Is $250/minute for whiteboard animation reasonable?

Fiverr actually does have some pretty who are pretty good at creating whiteboard videos lol

If the illustrations are hand drawn specifically for your topic/video, then it's not a bad price.

If you don't know the difference between Sparkol videos and custom illustrated whiteboard videos, take some time to learn before making a buying decision.

If you want an outstanding video like the ones used by Clickbank vendors, you're NOT going to find it on Fiverr.
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I had to laugh. I totally understand the feeling.

Joe Mobley

It's Sparkol Video Scribe.....I think someone already said this though, maybe your thinking of something else.....I dunno! haha

No it isn't ridiculous at all. Your statement is ridiculous, and it's an insult to artists, and an attempt to drag them down. Fortunately, it won't make a dent because there is always going to be a market for quality in spite of people like you.

Quality only exists because others refuse to adopt your weak "cheaper is better; cheapest is best" mindset and are willing to pay for it.

Depends on the whiteboard artist. There are several factors that come into play that I can think of off the top of my head:

1) The script. Every second counts. Without a powerful script,all the graphics in the world won't help sell your gizmo or service. Some whiteboard artists include writing copywriting scripts in their package fees. Good copy is expensive, and you'll pay for it, regardless of the source (if you write it, then you pay in terms of your time.) Once the copy is written, then it has to be visualized and transformed into a storyboard.

2) The actual artwork. There are different ways of producing the whiteboard effects and transitions. Some "automatic" hands look phoney. Some artists are plain better than others. Some have compelling artistic concepts and drawings and others don't. Transitions from one scene to another are also important. Does it look like a page is being flipped? Do you want the camera to move? Should the artwork be done originally and on the fly or traced? What angles should these be done? Should actual video footage also be shown?

3) Audio. Again, you get what you pay for. Who will do the voice over work? The artist? A voice over artist? Going rates are pretty high for professional voice overs because trained voices help sales.

A five dollar gig is unlikely to bring out the polished, sophisticated work that a $250 a (finished product) minute artist can produce.

What many people seem to forget is that the services on Fiver and the cheaper services on the WF (and i'm not knocking them, because I even provided this service myself for $20) can only use library images of Sparkol (or whatever service they're using) to create your whiteboard video.

You will not get any bespoke illustration or custom images that are exclusive to you for this price.

Now, I'm not saying the cheaper services using the library images don't look good because they do. And if you don't think it matters that your prospects have seen the same sketch of a guy in someone else's whiteboard video - then go with one of the cheaper services.

However, if you want custom images, exclusive to you, from a real digital artist, obviously you're going to have to pay a lot more. $250 does sound a little 'high end' but if the company are offering storyboarding etc then it's probably about right.

Generally in life you get what you pay for.

Just make sure that the company are legit and sketching from scratch. If someone is trying to charge you $250 for a Sparkol video then that is a rip off.

Best wishes,

Hollywood movies cost something like $300,000 a minute and upwards. Would you pay to see a movie that cost $5 a minute to make?

$250 a minute for an original (non-software generated) video is very cheap.

Martin

Probably a fair rant Will but what would you suggest those people on a limited budget do?

Anton

Not a bad rant overall; you get what you pay for. And it is rather offensive to artists to hear people screaming "ripoff" when an artist producing original, high quality work charges a few hundred, a few grand, or whatever. Those same people whining about an artist charging $250 for an original animated commercial, would love to charge a client $250 for a logo that they outsource for $5.

But Fiverr is not a joke (well okay, much of it is), and there are good people there giving good services. Sure it's cheap, and you aren't going to get 10 hours of a good artist's time for $5. But you can get many things that aren't bad at all; for example, there are very good voiceover people selling 30-60 second pitches for $5; a great deal for what it is.

As far as I can tell, there are two main reasons people do Fiverr gigs. They use it as the lead magnet for their sales funnel, and then upsell a percentage of their buyers into customers for their normal services. And they use it to generate rave testimonials for their sales materials, so for example, they might have a website where they sell the same service, or a more elaborate version, for $500, and they can take the rave reviews from Fiverr and post them there.

Having said that, I think you're spot on about not putting 90% of your time and money investment into creating a product, then cheap out on the sales part of it, which as you said, is after all, the make or break element.

Ready for some real advice? I hope so, because you need it bud:

You're in the fitness/bodybuilding niche on Clickbank. This is one of the most competitive niches there are, and the top players on CB in this market have spent tens of thousands of dollars (if not more) to get to where they are. You want to know the most important aspect of their sales process? It's not the video itself? It's the video script.

Before you worry about whether or not you should try whiteboard animation, you need to get a professionally written, high-converting VSL script from a copywriter who knows what they are doing, and then get it set to a basic video (powerpoint is cheap and effective). Only AFTER you already have a high-converting VSL should you even consider looking into whiteboard animation....

Also, about whiteboard animation: 5 minutes is NOT going to cut it. Scrap this idea right now because you won't be able to compete with the big boys and affiliates know it. You know how all of the top CB products have VSLs ranging between 20-35 minutes? There's a reason for that: they've tested it. These time ranges work. Take a hint from what's working and tell the guy on Odesk you're not interested in his 5-minute video services.

As for everyone who's saying $250/minute is expensive, you're out of your minds. It's not just about drawing funny pictures and video recording them; with the professional video providers the process involves consultations with the client and prospective customers, storyboarding, branding, and a million other important details that make these videos so magical. Many of the top marketers in this niche have paid between $2,000-$5,000 PER MINUTE for their videos.

Alvin- The script itself is 1,000 times more important than whether your page has whiteboard animation. If you want to do a VSL, your very first step is to talk to a legit and proven copywriter.

If you want your project to have real success, there is no other way.

Actually a professional 3D animator would cost $250 - $500 per minute of animation. Professional 3D animation is harder to create than whiteboard videos.

This^

I am willing to bet if you shop around fiverr you could break up the gig and get it all done from there.

You just need to know all that goes into those videos.

Haha! That's quite funnny xD

I guess the bad economy hit Hollywood harder than I thought.

Tell Brad Pitt you think he should do a gig for a portion of $250 and he'll laugh in your face, and rightly so. You apparently never heard of a little thing called quality.

Yeah I agree. When I first saw one it was like WOW, this is incredible but now I kind of get tired of seeing them.They are commonplace.

But remember that person looking to 'increase their Libido' or 'clear acne' may never have seen it. So it is still a novelty to them.

You are not your Market.

It's not a custom drawing, it's using sparkol I believe? But I know that the company has some solid past work.

Yes, I hate the no refund guarantee... Thus I'm skeptical.

Yes, I have decided to improve the sales letter as much as possible first before even deciding on other ways to spruce it up!

Thanks

Does it include voiceover?

I went with the DYI route: pay $50 month (canceled after one month) for whiteboard software and then paid a fiverr $5 for the voiceover. And let me tell you . . . while I think fiverr quality genrally sucks, I was blown away by the voiceover quality (I tried four different guys and every single was great).

Whether $250 is 'reasonable' depends on what you are trying to achieve and what budget you have.

If you are using this video to sell services costing $100's or $1,000's, it makes sense to spend the money up front.

Professionals charging $250 a minute (or more) should be creating tailored images for your video and spending a lot of time getting the timing and transitions right.

On the other hand, if you are selling a sub-$100 ClickBank product and you are not sure what your conversions are going to be, I would recommend using Fiverr or low-cost software to create a first version.

If things take off, you can reinvest some of the profits into getting a more expensive video made. The first version can then act as a template for the professional to work from.

Another thing to take into consideration is testing. A whiteboard animation video is sales copy and all sales copy needs to be tested and tweaked to get the best conversion.

If you go straight in with video at $250 or more per minute, creating several versions during the testing process will work out to be quite expensive!