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Thread: Cd-Rom Multimedia --- Is it a profitable business?

  1. #1
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    With the power of Flash projector and third party tools like Flash Jester and SWF Studio, making executable programs looks very appealing. I have been toying around with these tools and I am very impressed with the ability to make autorun cds and execuables that anyone can use.

    My question is, how profitable is this business? This is obviously a step off the web and onto the desktop. Has anyone had any experience in doing this stuff? How big is the demand? Are people that impressed if you hand them a business card CD?

    I am very interested to know from experienced CD-Rom guys.

    Thanks a lot,

    -scott
    http://www.scottmanning.com

  2. #2
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    I've made 3 Flash-based CD-ROMS in the past 10 months. There is great money in it, but as usual - it depends on the client and how much you can get for an hourly rate. My hourly doesn't change if it's CD or web-based.

    As for the personal CD question, some clients I have had are impressed by a CD. It's just one more way to make yourself standout. I'm currently tinkering with a demo-reel I'm placing on a mini-CD for potential clients.

    -A02

  3. #3
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    resolved Biz Cards

    CD Rom Biz Cards are one of my Major Clients biggest selling items (He runs a duplication company and I do most of his layout/design for print and contecnt authoring). The money is good, even for a cheap one (our smallest Biz Card Project is $1500). I'd suggest getting into Director first though. No offence to flash, but a time will undoubtedly come when you need video or more complex image transitions. Flash design for the interface and fancy stuff and Director for the tricky stuff.

    I know there are some good video to swf converters, but frankly, by the time you get the quality from and swf that you had in your quicktime video, you've quadrupled the size.

    CD everywhere is also an excellent program. People will toss in an extra $500 easy to have a CD-Rom that's windows and Mac friendly. And it's no programming work, really since the source files are cross-platform, with the exception of using avi on the PC and Quicktime on the Mac. Of course you need to own a mac.

    Anyway, I'm rambling, but I'd say, definitely do it. People love it, you get known pretty quick in the business world, and you never get stuck with maintenance contracts... unless you do a BizCard for a company that hasn't even got a website yet. Then you can get double work. I'm doing that right now. A Water and Leisure company has decided to get a Bizcard done and they have no website. We said we'd do the site for $800 including securing the URL. Seems cheap, but basically we're just uploading their Biz Card and doing a 5 page HTML site to go with it.

    Regards,

  4. #4
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    Got a link to that CD Everywhere program?

    -scott
    http://www.scottmanning.com

  5. #5
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    resolved The link is very strange... took hours to remember....

    http://www.cdeverywhere.com/

    Just kidding Scott.
    Cool site, BTW. Where are you from anyway?

    Regards,

  6. #6
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    Re: The link is very strange... took hours to remember....

    Originally posted by seeddesign
    http://www.cdeverywhere.com/

    Just kidding Scott.
    Cool site, BTW. Where are you from anyway?

    Regards,
    Wow. That was very hard to remember.

    I'm originally from Arizona, but I'm living in Philadelphia right now. Where you from?

    -scott
    http://www.scottmanning.com

  7. #7
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    Adding CD-ROMs to your portfolio...

    We've been doing CD-ROMs & CD-ROM Business Cards for over a year now.

    We have a Director-based product which uses web-based forms to download information via Lingo script into the shell to pre-populate the CD based on the client's information.

    We've just launched a partnership program so designers & marketing companies can add the product to their own offerings. We can even make them seemless so that they are branded as your own cards.

    The website is http://www.cybericard.tv

    There is not a single piece of media we cannot include in the Director environment one way or another.

    Payment and referals run in the neighborhood of 2% for a simple email or phone referal (i.e. "Hey call these guys")

    We can offer something like 5% of gross sale on production and cards for affiliates who promote us with more work than just a link (i.e. the promote us to their email list and/or write a review, etc.)

    Sounds low but the copy will give examples of average sale of $3500 production with 1000 card order will be a $255.00 commission. A $7000 production with a 10,000 card order would be a $900.00 commission.

    Higher end cards can run up to $20,000 in production and would pay $1,000 + a % of the replication (high end usually means higher orders number-wise.

    OR,

    We remove all logos of ours from the product and you brand it as your own and resell it.

    AND, we usually wind up subcontracting out part of the design on the affiliate referals if it is something you can do.

    Email me at Tom@Cybericard.tv if you would like to talk.








  8. #8
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    We're also on Pacific Standard Time (Seattle, WA) so I'm usually around on the off hours of AUS time.

    Cheers,

    Tom

  9. #9
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    Originally posted by Agent_Coop
    We're also on Pacific Standard Time (Seattle, WA) so I'm usually around on the off hours of AUS time.

    Cheers,

    Tom
    I was checking out your site and I noticed that you use CyberTracker to find out when someone views one of your CD-Roms. How exactly does this work? Its very interesting. Can it work with Flash Projectors as well?

    -scott
    http://www.scottmanning.com

  10. #10
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    What a great question..I believe it can..I am meeting with the developer today and will bring that up. CyberTrakker should be able to sit on the card independant of the Director/Flash/Projector file.

    I'll post back later today with the "better" answer.

    -Tom
    [Edited by Agent_Coop on 07-05-2001 at 03:27 PM]

  11. #11
    Modding with Class JabezStone's Avatar
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    Hey, Coop!!


    Does your product rely on an Internet connection to function properly?
    If not, and if the content does not need to be downloaded from the Net, why don't you just include the content directly on the CD.
    I may have misread your previous post about downloading, "information via Lingo script into the shell to pre-populate the CD".

    Jabez
    [Edited by JabezStone on 07-05-2001 at 01:31 PM]

  12. #12
    i just started doing some flash work for some guys who are starting a cd-business card companay. They've found that a lot of appeal has come back to cd's because 'everyone has a web site', but when you hand someone a shiny new cd it seems new and exciting, even when the quality isn't really superior to a web site.

  13. #13
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    Answers..


    Ok, couple answers real quick..

    1) All of the content is on the CD. (For the Cybericards)

    For resellers & affiliates..we have a web-based system for Interviewing and taking down client information which will automatically pre-populate the Template on our side. (for production). It's a time-saver which helps us reduce our overall costs for the client.

    2) CyberTraker - CyberTrakker is a product you can set up on your server to track CD's, websites, and affiliate programs. We have folks who purchase it and then resell the service to their individual clients. I.e. You can track an affiliate program for a client for a monthly fee etc..or you can use CyberTrakker to set up an entire program for someone else.

    It is independant of our CD-ROM product, so you may rack anything you can fit on a cd, disk, dvd, website, etc.

    3) It does not need a connection to record. It does need a connection to eventually send the data.

    What it will do is store the information as an active cookie, and send it either 1) Immediately 2) The next time that the viewer is on the internet.

    CyberTrakker can tell whether the CD was viewed in different machines, off the disk, as installed (multiplier feature of the cards install the enrire product to your machine)

    More to follow when I get a chance..

    -Tom





  14. #14
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    Here's a better explanation of CyberTrakker's features.

    http://www.cybertrakker.com/htm/about.htm

    I'll use how we use it for Proposal Kit.

    For example..this single program manages all of Proposal Kit's affiliates (1,300+), tracks all of their sales..processess all of the creditcard payments..it has an integrated shopping cart whether you use affiliates or not..provides reporting tools for each affiliate..allows the creation of marketing material with their affilaite code built into the HTML..

    Then it tracks all of the second tier affiliates (because you get 10-15% of the sales of anyone who signs up under you) and generates reports for you on this level as well.

    Then, it allows us to do a mass PAYPAL dispursement of commissions pretty much the first of every month (for those enabled). No waiting for checks..no problems with bad checks..EVER.

    but check the above link for more information..

    You can also sign up as a Proposal Kit affiliate, and just check out the front end and reporting of the CyberTrakker from a user's perspective:


    http://www.proposalkit.com/htm/signup.htm

    -Tg




  15. #15
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    If there is a market, maybe we will just bundle the tracking scripts for CD's and sell them seperate of the Enterprise Edition.

    That way you could track projector files, web-on-a-disk, as well as PowerPoint..basically anything on a disk at that point.

    It tracks with an Internet connect, or stores it until one becomes available.

    Hmm..any interest?

    -Tom

  16. #16
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    Originally posted by Agent_Coop
    If there is a market, maybe we will just bundle the tracking scripts for CD's and sell them seperate of the Enterprise Edition.

    That way you could track projector files, web-on-a-disk, as well as PowerPoint..basically anything on a disk at that point.

    It tracks with an Internet connect, or stores it until one becomes available.

    Hmm..any interest?

    -Tom
    There's an interest here. How much?

    -scott
    http://www.scottmanning.com

  17. #17
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    Let me work on that over lunch with the developer.

    It's the ROI tracking which makes most of the marketing folks wet their pants.

    Being able to say that their CD's/Projects/Campaigns were seen by "x" amount of people, plus some other info is a marketing depts quantifiable dream.

    More in a bit..

    -tg

  18. #18
    Modding with Class JabezStone's Avatar
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    Interested here, also... $$??

  19. #19
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    I would also be interested in some more info on this,
    thanks

  20. #20
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    Ack!

    I'm trapped in a Kinko's (a US copy center) right now..and there is no end in sight! This place is filled with folks read: employees) that know nothing...grrr..

    I'll talk to you all in a couple of hours.

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