learn how i manage to get out of a $7k debt in just 5 days

henry,

Congratulations on taking action. Evidently you wrote the correct calling script as it got you in the door and you made money. Now, the question becomes, what are you gonna do next week?

Answer: More of the same only this time, I am upping the ante price wise and offering another valuable service to keep them in my accounts receivable funnel.

Yep, you can offer them another service at a higher price and they will buy from you cuz they already like and trust you.

Hope you make a bundle.

Tom

no i could help anyone, at first i thought i would start calling contruction type companies, then i could have just upsell them on SEO for the video itself and of course charge way more than $397 but for some reason i started to call restaurants and it went well so i just stayed in that niche.
as far as increasing the $25 i might give it a try, but i am comfortable with that at the moment so i guess for now, i will stick with $25.

well it seems like not many people like to show their clients. im not sure if its because people on the forum start calling them, or idk. so i think i will play it safe and do the same.
but its super easy. i just did photo story type of videos. all you need is to ask the business to send you some pics of the business, like logo, outside of business, some work they've done and so on.

and yes they were phone closes.
i started to get better results when i offer to create the video first.
and if they didn't like it then they didn't have to pay.
yes i guessed i run the risk of them not liking it. but the videos would come out
really nice. so i wasn't worrying about it.

and in any case someone would come out to not like the video well it didn't
take much of my time. since it only takes me about 10 minutes to create the video. sometimes even less

I am also interested in seeing this videos, I'm still quite new to this IM thing !

i answered the question above.
but i use animoto they make it really simple to create the videos, very self explanatory as well. yes i know it cost money. but i didn't hesitate to buy since i seen that it was helping me bring in sales.

i was trying to get past the gatekeepers. i wouldn't do me any good if i pitched the gatekeeper.
all i did was tell them that i had a very important question, and only the manager could help me.
of course i was told a lot that the manager was not available

i mean if you think about it. even if i never did an upsell and i only sold 5-10 videos per day. thats an easy $125-250 per day. that's enough money to bring food to the table. and you could do it part time.
but then again, practice upselling and then you will be bringing in cash like you never thought it possible.

Sounds good!

How did you accept payment for the videos and did you get it upfront before you started?

that's exactly correct my friend

Hey, Henry, I would like to know the answer to this as well. Congratulations btw...I've been planning on implementing Free video creation to help increase our show up percentage on our web meetings.

Yes. thank you

rather that create a wso, you gave freely.

newbies Can Do This!

i don't see how it will benefit the business. i understand it would benefit a roofer company, or a dentist. but i wouldn't feel comfortable charging a restaurant 300 to keep the video on first page.
i will do it maybe next week but when i target those other businesses.

Have you shot any of these videos yet?

Unless I am missing something, each video would take at least 3-4 hours of work between travelling to the business, shooting the video, previewing video with client, travelling home, editing the video, rendering the video and uploading the video.

That's....like $6.25 per hour. With travel costs.

Am I missing something?

well yeah, but then again i wouldn't be able to charge the same amount i would if i got a video on the first page of google for a roofer, dentist and such.
at least that is my thought.

Thanks , very inspiring post

Did you buy a digital camera as well to make videos onsite ?

of course a lot of them asked.
i am not trying to be mean, but if you yourself can't figure out the value of having a video. then i really don't know what to say.
to me its just common sense so it was easy to explain the benefits.

the whole reason why i decided to sell the videos for only $25 dollars was just that i wouldn't have a hard time selling it to them.
and if someone seem like they were on the fence then i just would create the video for them and collect the payment later.

Way to Go!!
I would like to know how many owners/managers you had to talk to in order to get the 75 sales.
Thanks for sharing!

your are correct
yeah i guess animoto is expensive, but i didn't put any money out of my pocket.
i sold some videos and then i signed up to the pro version.
i can't recommend any SMS provider since i only have used 1. which is text180
i just gave them 2,000 messages. i know very basic. but i am not an expert at sms.
so far i just gave the short number and keyword so they can start to grow their list.

1 if they wanted me to upload it for them to youtube i did. otherwise i would just the video to them on an attachment on an email.
2. answered on number 1
3. at first i was using the pro until i realized i was breaking the rules. so i had to upgrade to the reseller account which yes it was $500 but i had already over 2k in sales by that time so i didn't hurt.
but im sure there are way cheaper softwares out there to create video. i can recommend any because i havent used.

i am not sure if the simple video pro can be used for that. i didn't read the whole sales letter. but all you have to do is some research and im sure you will find cheaper software.

The advantage of using Animoto, even though expensive, is that is drop dead super simple but the biggest one is that there is music. Buying a software somewhere else, or using free version is fine but you still have to deal with finding music and for that, I say go for Animoto.

One software that I personally been on the brink of buying is ProShow Gold - Fast and Fun HD Slideshows - Photodex. For a meager $69.95 you get a great software and they even have a free 30 day trial but its branded (no affiliation).

One snag I can see with trying to make so many videos in a week is the delivery of the pictures to you. Henry, did you require them to email you the pictures the same day and how many pictures would you say is good enough to make the slideshow?

Thanks, Eva

Henry, Thank you for sharing all this with us. It is inspirational. I really appreciate you posting the video. One question what was this amount for?
12x397= $4,764, is that a monthly or yearly charge for SMS? Or is that for a block of SMS with no time limit?

This is very nice trick. how do you get their emails? i have lot face book fans and tell me how to use them for them for this offer.

We should learn something from your experience, and it is you who made me light up my fire of life, I know where I should go now!
I have got a new direction now

lol thank you mr sarcastic but learn how to read i wrote $50 no $5,000

I am proud of myself

i never got to thank you for the PM.
i learned a little from it, which made get on the phone and start selling.
show them the value. that's what is all about. i used that to upsell them
thanks for the share.

i will continue to do the same but with a different niche.
hoping to upsell them on higher end services.
you know maybe contruction company and offer SEO for 700 or so

yeah about 90-120 seconds. i make sure the slides dont go too fast so
the viewer can see them

How much is the pro version and does it still have their branding?

Thank you for posting this, great work!

Why not continue with restaurants since it's worked so well?

Continued success to you.

Mark

Just created my first video and uploaded on youtube.
Looks really impressive even if its short.

This is what I see, $20.75 for the Pro version per month, which is billed annually at $249.00. Monthly it is $39. The Pro version is the unbranded version.

So after you send the video do they just take over from there?

Or do you upload the video to YouTube for them etc?

Excellent find. BTW Big congratulations to Henry, very inspiring.

You got to be kiddin'? Enjoying your earnings after a weeks worth of effort, what a concept. Now is the time to keep on building on it, not spend it or you end up owing instead,

Eva

I'm sorry....I feel COMPELLED to offer MY SUCCESS with THIS "Money-Making" idea.

Before I do...I APPLAUD Henry's "Inspiration" and "GET OUT AN' DO IT" gutso. (Poverty MOTIVATES) However....probably from not having any experience in "Selling" anything I can respect his "Caution" of charging an amount more than $25 for his "service". He was basically DESPERATE to earn some dollars....any LEGAL way he could.

And....I applaud his "looking for SOME WAY" to earn bux via "Legal" methods. So...he chose to try and sell "Videos To Restaurants". However again, having NO experience in Sales....he had No Idea What To Charge SO...he picked a number out of the air...."$25 Bux ANY Restaurant could afford AND....GLADLY pay!".

However....I've been in DIRECT sales for over 30 yrs and 2 yrs ago a buddy asked me if I had any idea on how he could earn some "GOOD MONEY" with little investment!

So...as "luck" would have it, I was in my local Walmart and saw a case with "PORTABLE DVD PLAYERS". I asked the clerk to tell me what these were for and what they did. She told me they would play DVD's ON BATTERIES, WITHOUT having to "plug them in". I INSTANTLY got one of my "Hot Flashes" (Becuase I had just been looking at "Creating Videos with Photo-Story 3, by Microsoft)...and bought a Portable DVD Player (with a large screen) for $80 (they're probably cheaper now)

PS3 (still Free) allowed me to take "digital STILL" photos with my Digi-Cam ....load them into the PS3 program and ...CREATE VIDEOS using STILL photos....with different effects (moving from a wide shot to zeroing in...the "transition" to the next photo)....WITH background music or Voice.

EUREKA! I HAD HIT THE MOTHERLODE! So....here's what I did;

I knew I needed to have a "Demo" to show potential propects so I went to one of my Restaurant clients and asked her if I could make a Video of her restaurant ...AT NO OBLIGATION!

I told her I would need to take some Exterior and Interior Photos.

She JUMPED at the offer!

So...I proceeded to take some photos and went home and created my FIRST "Restaurant Video"....that I could use as a Demo to show other restaurant owners.

Here's the link to my first "Restaurant Video"...


Now, understand....this was my very FIRST Video. I've improved since.

However....the "Money-Making Concept" for my buddy was;

1) Plop your DVD Demo PS3 video into the Portable DVD Player
2) Walk into any restaurant and ask for the OWNER and tell the person who greets you that..."you'd like to SHOW THE OWNER SOMETHING THAT COULD BRING THEM MORE BUSINESS! IS HE or SHE AROUND?"
3) Owner comes out - tell them you have a Unique and Different way to bring them MORE DINERS and you'd like to SHOW THEM what it is right now...."May I set my Portable Player down on a table?" (If they ask more questions....just tell them, "All your questions will be answered in the DVD! May I take a "quick minute" to run it for you on my Portable Player?)
4) When the DVD is over tell him, "See? You've spent LOTS of time and money on your Interior HOWEVER...NOBODY SEES IT UNTIL THEY'RE INSIDE! This is a way to show your interior BEFORE they come in. I'd like to take some photos of the exterior and interior and make up a Sample Video for you...AT NO OBLIGATION! OK?
5) If he says he's "not interested"....thank him for his time and leave (This rarely happens! "Curiosity" is a STRONG motivator! If he agrees to see the Video you make for him.... tell him you'll be back in a day or 2!
6) When you get the PS3 Video made....burn it to a DVD....put it in your Portable DVD Player and go show it to the owner. I charge $500 to $750 initially and $150/mo to place the Video on YouTube and 26 OTHER Video Sites.

If you'd like to know;
1) the brand of Digital Camera
2) brand of DVD Player
3) other video sites I place his Video

...send me an email to donalm@charter.net

Thanks,
Don Alm

PS...my buddy is now happily earning a NICE income with this "simple idea" every month

Dang Lesley, I can't hold a note!

I would like to thank you though for bringing up ProShow Web. I couldn't figure out why you were saying "Web" and I was saying "Gold". I was so set on Gold because I had decided on that earlier. I went back and checked to see if there was a "Web" version and there is!

ProShow Web - Instant Online HD Slideshows - Photodex

An important point to notice is that if you do not want your clients to know what software you used, only the Premium version is un-branded. I am going to contact them in regards to reselling the videos to see if that's ok. If it is, I'll make a sample and then might cancel my new Animoto account.

Thanks again, Eva

Well, I spent a good hour too, playing around with the trial version of ProShow Web and got totally frustrated with it. I did not manage to add any music into it and when I called they were closed for the day. The 255 text characters that you are allowed is way, way better than Animoto's very limited text.

What annoyed me the most was the transitions with the text. On the trial version you can only try out 2 of them, not enough to really see, except for a little "sample" that you can't see in the actual video. Animoto's text flows really nicely on top of your pictures, maybe PSW does too, just could not try it out.

I have not yet given up on them though, will place another call tomorrow to see what they can do for me. So far though, Animoto all the way.

I have done slide shows with Photo Story 3 too, just like Don. You can create your own music with it but it really sucks. I've also tried Windows Movie Maker, both the old version and the new "live" version and I am not too happy with that one either.

I am surprised that Don is getting $500-$700 for his slideshows, last thread I read about him doing it, I think the charge was around $350 but I could be wrong.

For me, living way off the grid, having them send the photos and producing the videos at a lower cost, fits me better. I agree though that charging as little as $25 is basically giving it away. On the other hand, the OP was not really looking at making a living selling videos, he did some great upsells the very first week by providing an SMS service.

Eva

Here you go AussieT

Just a very small sample of what you can do.
It could use a little more work but, I'm off to bed now.

Anytime when it isn't breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Keep in mind if you're on the eastcoast you can call the westcoast because of the time difference.

Hi Lesley

Is the proshow web unbranded or do you need proshow producer to be able to sell to clients?

Thanks

Good tip, Aframe looks like a great asset

just give him a call, maybe he was just too busy at the moment i never saw the email or watever it was.
im sure you can get those $25 with a phone call

i was lucky when i sent those 25 emails i try to do it again i sent about 50-60 and i had no responses. so yeah forget email lol

I also sent out 100 or so emails to painters with a sample video, I got 3 responses back. One I created a video for and then he said he doesn't have the money and would like to paint one room in exchange the other to didn't get back to me.

He didn't. They sent him photos. See post 19.

Some of us here just like to freely share the successes we've had to inspire each other, it's about being part of a community. Not all of us just post here to advertise the fact we've got a "WSO coming out in October." Good luck selling any copies of that when you have trouble reading, have very few posts and have added nothing to our community.

it seems to me that you are just going around writing post without reading the threads just to build up your post counts so you can be able to reply to PMs when your WSO comes out??

He answered that already:

i don't let them sign up to text180 i just set them up with a keyword and sell them on the texts and i manage it for them.
i never tell them i use text180.

well i tell them that they should only do it 3 times per month. you don't want to be bothering the customers so often because eventually they would get tired and just opt out of the list.

Great method. I'm curious as to how Animoto knows that you are selling videos to businesses if you only have the Pro account? Do they look at the videos you have uploaded and see that they are made for multiple businesses or something?

i send them myself.

i haven't done them yet. i will once i bring them new business with SMS

Hey P1 I was thinking along those same lines will have to make a generic video I guess instead of a targeted one with business name and phone number, what are you using to send out emails?

I did the same thing, but with no luck...will have to try calling them..BTW does the P1 have anything to do with The Ticket?

Reasons to use video marketing:
1. Increase your sales.
2. Show potential clients what your business can do for them.
3. Pre-sell your clients for you.
4. Give you an advantage over your competition.
5. Build confidence and trust with your potential clients.
6. Let your clients get to know you and your business better.
7. Drive traffic to your website.
8. Make your website more powerful and exciting.
9. Keep visitors on your website longer.
10. Help your website rank better with the search engines.
11. Give you an internet presence without having a website.
12. Get your potential clients to come in or pick up the phone.

Video can accomplish all that and more.

That's how Powerful video is.

Thanks Adrian. I hadn't seen the other thread when I posted but have read through it now. The only problem with the email route is getting them to actually read the thing but I will give it a go all the same.

Yes I wasn't going to be making an judgements as to whether or not it was working as I know 23 calls doesn't give the true picture. I plan to continue calling for a couple more days and see how it works out.

Yea, I know what you mean re: email... but that's the point of calling first and getting their permission/asking who to send it to. Then they're expecting it, and you DON'T have to talk to the DM right away. You can say to the gatekeeper, "OK, can you just make sure he sees it?" and then use Spypig.

Follow up the next day too, with another call.

Saturday and the weekends in general, can be some of the best times to call businesses.

You can see several different types of samples from Animoto directly, or I think a few times in both of Henry's threads, midasman09 posted an example video he did a few years back with another program. Same concept.

As for SMS programs, there's an entire forum subsection dedicated to that, everyone has their own preferences... head over there and pick one based on your needs.

You'll be fine! It's a great method.

spypig allows you to trck if a email is opened and read. they offer a very limited free option and then it increases per email sent. Systems like Spy Pig are very useful if you are using email as part of your sales process.

Its a way to track if then emails have been open