We all appreciate and need lists. It helps us get started in the right direction. Here is a list of basic equipment that you should start assembling if you want to market using videos on the web.
There are many video cameras or camcorders that will serve you well. However, don’t just go out and buy the first pretty one that hits your eye. You will have to look very hard to find a video camera that has a MIC IN jack. Why is that so important? It will make the sound of your videos sound professional. If you don’t use an external microphone, the microphone on the camera will pick up the ambient noise, the echos of the room and you will probably sound like you are inside a barrel when you make your videos. That is very distracting to the listener.
If you check carefully, you can find great video cameras on eBay Video Camcorders, make sure you get a camera that has an external Mic In Jack. (I am serious, don’t make the mistake of getting a camera without one.)Start with an affordable used camcorder, if you must. There are numerous digital video or Mini DV cameras available that will fit the bill. Search for PV-GS300 video camera. I know that they are difficult to find, but if you watch carefully, they do come up for auction on eBay.
It should be in the $300 to $600 range. I personally use a Canon GL2 camera and I am more than satisfied with it. It is a 3ccd mini dv camcorder. They are available new for about $2,000 and used for about $1,500 from bhphotovideo.com. They are also available for much less on eBay.
I would avoid the new AVCHD type video cameras for the time being. Most of the video editing software will not work with this format yet. You want your camera to record on to Mini DV tape.
Check bhphoto.com for a good assortment of new and used video cameras. You can obtain a warranty with most of your purchases, also.
To record that professional sound, a lavalier mic is the best choice. A lavalier mic that is very affordable is the Audio-Technica Omni directional ATR35s. It works great and it has a very long cord so you can run it up your shirt and even down your pant leg. Check mics on ebay You will find one for about $25. It works great, too. (Remember, that is why you were smart and purchased a video camera with an external mic connection.)
Video lighting is important to your success in video production. We have all watched too many videos that were lighted poorly on YouTube and many of the other video sharing sites. The common mistakes are:
Not enough light — too many shadows
Back lighting from a window, causing the face to be in shadow
Fuzzy images because the aperature is wide open and there just isn’t enough light to do the job
No tripod employed to help with the steadiness of the picture
Poor color accuracy because of poor light color temperature. Room lights look yellow in many videos
You can fix that lighting problem quite simply and inexpensively. Here is an affordable light system that you will find works fantastically well. Be careful that you don’t inadvertently buy a flash lighting system. You want a steady light for video. Again, on eBay you can get these lights: PHOTO LIGHTING BOX - photobox video umbrella photography
2 Tripods, 2 Light Holders, 2 Photoboxes,2 Bulbs,1 CASE for approximately $150 to $180. Mine are from StillShot2 and they are an excellent value.
We are almost done with the list. Hang in there.
Next, you must have a tripod. While you are at it, get a fluid head type tripod. It helps you when you are panning a scene. This type tripod isn’t that much more expensive than a regular tripod, but it is essential to making good videos.
OK, this is the last item.
Sony Vegas Video 8 or 9 software is fantastic. (You can most likely get by with the non Pro version.) It is easy to learn and very empowering. It will be able to do much more than you will probably need - certainly at first.Here is a logical comparison for you to consider. If you use Microsoft Excel or Microsoft Word, you probably use 20% of the total capabilities of either Excel or Word. This is also true of Sony Vegas Video. You will only use the more important features of the software, but you will from time to time, use the other capabilities. If you are a Mac user, Final Cut Express is the way to go.
RSS is so cool. (R)eally (S)imple (S)yndication is incorporated into almost all websites and blogs these days. What is it? It is a way to have new submissions, articles, and news sent to you automatically.
No longer do you have to visit your favorite sites to check to see what’s new. Once you have subscribed, they will automatically be sent to you.
Here is a step-by-step:
Go to your favorite site
Look for this RSS symbol
Click on it
It will ask you if you would like to subscribe
If you do, say yes
Now, it wants to know which free reader you want to use
There are many readers from which to choose - Bloglines and Google readers are great
Sit back and relax
One more thing, add your reader to your bookmarked sites. That way, you can read all the articles and releases that you are interested in with one click.
Here is a video that does a great job of explaining what I just described above.
If this article was helpful to you, please subscribe by clicking on my RSS symbol on the top right of this blog. You will receive new articles as they are produced. Or subscribe to the TrafficBumper.com mailing list and get a free gift to boot.
Many people like to watch videos on the various video sharing sites. They may secretly wonder if they could ever put one of their videos up for others to see.
Because many beginners don’t know the mechanics of uploading a video, it doesn’t hurt to go over the basics. It is incredibly easy to upload a video as this video shows.
This article is right on the mark. It talks about those areas where you are most likely to fail.
If you are interested in getting out of the daily grind of driving to work, wishing for a raise, being unappreciated, over-worked and underpaid, you should consider an online business. However, if you start off in the wrong direction, you are almost guaranteed to fail. Take a look at the SubHub site for direction.
Let’s say you have made your first “great” video. You have critiqued it, massaged it and perfected it. You feel good about it.
Now what?
If you want to increase traffic to your website, create backlinks to your site.
(Backlinks are one-way links pointing to your site from other sites. The search engines put a great deal of importance on these. In a sense, backlinks say to the world, your website is a trusted, worthwhile site because all these other sites point to it.)
You will want to post the video to several video sharing sites, to magnify the video’s effect. Each time someone watches your video, you get another linkback ping . . . wow! Be sure you use your keywords in the description of the video. Also, start your description with your full URL, including the http: etc. This will help people find your video.
Make sure that you look at several videos on each site so that you can determine whether your video will fit on their site. For example, if your video is about “Eating Healthfully”, don’t expect to place it on a site dedicated to news. If your video is not a How-to type, for example, it won’t be accepted by HowCast.com. Do not post to a video sharing site that is too diverse from what your video is about. Who on that site will watch it?
Fill in the profile information portion of the video sharing site that tells about you, shows your picture, your likes and dislikes, favorite books and hobbies. This information makes you a real person. If people like your video, they will look at your profile. Potentially, they will be in line with you in some way and perhaps want to create a sharing relationship, or other mutually beneficial link to you.
Don’t forget to post to your video to the social networking sites like Digg.com, Mixx, Propeller, Reddit and others. Some won’t let you put your video on their site, but you can still put your article on their site. Your article is a summary of what the video is about. Your article will point them to your video which is hosted on your site.
This technique needs a little more explaining:
Post your video on your blog
Write an article, to accompany your video, using the appropriate keywords that describe your video. (Remember, the search engines, at this time, cannot look at your video to see what it is about . . . you will have to tell them in your article.)
Post your article on the social networking sites, mentioning the video.
Point them to your article and video which resides on your website.
Video Sharing Site List
Google Video
Google Page Rank
Google Video
9
Blip
8
BrightCove
8
MotionBox
8
PhotoBucket
8
Yahoo Video
8
YouTube
8
UncutVideo(AOL)
7
DailyMotion
7
Esnips
7
iFilm
7
MetaCafe
7
Myspace
7
Revver
7
Vimeo
7
HowCast
6
Crackle
6
Break
6
Buzznet
6
EyeSpot
6
Flixya
6
Grouper
6
GoFish
6
JumpCut
6
Kwego
6
LiveVideo
6
Lulu
6
Multiply
6
MyHeavy
6
OurMedia
6
PutFile
6
SoapBox(MSN)
6
StupidVideos
6
Veoh
6
VMix
6
VidiLife
6
ZippyVideos
6
DropShots
6
CastPost
5
ClipShack
5
Doty
5
DoveTail
5
Famster
5
ManiaTV
5
MeraVideo
5
Openvlog
5
Porkolt
5
Sharkle
5
VideoWebTown
5
Vsocial
5
VidMax
4
Apanatube
3
In summary, in this article we covered:
Your website needs backlinks.
Search engines put great weight on backlinks.
Increase your exposure by posting your video on many sites.
Make sure that you look first to see what type of videos and demographic they are targeting.
It will take some extra time, but make sure that you fill in the information in the profile section. This information makes you a real person.
Don’t forget to post to the social networking sites like Digg, etc.
What is so important about growing your list? Your list is the secret to website marketing profits.
People will come to your website. They may like your content, but if they don’t bookmark your site, you probably won’t see them again. You have lost an opportunity to market to them.
If you convince them to opt-in to your list, you will have the chance to send them more of your great content. More importantly, you will be able to send them money making offers. People don’t often buy the first time they see one of your offers. They don’t trust you yet. It takes time and repetitions. They only way to do this is by drip-marketing to them.
Make sure that your opt-in or sign up form is prominently displayed close to the top of your page so that it can’t be missed. Entice them to sign up by describing the free goodies you are offering. You should only ask for the first name and their email address. When they sign up, send them immediately to your “thank you” page. Deliver the goods you promised to them on that page. By the way, you can put a couple of other offers there on the “thank you” page, too. Sometimes, when people are really in the buying or joining mood, they will investigate your other offers.
Create a squeeze page. Spend some time on this page to get it right. A squeeze page, sometimes called a fly-catcher page, is a page designed to convince them to opt-in to your list. It will have a catchy title, a bullet pointed list of about 5 to 7 different benefits to joining and, of course, the opt-in form. Make sure they see the opt-in form. Put your opt-in form in a Johnson box with highlighted borders and draw arrows to it if you must. You have to tell people what you want them to do. Don’t assume that they know.
Put an auto starting video on your squeeze page. Make sure that its duration is short. The video can go over the benefits of joining, but don’t overdo it. Using video or at least, audio on your squeeze page will increase your success rate by about three times.
Summary:
One of the keys to success in internet marketing is to grow your list. You need to market to the subscribers on the list.
Make sure the opt-in form is prominently displayed right at the top of your landing page.
Give your readers enticements to join your list — free articles, reports, products, whatever you think will get them to sign up.
In your article marketing, pay per click, and other marketing efforts, send people to your squeeze page.
Add video or audio to your squeeze page. You will probably increase you opt-in rate by about three times.
Years ago, our internet infrastructure couldn’t support video. Most people had dial-up connections that couldn’t handle video. And there just weren’t good ways of putting videos on websites. But today, peoples’ computers and internet connections are video-capable. You have noticed that video has become very popular, haven’t you?
The emails you receive have video links. Websites you visit have videos to watch. Training on the web, whatever subject, is done with videos now. There are streaming video resources that provide “live” content. videoconferencing, where you watch a video and at the same time listen to a trainer is becoming extremely popular.
What does this mean to you as a website owner?
It means you cannot wait any longer. Today, people are wired for video. Video is triumphing over the written word. If you are going to be a successful website marketer, you have to add video to your website. For website owners, that means BETTER CONVERSIONS and EASY PROFITS… more product sales, more email list subscribers and more people staying on your site! Video sparks your visitors’ interest and makes them pay more attention to you.
All you have to do is start using online video on your website!
“But making video for my website is too hard, expensive, and time-consuming”, you say. There has to be an easier way to get this done.
Well, bunkie, that is no longer true.
Nowadays, you can get a decent digital camcorder for less than $199. And if you have Microsoft Windows XP or higher, your computer is all ready to go with free video editing software called “Windows Movie Maker.”
“Well, then, “it is too hard and too technical for me to put video on my website.” I sorry, but this is no longer true either. Not anymore.
All you need is someone to show you the ropes. You need to watch videos that show you how to do it yourself, or you need to buy software that will do ninety-percent of the work for you. Either way, you need to get with the video age.
So now you know…it is not too expensive, nor time-consuming to do and it is not too hard or too technical for you do add video on your website. Join my mailing list, today. I am about to start your training.
If you use the same anchor text in a large number of directory submissions, article submissions, website linkbacks, you could actually hurt your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) attempts.
What is anchor text? The best way to explain anchor text is to give you an example of it. This is anchor text. Behind the anchor text, there is a link to a website or article. The user doesn’t see the link details, he only sees the anchor text. The anchor text is what the user/reader clicks on to get more information.
Search engines often look at anchor text to determine what the link is about and thus infer the subject of the site to which the link points. It is widely believed that placing keywords in anchor text helps search engine ranking. (Keywords are the words people commonly use to search for information. For example, “Google Ranking Tips” are three keywords that work as a keyword phrase and are searched for frequently.)
If you submit an article to twenty different article sites, for example, with the same anchor text it may look like you are trying to manipulate the search engines. Additionally, if you trade links with several another sites, and your anchor text on every other site is the same, then Google will pick this up, and may penalize your site for trying to manipulate the results.
A popular blogger trying to optimize his site for the keywords, “Internet Marketing Tips” made an offer to his bloggers. If they would link to his blog with a link that used “Internet Marketing Tips”, he would link back to them. Because this blogger got lots of linkbacks, and they all were with the anchor text, “Internet Marketing Tips”, there was a problem.
At first, his site was quickly ranked highly for his keywords “Internet Marketing Tips”. After a while, however, his ranking fell significantly. He just couldn’t determine what had happened. He got some advice from an SEO expert who explained the mechanics of what had happened. He asked some of the people to make corrections to the linkbacks. In a short time, his site climbed back up in the rankings.
Rather than making this mistake, make sure that some of the sites that link back to you have unique anchor text phrases. Here are some examples of changing the anchor text:
“Search Engine Tricks to Use”,
“Don’t try to trick Google”,
“SEO Tricks to improve your rankings”
These examples of anchor text could all point to the same site, but they just use different keywords.
In summary, when you write anchor text, make sure that you vary it. Don’t use the same anchor text in multiple submissions. It just looks fishy to the search engines.
Your article should be about three to five-hundred words. You need to be sure that you use enough words to give some quality content, but internet surfers have ADD and don’t spend too much time in one place. If your article has to be more than five-hundred words, then it is best to break the article in to one, two or three parts as you see fit. In fact, making your articles short enough to have good content but breaking them up helps you to get more one way links to your site. Two or three articles provides more one way links, of course.
Paragraphs:
Your paragraphs need to be short. They can actually be as short as one sentence long if you really want to make your point stand out. Don’t have long blocks of dense writing. People will run from your article rather read it. They want to breeze through your article picking up bite-sized chunks of information…they don’t want have to work hard. It is easier to keep track of where you are on the page too if the paragraphs are short.
Where to publish:
One-way link building is most effective if you publish your article on your own blog first. Get a WordPress blog. The software is free, it is powerful and it is fun to use. There are many plug-ins that are also free to let you customize your blog, too.
After you have posted the article on your own blog, then go to this partial list of blogs and submit your article:
These following article sites are highly ranked, free sites that will provide one-way links to your site. If you want to spend the time, you can place your articles on a couple hundred other article sites, but the payoff is not as great as just using these sites listed below.
If you decide publish your article to a large number of websites, look for article submission software. It will automate this process to some extent. Or, if you would like, you can go to elance.com or Guru.com and hire someone to submit your articles. For that matter, you can get competent writers to write the articles for you.
If you are marketing online, put your squeeze page URL in the author biography section so that your article drives more traffic to your squeeze, or opt-in page. If you are serious about building one-way links to your site, you should visit SubmitYourArticle.com They will submit your article to a large number of sites for a reasonable fee. It saves me hours of work.
One-way link building is one of the best ways you can build traffic to your site - and it is free! Now get to work
Writing quality articles is one of the best, free ways to build traffic to your website or blog. One-way links pointing to your website or blog is what you need to build your traffic.
One-way links are links that point to your website without your having to put a link on another website. Formerly, people would trade links: “I will link to your website if you link to mine.” Although this works to some extent, they balance each other out and aren’t very effective. In addition, when your site is about health food and you trade links with a site that is about ball bearings, it can do you harm.
Watch this video
Google and other search engines are on the prowl for good content. When they find it, they will send more traffic to a website or blog that produces consistent, quality informative articles.
One point about consistency: Consistency is very important: For example, if you write two to three articles per week, be consistent. Don’t write four articles, and then skip a couple of weeks. If you work hard and put together a large number of articles, don’t post them all at once. . . space them out.
One-way link building is more effective if you write about a topic using a keyword phrase that you are targeting. For example, if you don’t have access to software such as Word Tracker, or Ad Word Analyzer or a number of other analysis tools, you can go to http://tools.seobook.com/keyword-tools/seobook/ Seobook offers all you need, and it is free. Make sure that you put quotes around your keyword search phrase. For example, look for “one way link building” with quotes rather than one way link building. This will tell the search tool that you are looking for the exact phrase.
Spend some time searching for keyword phrases that show greater than 2000 searches per month and have a total number of results less than 10,000. It is even better if the total number of results is less than 5,000. You are looking for a keyword phrase that is popular enough to be used in searches, but that brings up a reasonable number of results so that your article has a chance of being shown on the first search page. Granted, this will take some time finding the phrase you want to feature, but the results are worth it. Just come as close as you can to these metrics.
Once you have found the particular phrase you want to write about, you need to use the keyword phrase:
• In the title of the article,
• Three times per one-hundred words,
• In the last sentence of your article,
• In the link to your article or webpage.
One-way link building can have a tremendous effect on the traffic you receive.
To read more articles about one way link building, visit One-way link building at www.TrafficBumper.com
