Anyone familiar with videographies.com

[Sebastian Alvarez]

Hello, I wasn't sure if posting this in this sub- forum but I didn't see any that was business related.
I'm trying to start my own events videography business and I signed up at several different places to promote, one of which was videographies.com, but I didn't pay for any premier listing, despite their almost daily insistence to do so, since I barely have any business at all and I had already paid for listings and some other places.

Almost every day they sent me emails pushing me to upgrade to their premier listing, but a few of those emails were about supposed leads from someone that supposedly filled out the contact form to contact me, but the catch is that to get the contact information for them I have to pay them $67.48 for 6 months of advertising. That sounds fishy to me, offering a free listing but then charging me if someone wants to contact me, just doesn't smell right. And, if I paid for a listing it wouldn't be on that website anyway because you can only filter results by state, not by city, so it's rather messy in my opinion.

Still, I got four "leads" in a few weeks from them, none of which I can turn into a job because I didn't pay for that premier listing. So I wanted to ask here, has anyone dealt with them before, and did these leads turn into jobs after you paid? I just don't like the business model, and another website called Evenctive has the same method and I read that they're not very honest. I'm desperate to get jobs, but I'm not going to let anybody prey on my wallet because of that.

[Jeremy White]

Smells fishy. I'd stay away. I've never paid for listings. I've done google adwords and have though about theknot.com but I probably wouldn't do much of anything else. Honestly. I think google adwords is the best way to go.

[Chip Thome]

If you have your name out in other places and not getting the results you want, this place isn't going to "magically" find CLIENTS who otherwise wouldn't find you. I don't doubt they have 4 "inquiries" but suspect each one of them would turn out to be spam.

In my day job, which is in a different industry, one of my clients tried a "pay per lead" service and after spending several hundreds of dollars were yet to turn the first deal from them.

If you haven't already done so, go work on networking via the social network sites of Facebook and Linkedin.

[Josh Bass]

I am actually signed up with them, and it was $38 for the six month listing, an incredible deal compared to something like production hub, charging $50/month (and you can't pay monthly, so you have to commit to a year), PLUS paying for "credits" to follow up on leads!

Videographies definitely seems to cater to a lower end client base. . .weddings, transferring footage from one format to another, that kind of stuff. Occasionally a corporate seminar, etc.

I get quite a few leads from them, unfortunately, many are in other cities and for a lower end client that travel/hotel cost can be a dealbreaker so I rarely even bother pursuing those.

Yes, I wish it could filter so I only got people looking in Houston and the surrounding areas, but oh well. IT'S $40 FREAKING DOLLARS! Just try it. What have you lost if you don't get a single job in six months? $40, that's it!

When you get the premiere listing, you get the contact info for whoever sent the inquiry, and the site stays out of it.

IF you're a terrible networker/marketer like I am, something like this that funnels potential clients your way for a few bucks is all right with me.

And no, I have not landed a gig yet (though I may have something soon). I've only had a few worth pursuing, and again, many of these are lower end clients with no experience dealing with video people and not used to the associated rates, so they're often turned off very easily once they learn what this stuff costs.

But again, they seem to have the promotions often for $40 for six months.

[Chris Hurd]

Originally Posted by Sebastian Alvarez

Hello, I wasn't sure if posting this in this sub- forum but I didn't see any that was business related.

Thread moved to Taking Care of Business.

[Sebastian Alvarez]

Originally Posted by Josh Bass

I am actually signed up with them, and it was $38 for the six month listing, an incredible deal compared to something like production hub, charging $50/month (and you can't pay monthly, so you have to commit to a year), PLUS paying for "credits" to follow up on leads!

Videographies definitely seems to cater to a lower end client base. . .weddings, transferring footage from one format to another, that kind of stuff. Occasionally a corporate seminar, etc.

I get quite a few leads from them, unfortunately, many are in other cities and for a lower end client that travel/hotel cost can be a dealbreaker so I rarely even bother pursuing those.

Yes, I wish it could filter so I only got people looking in Houston and the surrounding areas, but oh well. IT'S $40 FREAKING DOLLARS! Just try it. What have you lost if you don't get a single job in six months? $40, that's it!

I don't know where you come from, perhaps to you $40 is what 40 cents is to me, but if I spent $40 and I didn't get a single job out of it, I wouldn't just say $40, that's it, I would be pretty pissed off. And in my case it would be $67.48 for 6 months.

But you said it yourself, you paid for this and it hasn't given you a single job so far. It smells like a scam to me. I wouldn't be surprised if they were the same people behind evenctive. I read a blog from a photographer that said he filled out the contact form on that website to contact himself but pretending to be a customer. Then he found out that evenctive sent the lead to several photographers in his area the first day, and only the second day sent the lead to him. And he had filled out the form to contact himself, not just looking for any photographer. So I don't know if that's what videographies does, but the way they work smells fishy to me. I'm paying $25 a month at mywedding.com and I still didn't get any jobs from that, but my listing is visible to anybody, and from that listing anybody can click and go straight to my website.

[Josh Bass]

I'm sorry, didn't mean to trivialize the amount of money.


It's NOT a scam! Paying for the "premiere listing" will open up the contact info for all the leads it sends you. They ARE real people. I have communicated with many of them, but for one reason or another it has not worked out. Perhaps I don't want to drive five hours for the rate the prospective client wants to pay, or perhaps I'm not set up to do what they want (I get a lot of "I'd like to transfer my 8mm home movies to DVD" requests"). Doesn't make it a scam.

There are several other sites that I know of (probably many more) that operate similarly-- production hub, media match, etc. Production hub is big and well known, and media match seems legit (I'm on their 1 month free trial)

Thing is, if I get even ONE job off videographies, it's paid for itself, and if not, I simply don't renew after six months.

[Steve House]

I hate to say it, and I don't mean to poo-poo your economic realities, but $40 or $67 really is a pretty trivial amount when you get down to it. My average daily commuting cost just getting to and from my regular work lies somewhere those two numbers, averaging right around $50 a day when you take into account gas, tolls, parking, etc or train and subway fares. Some days it's less, some days it's more (today was relatively cheap at $25, tomorrow the total cost for my round trip to the client site will be close to $100). If your out-of-pocket of sixty bucks or so nets you even one gig over the next 6 months, it should be worth it and if it doesn't, in the big scheme of things it's no big loss.

[Sebastian Alvarez]

That's not really the issue here. Of course $40 or even more is trivial if it gets you a single job. But that's the question here, does it get you even a single job? I still haven't seen anyone reply to this thread saying, yes, I got a few local contacts that turned into jobs.

[Steve House]

"Sure the game is rigged. Don't let that stop you. If you don't bet you CAN'T win." Or as they say in Vegas, you lay down your money and you takes your chances.,

[Josh Bass]

Here's how it works. . .regular folks go to the site, fill out some kind of form, and if you're in the area they're searching, that lead gets passed to you. At that point the site stays out of it, and you deal with the client directly. That's it. It's just like any of the many sites that charge for their "advanced" services (production hub, media match, mandy, wedj, etc.) I believe at least the first two leads you get, the info is shown even if you're not a paying member.

Also, as I recall (and may get to find out again if I don't renew), if you're a non-paying member, it WILL give you their info. . .after 7 days.

I see the initial poster says that the clients filled out a form, supposedly, to contact him. I don't THINK that's how it works. . .I think folks fill out a form, and it's sent to ALL the "premiere videographers"/videographers signed up with videographies.com in that geographic area. I don't think the clients have any idea who they're contacting. I may be wrong on this one. Also, in the email to you, it'll tell you what search led them to the site in the first place ("so and so did a google search for 'videographer houston texas'")

Please understand I'm not defending the site as the greatest thing ever, simply as not a scam. That the jobs have not worked out thus far has more to do with the vendor in my opinion than anything else. Could I offer to work as a local to shoot a wedding in Temple Texas? Sure. Will I? No.

[Dave Blackhurst]

Originally Posted by Steve House

"Sure the game is rigged. Don't let that stop you. If you don't bet you CAN'T win." Or as they say in Vegas, you lay down your money and you takes your chances.,

In Vegas (the city, not the program <wink>), you KNOW you're "gambling". When a site approaches you claiming to be offering "leads" (i.e. "business opportunity"), they are representing something of VALUE, in order to solicit your business, and TAKE YOUR MONEY, in theory in exchange for the advertised "value". I get bogus "someone is looking for you" e-mail all the time...yeah right.

It's not uncommon on the internet to have sites say ONE THING, and then it turns out there's something entirely different going on under the hood. If it doesn't cost you anything to kick the tires, that's one thing, when they ask for $$... put your hand on your wallet and back away slowly, IMO.

Basically from a business standpoint (personal TOO!) you have to be EXTREMELY cautious about ANY claims being made in ANY internet solicitation. Same as when a Yellow Pages or any other "sales" rep used to cross my threshold. They makes their pitch, hope to "set the hook", and walk out with some of your $$$. Sorry, but skepticism is highly advised.

CLAIMS are often nothing but "smoke", and not highly regulated, so IMO a "business" is a "scam" when they make s**t up to con people into giving them $$. Can you say "Madoff" wit yo money?

Lots of businesses have sprung up on the internet with little more than a story (prolly made up at that), and a payment processing model that makes it sound like you'll get "easy money" by associating yourself with them. In reality, the "easy money" is what they make while pocketing your $$ if you let them.

Yeah, I suppose Vegas is a pretty good analogy... but unless you're "the House" (and I guess you really are Steve! <wink>), it's not a good business proposition. There will be another site along next week with similar claims... save your money, IMO, for verifiable, legitimate, established sites.

YMMV, but I try very hard to follow the principle that I get real provable value for my hard earned money, and even then it's hard not to get scammed!!

[Sebastian Alvarez]

Originally Posted by Dave Blackhurst

Sorry, but skepticism is highly advised.

That's always wise. Unfortunately we live in a very dishonest world. And maybe videographies is not a scam, but their business model is very unappealing to me. Or maybe I'm just old fashioned. It just seems more straightforward to me to pay for an ad on a website that when people see it, they click on it and go to my website directly. This system of "leads" just smells funky to me.

[Josh Bass]

THAT business model cost me a hell of a lot more than videographies ever will. I had a google ad up. Set my max budget at $15 a day. Got maxed out almost every day, and I received not a single inquiry. Cancelled after a month and a half.

[Steve House]

Og I agree with the skepticism and way too many site offering these sorts of services sound just too good to be true. But if one seems like it might be offering something you can use and hasa a legit ring to it, $67 is a pretty cheap experiment to try. That's all I'm saying, These days that's less than the price of a tank of gas (literally .. a fill-up yesterday ran me $90).