Reminding you just in case you forgot

Bismillah ar-Rahmaan ar-Raheem,

As many of you know, the Reminder videos are free to watch on the web at no cost to the viewer. The only thing we are trying to gain from this project is reward from our Creator if He accepts our intention & our actions InshAllah. Unfortunately, making the Reminders isn't free and there are many costs involved.

We decided to stay away from advertisements on the blog, popups, and even google ads because we didn't want to be accountable if the something haram was marketed. We also stayed away from sponsorships which has allowed to be censor-free (no one to answer to but Allah (swt). We also have shied away from donations because we don't want to be accountable if we accept the funds and we don't deliver.

Although these standards make it nice for the viewer, its becoming harder for us to continue. Many people have asked for the Reminder on DVD set, so that is our current project. We hope the profits from the upcoming DVD set will help us fund our project so we can continue coming out with more videos InshAllah. If you want to support the Reminder videos, please purchase the new DVD set when it comes out InshAllah.

The DVD set will have all 18 episodes of Season 1 and 2 in DVD quality InshAllah. In addition, I have added 2 unreleased episodes, which were completed this weekend. You won't find them on YouTube until Ramadan/Eid time but the topics aren't on Ramadan but rather they deal with the famous Muslim Marriage issues (part of the series) so you know its will be interesting :)

For anyone that has purchased the Mecca to Medina game, you know that I'm not cheap when it comes to production quality. In fact, I like to make things a little unique. Yeah, the easy way out was to make another Triva Based Islamic Game (like we don't have enough of those already), but I wanted to make something different and Alhamdulillah, based on the number of games sold, it looks like there was a lot of people who wanted the same.

Well, now that I'm in the process of coming up with the DVD set for the Reminder, I wanted to once again, give our viewers something more than just another DVD set. First off, I decided to hire a professional design firm (they have made nearly over a million dollars thus far doing design work so I think they're good) to design our DVD cover (quoted us $490.00). Next, I wanted the case to be different so I decided to toss the standard DVD case and go with a 3 panel doublesided full printed DVD case (view sample). This week, I need to hire a writer to help me come with the content to put on the DVD case InshAllah. Finally, I am in the process of buying the Final Cut Studio Pro 2 suite from Apple (rjavascript:void(0)
Publish Postetail price is $1299.00) so I can work on the DVD menu InshAllah. If all this sounds expensive, I haven't even shown you the price of making these DVD yet...hehehe.

In order to sell these DVD sets, I have to go to conferences. ISNA for example, has airfare expenses and hotel expenses, booth rental expense, etc.. Even though, my role is the Reminder is purely voluntary and I don't get paid for it, as you can see there are many expenses (only a few have been mentioned above) just to make a DVD set. The tough part is getting the funds for these items because in order to make money, you need money.

If you notice of our products thus far, it has been very reasonable. We sell long sleeve and XXL Ummah Films shirts for only $12 (try finding a Muslim shirts with those sizes at that price). Plus we print on decent quality shirts and stay away from the super cheap brand because we want the shirt to be good InshAllah. Yeah at $12 our profit margin is less but we don't want price to be a factor when wanting one of the shirts. The same goes for the Season 1 DVD which sells for $12. When was the last time you walked into an Islamic conference and saw a popular DVD for $12? Do you know what I'm sayin' Yeah our profit margin is less, but the goal was for more people to be able to afford it.

Now with the new DVD set (of both Season 1 and 2), we decided to sell them for $24 but we will sell at least the first 100 sets for $19 InshAllah to reward the intial people who support us. In addition, we have 2 additional unreleased videos and between 1 to 2 interviews regarding the Reminder on the DVD set (plenty of extras compared to the first DVD we released). Finally, we are working on giving you a high quality product by getting the best design firm to design it and a professional company to produce them InshAllah. We hope our viewers who have benefit from the Reminder support us InshAllah

JazakAllah khair