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Better known as “Media FLAIR”, audio and video adds an impressive touch of professionalism to your business that makes all other attempts to increase conversions pale by comparison.

We’ll delve into more of the proper implementation of “FLAIR”. This is of paramount importance because even though adding flair can potentially improve the performance of your website more than any other change, if done poorly or incorrectly it can significantly hurt your conversions.

Have you ever been to a website that looked great and offered a useful product then… all of a sudden a crackly and static filled recording of the site creator’s voice blasts through your speakers and startles the daylights out of you? It’s not a fun experience is it? When this happens, the visitor gets a negative taste in his/her mouth about the entire experience and that clearly will not encourage them to make a purchase.

The same goes with video. A video should compliment the site by adding an engaging and multidimensional aspect to an otherwise one dimensional website. The video should set off buying triggers in the prospect and create positive emotions. The video should be fun and informative. It should be easy on the ears and the eyes. Videos that are hard to see, hear or understand will only defeat the purpose of increasing conversions. In many cases you’re better off not putting up a video at all if the quality is poor.

But there is a light at the end of the tunnel! You do not have to be a professional broadcaster with a state of the art recording studio or millionaire budget to create effective flair that captivates and engages your audience. As a matter of fact there are lots of effective shortcuts that can drastically improve the production quality of your flair and they don’t cost much money to put in place at all. Here are some production tips to get you going:

Tip #1 – Plan – Prepare – Predict For some situations, unrehearsed media can be very effective, however when it comes to sales videos and website audio this is seldom the case. You should always plan what you are going to say and HOW you are going to say it. What points will you stress? etc. You should prepare some bullet points before you begin perhaps write them on a white board directly behind your camera or print them on a sticky note right beside the lens. Predict your audience’s emotion and apprehensions and address them in your delivery.

Tip #2 – Control The Environment (Audio) The sounds of your environment will be captured by your microphone just as the sound of your voice will. I recommend that you sit still for a minute and take note of ambient noises that may be recorded along with you. Things like family members in other rooms, baby’s crying, lawn mowers and outside vehicle traffic. The idea is to keep the audiences attention on YOU and not on things going on around you.

Tip #3 – Control The Environment (Video) One of the biggest challenges when creating the proper video environment is lighting. Lighting is HUGE. Always pay close attention to the lighting in your videos. Is it clear and well lit or is id dark and gloomy? When lighting the recording area use 2 or three lamps and angle the lamp shades so that they cancel out shadows.

Tip #4 – Consider Outsourcing Segments Regardless of the type of flair you are producing, there are always segments that you can outsource to professionals. For example, you may want to consider outsourcing the creation of a “Title Segment” to a professional. This will be a unique 3-5 second video segment with your name and logo “swooshing in” and some sound effects. You will add a much more professional appearance to your work with this type of intro/outtro.

Also consider a voice over artist to narrate your video. Powerpoint presentations and slideshow videos are an excellent example of this. A professional V.O. will skyrocket the effectiveness of your presentation. You can even edit/splice together professional clips to create your own custom narration. You can use a product like VoxFlair.com to show you how.

Tip #5 – Use Various Elements Be creative. Always seek to keep the viewer or listener engaged by combining multiple elements of media flair. For example, you can splice a “Tittle Segment” with some “on camera” footage and perhaps insert photo stills or even screen capture shots into your sequence. This keeps the production flowing and engages the audience far more than just a redundant and/or monotone recording.

Video flair should always have accompanying audio but in many cases audio alone can add the flair you need. Audio can work on its own but silent video is seldom an effective way to enhance a website. Keep that in mind when creating a recording. Since you’ll be creating your flair in stages, you may be unhappy with the early phases of your production (especially if you’re a perfectionist like me!) But once all the segments are spliced (edited) together and you have added audio and visual accents, you’ll feel alot better about the production.

Accenting is an important part of flair. Accenting breaks up the monotony of continuous media. For example, if you are recording a 15 minute presentation of yourself on camera reading a sales script, the viewer may begin to loose interest after a few minutes. Adding simple accents can solve this challenge.

You may consider switching to a new camera angle once in a while or cutting to a zoomed in version of the same angle. Another effective video accent is cutting to a black and white video clip that coincides with the story line. For example, if you mention in your video that you enjoy playing basketball, that would be a great spot to insert a few seconds of you shooting a basket in black and white. These small accents go a long way to keep the viewer engaged.

With audio only this is a bit harder to do but you can still get the same effect by using sound effects. So if I was only using an MP3 audio as my sales presentation and there was a part that I mentioned my love of basketball I can insert a few seconds of audio recorded at a basketball court, i.e. the sneakers squeaking on the hard wood floor the ball bouncing as players talk to one another and the swish of the net as I score a basket. Then fade back into my narration. You can also use a music bed as a low level background to keep the listener engaged.

The most important thing to consider when using audio alone as a form of flair is your VOICE FLUCTUATION. Speak like you are talking to a friend not like you are reading a book. In general everyday conversation we accentuate certain words, we stress certain points by controlling the pitch of our voices and we even create emotion by bringing down the level to a near whisper then raising it again. Always remember to smile! Yes SMILE. Even if you are not on camera a smile can show through a microphone and convey a positive vibe to the listener.

Overall, the key is to be creative and dynamic when you are producing flair. Be mindful of the recording quality as well as your content and these things will improve your conversions rather than hurt them. In next months issue I’ll reveal the actual software and services that I personally use to produce and serve Flair on my websites.

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Omar Martin is Mike Filsaime’s partner & co-owner of Higher Level Strategies, LLC. Based in Florida USA. Omar has built a successful internet business over the past 3 years & now earns over 25k per month online using these tactics. You can learn more about 1 on 1 coaching and mentorship at http://www.HigherLevelStrategies.com and you can get more useful information on producing media flair at http://www.VoxFlair.com

Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

Flair Phenomenon

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It does not matter what you call them: vodcasts, vidcasts, videocasting, or video podcasting… there are a few behind-the-scenes actions you can take to help attract more attention to your video productions. Just like websites, it does not matter how amazing the content is if interested people are unable to find it.

Use the following suggestions to help increase the exposure your videos receive…

1. Use Keywords

In Video File Name Insert keywords in the name of the video file. When determining what keywords to use, do not simply rely on intuition; do research, just as you would for a website, to see what relevant terms people are searching on.

2. Create Video Feed

Create an RSS feed of all videos in a collection. Each feed item should contain a different video in the enclosure field. Optimize the feed using related keywords. For additional help, there is a Videocasting Feed Creation Tutorial available at http://www.feedforall.com/videocasting-tutorial.htm .

3. Increase Exposure

Host your videos on YouTube, and embed the video into your website, which will increase the video count on YouTube. The more popular a video seems to be, the more exposure it will receive.

4. Video Name And Description

In the video name and description fields, use keywords that relate to the content of the video. Create a compelling yet relevant title and description that will encourage people to click-through.

5. Google Video Sitemap

Create a video sitemap for the search engines. For details on what to include in such sitemaps, Google has provided specifications in their Google Webmaster Central Blog at http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2007/12/introducing-video-sitemaps.html .

6. Meta Data

Include meta data in the video file. The newer video search engines will often rely on meta data to produce relevant results. Many video editing products will allow you to edit and customize the meta data associated with the video file, and you should use this the same way you would use the meta data for a webpage.

7. Optimize Landing Page

Optimize the landing page on the website, embed the video in a webpage on your website, and then use standard SEO techniques to optimize that webpage for the search engines. Use keywords that relate to the video on the page that contains the video.

8. Transcripts

Provide a text transcript of the video, both on the landing page and in the RSS feed for the video.

9. Embed URL In Video

Brand the video with your logo in the initial video splash screen, and include your website address on the bottom of the video to increase your brand exposure.

10. Leave Them Wanting More

The video should be a teaser and leave the audience wanting more. Engage the audience, but try to encourage the viewer to visit the website or view other videos to learn more.

11. Submit YouTube Feed

YouTube creates an RSS feed for every user account that is created. In addition to manually creating an RSS feed, you can also use the YouTube feed to promote your videos. The formatting details for the YouTube video feeds can be found at http://gdata.youtube.com/feeds/api/username/uploads (replace “username” in the url with your own YouTube account username).

12. Anchor Text

When linking to the video, use anchor text that contains keywords which relate to the video.

13.Video Submission

Submit the video to all the video websites and video podcast websites. Here are a couple of resource sites to get you started…

Podcast & Video Submissions – http://www.podcasting-tools.com/submit-podcasts.htm 140 Places to Submit Your Video List – http://www.stephanmiller.com/my-link-lists/140-place-to-submit-your-video-list/

14. Tag Video

Tag the video on the video networks with relevant keywords, making it is easier for people to find when they search on those keywords.

15. Track Views

Track and review the number of views that a video receives. If you find that a substantial number of viewers are abandoning the video before completion, the chances are good that the video is too long and could benefit from trimming.

16. Social Bookmarking

Use social bookmarking to draw additional attention to videos. This will also help with the number of incoming links, which in turn will help improve search engine ranking.

Videos are the latest marketing channel. In order to make the most of it, optimize the video and increase the exposure it receives.

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About the Author: Sharon Housley manages marketing for FeedForAll http://www.feedforall.com software for creating, editing, publishing RSS feeds and podcasts. In addition Sharon manages marketing for NotePage http://www.notepage.net a wireless text messaging software company.

Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

Optimize Video Podcasts

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Google Adwords is an incredibly powerful marketing tool with an instant global reach that can take your business from nowhere to an overnight success. Why wouldn’t a new marketer take advantage of such a powerful tool? I can answer that question with another question. Why wouldn’t you let someone with a new driver’s license behind the wheel of a race car? Because, unless they are extremely lucky, they are going to crash and burn. Google Adwords is the Formula One of online marketing and it is not for beginners.

As advertising goes, the reasons to avoid Google Adwords early on in your education is overwhelming.

1. First, it can be very expensive and most new marketers will exhaust their ad budget before they can successfully bring in revenue. This is mainly because Google Adwords can be deceptively difficult to master. The basic formula is to identify keywords, write an ad that uses the keywords and have a landing page that completely delivers on what your ad promises.
2. Next, Google rewards advertisers who solve the problem their searchers are trying to solve. If you fail to do this you can expect high cost per click and low traffic.
3. Further, Google purposefully keeps the exact formula for success under wraps. If you are not getting the results you are seeking, the support you receive from Google will be general at best. Expect Google to suggest “improve your landing page” or “tips for writing ads.” On top of that, Google periodically change their rules requiring you to change your campaign or face the prospect of high cost per click or low traffic.
4. Finally, the instant global reach of your Google Adwords campaign is accompanied by global competition with a wide variety of skill levels and budgets.

Keep your chin up though. There are many options that exist for the new marketer.

Initially most new marketers have more time than money and that can be a good thing (more on that later). There are many low-tech approaches that have worked for decades and still do. These alternatives allow you to learn how to market affordably which will allow for some trial and error without spending your whole ad budget.

Using some of the methods below will allow you to use several forms of marketing which is a more balanced and stable long-term approach. Here is the big bonus: your competitors are still online spending themselves out of business with Adwords!

Here are just a few options when thinking about an offline marketing campaign. They may not be sexy, but they are time-tested, and still very effective marketing tools.

1. Newspaper Advertising – requires only a computer and 800 number. Information about newspapers from around the country is easily researched online and ads can cost as little as $10 per week.
2. Flyers – this is a big one for those who have time but little money. Getting flyers or business cards made is cheap and easy using a site like vistaprint.com. Spend a couple of hours a day papering parking lots. The key with this plan is to put out a lot of flyers (hundreds daily).
3. Bandit Signs – Simple three line signs that reside at intersections and other high traffic areas which direct prospects to an 800 number with a message. Signs cost between $2-$5 dollars each and work wherever your prospects pass by or congregate.
4. Warm market – You have an immediate advantage approaching people you know because a level of trust exists between you. Many marketers can get off to a quick start by starting here.
5. Article campaigns – this is absolutely free to do. Establish yourself online as a respected and knowledgeable marketer in your niche. You may still be learning the ropes about marketing but you definitely know more than most people about your business.
6. Blogging – Similar to article marketing in that you share information about your area of expertise. Once people see you as a helpful resource they will begin to seek you out. The key here is to provide new content on a consistent basis. You can start today with a free site from WordPress or Blogger

If you have the budget, make Google Adwords a part of your overall marketing plan AFTER you have established other forms of marketing. Whenever you are new at something you need to be allowed to make mistakes, learn from them and apply what you have learned in the future. Hard won knowledge is the best way to learn. By starting with basic (and still viable) forms of advertising you can develop into a well-rounded, knowledgeable and, ultimately, more successful marketer in the long term, which is everyone’s goal.

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Trish Thackston – Brookview Partners teaches people how to become successful home-based entrepreneurs. Want to know the five principles we use and teach that have generated millions in income? Click below for our free report http://www.thehomebusinessroadmap.com

Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources

Four Reasons Google Adwords is Not Meant for Beginners

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