How to make videos for affiliate marketing

I co-authored an ebook with great content on how to do this video stuff all yourself. Everything below (keep reading) PLUS about 10 times more information on each stage, PLUS a ton of ideas about how to market whatever you are marketing with video are in the ebook. I could not talk my partner into a decent price, and the ebook is priced at a tough $77.75. You can check it out on Video Marketing Success Book.

I really wanted to make one of those $7 ebooks, and so we pared down the big ebook and specifically targetted authors for book promotion. I offered it on Lulu.com for $7 for about a month, and my partner was still unhappy about the low price. So I moved the product to Click2Sell.eu, and it is for sale for $14.99.

This $14.99 version has the full tutorial, step by step, of how to make a simple video using Windows Movie Maker, all the worksheets for planning your video, but only has the marketing information for promoting books. There is some really good marketing information in the big book... but for the price you really can't beat the Book Promotion version.

Buy the Book Promotion version directly from Click2Sell. That's another story in itself. Click on the image to the right.

The first step to making a viral video is to plan. This is a step that can get easily overlooked in the excitement of wanting to get started filming. Planning is not just putting together a script and finding some music and giving thought to the lighting. Planning also means knowing the "why, what and who," of making the video in the first place. Proper planning can prevent post production regret.

Ask yourself:  WHY do I want to make a video? 

What kind of video do you want to make? 
Video sharing sites make this easier by providing their own categories.  Browse through them to see what's being offered.

What do you want to do?  Provoke? Entertain? Inspire? Teach?

What's your budget? If it's very low or nil, then the shorter the video the better.

What you will Need:
 
   Digital video camera or digital still camera with video capture, or even a digital still camera (and/or) Cellular phone with video functions.
  Windows XP Movie Maker or professional video editing software.

Shoot in "takes". This means short scenes or parts of your overall plan.

Developing your own clip library will help you make this video as well as videos in the future. Anything that you use over and over or even more than once, keep tagged or in a convenient place to import again.

Pay attention to your lighting, because this is one of the things that is most difficult or impossible to edit afterwards.  

Even if you don't have any video clips yet, you can do a lot with still photos. And you can use the "ease in" as a video effect to imitate camera movement. 
To do this, drop and drag an image to the storyboard, then in the "Edit Movie" menu, click on "View video effects". Click on "ease in" and drag it onto your image. You will probably want to import your site logo and using this method.

The right background music can add a lot to your video and branding efforts. Make sure the sound is catchy and appealing to the age and type of audience you are seeking. What mood do you want your viewers to be in? Does your music match that mood? Ask others what they think of your sound. Take the time to make the right choice because if you use it in every video you make it will greatly enhance your branding efforts. People will hear your sound and associate your videos with that sound. (A good viral example of this is the "numa numa" videos, which all use the same catchy tune.)

Make sure you include your logo in your movies. It can be shown at the beginning and end for branding purposes. (Showing it midway through the video has not yet tested positively.) You can add anything else to that opening and/or closing graphic with your graphics program. For instance, you may want to put your website URL on the same graphic as your logo. If you have a blog, list that, too. 

Open a free account at TubeMogul.com and upload to multiple sites at once. You'll also be able to track from one place your number of views at different video hosting sites.

What makes some videos mildly successful and others Viral wonders?

No one really knows for sure, and if someone wants to sell you The Secret of going viral- don't believe them. After extensive research on this question, we have observed that no one can reliably predict what the public is going to go after.
However, according to various experts, there are several important factors that will greatly increase your chances:

Have a good concept.

"If you want to be successful in the world of viral, you need to play by the rules of entertainment, not the rules of selling." Kevin Roddy, Creative Director of Bartle Bogle Hegarty.

Choose a Catchy Title

K.I.S.S. -- Keep it Simple, Stupid.

It's easy to get side tracked thinking about the top videos with millions of hits. However marketers need to think Target, not Traffic. You have a niche and there are people out there who will be interested in it.

Getting millions of hits on your video is not the only way to gain success. Qualified hits are sometimes more valuable than massive unqualified hits, especially for niche sales.

A group of videos that are successful in their own niche may quietly do as much for you as one mega viewed video would.

Channel subscriptions are like an ezine or email newsletter subscription. When you upload a new video to your channel, your subscribers receive an email listing the new videos. In addition to using branding techniques in your videos you can market to a selected audience that has shown enough interest in your material to subscribe to your channel.

Almost any marketing technique you've used successfully in ezine marketing or blogging, you can use with your channel. That's the social advantage: people who subscribe to your channel are already pre-qualified. They are already interested in what you have to say. So tell them something that gives them what they want, and you've got a receptive audience.

One of the best methods of targetting is to run a poll. Poll your audience for what they want to see, and then make that video. This is known as "shooting fish in a bucket".