The Prime Video Shuffle

Amazon now calls all of its video services "Prime Video", meaning it's harder to let know people know which movies are included with their membership for viewing.  Before I would just say, "Watch it with Prime" and people who already paid for free shipping knew they could also see my movie "for free".  More like prepaid, but really, I get about 9 cents a viewing now, so close to free.
Hey, if you watch one of movies as an illegal download, send me a dime and we'll call it even.

Now available on Amazon Prime (Again)

My titles have been on Prime now for anywhere from a few months to over two years.  Many of them were near a decade old when I posted them, so they had already had their runs.  Prime gave them a new market and they did well, for awhile.  Once the numbers drop, however, the race to bring a new audience to them begins again.

For the Alien Vengeance movies I did this by adding a new short related to the series every month until I ran out.  Recently, the numbers for Alien Vengeance II: Rogue Element had fallen so low it was hardly worth keeping it as part of Prime.  So, we removed it.  This was never meant to be a permanent move, but rather to cause a "scarcity".  When movies are in a person's list for too long they become like DVDs you own, but never opened. You wanted to see them, so  you added the title, but that day you chose to watch something else and you've been watching new suggestions ever since.  When that movie suddenly shows up without the little "Prime" sash showing that it's included, you realize that titles cycle out of the system sometimes.  The next time you can see it for "free" maybe you won't wait.  At least that's the idea.

Every watch is engagement and engagement is the magic that gets the title in front of other people.

Of course, I could always pay for promotions and marketing.  All I would need is money.  The trouble is, how would the money best be spent?  Do I promote the single title or the landing page?
When every movie made the same amount of money per minute, promoting the landing page made sense.  No question.  Give people the choice of any of your titles and let them watch as much as they want.  Now, however, each title moves tiers based on minutes viewed. So, choosing the most popular title and trying to push it past the point of tier 3 makes the most sense (until it tops out and then you want to push another title because after a certain number of  hours per year, your titles start earning bottom dollar again.)

As you can guess, this all gets a bit complicated.  For people pulling in $75K per title per year it may be worth all the work.  For those of us making significantly less, it's a balance that has to fit into a life that requires other work, other sales strategies and other outlets.

For now, Alien Vengeance II: Rogue Element is back as an "included with Prime" movie.  If you do watch it, please, review it.  Even if you hate it.  Reviews are "engagement", so, like a child who acts out in class, I'll even settle for negative attention.  It helps pay the bills.