Saturday, January 31, 2015

Getting Your Web Savvy Video Published Online To Generate a Flood of Traffic!

OK, now you are on your last step of creating and posting your first video on the Internet.  I am assuming that for now you are going to be posting to YouTube because it is probably the easiest way to get your video out there so you can get some traffic to your site or blog. 

(If you want to read the previous articles on this subject the links will be provided at the end of this post.)

The other reason why I suggest that you post to YouTube is because you’ll get success much quicker. You’ll be ecstatic getting your first video published online, so you’ll want to get more of them done.  Nothing will get a student more motivated to learn and do more than a successful experience. 

Getting Your New Web Savvy Video In Front Of the Right Audience

Once you have your video complete, you will want to get it in front of the right audience.  You can have the greatest video ever made and even win some sort of award for it, but if you don’t get in front of people that are hungry for the information that’s on it, your goal will be missed.

Utilize Social Media Channels

You can go to different social media sites and post a quick snippet of information about your video that you posted to your YouTube channel.  All you have to do is go to your social media page, write a brief introduction to your video and then copy and paste the web address of the video into the posting area of the social media site and hit “Enter”.    Magically you’ll see the actual video clip appear!


Screen Shot of social media channel:
Web savvy video posted to YouTube

You can use this technique on a whole boatload of social media sites like Facebook (in picture) Google Plus, Myspace, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.  You don’t even have to rewrite the posts and the links, you can just write the first one, copy it and paste it to the other sites.

Now, this is assuming that you've been cultivating and socializing with people that are interested in your niche and that may be interested in what you have to offer on these social networking sites.  If you aren't cultivating people that are interested in your business, then you’ll be wasting your time because if they aren't interested in your message it won’t even watch it.

Make Your Title Keyword Rich and Interesting

You need to do some keyword research to see what keywords people are interested in before you name your video and post it to the Internet.  The best way to do that is by consulting Google’s Keyword Planner.  

If you already have a Gmail account you can easily get an AdSense account and access the Keyword Planner.  This tool will allow you to check and see what keywords people are looking at and how much.  Ideally, you’ll want to get words or phrases that people are looking up but are underused. Once you have done your keyword homework you’ll want to include the words or phrase in the title of your video.


 Build Your YouTube Channel

I often forget this because it’s so obvious, but YouTube is a social media channel itself.  You can easily create your own channel on YouTube, trick it out with banners and backgrounds to make it look cool and start inviting people to it that may be interested in your videos.  

You’ll eventually find out that people that pop-over from Facebook and other sites also are into YouTube, and have been at least posting family or hobby videos on there as well.

Use Other Video Sites Too!

Once you get some experience using and posting to YouTube, you can now start to post to other video sites as well.  Almost all of them are very, very similar.  All you have to do is create accounts to them and post. 

Don’t Forget Your Blog!

Web savvy marketers should always post their videos to their blogs.  When I post a video to my blog, I always try to make it relevant to what I’m writing about.  Some people don’t even blog, they “Vlog” or create a video blog. Instead of writing, they will record a video and then post it on the Internet on a regular basis.  

The big problem with this is Google will usually rank your webpage based on the content that’s written on your site.  So a blog (or Vlog) that only has video on it will be much harder to rank than a blog that is well written.   The other problem I've seen with Vlogs are that they are usually poorly made and boring.  

When you consider the procedures we've posted in previous posts and the care you must take to make an excellent video, it would take a lot of time and effort to accomplish.

If you are interested in seeing how to post or embed a video into a blog, watch this video.  The procedure involves getting the embed code from YouTube for your video and placing it into the HTML code into Blogger.  Pretty much the same procedure with WordPress and other types of blog platforms.


I hope the series this week has helped you decide on whether or not you’ll want to use video to market your services or products with.  It’s really not that hard to learn and once you’ve made your first one the rest are pretty easy.

Here are the links to this week’s series on marketing with video. (In order of their appearance.)


To Your Success!

Mark “Elmo” Ellis
"When it Comes to High-Response Copy - I've Got Your Back!"

(859) 797-9560

elmo033057@gmail.com

Friday, January 30, 2015

You've Made Your Web Savvy Traffic Generating Video, Now What?


Ok, the next thing you’ll want to do is save your video so that you can easily upload it to YouTube, Vimeo or any other Video site.  Before you do that, you’ll need a basic understanding of how to compress video. 

If you haven’t been keeping up on how to create traffic generating videos, here are the links to previous posts that you’ll find very helpful: (These are in the order of how you should read them.)




  

Compressing your video files --- The Basics

It would be a good idea to understand how video file conversion works when getting ready to upload them to different sites.  Basically, whenever you are compressing a file of any type, it is basically reducing it in some manner.  The smaller the file, the faster it will load. 

If you have ever reduced a typical photograph file for a website, you’ll notice that when you reduce the size of that file, the picture becomes a little less clear and sort of grainy looking.  That’s because you are taking out some of the pixels in the picture. In a nutshell that’s basically what you’re doing to a video.  

In video however, the camera stores or records anywhere from 23 to 30 STILL images which somehow makes the movement more clear and fluid. So, within the frames, the compression function stores the changes there instead of storing more frames.

ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW IS: Whenever you compress a video or picture, it will be less clear because the file is smaller!

Here is a video compression chart to help you understand a little about it:


My recommendation to you is if this is the first time you’re compressing a video file and placing it on the Internet, is to compress it into a standard mp 4 format and upload it to YouTube.  That is the easiest way to get your first video online.

How to Compress the Video File

If you read my article on which video editing software to buy, you’ll know that I’m partial to Camtasia and Sony Vegas.  These programs have video compression built into the programs, so just like any other video program, you can pick the type of compression or file extension that you want.  My recommendation is to:

A.)  Use either Sony Vegas or Camtasia for video editing
B.) Compress the video file into MP4 format
C.)  Upload to YouTube because it is very easy and YouTube will give you step by step directions on how to do it.

Why I’m Not Recommending HD format.

There is an area of Internet users caught in an area called The Digital Divide.  These are people that because of where they live, their economic situation or they may not be computer savvy enough keeps them from getting the fastest and best Internet service. 

I live in a rural community where the only way I can get Internet is by way of a “Hotspot”.  I am only allowed 10 gigs a month on my Internet service. So, watching videos at home is totally out of the question, so I only use static pages. 

I’m in an extreme situation, however.  Usually, most people can get regular full-blown Internet but, there’s an awful lot of people that can’t get the best Internet service.  Either they are living in an area where they can’t get it or they can’t afford the best.  So, for them to wait for a HD High-Definition video to load on a slower bandwidth is unrealistic. 

And if you are trying to market your services, you could be cutting a whole segment of people out of your sales funnel.  So go with a medium range MP4 compression if you can.

If you still don't understand how to compress video files, watch this:



To Your Success!

Mark “Elmo” Ellis
"When it Comes to High-Response Copy - I've Got Your Back!"
www.MarkEllisCopy.com
(859) 797-9560
elmo033057@gmail.com



Thursday, January 29, 2015

How to Make Web Savvy YouTube Videos That Will Generate Traffic

In my last post, I told you about the nuts and bolts of creating YouTube videos.  The types of software and equipment that you’ll need to get the job done.  You can read it here:

Now we are going to tackle the subject of how to create videos.  In my opinion, it is better to make instructional videos related to your niche.  The reason for this is that you are doing several things at once.



1.  You are giving prospects something of value that they can use, thus earning their trust.

2.  You are proving to potential clients and customers that you know your stuff and can deliver it.  This will make you an authority in your niche.

3.  Your videos will become a traffic generator for your landing page.

Designing Your Web Savvy -- Traffic Generating Video

Step 1 -- Plan Your Video
Planning before you shoot your video is all important.  If you are going to create a series of videos, then you’ll need to take some time to write out an outline or something similar to a table of contents.  Carefully think through all of the steps of the video (or videos) and make an outline so that you will have a reference of what to write for your script.
Note: If you are making just one video make an outline of your script.  If you are making a series of videos first make an outline or table of contents for the entire series.  Then make a table of contents for each video.

Why are we doing this?  For one thing, when you are writing your scripts you will notice that you are logically following a concise and well thought out order to your videos.  The other reason is, believe it or not, you will save time in writing your script, and you won’t forget to leave information and important elements of your video. 

Step 2 --- Write a script.  Most of the videos you see on the Internet are not scripted.  In other words, they are not thought out, not focused on a specific task or subject and not made very well.  It’s like going to websites and blogs where people just throw information on them without even a theme, expecting to gather a herd (AKA tribe, ravenous prospects, hive, etc.)  to their site. 

So, in order to stand out from the crowd, you need to have a focused well thought out and well written script.  You will also need to insert notes into the script so that you’ll know when to insert certain pictures and points.  I add and highlight places in my scripts where I want to add emphasis to my voice while reading the script.

Step 3 --- Edit your script and make it clean.  Once you've written your script, you’ll want to go back and read through it aloud.  You’ll be amazed at how lousy some of your phrases sound after you've read them.  Edit and take out any extraneous (not needed) words or phrases that you think you can live without. 

Step 4 --- Read and rehearse your script.  Read through the script several times to make sure you won’t have too many hiccups or pauses during your video recording.  I hate it when I’m watching a video and there’s all of these “Uhhhh…” pauses in the video.  You can obviously tell that there was very little thought put into the video and the speaker either doesn’t mind wasting your time or just doesn't know what he’s talking about.

Step 5 --- Record the video.  Don’t get intimidated by this. In yesterday’s post I went into the type of equipment used and what kind of software you should buy.  You could easily get everything you need to get decent quality equipment, software and camera for under $1000.  Yep, that’s right, I said UNDER A THOUSAND DOLLARS. Is it going to be in the same class as CNN?  Nope. But you can record and edit easily for this much.

Here's a great resource for getting the job done cheap: Inexpensive Video Production

I've seen online videos created with basic cameras and equipment that were very good.  You don’t need high end equipment or even great production, but you can get as close to it as you can by learning a few tricks.  

There are plenty of websites that show you how to make great production level videos on a limited budget  so you’ll have to look around to find a few of them.  (I’ll give you some resources you can access at the end of this post that’ll point you in the right direction.)

When you start recording your video, you need a plain background so it won’t be distracting, a place to record at where it’s quiet, and teleprompting software that scrolls your script on your laptop or screen.  Oh, yeah and a video camera. 

Place your camera right behind the laptop facing you and read the script in a clear voice at a moderate speed.  If you've rehearsed the script the recording should go well.
If you are using screen capturing software, you won’t need teleprompting software, you can read your script right off a piece of paper.  Just place it somewhere that it can be seen. 

Here is a video I made using Camtasia and a script:



Step 6 --- Editing your video. Once you have finished your video, you can now address the part of the production that requires the most work and time.  The editing process.  This is where you’ll use your software to take any and all unneeded parts and mistakes.  You can also add words and graphics to the screen as well as music to really make your video look professional.
Once you are finished with all of that, you can save your video to up load it to YouTube which I’ll cover in my next post.

A Few More Crucial Pointers…

Before I sign out of this post I want to give you a few more thoughts on video production.


  • Make sure you make a video that is valuable and relevant to your business and target market.  You must define who you are trying to benefit with your video.
  • Keep the video about 5 minutes long.  Long winded videos bore the tar out of most people.
  • Always keep the people you are making your video in mind.  Issues such as bandwidth and video format are important to consider.  (More on this tomorrow.)

Video References:


Teleprompter Software


To Your Success!

Mark “Elmo” Ellis
"When it Comes to High-Response Copy - I've Got Your Back!"

(859) 797-9560

elmo033057@gmail.com






Wednesday, January 28, 2015

What Type of Software and Hardware Should I Use to Make YouTube Videos With?



If you haven’t been following my posts this week, you should probably go back and check out the other posts I made on the subject of marketing on the Internet using videos. 

You can read them here:



This post I’m going to cover what types of software that you should buy in order to create high quality videos for your Internet marketing efforts.  In my last post I hit on the idea of teaching your prospects something of real value in your videos, rather than using your videos to merely sell them something. 
Personally, I think that’s the way to go, and that’s what I've been doing. 

Here’s the Good News…

The great news is you don’t need real high-end video software or equipment to create a good video quality video.  Most of the small video cameras on the market today mounted on a sturdy tripod is all you need in a camera. 

I used to do wedding videography, and what I was told at the onset of starting my business is that the main reason to have a huge camera with all the bells and whistles on it was so that the client would see it and think you were professional.

I’m not saying that there aren't really great wedding videographers out there that don’t really need that type of equipment.  There are some truly incredible videographers that Hollywood sized projects.  They are also very expensive to hire too. 

But for creating an instructional or marketing video, a decent video camera that you can buy at Best Buy, Amazon or Costco will easily fill the bill.  You can very easily get a great camera for this for under $500 if you so desire.

The other recommendation I would make (if you can afford it) is to pick up some cheap clip on microphones that’ll hook up to your camera.  Now, once again, you can still make great videos without that stuff.  I made one once without a pickup mic and it came out OK. 

Another recommendation I would make is to get some cheap tele-prompting software.  This is software that you can use to have your script scroll up your computer screen so you can read it while looking directly at your camera. 

I usually mount my camera right behind my laptop so that when I face the camera my scripts scrolls upward and I can read it while looking at the camera.
Here is a clip I made without using a clip on mic and using the software I just told you about.  

I’m reading from a computer screen while looking directly at the camera:


The Type of Software That You’ll Need
I usually use two software programs: Sony Vegas Pro and Camtasia.  Sony Vegas is great because it gives you excellent production quality editing at a relatively inexpensive price.  There are also other Sony Vegas editing products for around $100, but Vegas is still a good deal for around $300. 

Product DetailsThere is a learning curve using Vegas, and there are one or two books that I’ve used as a reference for it.  Actually, what I usually do is surf around YouTube to find videos on what I’m trying to specifically learn on Vegas.  There’s tons of videos on YouTube about Vegas however, you’ll have to go through a bunch of poorly made videos in order to find a good one that gets to the point and explains things clearly.

The other software program that I mentioned was Camtasia.  Camtasia is screen capturing software and it records what you are doing on your computer screen for instructional purposes. 

However, everyone uses Camtasia even marketers use it to get their message out.  You can get a copy of Camtasia for about $200 and I recommend that if you start making videos and you can only afford one of these programs, Camtasia is the one I would buy. 


Here is an example of what Camtasia can do:

Instructional Photoshop Video



In my next Blog Post, I’m going to show you the proper way to structure your videos so that your customers and clients can really get some value out of what you have to offer and come to know you as a source of information they can know and trust.

Until then…

To Your Success!
Mark “Elmo” Ellis
"When it Comes to High-Response Copy - I've Got Your Back!"
www.MarkEllisCopy.com
 (859) 797-9560

elmo033057@gmail.com



Tuesday, January 27, 2015

How NOT to Create YouTube Videos That Will Get Traffic to Your Site


In my last post, I told you it was very true that getting noticed on the Internet was relatively easy using YouTube.  That you could use YouTube and other video channels to get to the top of the Search Engine Results Pages and I even had an example of how I did it. 

If you want to go back and read that article, you can access it here: Using YouTube to GenerateTraffic to Your Site

Let’s Talk About How Not To Make YouTube Videos

The thing that will separate the men from the boys in video creation is QUALITY!

It’s just like any other information source on the Internet, 85 to 90% of what is out there is done half-way, (if you know what I mean.). Very few people put out quality information that's even coherent, and very, very few do it on a long-term, consistent basis.

So, don’t make videos that are not well thought out.

Pet Peeve Time:   I don’t know how it all started in the Internet Marketing arena, but videos of IM gurus and IM wannabe gurus driving their cars, while talking about how slick they are is rampant on the Internet.  Usually, they are leaning back talking like they have all the time in the world, while driving along the beach. 

To me, it wreaks of snake oil salesmen.

What they are saying in their videos is:  Here I am driving my Jaguar in my Hawaiian shirt, along a beach where beautiful women are walking around in bikinis and I’m making bazillions of dollars while doing it.  

---And if you listen to me and follow a few basic steps, you too can be just like me.  Click on this link and I’ll put you in my slick sales funnel.

Here's what I think ...And don't ever forget I'm never wrong! 

For one thing, THERE ARE VERY FEW NEW INTERNET MARKETING TECHNIQUES OUT THERE, AND JUST BECAUSE THEY DID IT, DOES NOT MEAN FOR A SECOND THAT YOU’LL HAVE THE SAME SUCCESS.  

By the way, you can go to just about any Internet marketing forum, ask for help, and people (victims) that have already followed these gurus will tell you the same thing for free.

Instructional Videos Are Best

Let’s define something here for a second.  I’m not talking about cat videos, viral videos that go viral just to be viral or junk like that. I’m talking about videos that add value to your business and give your prospects something that will help them.  Oh, and being genuine helps too.

The best type of videos to create are those that teach something that people can actually learn.  A well thought out, coherent and high quality video will say volumes about your business.  This fulfills at least two missions of your marketing efforts:

1.  If you post your Web address to your video, you may get some traffic to your site.

2.  It will create familiarity with your audience.  Familiarity is very important because people will buy from sources they know.  And it’s not just in the product and services arena that this works.  Have you ever noticed how much easier it is for people to get hired at a company or business because they knew the people that were hiring?  So, becoming a recognized face in your niche is very important.

3.  If you really know what you’re doing, and your video is well made, then you will gain some “authority status” and thereby be the go-to-guy in your niche.

Not only all that, but you’ll want a video that is relevant to your niche as well.  It won’t make much sense to create a real good video about gerbils when your website and business is built around bicycle parts.

One other thing.  Have you ever watched a video created by some hotshot marketing guru, and you just knew that the video was created for the sole purpose of selling you something?  It really made you doubt in your mind the sincerity of the individual promoting it.  As a matter of fact, whenever I watch free videos anymore, there are some people I know from the past that I immediately smell a major league sale coming on. 

Do you think that kind of a reputation is the one you want?  

I’m not saying that your marketing efforts aren't there to make money, but just be aware of the fact that as time goes on, the masses of people that jump onto the Internet will become more sensitive and aware of the game afoot.

Tomorrow's post, I will show you the actual nuts and bolts of creating videos.  What type of software to use, how to write your script, and other important facets of video marketing that will help you on your way to video marketing heaven.

Until then…

Mark “Elmo” Ellis
"When it Comes to High-Response Copy - I've Got Your Back!"
www.MarkEllisCopy.com
 (859) 797-9560

elmo033057@gmail.com

P.S.  Here's an interesting video on creating videos I think you'll enjoy!


Monday, January 26, 2015

Use Web Savvy YouTube Traffic Generation to Get Prospects to Your Site


This is one method of generating traffic that I know for a fact works very fast.  I actually learned all about creating videos back in 2007 while working on my Master’s Degree in Education Technology with Boise State University.

One of the classes I took was “Educating with YouTube” believe it or not.  In that class, we had to create scripted, well edited educational videos and post them to YouTube.  Actually, there was more to it than all that; we had to create a YouTube educational channel, use various types of video editing and screen capture software like Camtasia among other things to make our instructional videos.

One of the first videos I created was one called “Facebook for Beginners”.  For that video assignment I had to build a lesson plan, write a step by step script, and then execute it and post it to my YouTube channel.  Of course all of this had to be submitted to my professors.

If you want to see it, here it is: 





I had beginners luck with this video.  To date I’ve had over 26, 000 views and it seemed to gain popularity very quickly.  Now some Internet marketers out there are going to roll their eyes at that count, and they would be right.  But for a person that tried it out for the first time, it was a good start.
 
Getting to the Top of The SERPS and Not Even Knowing it!

The other thing I learned about this that hit me like a Ton ̶ O ̶ Bricks was how fast the search term “Facebook for Beginners” went to the top of Google’s Search Engine Results Pages.  I was at the top of Google for that term for quite some time.                                                                    (Update: I’m no longer at the top of the Google’s SERPS for this term, unless you search under Google’s Video link at the top of Googles main page.  It’s still there after all these years, right in the middle of the page!)

The beauty of all this is that you can add your URL Website address to your video channel or display it in your video itself.  At the time, I wasn’t thinking about making money or gaining traffic on the Internet. I was just worried about getting an “A” in my YouTube class. 

Bad Videos and How They Can Cheese You Off!

Since taking this class, I’ve seen a lot of YouTube videos, especially instructional ones.  The problem with a large percentage of them is that they are horrible, mainly because most of them are unscripted.  Let’s say you search online for a Photoshop tip and find a video you think is going to quickly and succ where the person that created the video with Camtasia, has a bad microphone, so you can barely hear his or her voice.   

Then there’s the incredible dialogue with a lot of …uh…ya know…….uhhh……stuff…like…..uhhhh…..ya know ….stuff….like this!

If you’re like me, you hate, hate, hate, to waste time with someone that beats around the bush about what they are trying to tell you.  You can obviously tell the person that’s behind the

So, over the course of the next couple of days, we are going to take a look at what makes a good instructional video, why you would want to make one and how to do it as cheap as possible. 
Hint:  It’s the same principle as when you are trying to write Web content, if you write total crap, nobody will look at your material.  They’ll go to your site, see that you’re wasting their time because the content sucks and then leave.

So, tomorrow, I’ll write the first installment on how to create a good video with well organized content. In the meantime, if you want to watch a rather entertaining video on making money, here it is:

How to Make Interesting Money Making Videos




Mark “Elmo” Ellis

"When it Comes to High-Response Copy - I've Got Your Back!"

Sunday, January 25, 2015

The Web Savvy Smart Forum Way to Market Your Business

As you've seen in past posts on this blog, I've been writing about all of the ways you could use to get free traffic.  The reason I’m doing this is because I’m a person that hates debt with a passion.  If I can figure out a way to do something without spending a wad of money, I’ll do it.

Now, this is not to say that you should never spend money on your business.  Later on down the road, when you are making good money, the traffic is flowing to your website, and sales are converting, you’ll start to value your time more than doing menial tasks.

Eventually, you’ll want to outsource certain aspects of your business because it will be more valuable for you to do other more important things, like product creation or managing people that are doing tasks for you.

If you decide to hire someone…

Don’t try to be too cheap! If you start hiring other people to do certain tasks for you, make sure they can do good work, and that they are competent.  That means you’ll be paying more.  In my opinion, there’s nothing worse than hiring someone to write your blog articles for you and barely have command of the English language.  Unless you want a really lousy reputation, always do your best, or hire someone that can do it for you correctly.

Using the FREE Smart Forum Method of Generating Traffic

A few posts back, I briefly touched on one of the ways you could use forums to get free traffic to your Website.  This time, I’m going to show you a slightly different strategy of using forums that you can use to get people to go to your
site.   

This Web savvy strategy is different than other methods of generating traffic, because it requires you to do something that usually goes against the grain of Internet marketing. You are not going to mention your website using this method.

THAT’S RIGHT, YOU ARE NOT GOING TO USE A WEB ADDRESS OR SAY ANYTHING ABOUT YOUR WEBSITE OR PRODUCT USING THIS METHOD.

(Well, at least not for a while, anyway.)

  The Smart Forum / Web Savvy Method Step by Step

1.        Locate forums that are related to your niche or business.  Pretty simple, eh?  To find these forums using Google, simply type in your niche key word, or keywords plus the word “forum”.   For example, if your passion is gerbils, then type in “gerbil forum”.  If you passion for gerbils is in racing them, then type in “gerbil racing forum”.  It’s just that simple! You will want to register with every gerbil racing forum you can find.

2.       Go undercover.  Once you join these forums, go on them and make well written, helpful posts to people that are asking questions.  Your goal at this point is to become a familiar part of that forum landscape that people will eventually recognize. If you do this enough, people will start looking to you as a “go-to guy”.  Someone that other forum members can look to for advice. Notice:  Make sure that you are working within your niche and that you know or have researched a good answer when responding to thread questions on a forum.  If you don’t have a clue what you’re talking about you’ll stick out as a phony.

3.       Once you have made about 20 posts or more, you can add your tag line and web address to at the end of posts on forum you've been posting at. (Usually forums want you to earn the privilege of posting your website address and tag line to their sites by writing a bunch of posts first.)  
      
      Your tag line (AKA signature line) is a brief catchphrase or slogan that you place right after your name on a post, correspondence or other communication.  If you look at my blog posts you’ll see my catchphrase right after my name.  Try to make yours interesting so that people wil want to

4.       Rinse and repeat.  If you write excellent responses that are detailed and well written, you will gain the attention of people that will eventually see you as an authority.  Once that ground work has been laid people will start to follow you to your site, sign up for your irresistible free offer and eventually buy from you.

Note: Make sure before you begin this strategy that you check to see if the forum you are posting at will allow you to eventually place your web address on your posts.  If the forum does not allow that, you will be wasting your time.

To Your Success!


Mark “Elmo” Ellis

"When it Comes to High-Response Copy - I've Got Your Back!"