Online Video Revolution: Earn Money and Generate Leads CINeSYN Copyright 2013 by CINeSYN Published by CINeSYN at Smashwords **** The Only Safe Thing is to Take a Chance. - Mike Nichols **** This is an e-book production of CINéSYN – www.cinesyn.com - a firm that offers video production services. Introduction There is no denying that the Internet has completely changed how we live our lives in less than 20 years. Gone are the days of calling 411 for a dry cleaner’s phone number. Maps, contact information, and virtually anything else you could possibly want are now at your fingertips. More importantly, high-speed Internet has dramatically changed how we use the web. In the old days, downloading a movie could take 24-hours. These days, high defintion video can now be streamed live with the click of a button. Entire movies can be downloaded in the amount of time it takes to listen to a song. This ability to transmit large files at a fast speed is revolutionizing how we consume content. The fact is consumers are sick of reading. We’ve been reading text via books and computer screens our entire lives. This is part of the reason TV is and always will be popular: consuming television content doesn’t require effort. So what do you when you combine content that is easy to consume with high speed Internet? A world wide web that is dominated by video. There is no denying that video is the future; throughout the text we will provide various statistics proving this. For now you simply need to understand that consumers are sick of reading, and are hungry for easy-to-consume video content. There are a variety of ways you can do this. Examples include hosting your videos on sharing sites like YouTube and/or starting a corporate video blog. Basics of Online Video How Is It Different From Blogging For the most part, releasing video content is no different than releasing blog content (video blogs will be referred to as ‘vlogs’ from here out). There are some administrative differences regarding uploading video versus typing or copy/pasting text, but for the most part blogs and vlogs are the same. Why You Should Use a Blog for Your Video Blogs have gained widespread acceptance as the easiest and most sharable publishing platform available on the web. For starters, you can start and promote a blog for absolutely no money. Second, with social media integration and people’s ability to share content, you can reach an audience that shares the same interests more easily than ever before. And while these two factors alone are great, search engines make it easy for video content producers to get free traffic. Easy to get started To get started with a vlog, you need to decide on what platform you want to use. Most beginning video producers choose from three platforms: Blogger, LiveJournal, and WordPress. These will be explained in further detail below. From there, you need to choose a domain name. Once you’ve chosen a domain name, you can begin publishing video content. All of these steps will be explained in further detail throughout this guide. SEO is much easier with video One of the largest benefits of online video is that search engine optimization is much easier with video. For starters, Google owns the largest video hosting company in the world: YouTube. Given this, they have no problem shuffling you from Google to YouTube when someone does a search; it’s all the same to them. Further, a Forrester Research study found that videos are as much as 50x (5,000%) more likey to appear on the first page of Google versus normal webpages. In addition, rankings alone are not the only benefit. In addition to having easy access to your content, you can direct traffic from your YouTube video back to your vlog. This circulates the traffic better, and is more likely to lead to monetization than offsite hosting. With that said, those of you just started will most likely be using AdSense to monetize your videos. YouTube makes AdSense integration very straight-forward, allowing you to earn as quickly as possible. Video works in almost every industry It is difficult to imagine an industry where people would not enjoy consuming video content. Even the most technical industries require white papers, presentations, and product or service demonstrations. This is not to say video is replacing text, however a lot of things many businesses are doing via text and papers could be done with video (statistics show that even high level executives prefer video to text). Valuable Content And last but not least, video does not need to be complicated. While the mediums consumers use to consume content have changed, business and entertainment fundamentals remain the same. If you want to engage an audience, you need to provide value. In the case of a business, you need to solve a problem. Successful businesses are built on the foundation of solving problems for others. Given this, your vlog is simply another platform for releasing content that solves the problems your clients and prospects face. The Big Picture Video is the fastest growing form of online media There is no denying that video is the future. Both Cisco and Google’s VP of Global Content have estimated that video will account for a whopping 90% of online traffic some time between 2013 and 2015. Statistics related to video consumption More importantly, consumers are eating up every bit of video they can get their hands on. Consider these statistics: 183 Million Americans watch online video each month (study) 59% of executives would rather watch video than read text (study) Over 130 Million hours of video are consumed on YouTube alone every day (study) Video should be part of every online marketing campaign As you can see, it’s virtually impossible to fathom how much online video content is being consumed each and every day. And it’s only going to keep growing. In addition to multiple studies showing users are watching video on their mobile phones and tablets more and more every month, experts predict that video consumption via mobile devices will soon outpace video consumption via desktops and laptops. Given the growth rate surrounding online video consumption, integrating video into your company’s marketing plan should be a top priority. Producing video content is not only cheap and easy; it is more relevant to both B2B and B2C marketing than ever before. Getting Started Now that you understand the importance of online video, its time to get started! Before you set up your vlog, however, you need to understand the basics behind online video marketing. For starters, long videos can bore people. Unless you are explaining something highly technical you should keep your videos relatively short; in most cases 1-4 minutes will do. This is not to say longer entries cannot be successful, but you should have a clearly defined reason for using longer videos. As for frequency of posting, it depends on your industry and your purpose for releasing video content. If you are creating a video advertisement, you will not need to release content very often. If you are doing content marketing using video, you may need to update once a week or once a month. If you’re not sure how often you should post, ask your audience! If they want more content they’ll tell you. Now that you have an idea of how much of a time commitment this will be, you need to start creating content. In the below sections we will discuss blogging platforms for those of you who will be using a blog (if you will be hosting your content off-site or using video ads you may skip this section). Once you have produced your content, you need to optimize your videos for the search engines. This is one area where vlogging will differ from blogging. In addition to setting up the normal meta-tags that normal blogs entail (title, description, and H1 tags in particular), videos allow for an added layer of tags. The tags you will be setting for your video include a title and description tag. The title should contain the keyword(s) you want to rank well for (more on keywords below) while the description should be 1-2 sentences and include the keyword(s) you are targeting. Niche Research Understanding niche and keyword research is crucial to achieving first page rankings on today’s search engines. If you will be using video ads, this is irrelevant. If you will be using video as part of your content marketing plan, understanding how to do research is imperative. Unfortunately it is beyond the scope of the guide to explain niche research in-depth, however we will do our best to explain the basics. For starters, you need to consider competition and the concept of ‘niching down.’ As an example, dog food is a highly competitive niche (and keyword). Organic dog food for German shepherds, however, is very ‘niched down’ and will have virtually no competition. With that said, it is possible to niche down too far. Using our previous example, you would have to do keyword research (below) to make sure there are enough people searching for keywords related to ‘organic food for German shepherds.’ Otherwise you might end up niching down too far, with nobody interested in your content/offer. Keyword Research Similar to niche research, it is beyond the scope of this guide to cover every aspect of keyword research. With that said, there are two factors you need to consider when doing keyword research: competition and volume. Regarding competition, you need look at who is ranking on the first page of Google before diving in. If you see a lot of large corporations and heavily targeted sites on the first page, it could be hard to rank for the keyword(s) you want to go after. Using shirts as an example, if you were to find The Gap, Old Navy, and Express on the first page, that keyword could be hard to rank for. If, however, you found some pages from Amazon, Walmart, and some random blogs or small e-commerce stores, that keyword could be much easier to rank for. If you are serious about content marketing with online video, we highly recommend you learn about keyword research; it is absolutely crucial to your success if you want to capture search engine traffic. As for volume, you want to make sure enough people are searching for a keyword before targeting it. While finding low competition keywords is our goal here, a keyword that only has 200 montly searches will never drive significant volume to your site. On the other hand, most keywords with over 5,000 searches/month are relatively competitive. This is yet another reason you should learn about keyword research. The key to success lies in finding keywords that have low competition but high volume. Blogging Platforms Blogger (http://www.blogger.com) Our first platform is Blogger.com. Blogger used to be an independent platform until it was purchased by Google. If you have a Google account you can immediately sign up and start using their system. If you don’t you can get one for free at Accounts.Google.com. Blogger.com pales in comparison to most other platforms in terms of design options. Most of their templates are very bland, though new designs have been introduced recently. If you want to make your blog more visually appealing, you will have to be quite knowledgeable in CSS coding. The main advantage of Blogger.com is that it integrates with Google AdSense very easily (AdSense is one of the easiest ways to make money from blogs/vlogs). Making money from AdSense simply requires that you set up an account with them, and copy/paste the ad code they provide into your Blogger template. You can then earn money every time a visitor clicks on one of the ads shown on your vlog. Further, since Blogger is owned by Google, Blogger blogs are easily accepted into Google’s index (making it easier to get search engine traffic). You do not have to be a genius to begin using Blogger. It has a very user-friendly layout page, where you can conveniently move your tabs and menus and create a somewhat different look for your blog. It has a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor, which works very similarly to Microsoft Word (by that we mean its extremely easy to use). Further, attaching media files (like YouTube clips or other videos) is made extremely easy through their interface. There are, however, some downsides to using Blogger. For starters it is not plugin friendly, as Google has attempted to create their own plugins (instead of using those that were already available). Plugins are important as they add functionality to your blog (think of them as apps for your blog). Further, for some strange reason some Blogger pages take forever to load. And last but not least, Blogger deletes hosted blogs that are making use of automated software (which can come in handy sometimes). LiveJournal (LiveJournal.com) If you are looking for a no-frills blogging platform, LiveJournal is it. LiveJournal was founded on April 15, 1999 and has undergone many takeovers. Despite the lack of consistent management, however, they still offer a solid platform. For starters, LiveJournal has a user-friendly word editor. Their platform allows users to create voice posts (or records of entries) and offers many great templates to choose from. LiveJournal offers both free and paid templates (allowing for a wide variety of customizations). More importantly, they recently changed their policy to allow blog owners to include Google AdSense (once again, AdSense is the easiest way to make money from your vlog). You can also build a ‘Friends’ List’ and participate in ‘Groups.’ This is ideal for Internet marketers since network connections help promote your business. Further, you can create your own groups and build your own niche through LiveJournal. Unfortunately LiveJournal is not compatible with outside plugins. Further, LiveJournal offers a very limited number of plugins themselves, significantly limiting the functionality of your vlog. And unlike Blogger, which is supported by Google, LiveJournal blogs may take a while to get indexed. WordPress (WordPress.com) Of all the blogging platforms out there WordPress is by far most people’s favorite. In fact, WordPress is the most popular content management system on the planet, with something like 30% of today’s websites built on their platform. With that said, WordPress is not perfect. As an example, it is not that easy for you to customize your vlog’s CSS (although they have dramatically increased the number of design themes available relative to a few years ago). Further, it is very difficult to make money using a WordPress hosted blog (as in www.YourSite.WordPress.com). The reason for this is because they do not allow you to use Google AdSense, text link advertising or sponsored reviews (however you may leave one Amazon affiliate link). And if you do get caught using ads they can delete your blog without notifying you. On the positive side WordPress offers a wide variety of plug-ins (which compensate for its limitations). For example, you can utilize Akismet, which is a default plug-in that automatically blocks spam comments from your vlog. These types of comments can hurt your traffic and ranking in search engines, making this a useful plugin. WordPress also allows you to easily integrate social networking widgets such as Facebook and Twitter. You can also set up a do-follow or no-follow plug-in. This means you have full control over whether or not you pass along link juice to the sites you link to in your blog/vlog. The WP-DBManager is another useful plug-in that helps you create a backup for your WordPress blog. All-in-one SEO and HeadSpace 2 are also highly useful plugins that allow you to easily control and adjust most SEO settings. Another highly functional plugin, called SuperCache, speeds up your blog by generating static html files of various posts. You can also make your vlog mobile friendly using the WPtouch iPhone theme. More importantly, these are just a few of the highly functional plugins available for WordPress; there are literally thousands of plugins that all make your life easier. WordPress is also extremely easy to set up. Thanks to their dynamic CMS (content management system) you do not need to code your pages or posts by hand (which saves tons of time and headache). Given this, it is unlikely you will need to hire a designer unless you desire a highly customized vlog. What to Do with Domains Securing a domain is the first step you must take to set up your vlog. In short, your domain is like your address in cyberspace. Like your home address, it should be easy to remember, short, and easily spelled out. If you can include a keyword in your domain it will help with search engine traffic. If using the keyword makes the domain too long or sounds awkward, however, you should probably leave it out. There are many websites you can buy your domain from (you typically pay for one year at a time). A quick Google search for ‘domain names’ will return a variety of websites you can buy your domain name from. NameCheap.com, 1and1.com, and Register.com are all good examples. In most situations a domain will cost $10/year. However, if you go on Google and type in ‘cheap domain names,’ many of the Sponsored (pay per click) Ads will contain offers for $2 or $3 domains; we highly recommend this option. Setting Up Your Self-Hosted Video Blog I have been blogging for quite a while, and my experience has taught me two things: opt for a self-hosted blog and use the WordPress platform. Installing WordPress on your own domain gives you access to all of the benefits of Wordpress.com without the restrictions; essentially you get the best of both worlds. Before we get into details on how to install your WordPress blog, however, we need to make sure you choose the right web host. There are hundreds of webhosts out there; most offer the same service so don’t spend too much time deciding between them. Further, finding the least expensive webhost is not always the best option. You want to know that your host company offers quality customer service and the tools you need to run your blog effectively. Some of the factors you want to consider include: Support As is the case with everything else in life, sometimes things go wrong. This is particularly true in the world of computers, which 99% of us don’t understand. And while most hosting problems are resolved on their own with no real consequences, having your site go down in the middle of the night with no one there to help you can cause serious problems (especially if money is at stake). Given this, choosing a webhost that offers 24/7 hosting support should be a top priority for you. It is also important that the person assisting you is knowledgeable, understanding, and knows how to solve your problem. There is nothing more frustrating than having no control over your problem, only to call customer support and find out they don’t care about your problem or cannot help. Easy WordPress Installation If you are new to blog/vlog setup you may be nervous about installing WordPress. Have no fear, as your webhost should be able to install it for you with the click of a button or call to customer suporrt (if they can’t you should find another company). If you are new to blogging/vlogging, you may want to consider Host Gator: http://www.hostgator.com. They have one of the most comprehensive yet affordable plans on the market. HostGator also offers an SSL certificate, which means all payment transactions are secure. This is a huge plus for Internet marketers, as most shopping cart based e-commerce transactions require secure processing via an SSL certificate. To top it all off, their plans start at just $10/month! Installation of WordPress There are two ways to install WordPress: manually or through your webhost. We highly recommend you do it through your webhost, as installing it manually takes a lot more time and is unecessary given the one-click solutions most webhosts offer. While the one-click installation process is different for every webhost, below you will find directions for manual installation: Here’s what you’re going to do: Step 1: Sign up for a web hosting account. Both GoDaddy & HostGator are highly popular options. Step 2: Once you have a web hosting account you’ll be provided with the username and password. You can use the information to log in to your cPanel. At this point, open your cPanel. The URL of your cPanel will be www.yourdomain.com/cpanel (you can also access it through your webhost’s Hosting Control panel). Step 3: Look for the “Fantastico De Luxe” icon. Make sure that the web hosting account offers you this feature. A quick call to customer support before signing up can help you determine this, as you should not have to spend money to have it installed. The icon, by the way, is the one with a smiley face. Step 4: Scroll down until you get to the Blogs section. Among the list, choose WordPress by clicking the link. Step 5: At the right-hand side, you will see information about the type of WordPress you’re going to install. It’s important that you get the latest version. Otherwise, refer the issue to your web host. If everything is okay, press New Installation. Step 6: You will then be redirected to the one-click installation process. This includes determining the Installation Location, Admin Access Database Configuration, and E-mail Account Configuration. Make sure you can leave the Installation Location blank if you want the weblog to be your root domain (www.yoursite.com versus www.yoursite.com/blog). If not, create a folder that doesn’t exist yet (i.e. /blog). This folder is where all the files pertaining to your vlog will be installed. The Admin Access Data is the area where you’re going to create the username and password for your WordPress blog. Base Configuration contains the details related to your blog, such as your nickname or username. You can be creative here, but its best if you stick to something you will remember easily. This is the name that appears on every blog entry and reply you make on the comments. You will also create the name and description of your blog. (All of these can be changed in the future too.) You don’t have to set up the E-mail Account Configuration if you’re not planning to post vlog entries vai email. Step 7: Press Finish Installation. You will then receive a notification via email confirming your blog has been set up properly. Tweaking WordPress Setup Your work does not stop with installation, however. Instead, you need to take steps to give your blog a nice design, make it search-engine friendly, and more. You do not have to be a computer genius to make these changes, but it will take some time if you are new to WordPress. We recommend you start by adjusting the following settings, as they will have the largest impact on your vlog’s functionality (and can be adjusted rather easily). Permalinks Permalinks refer to your permanent link structure. Once you create a page and it’s accepted into a search engine index, that particular URL stays cached whether your change it or not (this can be undone through search engine Webmaster clients, but requires extra work). Natural permalinks are composed of a series of characters—numbers and letters—that are unreadable. The default WordPress permalink looks like http://yourdomain.com/?p=1. This “?p=1” does not tell the search engines or your readers what your page is about, which is why you need to change this setting. To set up your permalink, go to WordPress Admin -> Dashboard -> Settings -> Permalinks. Select Customize Permalink Structure. In my opinion the best permalinks options are: /%postname%/ or /%postname%.htm This will result in your URLs looking like this: www.yoursite.com/blog-post-title instead of www.yoursite.com/?p=1. Embed Media Given you are starting a vlog and not a regular blog, this should not be an issue. Study after study has shown that pictures, movies and music engage people more than plain-text websites. Given this, you should entice your readers and expound your thoughts by adding media files such as images and audio clips to go along with your videos (if appropriate). For directions on how to add media files see the link below: http://codex.wordpress.org/Using_Image_and_File_Attachments Add a theme Your theme sets the visual/graphic design of your blog. Unfortunatley WordPress blogs come with a very generic white template right after they are installed. Given this, you will want to customize your theme to set your vlog apart and catch people’s attention. Luckily WordPress offers a wide variety of free, colorful themes you can choose from. To access them, open your account, go to your dashboard, click on Appearance, and then select Themes. There is a downside to using the existing themes offerd by WordPress, however. As was mentioned earlier, modifying most WordPress themes requires HTML and CSS coding knowledge. Given this, if you want something beyond the free WordPress themes available online, you will have to buy a paid theme or hire someone to do customization for you. With that said, the generic WordPress themes will work fine while you are getting your vlog setup and posting your first videos. Once you start getting traffic, however, you will want to customize your blog to set it apart and make it more professional. Plug-ins I cannot stress how helpful WordPress plugins are. The reason WordPress has become the #1 content platform in the world is because plugins have made it the most functional, easy to use, and versatile platform on the planet. With that said, it would be impossible to cover the thousands of plugins available in this short guide. For now you should start with the plugins listed below. We recommend you install these before you post your first video. Akismet (http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/akismet) – This is a plug-in that traps spam comments. Visitors hate SPAM, and view any website with lots of SPAM as unprofessional. Google XML Sitemaps (http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/google-sitemap-generator) – What’s a sitemap? A sitemap is map of your site that search engine spiders use to navigate your vlog (similar to the maps we humans use for directions). If you want your blog to be indexed by the search engines (which is an absolute must), we highly recommend you install the Google XML Sitemaps plugin. Their tool not only allows you to customize your sitemap, but it automatically submits and updates the search engines every time you update your site. Google Analytics (http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/google-analytics-for-wordpress) – This is one of the most important plugins for serious Internet marketers. Google Analytics helps with understanding where all of your traffic is coming from. It tells you how many visitors are coming to your vlog, which pages users spend time on, what types of keywords are used to find your blog/pages/posts, how long your visistors stay on each page, etc. These statistics are helpful because they tell you where you should be focusing your marketing efforts. Knowing which of your efforts drive traffic and which do not allows you to focus your time and money on growing areas that produce results, while avoiding areas that do not. Analytics is used by organizations small and large, and is highly recommended. WP Super Cache (http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-super-cache) – Super Cache helps compress your files, which allows your website to load faster. Studies have shown that websites owners have anywhere from 2-8 seconds to capture a user’s attention. If your site does not load in a matter of seconds, expect that user to hit the ‘Back’ button and never return. All-in-one SEO Pack (http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/all-in-one-seo-pack) – This is many people’s favorite SEO plugin. All In One SEO Pack allows you to adjust your on-page SEO settings using one simple interface, and is designed to be compatible with WordPress based e-commerce websites. Tools Of The Trade Before you can begin producing videos you will need some basic recording equipment. With that said, you do not need to invest your life savings into equipment; you most likely have everything you need to get started right in front of you. Equipment Recording video requires three main pieces of equipment: a camera to record the video, a microphone to record the audio, and a computer to keep the files on and upload to your vlog. If you want to get really fancy you can use video editing software, however it is not required. If you do not use software, however, you will have to shoot your videos without making any mistakes. While this is possible, it can take dozens of attempts and hours to get right. Video/Audio Recording Digital Camera Most digital cameras less than 5 years old include the ability to record video. Assuming your camera is not particularly old, this may be the only piece of equipment you need. As long as your camera can record in 360p with audio, all you need is a stable surface or tripod to start recording. It should be noted that 360p is the minimum quality you should be recording and producing your videos in. For those of you who are not tech-savvy, truly HD images are anywhere from 480i to 1080p (“p” is higher quality than “i”). For those of you who want to come out of the gate with a bang, we would highly suggest using a digital SLR camera (single lens reflex). These are the cameras used by today’s top pros, and produce extremely high quality video. While there are many cameras that fall into this category, there are two base models that serve as introductory points into the world of D-SLR cameras; they are outlined below. Canon T3 The Canon Rebel T3 is one of the highest selling D-SLR cameras of all time. It features a a variety of high-tech features, however unlike many models it will not break your bank (it is currently selling for $399 on Amazon). In addition to being a solid beginner camera, it is compatible with all Canon lenses. For those of you who are not interested in photography, Canon and Nikon are the two largest brands in terms of cameras and available accessories. It should be noted that the T3 is not as high quality as the Canon T3i. With that said, you probably don’t need to spend the extra $200 for the T3i unless you plan on using it to take high-def photos for amateur/professional purposes. Nikon D5100 The Nikon D5100 is Nikon’s response to the Canon Rebel T3. It contains many of the same features as the Canon, however its video recording capabilities are stronger than those offered by Canon (the Nikon offers the ability to record in 1080p and comes with Nikon’s ‘Full-time Auto-focus’ feature). The D5100 is currently selling for $469 on Amazon, so it’s about $70 more than the Canon. For those of you who are not quite ready for a D-SLR, whether technically or financially, there are a wide variety of point-and-shoot cameras that can deliver high quality video. We have included a few examples below. Nikon Coolpix L810 Nikon’s Coolpix line has been great for consumers on a budget, as they pack more power than the small, boxy point-and-shoot cameras but are not nearly as heavy or expensive as the D-SLRs. The Coolpix L810, for example, offers a 16 megapixel camera that records 720p videos with stereo sound. While it is not as powerful as the Canon T3 or Nikon D5100, at $169 on Amazon it still packs a powerful punch. Panasonic GH2 The GH2 from Panasonic is an enthusiast favorite, and although the new GH3 just came out (not in stock yet and starting at 1300$), tests have shown that the incredible video engine of the GH2 still might be just as good. Packing a cinema mode that can make your videos feel filmic, this camera will probably give you the most bang for your buck. Currently retails at 749$ at B&H. For those of you who don’t want a digital camera and are stricly focused on video, you may want to look into the Flip Cams. Flip Cam MinoHD 4 Gigabyte For those of you who don’t know, Flip Cam was the original creator of pocket-sized, portable video cameras. They can fit in the palm of an average person’s hand and record in 720p video at 60 frames per second (many cheap cameras only record at 30 frames per second). And because they are so small, you can take them virtually anywhere. For more information check out Amazon, where this model sells for $129. Cameras Under $100 If you do not want to commit too much upfront, you still have quite a few options. If you are a small business, convincing your marketing manager or boss to spend $500 on a D-SLR camera could be a tough chore. Given this, we would highly recommend investing in a cheap digital camera. It is beyond the scope of this guide to cover them all, however there are over one dozen cameras you can choose from that all cost less than $100 on Amazon. More importantly, your best camera may be in your pocket as we speak. Mobile Phone Cameras Given most of you reading this probably own smartphones, it would be ignorant of us to leave them out as an option. The truth is many of the cameras included in today’s smartphones are just as good if not better than most low-cost digital cameras. This is particularly true of the iPhone; since the iPhone 4 came out Apple’s cameras have only gotten better and better. Given this, those of you with smartphones that can record video should highly consider using them. Smartphone cameras are not the best in terms of capturing light, however, so definitely make sure you have all the lights on or are sitting with natural light facing you (from an outside window for example). If you do not have a smart phone, we would highly recommed investing in a digital camera. You do not have to spend a fortune, but they will almost always deliver a higher quality video than your computer’s webcam will. With that said, those of you on a tight-budget may not have a choice. In this case, webcams are better than nothing. Webcam There are two types of webcams you can use to record video: those that come installed on your computer or those that you buy second-hand and install (usually by connecting them to your USB port). While the webcam installed on your computer may record video, it is likely the quality will be low. Given this, we would highly recommend investing in a second-hand webcam if possible. Second-hand webcams are going to be cheaper than digital cameras yet they still allow you to record in HD. Unfortunately you cannot take a webcam with you out into the real world, meaning you are stuck recording video in your home or room until you get a regular digital camera. Below you will find breakdowns of some of today’s most popular second-hand webcams. Logitech C615 Webcam The Logitech C615 webcam is a small, highly portable device that plugs in via your USB port and is compatible with both Macs and PCs. More importantly, it allows you to record videos in 1080p and has an Auto Focus feature. At just $54 on Amazon, you can’t go wrong with this option. Creative Live AF Cam The Creative Live Socialize Cam is also a highly popular choice for recording video. Similar to the Logitech, it is very small and plugs in via your USB port. As a positive, it inclues a wide-angel lens, allowing it to capture 25% more space than other cameras. On the downside, it records at 720p instead of 1080p. The Creative Live AF goes for $57 on Amazon. Microsoft LifeCam Studio Webcam For those of you who don’t care about size or portability as much, the Microsoft LifeCam Studio 1080p webcam may be your best bet. It is much larger than the other models, however it records in wide-angle 1080p; something neither of the above models offered. They also use a high precision glass lens, which the Creative Live webcam does not. At $53 on Amazon, this model is highly competitive with both of the models listed above. Alternatives It should be noted that the webcams listed above are for the most part ‘mid-range’ cameras. Webcams start off as low as $12 and go all the way up to $200 or more. Given this, we highly recommend you do some shopping and compare the specs before buying a camera. There are many options available to you, so don’t rush into something you are not ready for. Microphone Most digital cameras and computers have built in microphones, meaning you will not need to spend money on one when you’re first getting started. With that said, those of you who have a large audience or want superior sound quality should consider investing in a microphone that can be attached via you USB port. While most digital cameras and computers have built-in microphones, the majority of them do not produce high quality audio (computer microphones are especially bad). If you are just getting started, however, make sure your audio is clear and free from distracting background noises. Video Editing Application MovieMaker Movie Maker is a free Windows software that allows PC users to edit and share videos (Movie Maker is not Windows 8 compatible as of this writing). As is the case with most free software programs, it is not nearly as comprehensive as some of the paid software programs that are available. Despite this, Movie Maker is great for beginners looking to edit, add photos and music to, and share videos on the web. FinalCut Pro X FinalCut Pro X is Apple’s comprehensive video editing software. Available to Mac users, FinalCut Pro X adds extraordinary speed, quality, and flexibility to every part of the post-production workflow. At $299 it does not come cheap, however similar to Photoshop, it is an industry standard amongst all but the highest level TV and video producers (those in Hollywood that is). Techsmith Camtasia Camtasia is screen recording and video editing software that is both PC and MAC compatible. For those of you doing demonstrations or talking into your webcam, screen recording may be all you need. At $99 Camtasia is both comprehensive and inexpensive, making it perfect for beginners. Video Hosting Platforms As you may or may not know, video files are significantly larger than text and image files. Because of this it is highly recommended that you do not host your videos on your own site. Hosting videos on your domain can lead to very slow loading times, which can result in search engine penalties and users leaving your site because it loaded too slowly. Luckily there are a wide variety of video hosts you can use, most of which are free. YouTube YouTube is not only the largest video portal on the Internet, it is also the second largest search engine in the world. And since Google owns YouTube, Google rewards YouTube videos with high rankings on their results page. Further, YouTube’s interface for uploading videos is extremely easy. Given this, it is highly recommended that you use YouTube to host your videos (and if you don’t you should at least upload and optimize them to help you get search engine traffic). To upload videos to YouTube you will first need to set up an account. You can do this using your existing Gmail account or you can set up a new account using your existing email address (if you do not already have one). Once your account is set up and you are logged in, click on the ‘Upload’ button featured on the YouTube homepage; this will take you to their drag and drop/upload screen. On the next screen you can either drag and drop your videos in or choose ‘Browse’ to select the video you want to upload from your computer. Once you have chosen your video it will take you to the upload screen (see below), where you can adjust your settings and tags while the video uploads. (Please note that we will discuss how to optimize your videos for the search engines in a later chapter.) For now just know that it is very important that you include keywords (obtained from doing keyword research) in the Title, Description and Tags section (Title is most important). Once your video is uploaded, it will show as the video being part of your Channel and Video Manager. While most of your work has been done, you are not quite finished yet. Once you are in the Video Manager Dashboard you will want to click on the settings tab (see below), as this is the area where you can adjust your Channel’s settings (name, ability to monetize/display ads, etc). Vimeo While YouTube’s claim to fame lies in its massive size, Vimeo is much more focused on quality than quantity. While Vimeo’s system and interface are just as easy as YouTube’s, they tend to attract higher quality content in terms of production and video quality (HD versus non-HD). Vimeo also offers functionality that YouTube does not, like the ability to add a soundtrack to your video and search for audio content that can be licensed. Highly recommended for those of you with a focus on quality over quantity. Similar to YouTube, you will need to create an account with Vimeo before you can upload your video. When you first go to upload your video, Vimeo will ask you to confirm that the video you are uploading is yours and that it is not commercial content (the sole purpose of it cannot be to promote a service). With that said, do not let this turn you off. **Your content should be focused on providing value and solving problems for your audience. Given this, you should not be blatantly promoting or selling anything in your videos (content marketing is different from video advertising). Similar to YouTube, Vimeo allows you to place links in each video’s description section (see below). More importantly, their description sections are larger and stand out more (and most likely attract more attention than YouTube descriptions, which force you to click to open anything past the second line of text). Given this, Vimeo is great for using your video to engage someone; you simply need to use the description text to point them back to your vlog. Remember: these hosting platforms are outlets; they should not be your main revenue driver. AmazonS3 S3 is Amazon’s cloud computing platform. Unlike YouTube and Vimeo, S3 is not dedicated to video hosting. Because of this they do not offer the same video-specific functionalities YouTube and Vimeo do, however many businesses select S3 as their first choice for video hosting; there are pros and cons to all three options. Wordpress Plugins For those of you using WordPress, there are a variety of video plugins you can install and run on your vlog. It should be noted that different plugins serve different purposes. For example, some allow you to easily embed videos from other sites, while others allow you to stream clips without ads being attached to them. If you’re just getting started, however, you will not need any plugins, as YouTube and Vimeo make it easy to embed videos in your vlog (and Vimeo does not serve ads on top of their videos). For those of you who want to take vlogging next to the next level, we recommend you investigate some of the plugins listed below. WordPress Video Plugin This self-titled plugin is useful for embedding videos from sites outside of YouTube and Vimeo (like Yahoo Video and BrightCove). Unfortunately embedding is all it does; you can learn more here. Smart YouTube This plugin allows you to post videos to your comments and RSS feeds, which other plugins have attempted but failed. You can learn more here. Simple Flash Video This plugin allows for easy embedding/posting of Flash videos (flv file format) or Mp4 videos (mp4 format). This is important for those of you doing Flash animations or for those of you who are more progressive and like to work with Mp4 files. They also include some advanced functions, such as allowing the video to ‘float’ over your website, giving it a minimalist look. Click here to learn more. YouTube with Style This plugin allows you to embed videos from YouTube while using your own custom video player skin (instead of the generic and somewhat unprofessional YouTube skin). Great for those of you who have already identified a color scheme and logo for your brand (you can incorporate existing logos into the skin). Click here for more information. ProPlayer For those of you who are serious about online video marketing, you may want to look into ProPlayer. It includes a variety of advanced functions, including over 27 skins to choose from, the ability to rate videos, the creation of custom playlists, inclusion of watermarks and more. Click here for more information. Video Player Application For those of you truly desire superior performance, you may want to consider using a video player application. While delivering high value content to your users should always be your number one priority, those of you who are serious about monetization should also focus on delivering high quality videos. Video player applications work to make your and your viewers lives easier. Examples here include the ability to easily serve ads from various ad networks (helps you) or resizing and reformatting your video to be viewable on any device (helps your viewers). With that said, most of these applications cost money. If you do not plan on monetizing your video content, you can probably skip this section. Easyvideoplayer http://easyvideoplayer.com Easy Video Player is a software that allows you to not only embed your videos easily, but turn them into sales/marketing tools. As for embedding, they make integrating with Amazon’s S3 super easy, and also convert/display your videos in HTML5 (meaning they can be viewed on iPhones, iPads, etc). As for their sales capabilities, the software allows you to include a wide variety of functions, including: buy now buttons, opt-in form overlays, timed-content displays, auto-redirecting to a shopping cart or webpage, split-testing, and more. This is of crucial importance for those of you who are doing demonstrations or explanations for the purpose of lead generation or sales. Jwplayer http://www.longtailvideo.com/jw-player/ The JW Player is one of the few softwares to convert and resize/adapt your video based on your user’s Internet browser and device (laptop, smartphone, tablet, etc.). Analysts predict that over the next few years users will watch more video on smartphones and tablets than computers or laptops. Given this, making sure you video plays right on each and every device is becoming more and more important. Flowplayer http://flowplayer.org/ Flowplayer is a fantastic yet simple video player option for those of you who desire to host video on your actual site (versus stream it from YouTube). Flowplayer provides a simple, customizable player that allows you to post high quality videos to your pages in no time. More importantly, Flowplayer plays Flash, Mp4 and H.264 (previously AVC) video files. In other words, it plays the modern but complicated video formats. This application is powerful, but unnecessary for all but the most advanced users. Promoting your Blog When it comes to promoting video content, creating and posting your videos is only half the battle. The truth is the Internet is more crowded than ever before, and with so many videos competing for attention it can be hard to build an audience. Given this, you will need to promote your videos if you have any intention of building an audience and/or monetizing your content. Below you will find a brief breakdown of some of the top methods for promoting your vlog. Guest posting Guest posting involves creating content and posting it to someone else’s blog/vlog instead of your own. This helps the owner of the blog by giving them a day or week off from producing content while giving you access to an audience you otherwise would not have had access to. While explaining everything about guest posting is beyond the scope of this guide, it is very important that you take advantage of every guest posting opportunity you come across. For starters, not all blogs and vlogs allow guest posts. The easiest way to figure out if the blog you are going after offers them or not is to search for the name of that blog followed by the text ‘guest post.’ So if I was going after the John Doe’s blog, at www.JohnDoeBlog.com, I would type “JohnDoeBlog.com guest post” into Google. It is extremely uncommon for a blog author to let someone guest post without identifying them as a guest, so this method is almost 100% accurate. Once you have found blogs/vlogs to guest post on, you need to contact the owner. Before you approach the owner, however, think about them and not yourself. Is the content you are offering highly relevant to their audience? Will it be of value to their audience? How often do they post? Understanding the blog’s owner and the owner’s audience makes your job a lot easier. Assuming their audience is a match for what you have to offer, you need to reach out with a personalized message. When emailing the owner, write to them by name. Propose ideas for your guest post that are based on past blog/vlog posts they have done. This will show them that you took the time to understand the owner’s content and audience (versus just trying to get something from them). In short, you need to provide value. Blog owners are people, just like you, and are most likely trying to build an audience they can monetize. If you can help them with this goal, they will most likely help you out. Once a blog owner has given you permission to create your content, you need to take full advantage of that opportunity. To fully take advantage of every opportunity you get, make sure your guest posts are packed with value. If you want to capture another author’s audience, you have to give them a reason to click over to/search for your vlog once they’ve finished watching your content. Providing value is the easiest way to do this. Blog commenting One of the easiest ways to spread awareness of your vlog is by commenting on other people’s blogs and vlogs. There are many ways to go about doing this, but for the most part you want to comment on vlogs/blogs where the audience is highly active. This ensures your comments are read by others, giving them the opportunity to click over to your vlog. With that said, blog owners hate comment SPAM. Given this, you should do everything possible to contribute to the conversation instead of blatantly promoting your content without offering value to the owner of the blog/vlog. SEO Search engine optimization is a very complicated form of marketing that is far beyond the scope of this guide. With that said, understanding how to use tags can increase your odds of capturing search engine traffic. When uploading or embedding your videos, you need to make sure you are using keywords for your video tags and website meta-tags. While virtually all web pages are able to use meta-tags, videos that you embed on your site allow for an added layer of tags specific to that piece of content. Given this, you should be using tags on your web-page and on your video (in the title and description sections). If you remember from our YouTube platform section above, YouTube videos allows for three sections of tags that all impact search engine optimization and the likelihood of you showing up on YouTube’s search results. For starters, you need to set you Title tag. The title is what displays on YouTube when users search for something, however it is also what displays on Google when someone searches for something. More importantly, the Title tag tells both YouTube and Google what that video is about. Given this, you should be using the primary keywords you want to rank well for in your title. Ideally your title tag should be the keyword(s) and nothing else, but if that doesn’t make grammatical sense at least make sure to include the keyword(s) in the title tag. The next section is your description section. This is a 1-2 sentence breakdown of what the video is about. To begin with, ALWAYS start your descriptions with a hyperlink to your vlog. YouTube typically only displays the first sentence of a description before it asks users to click to see the following text. Given this, including your URL as the very first line will ensure everyone who sees your video is exposed to and has the chance to click on your vlog link. After the URL, make sure to include a sentence or two regarding what the video is about, and try to use your main keyword (from the Title) at least once. The last section is your Tags section. This section tells YouTube what other topics your video is about, and is less important than the Title tag. With that said, tags influence whether or not you appear in the ‘recommended videos’ section (see below) when someone finishes watching a video on YouTube. Unfortunately YouTube no longer shows the tags on public videos (in the old days you could simply copy/paste the tags from highly popular videos and gain traffic). These days, you have to make an educated guess and hope for the best (if you’re serious you will test different tags over time and analyze how they affect your viewing numbers). Guest Interviews While guest posting is a great way of spreading awareness of your vlog, sometimes you will stumble across a partner whose blog following pales in comparison to their radio, podcast or Twitter following. Given this, subjecting yourself to an old fashion interview may be the best way to get access to their audience (in the case of Twitter the interview would be transcribed and posted somewhere for their followers to read it). Further, answering questions is usually easier than creating killer content for someone else’s blog. Creative Commons License You should approach guest interviews the same way you would guest posts. First, make sure you understand the owner and his or her audience. Second, make sure your interview will contribute value to their audience. Last but not least, understand that an audio interview requires that the person make note of who you are (if they don’t Google you during/immediately following the interview). Given this, you need to make sure your interview is highly memorable. This is also another reason you should have a highly memorable domain name. Video Distribution Video distribution involves uploading your video(s) to as many video portals as possible. For those of you who are just getting started, you really only need to focus on distributing to YouTube. For those of you who are trying to make money or build an audience, researching the 100+ video platforms out there can really help you grow your business. The main reason for this is because many video portals are specific to one niche or one particular audience, allowing you to promote your content to a much more targeted audience. For those of you who want to automate the process of distributing videos, there are both free and paid software applications you can use. OneLoad (previously TubeMogul) OneLoad is a basic distrubiton service that submits to 25 of the most popular video platforms on the Internet. It should be noted that although most of their packages are paid, they do offer a free option. Its functionality is rather limited, however it should work well for those of you who are just getting started. Content Buzz Content Buzz is similar to OneLoad. It offers a variety of functions and both free and paid subscription plans. Content Buzz seems to include more functionality with its paid plans, but the OneLoad interface is much easier to use. Video Comments Similar to blog comments, video comments are a great way to get the word out. Unlike blog comments, which require you to visit multiple blogs, video comments typically take place on the portals themselves. If you’re not sure what we mean here, head over to YouTube and browse through comments people leave on highly popular videos. Strategic video commenting (as in commenting on videos that are relevant to your subject/topic) can be a powerful way to drive traffic to your content. It should be noted that on YouTube in particular, you may need to scroll down and select “Show All Comments” (see below), as some extremely popular videos can attract hundreds of thousands of comments. These are probably not the kinds of videos you want to go after, as your comment is most likely going to get lost in the fray. Instead, go after highly targeted videos where the comments are considerate or productive. Videos that nurture these type of ‘comment conversations’ are much more likely to result in users viewing your comment and clicking over if you have something useful to say. Trying to attract attention amongst the hundreds of thousands of comments Rihanna gets on her songs, however, it not going to take you very far. Social Media Social networks can be a great place for building an audience, but they can also be a huge distraction. While there are videos that go viral, spreading from person to person while accumulating millions of views, you are more likely to get struck by lightning than you are to create a successful viral video. With that said, learning the basics of social media (Twitter in particular) can really help you. For starters, always remember that you are dealing with humans when you are promoting social networks. We go to social networks to have fun while sharing information; not to be sold. So, when you interact with people, approach from a genuinely interested point of view. Think about what you can contribute to their life rather than what you can get from them. If your video will in fact contribute to their life or solve a problem they are facing, then by all means send it to them. The point here is that you should never be using social media to ‘promote’ or ‘pitch’ your content, as study after study has proven this is ineffective. Given this, you should focus on creating value-packed content that can easily be shared on social networks. As long as your content can be shared easily (via “Like” and “Tweet” buttons), promoting your videos using the methods listed above will get you visbility. And if your newfound audience loves your content, they’ll share it on their own. Monetizing Your Video Blogs There are a wide variety of ways you can earn money through your vlog. Below you will find a breakdown of three of the most popular monetization methods. Sponsored Ads Selling ad space is the easiest way to earn money through your vlog, however it is also the least profitable. In short, selling ads on your vlog involves ad networks placing ads before, after, or on top of your video content. For those of you just getting started, YouTube offers you the option of integrating an AdSense account with your video channel. This option allows YouTube to run ads before, after or on top of your videos, with you earning a commission every time somebody clicks on one of the ads when viewing your videos. Affiliate offers For those of you building a targeted audience, such as soccer moms or male gamers, affiliate offers can be a great way to make money. In short, many online businesses offer affiliate programs where you can earn a set commission every time you send them a sale. This is to their benefit as they get a client without spending money on advertising, while you get paid for making a sale without having to create a product. To run an affiliate promotion on your site, you need to find a company that a) sells products/services that would be a good fit for your audience and b) has an affiliate program. While many website owners place links to their affiliate program at the bottom of their site, you can also search for affiliate offers through affiliate portals like Clickbank.com, Click2Sell.com, and ShareASale.com. Explaining the technicalities of running an affiliate program is beyond the scope of this guide, but a quick Google search for ‘how do affiliate programs work’ will tell you everything you need to know. This is truly a great monetization method for those of you who can do legitimate testimonials or product/service demonstrations/reviews on camera. Paid Posts For those of you with a large enough audience, doing video testimonials can be a great way to make money. Rather than trying to earn commissions on sales, paid posts involve an advertiser paying you to review their product or service in front of your audience. Taking this route poses ethical dilemmas, as it would be very easy to endorse products you do not truly believe in for the sake of making easy money. With that said, if you are a genuine fan of a product or service and think it would benefit your audience, asking an advertiser if they are willing to pay $500 (or whatever) for you to promote their product/service to your audience can be a great way to monetize your content. Just remember: the more legitimate vlaue you provide to your audience, the more they will reward you with their trust and their dollars. Trying to rip them off via a dishonest review or testimonial can immediately ruin whatever trust or loyalty you had previously built up. Given this, we highly recommend you take the high road when doing paid posts. Conclusion As you can imagine, video marketing is a truly exciting field to be in right now. With advances in technology, producing high quality video content has become easier and cheaper than ever before. And with more and more statistics proving the power of video as an online marketing tool, the demand for high quality video producers is guaranteed to go up. This combination of cheap production and mass adoption will lead to a variety of opportunities in the field. On the production side, Do It Yourself video makers will continue to push the envelope in terms of creating highly engaging content for as little money as possible. On the marketing side, the potential for video to drive user engagement, lead generation, and sales is just now becoming obvious. So how does this affect you? In short, it is a great time to begin producing and monetizing your video content. When beginning, you need to understand that you are not going to hit a homerun on your first at bat. Instead, take small, incremental steps towards providing valuable content to your audience. Once you have an audience built up, test different methods of monetization. After you’ve got the hang of this whole video thing, you can then begin to explore different opportunities on both the production and marketing side. And at the end of the day, vlogging is a lot more fun than typing blog posts. So have fun with it! This has been an e-book production of CINéSYN – www.cinesyn.com - a firm that offers video production services.