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VideoVideo is the ultimate conversation and can do more to tell your story and sell your products than any other media. There was a reason why Google paid $1.65 billion for YouTube. Google knows the power of video.
In the same context as a blog, a video on your website doesn't need to be a Hollywood production. In fact, research shows that homemade videos are more convincing and hold people's attention longer than professionally edited productions. Be creative and be genuine and you can create a compelling video. Continue the conversation Scenario: You have a model home and people love to tour your home. A home movie featuring a walk-through of your home - that is narrated by you in that "just between us friends" tone, is exactly what your customers want to see. Sure, they love the photos on the corporate brochure, but to join you in your home and hear you describe everything they're seeing...it is no different than a live showing. Video has become increasingly important As we have talked about in other sections of this book, Google uses a sophisticated algorithm to rank the value of a web page (or site). They recently announced an addition to this algorithm - how well a webpage engages a user. In other words, how 'sticky' is a web page and how long a visitor remains on the page. Few things can engage a user like video. If it is not part of your presentation yet...you'd better plan on including video in the future. Flip Camera offers a no-frills solution Your production budget could be less than $150. Have you heard about the Flip camera? An inexpensive digital video camera that you can tuck in your shirt pocket, yet it takes quality videos for web use. You won't need video editing software either. Windows XP and Vista and Windows 7 come with basic video editing software that will permit you to add voice-over, music, titles, scene transitions (fade-ins, etc.) and other information such as your website's URL to the video.
Lights, camera, action! We have all made home movies. Sometimes we impress ourselves with the quality of our work and other times - they just look like home movies. If you think about what makes those good shots so much better than the rest, you'll soon figure out that a balance of different components just happened to come together. The light was right. The sun was behind you, fully illuminating your subject. The camera was steady, the subject was centered…everything just meshed and produced a great video clip. In a nutshell, that is really all you need to be concerned about when making your video. Am I over-simplifying this? Of course, but I'm trying to impress upon you that if a few of the basics are in place and you know what you intend to say about what you are filming, your video will work for you. This is another one of those subjects that fall outside the scope of this tutorial, so rather than reinvent the wheel, here's a great website that teaches you the basics of making your own videos, Videomaker.com. What to do with your video When most of us think Internet video, we think YouTube. Google is pleased that we think this way, but there are hundreds of other video sharing sites. Obviously, Google is the big kahuana, but having your videos hosted on dozens of other sharing sites means more views (awareness and traffic) and more links to your website. The easiest and least expensive way to distribute your video to the main video sharing websites is using a free service called TubeMogul. TubeMogul is a free service that provides a single point for deploying uploads to the top video sharing sites, and has powerful analytics on who, what, and how videos are being viewed. How to create a simple video for the web Quick start tutorial – How to use Windows’ free video editing program This video shows how to edit video using Windows Movie Maker software, which is free with Windows XP or Win7. Note: There are numerous ‘how to’ videos such as this on YouTube. For other tutorials, search “How to Use Windows Movie Maker”. Google and other companies are developing technology to decipher the “words” in video. They will be able to index videos as they do text so rankings of videos will position for content like a normal web page. Video syndication will soon reach proportions that article syndication has today.
The power of video to drive traffic Here’s an example of a “How To” video. Note that the person speaking doesn’t appear in the video so if you’re camera shy, don’t let it stop you from utilizing video. A niche as obscure as peeling a log and cutting a tenon has generated more than 47,426 views on YouTube as of October 20, 2010.
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