series Let's talk about a web series

Gonzo_Entertainment

Gonzo_Entertainment

I am in the EARLY pre-production stages of a dramatic (horror/Lovecraft) web series.
I finished the script for the pilot a couple of days ago.
My main question at this stage is how do I monetize it? Put it on youtube and beg people to click through the ads so i actually make something? Put it on a dedicated membership website? I'm going to kckstarter the pilot, come back to that well to kick starter every episode? Beg people for paypal donations?

I have a lot of connections to certain online communities that make me think viewership will at minimum be into the thousands, maybe the tens of thousands or even more.

I'm not looking to make huge profits, but the production values I am going for are going to run a couple grand an episode. A complete exercise in futility?

How do you monetize a web series...

Thoughts?
 
1. Decide what the target audience is. It should be very very definable (much more than a feature). You need to be able to say "This web series is for religious groups ages 18-24".

2. Find the outlet for your content. For video game themed web series, that would be places like IGN, G4, Machinima etc. Researching your outlet will give you an idea on if you'll be able to licensed your material for any sort of dollar amount.

2a. Licensing: meaning that you'll be able to keep the rights to your material but you're selling exclusivity to the company for a duration of time (6 months or so).

3. Social Media. Easy. facebook, twitter, engaging fans. This will eat up a lot of time, hopefully you've got someone to do it.

4. Merchandising. T-shirts, soundtrack, etc. You know this song and dance. Just make sure it's cheap.

5. In-series advertising can mean a decent amount of pocket change. You'll need to have legal behind you to do this, though. Place products (clothing, food, lifestyle items etc) in your script and start having the conversations with P.R. segments of companies earlier on.

Options.

A. Can't make any money? Remember to try packaging it on a DVD with a T-shirt combo and selling it for 30.00 - 50.00 later on.

B. Setup a donations page and stream it from Vimeo or somewhere like that, and just take donations to a Paypal account. Get what you can.

Things to remember:

. If you aren't licensing, the webseries can go anywhere you want. You'll likely make your tiny numbers off of partnerships with places like YouTube.

. There are a number of web series outlets, try Krackle or KoldKast.TV

. You need to be consistent. Release an episode each week or every two weeks, but fall behind and you lose your audience.

. Treat it like you'd treat your feature. Nobody wants to watch half-assed material. Those days are just about over. Either you've got a strong hook (Visual Effects and chaos = Freddie Wong) and no narrative or a narrative and decent production value (RCVR on Machinima.com)

. Consider starting a campaign before you release a single episode. Build an audience before hand with trailers and BTS.

. DOn't spend anything. Chances are you will see pennies, not dollars, unless you have internet gold. Internet gold is stuff kids and people bored at work want to watch. It typically isn't sophisticated, and very easy to consume.

. Watch other web series that are popular, gain a sense of what works and what does not.

. Have fun.
 
You know how YouTube rools? Your posting won't even show up without major traffic. How do you get that major traffic?

As much as the younger generation adores the Internet, the way to start generating interest is the old fashion hard copy. That means take out ads with major horror magazines where you list links to your YouTube trailer and web site.

Also start a blog and get on Internet foreums as well related to people with an interest in horror. There is also the Chiller Theater Conventions held at lwast twice a year you should rent a dealer's table to promote.

You can get that investment back with your taxes as long as you have your receipts.
 
Modern Day Myth Prod. LLC said:
You know how YouTube rools? Your posting won't even show up without major traffic. How do you get that major traffic?

As much as the younger generation adores the Internet, the way to start generating interest is the old fashion hard copy. That means take out ads with major horror magazines where you list links to your YouTube trailer and web site.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, I have to say that this is not very good advice. Ads in magazines etc will not do anything for your web series. At all.

Having content worth watching is the only way to ensure that you are monetizing your efforts, and being consistent.

If someone isn't getting serious hits, it's because nobody wants to watch their stuff. That's the cold hard truth.


Also start a blog and get on Internet foreums as well related to people with an interest in horror. There is also the Chiller Theater Conventions held at lwast twice a year you should rent a dealer's table to promote.
Click to expand...

Conventions can work out, if you have a convention where people are in the same niche as your content. This is why the most successful narrative web-series (and channels) are sci-fi, horror, or video game (gamer generation) related.
 
Good stuff, some of it already addressed, some not.

I have a clearly defined audience. It will have broad appeal to horror/thriller fans in general, but is aimed directly at a specific subset of those fans who are content hungry.

That's the real question, whether to try and license it or try to make money off youtube partnership. The initial path might be youtube for the pilot with efforts at licensing the rest of the episodes based on it's success (or hopefully not lack of) there.

I think in-series advertising would be a similar path. I don't have the track record to approach them now, maybe after a successful pilot.

A number of websites are dedicated to this specific genre. The largest of which is run by a friend of mine. Good odds for some decent publicity opportunities.

The intent is pretty high production values. I'm looking at spending about $2K on an 8 to 10 minute pilot (yes I know that's very long for a web series). That's butkus in LA, but in Nashville with some favors called in that can produce pretty high quality. The funding for the pilot will be kickstartered. I am pretty confident I can raise at least that amount.

I am pre-casting a couple of the main roles to allow for teasers, posters, stills, etc... to be created for the kickstarter as well as the general initial promotion.
 
If you haven't checked out RCVR, you should.

Between that, the Mortal Kombat series and one or two others, that's the bar those looking to really attract an audience should be trying to reach.

You can probably still make some money below that, I just wouldn't try to do it with less than what these people are doing.

Judging by your budget, I would go straight for a licensing deal, six months out, and get most of my money back that way.

Also, I'd do it without kickstarting. Save your kickstarter for larger projects. Once you tap that well, unless you're doing incredible work, then you've really only got one shot with most people.
 
Kholi said:
Unfortunately, I have to say that this is not very good advice. Ads in magazines etc will not do anything for your web series. At all.

Having content worth watching is the only way to ensure that you are monetizing your efforts, and being consistent.

If someone isn't getting serious hits, it's because nobody wants to watch their stuff. That's the cold hard truth.




Conventions can work out, if you have a convention where people are in the same niche as your content. This is why the most successful narrative web-series (and channels) are sci-fi, horror, or video game (gamer generation) related.
Click to expand...


Actually, magazine ads DO help. There are high circulation magazines for science fiction and horror that will reach people who don't know your youtube link, or, channel, web site, or blip.tv channel.

I can't afford it anymore, but advertisting my vampire books in Realms Of Fantasy generated my best customer base. A Public Relations and Marketing agency would recommend magazine ads as well. I did a thread in the marketing area about advertising in the most popular magazine can help. Millions of new people will go to your links to check out your offerings.
 
My initial thought, and some of the comments are making me think it's not a totally crazy idea, was to release the pilot on youtube, hope for success, then try to get a licensing deal for the rest of the episodes.

Yes I know I should probably just buy a bunch of lottery tickets instead.

I'm burned out on the festival circuit, don't want to try and raise feature level money yet, looking to the web as potential alternate route to get my work noticed.

The entire monetization of this project is geared purely towards being self funded, as in funded by something other than my bank account as my first three films were.
 
Gonzo_Entertainment said:
My initial thought, and some of the comments are making me think it's not a totally crazy idea, was to release the pilot on youtube, hope for success, then try to get a licensing deal for the rest of the episodes.
Click to expand...

Truth be told, releasing under a webseries licensing deal may be the way I go for the feature. It's not a back-up plan, I'm considering it as a front-runner versus traditional distribution. Just a different way of thinking.

Not a crazy idea at all... however, I wouldn't wait to get licensed. Just get licensed.


Yes I know I should probably just buy a bunch of lottery tickets instead.
Click to expand...

It isn't the lottery, though. Haha. Do something that someone wants to watch, its even easier to do when it's free. You're saying it's gonna be horror, if it looks like RCVR or MK then you won't have any issues.
I'm burned out on the festival circuit, don't want to try and raise feature level money yet, looking to the web as potential alternate route to get my work noticed.
Click to expand...

Festivals are good... when you have a festival budget. Or people want your feature or project, the you don't have to worry about it.
 
The goal would be for it to be the next level of production values over my films (don't know if you've seen any), which have been above average for micro budget (spent about $1K per day of filming), but not great.
 
I'm actually working on a web series with guys out of southern Indiana that is slated to release in January (Shameless plug: http://realityondemandseries.com) and another series (still under an NDA on that one for now) that will start filming next year.

Working on this project and mingling with others in the web series community here are the basics myself and others have learned along the way in regards to making money:

1. The first season is almost always a breakeven or loss.
2. Promotion of the series before and after launch is king.
3. Have a release schedule and stick to it. I recommend having everything at least shot if not edited before you launch.
4. Look at partnering with Koldcast and/or Blip to help with distro and revenue. Both do revenue sharing.
5. Decide if you want to have pre/post roll ads built into the videos.
6. If you show videos on own site, decide if you want banner ads/ad words/etc and tastefully work them into your sites design.
7. Don't go crazy with the ads. IF you have 4 pre roll 5 post, an ad in the middle and 72 pop up ads on the site, people will not watch.
8. Be everywhere. Upload to youtube, koldcast, blip, hulu, viemo, your own site, your uncle ted's site, your mother's cousin's uncle's neighbor's blog; just get it out there as far as you can.
9. Video water mark your episodes so that no matter where they pop up they lead back to your site.
10. Crowd source with a purpose and proven track record. Most will not fund something unless they know where the money is going and that you have a history of producing what you say you will. Typically a second season is more likely to be funded with crowd sourced revenue than a first season.
11. Have a business plan (or any plan) and build a brand, not just a series.

just a few things picked up here and there. Hope some if any of it helps.

If you need any help on on the series or have questions or what ever feel free to PM me (wow I haven't typed something with the phrase PM me since the early 90's) or get a hold of me on here. I don't it all but will try to help where I can. I'll be back in Southern Indiana and about 2.5 hrs from you guys by the end of the year.

And one last shameless plug: http://realityondemandseries.com/ (click on it for the sake of the squirrels)
 
What about charging people a subscription to watch on your own site. Is that something you could do? I'm setting up a action sports web series and I was wondering how I'd make money. Either sponsor ads Or by charging $2.99 to watch each episode. Any thoughts on that ?
 
Owen said:
What about charging people a subscription to watch on your own site. Is that something you could do? I'm setting up a action sports web series and I was wondering how I'd make money. Either sponsor ads Or by charging $2.99 to watch each episode. Any thoughts on that ?
Click to expand...

You'll never get anyone to part with 2.99 an episode, but you could get them to part with a 2.99 6 month subscription.

Hopefully, your trailers and marketing material will be amazing.
 
Yeh your probably right. I beleive I will be offering something that doesn't already exist and people are crying out for so I could surprise myself. If u do subscription only from your own site I guess you wouldn't get the following from uploading to YouTube/vimeo. Better to have sponsor ads in your series then hey?
 
Just an update.

I've hired the lead talent (so we can shoot promotional stills, create teaser footage, etc...). He's an excellent actor i have worked with before.

The script for the pilot is through second re-write. Probably stable until changes from the table read. Episodes 2 and 3 are thumb nailed, but not fully written.

Settled into a budget of about $3K for the pilot. 8 pages in 3 days. The most leisurely shooting pace we have ever done at sub 3 pages a day.

Full blown pre-production will start first of the year, most likely shooting in early March.
 
interesting idea Gonzo.

Things Iv noticed from tracking others..

Having several episodes in the can before the launch is critical. Several 5 min segments is better then a 25 min long first episode. Just so long as they come quick, like weekly.

Also you might interleave BTS and commentary\blog videos.. the idea is that there is something new every time I visit.. maybe new episodes post on Thursdays, on the following Monday you post BTS for the previous Thursdays episode.

Fresh content is the key.

Once you have a "following" you can parlay that into other deals. Maybe "branded content" which is "product placement" writ large..

Maybe you run a couple of shows..
The "Lovecraft serial"
The "Making the serial BTS show"
The "Branded content" show, where you cast and crew are paid to make short "scary movies" for specific advertisers. Picture BMW having you make a chase scene through hell.. or something like that.


In summation: The overall idea is that the "serial" is free to view, but only on your web page. This gets you eyes on your web site and your fresh content keeps those eyes coming back. Once you have a following and have proven ability to deliver, you have something to sell, not to users, but to advertisers! And since what you want to do is make money making movies, you want those advertisers to PAY you to make the short films that you want to make.
 
Going outside of Major Hubs takes years of audience cultivating, and may not be worth the added expense (time and money).

If you are not planning on sticking with it for more than a few months, the efficient option is to go through established channels for the content you're creating.

Just a heads up. =D
 
"Once you have a "following" you can parlay that into other deals."

This is where I'm leaning. As much as anything, the hope is merely to at some point not too far in being able to monetize it to the point that it's self sustaining. The main goal is exposure. It's really all about an alternate path to the film festival route. You can't hit the lottery if you don't buy a ticket. You probably still won't hit it, but .001% chance is still better than 0% chance.

Step 1: Collect underpants
Step 2: .....
Step 3: Profits!

Also, not to derail my own thread, but I got my first review for 109.

http://www.roguecinema.com/article2981.html
 
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