Filmmaker Need help

1. Your niche market depends on the kind of films you make

2. Online dvds should be cheaper than actual dvds. You should research the market by visiting other film selling websites and checking their prices. Rental movies are also possible, but that requires more tech expertise. Also, I've never checked this market, but maybe it is possible to sell your movies on iTunes and other such online stores as rentals.

3. Attracting visitors is a very vast subject and I recommend you check the WSO section. For this kind of market I'm guessing trailers distributed on websites like YouTube, along with articles on the particular niche of each movie with a link to the trailer and adwords movie ads could be great starts.

4. Not sure with what you mean by your list, but if you are refering to a list of e-mails the best way is to create a newsletter or some kind of info product that you distribute by email and market it on your website. Alternatively you could create a membership website, but you probably don't produce enough movies to entertain this kind of website. This is another subject about which there are many, many books available.

5. To start an affiliate program I recommend Clickbank. Simply check the forums or google for this kind of programs.

6. ...

Overall, I think you need a lot more research before diving into this venture. Learn about your market and create a business plan.

Film sounds cool,if you dont mind me asking but what region are you in?

Philly, Pa

Here is a great example of a filmmaker generating free publicity on youtube:

YouTube - thelonefilmmaker's Channel

I have been following him for a few months now.

But the best example of viral promotion of indi film on the net recently has got to be The Secret.

The viral marketing campaign was an incredible thing to see unfold and the amount of free publicity they obtained from it eventually reaching all the way to the Oprah show was just amazing:

The Secret :: Official Web Site of The Secret Movie :: Law of Attraction

There are a lot of filmmakers using the video sharing sites and other viral elements for promotion... I recommend you find the most successful ones and emulate them.

I would also say an affiliate program is essential because it gives automated motivation for third parties to promote you.

At the risk of sounding harsh, I am going to give my opinion on this.

I have seen better trailers done with camtasia. I went to the site and watched the trailers. They do not even make me think I might want to see the movie.
Example: the first trailer---12 seconds of a 19 sec. trailer shows someone feeding his wife. WTF is that! I know you were trying to show love then waking up from a nightmare etc. The nightmare is the trailer.

The others were not much better.

I hope the movie is better than the trailers for your sake. Otherwise, I see a big uphill climb for you.

Trailers are short clips with 1-5 seconds scenes flashing fast usually or when longer show great parts of the film. I am not a professional movie critic, but I don't need to be looking at these.

I was not expecting to see a big budget trailer, but at least one that was interesting.

Sorry for being so harsh, but I think it needs much work before marketing.
Still yet, I wish you well and hope for your success.

Your market could be film enthusiasts meaning those who are wanting to get into the business, film students wanting to learn the basics, filmmakers who are looking for new techinques.

I think Robert Rodriguez had it figured when he released his book Rebel without a Crew: Or How a 23-Year-Old Filmmaker With $7000 Became a Hollywood Player. He spoke about how he made his first major motion picture film from funding to script to production, post production to marketing and distribution. At the time I was looking into making a low budget short so I snapped it up, there's part of your market right there!, making films on a shoestring which I am positive you would have had to do.

Why not ask film forums or video sharing sites if you can put up a banner? Why not look up film schools online and request the same thing there? How about those little quirky film festivals and competitions, here in New Zealand I entered the 48 hour film competition and as far as I know they have them all around the world. Talk to the organisers of the event and see if you can hand out flyers or put an insert into participants press packs.

Can you tap into Amazon.com as a selling resource? They get tonnes of traffic, or how about eBay?

Just a couple of ideas, go where your market is, how about the film festivals themselves, write a blog about them, Cannes, Berlin, Venice, Telluride and put your DVD in there somewhere and work on getting good ranking.

Something else I thought of, what about Twitter or Myspace?, Myspace has a huge
music sharing group where like minded individuals go to share their latest creations and I'm sure film has a social group too.

You could also share your techniques, believe it or not wedding videographers and production houses are always on the lookout for new techniques. Whatever can make their work look more expensive and add production value they'll be interested in. Techniques like lighting, filters, shot angles, editing tips, special effects, motion graphics animating still photos, chromakey. You don't find too much good quality stuff out there on the subject because they are insider trade secrets and no one is sharing. There is a market for that. People want to learn that kind of stuff.

Youtube is a great way to get out there, drip feed snippets of your films. There are some great WSO's on getting featured on Youtube so do a search in the WSO section for them.

Hope this helps.