We have two more Video Production bookings this month and they should be fun. The first is a multi-camera shoot of a womens football league championship game. The second is to record the flight data of a test flight at the Boulder City Airport. The latter is on the 20th and the former on the 31st. They should be a lot of fun!
The Flaw With Most Network Marketing Programs
There has been a tremendous amount of attention good and bad to Network Marketing or as better known Multi-Level-Marketing (MLM) in recent years as people struggle to find sources of income. An MLM is where a product or service is sold through a pyramid of distributors with everyone that is above someone making money from the sales of other people below.
MLMs have been around for years. Over 30 years ago people were selling Amway products and others. Recently Hello World (video email) and Mona Vie (juice) were the rage. Both of these products had well thought out marketing plans and attracted “affiliates” by the thousands. There is no doubt there is money to be made with any of these and thousands of people have done very well. However, for the vast majority what they found is that it is very difficult to sell a product or service to your family and friends where you are soliciting them to sign up and spend money. Why is that so?
The answer leads to the flaw most of these multi-level-marketing products have. They are either selling a vastly overpriced product so that each level of the pyramid can make money or they are selling a product or service that is flawed or has very little practical benefit for the user and the only benefit is for people higher up in the pyramid.
Let’s take our two earlier examples, Hello World and Mona Vie. Hello
World was a great idea without the infrastructure to support it. It just didn’t work very well. Mona Vie on the other hand was a decent product but overpriced at $40 for a fifth of juice and required that you buy a case every month, basically spending on inventory you might not sell or use. You would never buy it based on value. So who would buy into these programs? Only people who hoped to capitalize on the pyramid aspect and sign up people below them. And as thousands found out, that isn’t so easy! That leads us to the next thought.
What can make a MLM pyramid successful for all members? The answer is to have a product or service that has value based on its own merits without relying on the pyramid aspect. In other words, something you would use whether you made money or not. Can you think of anything like that? How about something for Free or that saves you money instead of costing you money. Recently we came across something that fits this category.
Two out of three people shop online. As people have found out it is the easiest and most convenient method of purchasing goods or services. We found an online Shopping Network that has over 3000 well known stores (everything from Nordstrom’s to Target) available and lets you sign up for FREE. You put a toolbar on your browser and every time you even browse a store you get points available for cash back redemption plus discounts on products you would buy anyway. This is all FREE!!!
It offers an option where you can sign up inexpensively as an affiliate, get more discounts and make money on anyone you sign up for a Free Toolbar or as an affiliate. As an affiliate you also make money on any purchases people below you make and those people are getting discounts on shopping or even browsing and not paying more than they would pay anywhere else and usually paying less. This is where it is an MLM that has benefits to everyone involved.
By now you are probably thinking you need more information because it makes sense. On the link below there is a video which describes the whole process.
http://www.shopbest.com/richarddp
Every now and then we hear about something that is a great value that we want to share with our clients and fans. Getting discounts and cash back points redeemable for cash when you shop online is just that.
2 out of 3 people currently shop online so we feel it makes sense to save or make money on what you are already doing. ShopBest is an online shopping mall with over 3000 stores including everything from Nordstrums to Target with major airlines, car rentals, electronics stores, drugstores and just about anywhere else people shop online.
You can get a free toolbar and use it to browse and shop. Everytime you even browse you earn points. So you can make money just by “window shopping”. There are no gimmicks to this and it is totally free. You don’t have to give a lot of personal information only your name and email address. It is spam and spyware free.
It has another level if you want to make money. Here is where if you become an affiliate you can get cash back and discounts for just giving the Free Toolbar away and more if others become affiliates. There is a video where you can learn more and get the Free Toolbar. Follow this link: https:www.shopbest.com/richarddp
Chick Hughes is a person who gets invited to all kinds of celebrity events. For the past 6 months we’ve been working on getting the http://www.chickschicks.com website online. It is a fantastic site with pictures and videos plus a members section where content is available to only those that subscribe.
June was a busy month with many Las Vegas Video Production projects including coverage of the XFanz convention at the Hard Rock Rehab Pool.XFanz Convention
Videos for Susan Spencer an author who has owned non-traditional businesses such as meat packing and was also the GM of the Philadelphia Eagles. SusanSpencer Speaks at Sunrise Hospital
We did a video on the Uniphyer, a Cisco compatible device at the InfoComm expo where we shot onsite and then produced a video to introduce the product.Uniphyer Video
We did a really fun video for ShopBest featuring Talking Dogs which highlights the advantages of using a shopping network for all online purchases. A shopping network gives discounts and cash back for purchases that you would normally make anyway. Our intern, Alex Moers, did a super job of putting this together.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGZwRd5QY00
We even put together two PowerPoint presentations; one for Dr. Hyson, a neurologist in town demonstrating a advantages of his products and another for HandiCab, a company working on getting regulatory approval for a cab company optimized to transport handicapped people in Las Vegas.
We’ve been busy with a very emotional video designed to help people understand the dynamics and causes of Domestic Violence. Most of the Las Vegas Video Production we do is centered on the convention industry. This is different and aligns closer with a great deal of the work we did in NY where we produced training based on testimonials. This video is being produced as a training video sponsored by the Nevada State Attorney General’s office. We turned the Henderson Convention Center into a studio and conducted interviews with victims, abusers and subject matter experts. The input we received was eye opening and hopefully will allow us to produce a video which will reduce Domestic Violence
Last week we were at the International Esthetics, Cosmetics & Spa tradeshow. We did a Video Production project for a company that manufactures and sells a botox alternative with no needles or toxins. You can view the video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JRTRjl3Bu8
We also recorded for a similar product Frownies with CEO Kathy Wright. That video will be completed in a week.
While we were at it this busy week we recorded John Croce from Phybridge and IP telephony partner of Cisco at the Cisco booth.
This seemed like it would be a pretty straightforward project. Freeman, one of our collaborative partners asked us to help produce a video as part of the keynote presentation for the ISC convention. The original plan proposed called for an animation. This morphed into instead a live explosion of a glass logo on stage which would transform to another logo. Our role was to take the footage of the explosion and merge it into the original keynote video. Unfortunately a technical glitch prevented the explosion from occuring properly and footage didn’t exist. With the power of our software and creativity, in editing we created the explosion, prepared the video, made DVD’s and had it showing on monitors all over the show the next morning. Here is a link.
The next day after delivering the videos, we shot the convention all day and got great footage for the ISC website.
We recorded a seminar for a Hard Money lending company from San Diego that came to Las Vegas. They published our content online as a DVD set selling for $600. That is great except they didn’t pay us for the work and kept making excuses for 6 months. I tried to get help in Small Claims Court, the Attorney General’s office, the Better Business Bureau, the Metro Police Department and through use of a lawyer. Nothing worked. The seminar owner apparently knew that collection would be difficult and knew how to take advantage. He was coming back to town with another seminar in a few weeks and I timed a call to Channel 13’s Investigative Reporter to conincide. Tricia Kean made one call to the perpetrator and basically told him it was a story that was worthy of putting on air. I got paid in 5 minutes. Thank You Channel 13!
Here is a link to the whole story
http://www.ktnv.com/Global/story.asp?S=12160352
Last week we produced a video for Infinera, a telecommunications company out of Silicon Valley. They were in Las Vegas for their 2010 Sales Meeting and booked three groups of employees to go out and have fun at Zero Gravity faux sky diving, Fast Lap Go Carts and Cyclery Bicycle tours out of Red Rock. Our task was to go with each group and gather footage that would be used in a video they would show the next day. I went with the bicycle group. I sat in the back of our hatchback and with the camera on a mount to steady it, got cycling shots as good as seen on ESPN. The bikes reached speeds over 40mph. Our three crews did a great job of capturing the fun. We edited till 3AM that morning with two editors and workstations going all out and delivered the video at 7AM. The people at Infinera loved it. You can view it at the link below:
Infinera 2010 Sales Meeting Video