Video Marketing Made Easy and Affordable in Five Simple Steps

If you don't already have one, you'll need to get a video camera to get started. You might think this will cost you a lot of money, but there are now very affordable cameras that can shoot video that is perfectly adequate to suit the needs of online distribution.

If your budget is very limited, and you have a webcam, you can certainly start with that. Your options for production will be somewhat limited since you won't be as portable, but you can get creative and add interesting scene elements to your background. Don't focus on what you can't do with your webcam; pay more attention to what you CAN do. That being said, for a small investment you can take your videos to the next level.

For a little over $100, you can pick up a portable video recorder, such as the Flip Ultra, that is very easy to use, and can fit in your pocket. The video quality is surprisingly good for the price these days, and it gives you the freedom to shoot videos in virtually any location. The video introduction above was shot using a Flip Ultra.

If you want to spend a little more, Flip has just come out with the Flip Mino, which is even slimmer than the Ultra, and has a few added features. Either one would be a fine choice for an entry level video recorder.

If you'd like to learn more about using the Flip Recorder or another digital video camera for your marketing, I highly recommend Renegade University. It offers free step-by-step training, and the back office available at the Professional Level has an incredible wealth of information on this and other topics related to internet marketing.

Capturing your video can be done by shooting footage of yourself or others in order to convey a message to your audience. You really are only limited by your creativity. If you're using a portable video camera, choose locations that will enhance your message, and speak to your target market. This goes for the appearance of your video subjects, as well. If you are creating a video about climbing the corporate ladder, a scenic shot of you at the beach in a tank top probably won't make the connection with your target market that you want.

You might be intimidated by the thought of putting yourself in front of the camera. If you'd prefer to stay behind the scenes, you can still create quality videos that get your message to your target audience. Free screen capture software allows you to record events like Powerpoint presentations for your audience from your computer screen. It even allows you to record the audio, so you can personalize your message without having to show your face, if that is what you prefer. If you feel you need more features, you might want to try a 30-day free trial from Camtasia Studio.

Sometimes the best approach is to mix the two styles of presentation. You can make a walk-thru of a database system more interesting and personal by starting out with an introduction from you, in front of the camera. As the viewer is watching the presentation, they will likely feel more connected to the information, because they will feel more connected to you.

Video Editing has also come a long way in the last few years. Computers have become amazingly powerful, and are able to handle the amount of information processing necessary to edit and render video footage. In addition, the software available today rivals what professionals were using not that many years ago.

Windows Movie Maker, which is included for free with Windows XP and Vista, is simple and easy to use. You can add transitions and titles to your video, but don't expect to create a lot of stunning special effects. For most people, though, the tools you get with this program will suit your needs just fine. I have recently created a training video for Windows Movie Maker. You can register through the link and upgrade for $1 to access the video. Once you've watched it, if you aren't interested in the rest of the University, simply cancel your membership and get your $1 back.

When you're done editing your footage, Movie Maker will even compress it for you, which means it will make the file smaller so you can upload it more easily to video hosting sites. As a general rule, most sites set a limit of 100Mb for individual files, though there are some that allow as much as 300 Mb.

If you want to get fancy and are willing to spend a little bit more, then you can't really go wrong with Adobe video products. This software is definitely more advanced than what Windows Movie Maker offers, but it will take some time to learn how to use it.

If your target market is a group you are hoping will duplicate your efforts, as with an internet network marketing video, for example, you should carefully consider the bells and whistles you use. If your audience thinks they would need a class in video production to create the kind of video you are showing them, then you will likely lose a significant percentage of them. Of course, this could also be a way to pre-qualify your viewers. It is just something you will want to be aware of.

Whichever editing software you decide to use, the most important thing to remember is that you want your viewer to be able to contact you for more information. Make this as easy as possible by adding your contact information directly to your videos. These can appear as titles or credits before, during or at the end of your video clip. Just be sure to use a font and color that make them clearly readable, and don't flash them too quickly on the screen. If you can't read it out loud before it disappears, it should be displayed longer.

When you are done editing your video you'll want to save it as a new file. A good general rule of thumb is to make the running time of the video less than eight minutes, and the file size less than 100 Mb. If you read this article six months from now, the file size allowed by sites could easily be larger than this, so just check with each site you plan to use to host your content.

Before you actually submit your videos, you'll want to be sure to add tags, or keywords, to them. These are even more important for video than written content for rankings, because the search engines can't scan the video the way they can for a document in order to evaluate the content.

Knowing Google, it's just a matter of time before their systems will be able to "watch" a video and know what it is about, but for now, they must rely on the tags you provide. This makes it more important than ever that you understand and make use of them properly.

Just as with written content, you'll want to consider your target market when creating your tags for your video. What kind of content will they be looking for, and what will they be typing in the search engines to find it?

Chances are, there are already many people looking on the internet for what you are offering. With the help of free tools like Good Keywords and Google Adwords, you can discover what people are typing most frequently, and the kind of competition that currently exists for those search terms.

Wordtracker is widely regarded as the premier keyword research tool. Right now they are offering a 7-day trial plus a couple of great keyword resources worth nearly $70, for free. It's a good time to check it out to compare its features to the other free resources I listed above.

A kind of tag that is unique to video is the thumbnail picture you choose to display from the video for browsing purposes. This can be very important, as many times viewers will decide to watch a video because something in the thumbnail attracts their attention.

I have seen some video producers use the thumbnail to deceive the viewer into thinking they are watching one type of content, and then deliver something completely unrelated in the rest of the video. If you are using videos for marketing, I advise against this tactic, because you'll be attracting the wrong people to view your material. It's ok for your thumbnail to be tantalizing and provocative, so long as it relates to what you are actually trying to market.

That being said, I AM trying to learn if there is a formula YouTube uses to determine where the thumbnail selections come from because, so far, every video I've made has produced a thumbnail selection list that makes me look like I'm either stoned, brain-damaged, a fugitive, or some combination of the three. Maybe next time I'll have Tila Tequila make a longer cameo in my video so her picture will come up as a thumbnail option.

To learn more about tagging your content properly, including videos, I recommend Renegade University. It has free step-by-step training, and the back office available to Professionals has an incredible wealth of information. You'll learn about proper use of tags, and so much more.

Now that you have added those special touches to your video and saved the finished product, it's time to get them seen. This means you have to submit them to what are known as video sharing sites. YouTube is the most famous, but the greater the success, the more likely it is to be copied. This is certainly true for the number of video sharing sites, which is growing constantly.

Many of the newer video cameras, such as the Flip Ultra, include software which will upload your video to sites such as YouTube with a simple click of the button. This is great for people wanting to share videos with family and friends, but if your intention is to use video for marketing purposes, you need to submit to more than one site.

A big advantage of video, at least for now, is that submitting the same content to multiple sites does not penalize you the way submitting the same article to multiple sites will, in terms of search engine rankings. Because of this, there are now websites and services designed to upload your video to multiple video sharing sites at the same time, which can save a lot of time and effort for you.

If you don't want to spend money on such a service, a good free alternative is TubeMogul, which will upload your video to as many as 15 sites. That number will surely grow as the site develops. The service Tubemogul offers is very impressive, especially since it is a free service. After a video has been uploaded, you can track its views across all the sites it has been submitted to. This will help you to refine your marketing efforts, as you see where the video is popular and where it might not be viewed as often.

Tubemogul also gives a brief description of each site and the general demographic of its users. Even though you can submit your video to all of the sites at once, some of them are specialty sites, focusing on a certain type of video. After looking over each sites description, I think it's safe to say that there are very few videos, if any, that would be considered appropriate across all of them. For example, one site is called StupidVideos, and another is Howcast, a how-to site. Not many videos would make sense for both of them.

If you are really serious about video marketing, and are producing a lot of videos, it might be time to invest in a video submission software package. One of the most popular seems to be Traffic Geyser. For less than $100 per month, you can submit up to 100 videos per month to over 30 video sharing sites.

Only you can decide when and if a jump to a paid service such as this is necessary. My advice would be to start out with Tubemogul, and if it seems you need a more robust service, upgrade to TrafficGeyser and give it a trial run. That way, you'll have a basis for comparision when evaluating whether Traffic Geyser is worth the cost.

I have alluded to the fact that Google currently doesn't really know what your video is about based on the video alone, but that is only partially true. They now have a Video Identification Tool, which can scan the video for copyrighted material, and alert the owners of the copyright.

If your clip contains copyrighted video or audio, the owners of those copyrights have three options at their disposal: Block it, Track it, or Monetize it.

I know this because my video above contained music from Adam Ant, and I was notified about 90 minutes after I uploaded it that it contained copyrighted material. Fortunately for me, they chose option three, and now have the ability to place ads next to my video.

Personally, I have no problem with that. I knew there was a chance the copyright holder would notice their music being played, but I love the song and rolled the dice that I would be allowed to use it. If it had been rejected, I simply would have re-mixed the video with a different song. It's worth it to me to give up some ad space to be able to use that song.

You'll have to decide what risks you are willing to take, but you should understand that if you use copyrighted material, you do run the risk of having your clip pulled, or worse. If you are using your video for any kind of direct sales, it's best just to purchase stock audio, video or photo packages that are royalty free. This means you pay once and retain the rights to use the clips freely without worrying about royalties.

iStockphoto allows you to either sell stock by uploading your own original content, or buy stock when you download someone else's stuff. If you are a great photographer, you could spend an afternoon taking great nature shots, then submit them to earn all kinds of credits toward audio or video stock clips.

To learn more about Renegade University click here.
For more info, or to schedule a free consultation go to www.LaneReiss.com
To e-mail Lane, write to Lane@LaneReiss.com