Make Money with Video Greeting Cards

You can make money creating and selling Video Greeting Cards even in this current tight money and DIY (do it yourself) market environment. Though there are plenty of available programs and internet resources for this, not all DIYers are getting beyond the usual amateur creations. In addition to providing DIYers with a more professional product, there are plenty who do not fall into the DIY category.

The market is wide open for a fresh, if not unique, approach to greeting card creation and sharing. In years past I have done this full scale using a shopping mall booth rental during the holiday season (actually from Oct. 1 through New Year’s Eve), as well as on a smaller scale, marketing to existing clients I know might be receptive.

Ironically, my biggest Video Greeting Card breakthrough came last season when I decided to develop my own personal and business VGCs and sent out about a hundred of them. Several clients, as well as family and friends responded to thank me for the “special and unique” holiday greeting. And, they wanted to know if I could create VGCs for them!

Initiating a set of appropriate content for differing personalities, and developing a library large enough to give some choice for people is, and will continue to be a challenge, but there's no doubt that investing time to do so can pay off.

My typical Video Greeting Card is about 15 minutes in length. I have a few that focus on specific holidays such as Thanksgiving, Mother’s/Father’s Day, Halloween and, of course the Christmas season with its various flavors - from traditional to religious, to contemporary, serious or humorous.

When I developed material for the shopping mall experiment, I generated a number of selections and seasons with appropriate music from my library of copyright free selections, and used live video as well as moving stills representing the event. For example, I have collected quite a library of outdoor winter scenes and holiday decorations for the Christmas themes.

At the mall, and even now, I added a live greeting from individual or families, inserted that at the end of what is essentially a montage with music, then created my master. This first experience was during the VHS era, so I used short tapes purchased specifically for the purpose.

Now, with DVD, the process is even easier and faster, offering time to generate 20 or more copies for people who want to do more than just send one to a specific special person, family member, friend or client.

You will have to figure out what your time and the product is worth, and also what your specific market will bear. This starts out feeling like a labor of love but can soon escalate into a fun and profitable element of business. Things can change, and you will not always experience a long shelf life of the contents used even from a year ago, but Video Greeting Cards are an excellent approach to a work once, sell many concept.

Creating, marketing, selling and producing Video Greeting Cards can grow as huge as you want, or stay as subtle as you desire. It is up to you how much time, effort, money and income you put into or get out of this, but the market is real.

There is a lot more to this aspect of diversified video business, but this article should be enough to get your creative juices going. I will follow up with more details as reader interest dictates.