The Video Education of The Blog Squad

Video is not the next big thing.  Video is the big thing right now. Everybody's doing it and The Blog Squad is no exception.

As you've seen from recent posts on this blog, on Build a Better Blog and Writing on the Web, we've been learning about video and how to use it to market our business services. I've even set up a blog just for posting our business blogging video tips.

As simple as a lot of the tools are now, there is most definitely a learning curve so I'm taking this opportunity to tell you how I've been getting up to speed on the video thing: what classes I've taken, what software I'm using and what equipment.

The first thing I've learned is that shooting the video is the easy part. With a Flip Video camera or a good webcam, it's almost as easy as point and shoot.  Of course, you need to know what you want to say and show so there is some prep involved, even for a 2 minute video.

The Equipment

If you've read this blog in the last 9 months, you know we're crazy about the Flip Video. It's cheap, easy to use and produces good quality video. I've also invested in a Logitech QuickCam UltraVistion. I prefer the webcam when I'm creating videos at my desk. It's stable, got a good microphone and produces high quality video.  The Flip is great for taking to seminars and conferences to capture impromptu interviews with colleagues and clients.

The Software

Now what? You've got a video but it's not perfect. How do you edit it? The Flip has simple software that is loaded on the camera and opens when you attach the USB to your computer. If you want to do something a bit better, you can use Windows Movie Maker which comes preloaded on your PC. I think the Mac has iMovie on it. 

If you want something even better, which I eventually did, then move on up to Sony Vegas Movie Studio 8. It's about $75 and you can get a free 30 day trial to test it out. The problem I ran into was time. I have no problem poking around a software program to figure out how it works, but this one I knew was going to take awhile since video editing jargon is totally foreign to me. 

So, I invested in tutorials by the Internet Video Guy, Mike Stewart. For $97 he has a program called How to Make a DVD and includes some simple tutorials on how to edit video with Sony Vegas Movie. This was an excellent investment. The tutorials got me up to speed fast and showed me the basics of what I needed to know to add captions, position them where I wanted, edit bits that I didn't like, and render the movie into a proper format.

The first two minute video took me about an hour to figure out. Now, a 2 minute video takes me about 10 minutes to clean up and render, if that long.

Promoting Your Videos

Besides the obvious, like your blog, Facebook profile, MySpace, website and YouTube, what do you do with your videos? Our mentor, Tom Antion, has been urging us to move into video for several months now. Took us a while, but we finally listened to his wise advice.  Tom's been on the video bandwagon for some time and testing a lot of strategies.  A few weeks ago he presented a teleseminar on how to get high Google rankings with short videos.  I couldn't make the live event, but I listened to the audio as soon as I could, and then I listened to it again.

Tom Antion has studied what you need to do to leverage your videos.  I strongly recommend that you get the CD from the class and study it. There are so many tips and tricks that it is worth far more than the $30 it costs. Again, it will accelerate your education with video.

From Tom, I learned about how to strategically use keywords and URLs in video descriptions. And, the key is getting your video out to as many video sharing sites as possible because they will all drive traffic to whatever URL you've put on the caption and in your description.

There are more than 30 video sites. Do you have any idea how long it would take to upload one 2-minute video to 30 sites?  A long time, probably close to 8 hours. More time than I can afford.  So, again, at Tom's suggestion, I joined Traffic Geyser.  I've known about Traffic Geyser for a long time but never had a need for it.  Now I do.

Traffic Geyser is a distribution site. You upload your video once and they distribute it to all the sites you select, including social networking sites like del.icio.us and podcasting sites like odeo.com.  You can upload 100 videos to 35 sites per month for $97.  That's less than you would pay a VA to do this for you.

Of course that's the simplified version. There's a lot of prep work involved before you can submit your videos, and there's no way around it.  You must set up your accounts on all the sites first. This is where a VA comes in. It's probably a couple hours work to set up and confirm all the accounts.

The tutorial videos that Traffic Geyser provides are excellent. They walk you through every step and give you tips for writing excellent video descriptions, key words and the best video formats (.wmv works the best across most platforms).

Once all the accounts are set up, then you can start uploading your videos. Again, this takes time. Uploads always take longer than downloads. With the TG system you can upload 4 files at a time.  Once a video file is uploaded,then you go through the submission process. You select the video you want to submit from your library, select the sites, push a button, and it goes.

You will get email notification from TG and from some of the sites when the upload is successful or if it fails.  This can result in a lot of email. For this reason TG advises you set up a "junk" email account on gmail that you use only for your video submissions. That's the first tip I took to heart and I'm glad I did.

If you have a tight budget, there is a free video distribution site called TubeMogul. They distribute to about 12 video sites and include a few that Traffic Geyser does not have on their list.

There you have it. The Video Education of The Blog Squad. My education is far from over and I'm still getting the hang of the software and systems, but now that I know what I'm doing , we can start flooding the Web with business blogging video tips!

Comments

[Patsi Krakoff, The Blog Squad]

Denise is really getting good at this. We're both learning as we go and we're no experts yet...well, I don't think we ever will be female Mike Stewarts! But the point is, anybody can do this now.

I'd just like to add a couple tips on shooting interviews at conferences:

1. Pay attention to lighting. Overhead spots are the worst because they cause shadows on the face. So before you start the camera, check out the light on the face. Best is indirect light from a window nearby.

2. Pay attention to background. Don't shoot in a hallway where you can see people walking and moving. Use a wall, but make sure there's not some kind of busy painting or wallpaper in the background.

3. Pay attention to how you're framing the person's head. Don't cut the top of their head off, but don't leave too much space above their head.

4. Prepare your intro and questions ahead of time so you have a minimum of ums and ahs, but don't recite mechanically either. Be natural and relaxed so that you put the person you're interviewing at ease.

[Bruce]

This is great advice. I have been at this piece-meal since your law of action classes. They were the impetus to get me started. I found out about Mike Stewart through you and have used his materials. The flip is great and the Sony software is great if you have Mike to help you. The submissions sites are very good to know about - thanks so much. I get more from your free blog than I have from many courses I have taken - your courses and membership sites are superb. Thanks so much for all the valuable content.
For anyone reading this, don't think I just have a love fest with the Blog Squad. I know I have gotten under Denise's skin in the past, but I am always honest in the way I see it.

[Bud Bilanich]

Patsi and Denise:
Nice job on this post.
I need to get on the video bandwagon.
This post will get me off of my butt.
All the best,
Bud Bilanich
The Common Sense Guy
www.SuccessCommonSense.com

[John Easton]

Patsi:

On your comment above, "pay attention to the background" I will say you are correct in stating that an attractive background is best but you and Denise often shoot on location in loud environments at trade show events. When you absolutely cannot control the noise level, an old video pro trick is to show what is causing the noise. I know this sounds strange but loud ambient noises (tradeshow banter) are less distracting when the viewer can see what is causing the noise and your viewers are more likely to forgive you for it.

For example, if you are shooting an interview on the trade show floor you want to show people walking the floor in the backgroud. I hope the information is useful.

John

[Nancy Marmolejo]

Do you have any tips on getting a YouTube video to play on Word Press? That has been a source of frustration for me...

[Paul Chaney]

Denise/Patsi,

Great post. You are the 'how-to' divas. This post is really helpful and I appreciate all the links.

One thing that's of concern is having the proper lighting when webcam's are used. I've seen people who look like characters from "Dawn of the Dead" due to bad lighting. I wonder if there's a lighting kit just for use with webcams. If not, there needs to be.