

Boxofficewidget is our service, you can use this for now, its free to use to collect addresses. (As you become more familiar with things you can switch if you want, but we would like to see you stay.)

Remember to always provide links to your blog, email list and website and after a while of participating in the groups, forums and blogging you will start building your audience.

I will try to update this list to keep it fresh and relevant. There are many similar services available to the ones mentioned above, I selected what I consider “Best of Breed”.

We are often asked by clients how much they should price their DVDs. My first response is to ask the client which distribution channel are they referring to?

Depending on the content and target audience, a film may have multiple distribution channels, and therefore, require different licenses and/or different versions for international markets. While the most common DVD license is the one sold to private home viewing, other types of licenses include: institutional, community, and public screening. If you are planning to sell through wholesalers and distributors, a volume-based discount is required. Also, if you plan to sell internationally, different versions (NTSC, PAL) of the DVD may be necessary.

Licenses:
-Private home viewing (retail pricing, wholesale pricing)
-Public screening
-Educational/institutional (tiered pricing for different size and entity)

Versions:
-NTSC
-PAL
-Secam (not frequently mentioned)

Region Code:
-Restricts where geographically the DVD can be played: 0, 1, 2

Private home viewing license (”retail” price)

The price of a private home view license, or the “retail” price of the DVD, depends on multiple factors. We suggest clients to price their DVD within the market range of similar DVDs (topic/category, duration, extra content, bonus features, etc.) As a point of reference, I suggest that they surf around the web (on Amazon, other indie film sites, Neoflix catalog).

Clients have ask if they should price their DVD higher if they’ve won awards. My general impression is that awards and good reviews only help to move products but not necessarily increase the perceived value of the DVD. The closest example I can provide is that movie theaters don’t charge more for the price of a ticket just because a film received more Oscar nominations. Good press helps to bring more ticket sales, and it is more important to consider this from the perspective of how much will the market bear for a DVD, rather than whether you can price it higher than the next DVD who hasn’t won awards. If a DVD is priced too high, it will retard sales–regardless how many award it has won.

Private home viewing license (”wholesale” price)

If a client is fortunate enough to have individuals, groups, stores or companies willing to re-sell their DVDs, then the question is price. A whole The pricing for whole sale is even more subjective than establishing retail. To keep things simple, we suggest clients use two primary functions for wholesale: volume and price. The more volume, the greater the discount.

A common concern clients have expressed is having a reseller buyer fifty DVDs and put it on eBay. While the likelihood of your DVDs appearing on eBay for $8 below your selling price is fairly remote, it’s very possible that wholesalers undercut your pricing and you start receiving messages from customers wanting a price match. With resale/wholesale, we suggest clients establish guidelines for the reseller/wholeseller regarding the pricing they may distribute the DVD so there is no ambiguity or misunderstanding.

Here are Neoflix clients offering different resale/wholesale pricing, for reference:
Note By Note
Dr. Bronners Magic Soap
Occupation 101

Keep in mind also, that most clients make side deals with resellers depending on the strategic circumstances and relationship.

Public screening license

We’re in the process of gathering more information about public screening in order to blogabout it intelligently. I hope to come back to this section with more useful information within a few weeks.

Education/Institution/Organization Licenses

While there are established distributors for educational or institutional sales charging a set catalog price per license, a DIY client has the flexibility to sell different licensing that fits the organization. Institutions come in many different sizes (number of members) and business entity (profit or non-profit). While it may seem complex at first, there is really a simple 2×2 or 2×3 matrix.

For example:

Non-profit + Under 50 people: $50
Non-profit + 51-200 people: $150
Non-profit + Over 200 people: $250

For-profit + Under 50 people: $100
For-profit + 51-200 people: $200
For-profit + Over 200 people: $250
For-profit + over 500 people: $350

I believe pricing based on the organization’s membership and entity make for a fair approach (and more importantly, a manageable formula) to establish tiered-pricing. For example, you want to price a license for a large university library like Yale or Berkeley differently from say, a local non-profit community group with twenty members. To get additional feedback, clients have also contact institutional/educational distributors like Bull Frog (for environmental-related films) and New Day.

Here are Neoflix clients offering different institutional licenses, for reference:
Lumo
Little Man (via Reel Indies)
Mystic Ball

Region Code

If a client does not have foreign distributors, we suggest to them that to keep things simple, encode the DVD in region “0″ so it is viewable anywhere in the world. I’ve been asked what happens when a client finds foreign distribution after they begin self-distribution? If a Neoflix client signs with a foreign distributor after they have already made DVDs, our platform gives them the ability to restrict shipping to certain countries or regions. Since the foreign distributor’s biggest concern is losing sales to the filmmaker’s site, this usually placates their concern.

The size of its customer base dictates the success of a business. For that reason most business owners start marketing long before a new business opens its doors. For example, they erect “coming soon - grand opening” signs on the building, send announcements to local media, mail-out flyers to prospects within its buying radius, and any number of other outreach activities. Frequently we receive calls from filmmakers and producers asking about what type of marketing they ought to be doing to promote the film after they put the film in the can. Our advice is that filmmakers and musicians, once they decide on a project, should begin an outreach campaign–even before shooting or recording begins. Whether a project goes DIY or not in the future is irrelevant. Having fan base data can help you with event, theatrical, and retail distribution deals.

Creating an outreach presence in the early stages can be quick and inexpensive. Maintaining blog or social networking page like a MySpace or Facebook page will suffice until there is a product ready to be sold. Just make sure to update the entries consistently–minimum at least once per week. Creating a website at this stage is not necessary, unless you already have one. If the project is still in development, a lot of things may be changing, and you can end up spending a lot of time and money on website changes. Blogs and MySpace/Facebook pages lends itself to fast updates. Regardless of blog or website, this is important: have a way to allow fans to opt-in their names and emails to “join our list”. While fans may subscribe to your blog, it is still preferable to have them join your mailing list on an opt-in basis.

When e-mail and other fan base data start to accumulate, be prepared to manage it effectively. Magic Rock created a free service called Box Office Widget to let anyone create a “join mailing list” button that can be posted in blogs, MySpace/Facebook, emails, websites, etc. BOW allows you to create different lists, export email data, or launch marketing campaigns directly from BOW. Which ever tool you decide to use, don’t get in a habit to leave email lists in an application like Outlook. Trying to organize several hundred or thousand emails using the wrong application will waste many hours, and possibly risk loss of data.

As the project nears completion, it’s time to construct a website. Or if you decide to start selling DVDs and merchandise online, you will need a website, as well as a shopping cart and payment processing (I’ll cover more about how to setup the e-commerce infrastructure next time). The website need not be very fancy, but it should have good content and a catchy trailer. For reference, here are some Neoflix clients’ websites. Note these websites have common elements: a compelling description about the project, a trailer, and a join mailing list button.

The Reflecting Pool

King Corn

Women and Spirituality

There are also some good companies offering self-service website development tools (see www.valueweb.com, www.nsi.com) at reasonable prices. You can create a functional website within a few hours. A site does not need to be fancy to be effective. It just need to have easy navigation and good content. Add a catchy trailer and the join list button, you have the makings of a usable site.

A note on trailers. At least two types of trailers are needed.

The first type is a short “commercial” trailer, with a teaser, lasting shorter than a minute. So Much So Fast used the tag line, “What would you do if you were 29 and found out you may have only a few years to live?” A good tag line in the trailer invites viewer to find out more.

The other type is the longer traditional highlight trailer with extended scenes from the movie. This trailer can be substantially longer. While the first trailer baits the viewer, the second trailer pulls the viewer deeper into the story.

On a practical note, each trailer should have your company name and website address at the beginning of the trailer and during the black fade at the end of the trailer (at least for 3 seconds). If you can add a watermark of your website address at the bottom of the trailer, even better. This lesson was learned by one client who found out that their trailer was appropriated on YouTube by another user. The copy-cat registered close to 23,000 views, while our client only garnered 4,700 views. Unfortunately the client’s trailer did not mention the movie, company, or associate back to their website. All those views by potential customers were wasted.

–JC

The self-distribution business is not expensive to start or maintain. In fact, the major cost for is the making of the movie or album. The on-going cost is time and effort. The actual money spent to launch DIY is comparatively minor. A basic website and e-commerce package costs less than five hundred dollars per year. Blogs, forums, groups and social networking accounts are either free or have minimal annual fees. It is even possible to bypass the cost of manufacturing DVDs and CDs by using digital downloading or “on-demand” manufacturing programs such as those offered by my company, Neoflix. We even offer an “Angel” program for filmmakers where if they prefer to have replicated retail-ready DVDs, we help them pre-sell orders to offset the cost of manufacturing.

The point is there isn’t a high financial barrier to start DIY distribution. There is, however, a philosophical one. It’s the “business” side of the movie business that many filmmakers dislike. Some artists disdain the idea of selling and managing business transactions. Many filmmakers we’ve spoken with, you get a sense that they do not place too much energy or time to think about the business side. I have spoken with many potential clients who would prefer to sign with a distributor. Nevertheless, we’re seeing an attitude shift largely due to the inability of the traditional distribution model to service the ever-increasing number of independents. Only about a quarter of Neoflix clients have some distribution deal with companies like Baker & Taylor, Genius, Bull Frog, etc. However, they also negotiated to keep the online distribution rights so they may sell copies from their own website. The remaining two-third of our clients who are not on a distributor’s catalog–either because they could not find an interested distributor or because the deal they offered was unattractive—are trying to market and sell the film by their own effort.

Like any business, a successful DIY distribution requires perseverance and continuous effort to build a customer base and keep them loyal over time. We have plenty of clients who are realistic about the self-distribution process, and I am glad for them. With the many challenges ahead, do-it-yourselfers only shoot themselves in the foot if they start-out with unrealistic expectations. It’s crucial they don’t unnecessarily deflate themselves when progress does not come as fast as they hoped. DIY is a marathon, not a sprint. There will be stretches when you’re going strong, and there are stretches when you want to stop. As long as clients view this as a long-term commitment, they won’t want to quit just because of disappointing short-term results.

DIY is still in its infancy. There is no one agreed-upon process that defines a DIY effort. The vendor base, available services, and technology are all in various stages of maturity. This just mean that DIY-fers need to get a bit more creative and expend a more energy to find solutions. Through this column, I hope to shed light on the process by sharing information about what our clients are doing to build their businesses, as well as offer tips and insights on different approaches and services available in the market.

-JC

Please note, every instance of:

(WAIT FOR ADMIN APPROVAL)

Will require actions to take on the part of the admin.

===============================================
===========FILMMAKER (MERCHANT) STEPS=========
===============================================

================
STEP 1: REGISTER
================

Go to cinemaclicks.com and register as a merchant.

(WAIT FOR ADMIN APPROVAL)

after approved login to your account.

==================================================
STEP 2: Add Tracking Code to your Neoflix Account
==================================================

from the home page click onto “Get Tracking Code”

>In the field “Order Amount Variable Name” enter “total”

>In the field “Order Id Variable Name” enter “orderID” (case sensitive)

>Click “Update & Move To Next Page”

Copy the tracking code for Lead and sale to your neoflix account, to their respective form fields.

(Neoflix home page > marketing > affiliate)

======================
STEP 3: Set Up Program
======================

Click on “Programs” tab and select icon “Create Program”

Fill in Fields (new users should “skip” Geo Targeting options.)

Submit

(WAIT FOR ADMIN APPROVAL)

====================
STEP 4: Create Links
====================

Click on “Programs” tab

from the “Affiliate Program” pull down menu, select the program you just created.

At the bottom of the page, under the heading “Advertising Links”, select the type of link you wish to create. (New users should start with a “text” link.)

Fill in the information under “Settings” and select submit.

(WAIT FOR ADMIN APPROVAL)

==========================
STEP 5: Sign Up Affiliates
==========================

click on “Accounts” tab.

Scroll to the bottom of the page to find your merchant link.

Copy the following URL and provide it to your Affiliates.

===============================================
================AFFILIATE STEPS================
===============================================

================
STEP 1: REGISTER
================

Go to cinemaclicks.com and register as a merchant.
(or by clicking on the link provided to you by the filmmaker)

(WAIT FOR ADMIN APPROVAL)

after approved login to your account.

=====================
STEP 2: Join Programs
=====================

Click on “Programs” Tab and join desired programs.

(WAIT FOR ADMIN APPROVAL)

=====================
STEP 3: Get Links
=====================

Click on “GetLinks” Tab.

Click on “New Text Ad” Buttom

Copy and paste the HTML codes to your own web site page.