Why You Should Start Your Video Business with Photo Montages

by Luis O. Maymi

You’re looking to start a video production business and like all business owners you want to succeed. You start researching about what you need to know about the videography business and in all your research you end up at this blog, maybe even meet Earl in the process. Earl published a post titled “Three Steps to Making more Money with Video” and the first thing you discover there is montage production is profitable. In this article, I’m confirming that this is 100 percent true and why you should start producing photo montages before anything else when first starting out in a video business.

You should know that producing photo montages is easier than just about any other video production and can make you money without breaking the bank, purchasing video equipment. Don’t believe me? Let us compare photo montages to wedding video production. For wedding video production you need a lot of equipment, starting with a good camera, external mic systems including shotguns, handhelds and lavalieres, good headphones, external camera light (just in case) and a computer with good video editing software. When you record a wedding you need to travel to the event venue and you’ll spend several long hours videotaping. More than that, you’ll spend a ridiculous number of hours editing the video footage — up to 30 hours or more. Also, videotaping weddings requires some degree of experience.

With photo montages you don’t even need a camera. All you need are a scanner, decent computer, software and a DVD burner. That’s it! Do you need to travel to a venue and spend many hours there? No. Do you need to spend over 30 hours editing? No. Do you need a huge startup investment to begin producing photo montages. No!

Now you know that you don’t need a huge initial investment but what should you do next? According to chapter 4 of Earl’s photo montage book you should consider having the following:

YOU NEED A WEBSITE!
In the article “Wordpress for Videographers” guest author Heidi Mueller explains how videographers with limited web design skills and limited budgets can create an Internet presence using Wordpress. I also work with Wordpress on a daily basis and will be happy to help you out.

EVERY BUSINESS NEEDS BUSINESS CARDS!
To confirm the truth about this, let me share my story with you. One day I was at a shopping center, you know, looking at electronics, when a friend of my father’s (a lawyer) started talking to him. The conversation moved toward a computer problem the lawyer was having and he asked me for a business card. Sadly, I was all out of cards and hadn’t printed any for months. So, I asked him for his business card, wrote my information on his card and gave it back to him. He did end up with my contact information but that looked so unprofessional. Never leave home without your business cards.

DIRECT MAIL MARKETING
I’m going to borrow Earl’s quote: “If you market, you will make it!” © 2004-2012 Earl Chessher. Having a direct mail strategy will help you get montage gigs. For more information about direct mail marketing read “Direct Mail Works” and “Focused Direct Mail Gets Gigs”.

WORD OF MOUTH MARKETING
This is the marketing category that has worked for me very well and has gotten me most of my photo montage gigs. To take advantage of word-of-mouth you need to be outgoing, befriending all the people you can and work to establish good, trusting relationships with them.

IDENTIFY & ESTABLISH YOUR MARKET!
This is really important. You should consider what your competition is doing and what market you’re going to focus on. In my case, I focus on montage production business with churches.

Although photo montages are generally easier than other video production work, you still need to consider a lot of things before starting out. Luckily, Earl has written a complete guide on how to make money marketing and producing photo montages. Compared to other books that claim to be complete guides, this one really is a complete guide! The book is divided into four sections: Marketing, Production, Delivery and Everything Else!

Whether you’re just starting out or are already an established video producer, it’s a good idea to have Earl’s book with you. The great thing about photo montages is that you can make money faster, which can later be invested in new equipment or business expansion. If you want to start a video production business, photo montages will help you grow. And, with a resource like Earl’s photo montage book, you will increase your chances for success.

Remember: “If you market, you will make it!” © 2004-2012 Earl Chessher

About the author:
Luis O. Maymi enjoys social media, mostly Twitter, and he has written an eBook about e-mail marketing strategies. He is currently working to expand his video production business to social video marketing and photo montage production.