How to Create a DVD without Spending a Dime

If you think of Wednesday as “hump day”, chances are you have a job. Honestly, I’m often not certain what day it is. I’ll have to check out a calendar to be sure. Actually I just put my mouse over the clock at the bottom right of my screen and it will tell me what day of the week it is. When I had a job I certainly knew what day it was; I knew exactly what time it was and how long until 5 o’clock.

Recently I was talking to my mother who was going to help my sister move. The trip required a plane flight and I’m allergic to physical labor so I didn’t participate. Anyway, the day before my mother was leaving I asked what I thought was an innocent question about my sister: “Is she taking the day off from work tomorrow?” My mother rolled her eyes. Then announced that tomorrow was Saturday Oh, really I thought. How could I be so stupid?

You’ll forget what day it is too when you learn how to make money online. Friday? Wednesday? There’s not much difference to me at this point. You’ll find yourself not living for the weekend anymore. You’ll probably not like the weekend as much as you used to because all the people with jobs are out clogging up the roads, stores, golf courses and everything else.

Not only that but you’ll pay more to deal with these crowds. Isn’t that backwards? Weekend golf is not nearly as enjoyable as it used to be. What’s the point of paying twice as much to play a slower round on the weekend when I can pay half-price and play a much quicker round during the week? Living “off peak” is one of the many luxuries you’ll enjoy when you master the skill of making money online.

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Tim Gary knows how to build one way links. Here’s what he said: “In the first month alone, I counted 31 new one way links and a noticeable increase in traffic too. The service is ideal for anyone who wants to increase their incoming links ranking, and traffic on autopilot.”

There are many ways to drive traffic to a blog and blog carnivals are one of them. Don’t worry if you’ve never heard of a blog carnival. I’m not sure why it’s called a carnival but roughly each week a blog owner will host the carnival and other blog owners submit posts from their blogs for consideration. There is a deadline for submissions which is usually a day or two before the blog carnival.

The person hosting the blog carnival will peruse the blog posts submitted and choose which ones to include. The host will make a post on the host blog with links to each of the posts included in the blog carnival. Hosts are free to do what they want. Some will select a top post or a top ten and say something about each of them. Other hosts will just post a list of all the blog posts submitted without much introduction.

Blog carnivals tend to attract a lot of visitors and each visitor will potentially visit your blog by clicking on the link to the post you submitted. Whatever the topic of your blog, you should no problems finding several relevant blog carnivals. If you’re really ambitious, you can host a blog carnival on your blog. It’s really very simple and doesn’t take much time.

Search for “blog carnivals” on the Internet if you’re not certain where to start. There is also a popular site that lists hundreds of blog carnivals and includes an easy submission form which only takes a few seconds to complete. All you need to do is copy the permalink from the post you’re submitting and the form will autocomplete all the other information except your name and email address. It’s that quick and easy.

You can search for more specific blog carnivals in your niche by performing more specific searches like maybe “golf blog carnival” if you have a blog about golf. That’s a good exercise for other reasons than finding blog carnivals. You might find a few new blogs to add the list of blogs you like to read. This is so brain dead simple that you should do it right now while you’re thinking about it. You can find a blog carnival and submit a post very quickly. Then you can sit back and watch the traffic come in.

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Would you like to convert your personal computer into your personal cash register? If you answered “yes,” then you’ll want to visit the CyberCa$hology Blog to learn how to run a successful internet business

The allure of the world wide web with its ability to quickly open up global markets to smart ecommerce business owners with product and services to sell but one of the drawbacks is that the good domains are gone, right? The days of quickly finding several good .com domains have all but disappeared and it’s getting harder and harder to even find good domain names with less attractive extensions like .net, org, and .biz. If you don’t act fast, you’ll be stuck with a lowly .info domain.

If you actually believe that, think again because it’s far from the truth. If you just use a little imagination and creativity, it won’t take very long to find a memorable .com name for your domain but it might take a bit longer than it did a few years ago. Then again, you might be surprised to find your first choice still available.

A recent personal experience proved how many good domain names are ripe for the picking. A domain for a product that shows you how to create a physical DVD (and have it produced & shipped) for free was first on my list. After discovering createdvd.com to be taken, I found my second choice - CreateDVDProduct.com - available. Next I went looking for a domain for a product that demonstrates the ease with which you can create customized covers for CDs & DVDs. This one was little more difficult but in short order I found DVDnCDCovers.com. Both DVDs are now being sold on the respective sites.

CreateVideoProduct.com is the domain I selected for a product that shows you how to create your own online video course. That domain was surprisingly easy to find too. “Webmaster Basics for Internet Entrepreneurs” at TheWebmasterBasics.com is a popular 3 volume DVD set for anyone who wants to learn the basic webmaster tasks required to run a successful Internet business. These domain names may be considered too long by some but they describe the products to a “T” and are attracting search engine traffic already.

You want always find it this easy though. The day will come when you might get frustrated by the challenge of finding a good .com domain for your site but all you need to do is be creative. One possibility is to try using a letter like an “a”, “e”, or “i” or a short word like in the domain name. Another possibility is using the letter n in place of the word and. Still another possibility is replacing “s” with “z”. BlogCarnivalz.com was the product of using that little trick. Notice the keyword phrase “blog carnival” is still part of the domain. Tap into your creative intuition and the ideas will flow freely. The simple fact of the matter is that good .com names are plentiful.

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CyberCa$hology is the art & science of converting your personal computer into your personal cash register. For more information, visit the Make Money Online Business Blog

Just about everybody knows about the high margins created by information products. Information products routinely command 10, 25, or even 100 times the cost of the product whether it takes the form of a book, ebook, CD, DVD, or online video course. It should come as no surprise the number of information publishers is growing rapidly. Huge margins like that are attractive.

DVDs are an excellent choice for the delivery of an information product. And despite what many people seem to think, DVDs are not difficult to create, don’t require investing in expensive software, and don’t come with the requisite hassle of carrying inventory, manufacturing, and shipping. Those are just convenient excuses for marketers who won’t put forth a little effort to discover the truth.

The fact is that DVDs are very simple to make and don’t require investing in expensive software. In fact, I create DVDs without spending a nickel. Yes it does require a few software programs but the ones I use are freely available on the Internet and they work incredibly well. In fact, the software I use to convert avi files to DVD files comes with an incredible support forum that answered my questions within 24 hours. That’s better service than a lot of products I’ve actually paid for.

Shipping & manufacturing are easily outsourced saving you much hassle. Kunaki offers a great service that will create and ship your DVDs as they receive orders. At $1.75 per DVD (including cover) plus a nominal $3 handling fee on each order, Kunaki’s rates a very competitive. Kunaki also ships internationally to almost every country as well as to any US address. Expedited shipping is available for customers who want to get their product overnight. Simply use Kunaki’s proprietary software to upload your product to their facility and you’re ready to go. It’s very quick and easy.

DVDs are attractive to information marketers for several reasons. First of all, there’s the high perceived value of DVDs when compared to books or online videos. What’s the price of a book? Anyone can go to a bookstore anywhere in the US and purchase a book for $20 or less. You’re likely to be disappointed if you expect to sell your book for more than $20. By contrast, DVDs are routinely sold for $100 or more…and the cost of the manufacturing the DVD is $1.75 including the cover. That leaves a lot of room for huge profit margins. And there’s no middleman to share the profits with since you’re self-publishing your DVD.

It gets better because Kunaki gives you the choice to add a UPC code to your DVD. If this doesn’t excite you, consider that the UPC code allows you to easily sell your DVD on Amazon. That provides instant credibility. You can show people the DVD you’re selling on Amazon while most information publishers are struggling to sell a few DVDs.

DVDs aren’t restricted to videos either. There are data DVDs on which you can put software programs or many other types of data or information. That’s just the tip of the iceberg. There are too many reasons for creating DVD information products to be covered in a single article.

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“After 9 years in Microsoft’s IT department I assumed the information in this course would be nothing new…but I have learned much more than I expected. I recommend this course to those interested in starting an online business.” - Richard McLaughlin
The Webmaster Basics

Have you ever considered using DVDs as a lead-generator? If you haven’t, there are several reasons you might want to at least test using DVDs as a lead generator. One reason is that you’ll stand out from the crowd…especially online. While others are giving away free reports, you’ll be giving away a physical DVD. Another great reason is that the DVD will introduce potential customers to your products and if the DVD a great product (which it should be), then they’ll be more likely to buy from you in the future.

I offer a DVD for only the shipping and handling fee. To each his or her own, but I consider it a terrible idea to cover the shipping & handling yourself. In my opinion, it’s a much better idea to charge a nominal shipping & handling fee. If you don’t, you might go broke paying to ship a DVD to a bunch of freeloaders who will never buy anything. Yes you want to get your quality DVD information product into as many hands as possible but you want to build a list of buyers not a list of freeloaders.

Charging a nominal fee for shipping & handling is a good way to separate the buyers from the freeloaders. It also gets people in the habit of paying for the information you provide. And if it’s good, useful information they are likely to buy more and at higher prices. Smart marketers use this strategy with other media like television. The “Video Professor” sells information products that teach you how to use computer programs. He sends you a free one (you’ll pay $4.95 shipping & handling) and it’s so good that most people order more. He’s making a fortune giving away DVDs as a lead generator.

Don’t forget that the main point of this exercise is that you’re building a list of people who have raised their hands and indicated enough interest in the topic of your DVD that they’ve parted with their hard-earned money to get it. This makes them great prospects. If all you do is build this list and make offers to them, that could be enough to build a sold six or even seven figure business. Test offers and send an offer to the list every month or so. You’ll probably love the results.

Another potentially profitable strategy is to offer an immediate upsell. Perhaps you have a three volume DVD set on home schooling or another topic. You could give away volume one and then immediately offer the entire three volume set as a discounted price…but only if it’s purchased now. Perhaps the normal price is $97 and the discounted price is $67. You’ll have to test offers and prices to see what works best but there are enormous profits to be made when you find the “sweet” spot.

For a practical example of this, check out CyberCa$hology.

Several marketing studies have shown that the packaging of a product can have a dramatic impact on sales.  For example, margarine was a tough sell decades ago.  It’s been said that margarine was originally developed to feed chickens but even the chickens wouldn’t eat it so it was repackaged and marketed to humans.  Whether that’s really true or not, I’m not sure…but just stick with me here.

Butter was stiff competition for margarine so many things were done to make the packaging more attractive.  First, the margarine was colored yellow to look more like butter.  In the case of Imperial margarine, it was wrapped in aluminum which gave it a higher perceived quality than something wrapped in paper.  And finally a crown was used on the box to give it a royal or regal appearance.  With all these packaging changes, Imperial margarine went on to become a best seller.

So what does this have to do with DVDs?  Plenty.  You’ll have to test to be sure, but the packaging of your DVD information product can have the same dramatic impact on sales.  Personally I use Kunaki.  They provide a great service and they even provide hundreds of covers you can use for your CDs and DVDs.  But I find these covers lacking.  I’ve learned to create covers that look better to my eye.  I can also customize the covers with my name, website URL, testimonials, etc.

I’m no graphic designer but in only a few hours of messing around with a 10 year old Adobe product (Adobe PhotoDeluxe Business Edition 1.1) I was able to make attractive CD & DVD covers.  It’s really not very difficult.  You can use your own photos or you can use stock photos.  Some sites offer stock photos for free while others charge a nominal fee for the use of the photos.  I don’t recall paying more than $2 for a photo and usually only $1.

So if you’re an expert with photo editing software then I encourage you to use it to create DVD covers.  If you’re not an expert you could always hire someone to create a cover for you.  Another option is to purchase a DVD information product that shows you to do it step-by-step.  I doubt you’ll be surprised that I created just such a DVD using a screen-capture software to record me as I created attractive CD & DVD covers .

Some people mistakenly believe nobody will be interested in a DVD information product they could create because they have no credibility.  This is ridiculous.  It is a limiting belief that could prevent you from achieving the success and wealth you deserve.

You don’t have to be a world-renowned expert to create a profitable DVD product.  If you take a minute to think about it rationally, you’ll soon realize that even those who are considered “experts” today were not experts when they started.  The fact is that you only have to know more about the subject matter than the person buying the DVD and if you have developed some skill either through a job or through a hobby then you are in fact an expert whether you realize it or not.

Once you get over the initial hurdle of thinking you have no credibility, it’s easy to build momentum which will increase your credibility…and your sales too!  Testimonials are paramount.  You can say whatever you want about your product but there will always be skepticisim because you will be seen as having the ulterior motive to sell your product which is only natural.  On the other hand, it’s difficult to argue with the honest opinion of someone who has used your product and found it be beneficial.

One key is to get specific testimonials.  Let’s say you have a DVD information product on how to build birdhouses.  A testimonial that says:  “This DVD was great.” is better than nothing but practically useless because it doesn’t convey any benefits.  A much better testimonial would be someting like:  “After watching this DVD, I was able to build a beautiful bird house in one afternoon.  The detailed instructions made it so simple anybody could do it.  We love sipping tea on our back porch and watching the birds.  Our birdhouse will provide years of enjoyment.”  Can you see the enormous difference?  It should be obvious.

To take it a step further, you should use the full name, city & state in the testimonial.  A testimonial from Robert Smith in Knoxville, TN is much more credible than a testimonials from somebody named R. Smith or worse yet R.S.  Robert Smith from Knoxville, TN is a real person. Who the heck is R.S.?  Also try to get a photo of Robert Smith maybe even standing next to his birdhouse.  Combining the words with a full name and a photo creates a powerful testimonial that will go a long way towards creating credibility for your product.

The answer to that question might be movies and TV series.  I’m not certain but the Seinfeld DVDs roll off the shelfs at a rapid pace as to the DVDs from many other hit television shows as well as movies.  But unless you directed a blockbuster movie or created a hit sitcom those aren’t viable options for your DVD product.

Information of all types is great for DVDs.  People are constantly looking for information on everything imaginable from cooking to quilting, from aardvarks to zebras, and from Atlanta to Zurich.  Any hobby will do:  stamp collecting, bird watching, woodworking, etc.  The list goes on and on.  How about golfing, fishing, or hunting.  And there are even submarkets in those like chipping, putting, & driving for the golf market.

Most people have some expertise or passion that would make a great DVD information product.  It could be based on your profession.  Maybe you’re a certified computer security specialist and you can show people how to keep their computers safe from hackers and spam.  Or maybe you’re a world traveler and you know all the dirty little secrets to getting the lowest airfares, the best rooms at the best hotels, and the cheapest rental cars.  Do you think you could convince a few people to buy your $100 DVD if it will instantly save them $200, $300, or more.  I think so too.

There are several options for creating a DVD and you don’t need any expensive equipment or software.  Most home video camcorders will record videos and save them as .avi files.  That type of video would be ideal for a cooking DVD or a golf instructional DVD.  Billions of dollars of DVD information products are sold in those markets every year.  Isn’t it time for you to get your piece of the pie?

If the valuable information you have to share is computer based such as a DVD about computer security or finding the lowest airfares, you can use a screen capture video software like Camtasia Studio 3.  It won’t cost you an arm & a leg either.  As a matter of fact it’s absolutely free as of this writing.  Don’t fool yourself into thinking creating a DVD is too complicated or only for professionals.  You can create a DVD in one day without spending a nickel.

It’s common knowledge that information products have high margins.  Information in all forms (books, ebooks, CDs, DVDs, online videos, etc) commonly sells for multiples of 10, 50, 100 times the unit cost of manufacturing the product.  It’s no wonder there are so many information marketers.  Those healthy margins tend to attract a crowd.

DVDs are an excellent choice for the delivery of an information product.  And despite what many people seem to think, DVDs are not difficult to create, don’t require investing in expensive software, and don’t come with the requisite hassle of carrying inventory, manufacturing, and shipping.  Those are just convenient excuses for marketers who won’t put forth a little effort to discover the truth.

The fact is that DVDs are very simple to make and don’t require investing in expensive software.  In fact, I create DVDs without spending a nickel.  Yes it does require a few software programs but the ones I use are freely available on the Internet and they work incredibly well.  In fact, the software I use to convert avi files to DVD files comes with an incredible support forum that answered my questions within 24 hours.  That’s better service than a lot of products I’ve actually paid for.

As for manufacturing & shipping, there are several options.  The one I use (Kunaki)will create & ship the DVD on demand at their facilities and pass the costs on to the customer.  They charge less than $2 for the physical DVD (including DVD cover) and a nominal $3 handling charge.  And first class shipping via the US Postal Service to most US locations is less than $2 as well.  Customers have the option of paying more for speedier delivery if they so choose.  All you have to do is upload the files to the publisher and drive traffic to your order page.  It couldn’t be much simpler.

Several aspects of DVDs should be appealing to information publishers.  First, DVDs have a higher perceived value than an online video course or a book.  How much will you pay for a book?  You can march into almost any bookstore in America and buy a book on any topic for less than $20.  Good luck selling your book for more than that.  DVDs on the other hand are often sold for over $100…and remember it costs less than $2 for the physical DVD (including DVD cover).  The rest of it goes straight into your bank account.  And since you’re self-publishing you don’t have to share the profits with a middleman.

The service I use also provides the option of putting a UPC code on the product.  This may not seem like such a big deal but this makes it incredibly easy to sell your DVD on Amazon.  Talk about instant credibility.  While most information marketers are schlepping their DVDs on homemade websites, yours is available on Amazon so it must be better.

DVDs aren’t restricted to videos either.  There are data DVDs on which you can put software programs or many other types of data or information.  That’s just the tip of the iceberg.  There are too many reasons for creating DVD information products to be covered in a single article.