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One of the most awesome secrets out there, is that you can easily produce DVDs on demand… for $0 (yes… that’s FREE) cost.

Having produced 10s of thousands of DVDs I can tell you that they’re not cheap to do in quantity.

Many places will have a minimum quantity of 1000.

So if you’re paying $2-$4 a disc that can add up to some serious moula.

Particularly if you’re also including printing costs for slicks and cases, etc.

Not to mention if you have a whole lot of DVDs to produce.

The solution is to use a DVD-on-Demand service, where you just simply pay “per unit” ordered. So you don’t have to front thousands of dollars upfront. You pay as you go.

The downside, however, is that you’ll probably pay more for each disc as a result.

But if you’re trying to boopstrap your information marketing business, or your’e an independent business, you probably want to conserve you pretty pennies.

The other downside is that a lot of the cost of creating a DVD using regular replication is that actual set up and creation of “glass masters”, that are used for pressing the DVDs.

Currently it’s not really feasible to “press” DVDs on demand due to the setup costs.

So most DVD-on-demand services basically “burn”, then print your label onto the disc’s surface.

Why is this bad?

Well.. several reasons:

1. Burned DVDs have less compatibility then pressed media.
2. The printing on the disc may not look as professional as proper screen printed discs
3. There is a real possibility of errors cropping up on your discs.

But for the most part these are acceptable compromises, because:

• Most DVDs made in the last 2-3 years can burn DVDs fine.
• There’s almost an inversely proportionate relationship between cost of the DVD player and compatibility. Usually, the cheaper the player, the more types of media it can play!
• DVD players are so cheap now, that for some products, if people have problems, it’s almost feasible to send them a new DVD player!

So, who do I recommend?

Well, there’s lots of services out there. But I like lulu.com because there is NO set up costs!

Yup.. you heard me!

It’s free to set up, and you only pay when you order your first disc!

One other thing to note, is that most DVD-on-demand services have a certain format that they require all the artwork uploaded in (eg. for DVD slicks and disc artwork).

The only drawback I’ve found with lulu is that they need a PDF file at a very specific width and height.

I tried creating the PDF with two or three PDF programs with no success.

Finally I had to download Adobe Acrobat, and then it was fine.

So, while lulu is free, it’s a shame that you need to get Adobe Acrobat (the full version, not the reader), which isn’t cheap, to create your artwork. It would be better to upload ad JPEG or PNG, in my opinon.

But, I guess you can download a 30 day trial from adobe.com so you can always do all your artwork in the first month, and then use your profits to pay for a legit copy of acrobat.

I’m setting up a disc as I write this, so I’ll let you all know how I go when it’s up and going!