Setting up Your Own Videos

Why use Videos?

Videos are THE hot item right now, and regardless of your niche, you should be thinking of how you can cash in on this market. Regardless of what you sell, there is room for at least one good video to sell or give away as a promotion. You will be amazed at how your customers will respond to a video. You can offer a single video, or a series of videos that become a course or courses.

These videos are usually offered in multiple, short segments to keep your clients or potential interested in the topic. I have seen videos over an hour in length, but this takes a lot of experience to produce and you must give away a lot of information. Whether you use a short or long video, this type of advertising can be quite powerful and if done correctly, many of the participants will not even realize they are being subjected to a marketing campaign. I have used video courses a number of times. This article will discuss creating and distributing a video course for the purposes of advertising your business, or for selling through a membership site.

Create Your Video

The creation of a video should begin with a solid idea for a series of videos which pertain to your business and will be of interest to your potential customers. Video courses, if sufficiently rich in content, can frequently be sold for profit themselves, either individually, or through a membership site. If you are interested in using the video as a marketing tool you will most likely be offering the video free of charge in an effort to entice potential customers to purchase your other products or services. Sometimes the sole objective of the video is to get readers to surrender their email addresses for the entrepreneur’s email list.

What Topic Would I Use?

Determining the topic of your video is very important because it can dictate the success of your marketing effort. Consider an on-line retailer of health food products. This business owner may want to develop a series of videos on subjects such as proper nutrition, creating a weekly menu, introduction to new foods, proper food preparation, the value of certain health foods, etc. Each of these videos may contain a few segments which offer different perspectives on the subject. These videos are ideal for this business because they are on subjects which are likely to be of interest to the customers of the business.

Distribution of Your Videos

The distribution list for your videos should mostly include members of your target audience. This can be achieved by offering the video as a download on your site or somewhere on-line where only interested Internet users will be likely to find the videos. Another way to deliver the videos is by emailing a link to the videos to recipients who have specifically expressed an interest in receiving more information about your products and services by submitting their email address for this purpose.

Once you decide on a subject for your video, you will need to prepare an outline for your video. You could just gather a bunch of Private Label articles and create a script based on the content of these articles. You could even find PLR videos on your subjects and rebrand them. We will be allowing this on our new site. You must be careful with PLR videos though, as many do not allow you to give them away for free.

Professional Writer

If you cannot write a script yourself, seek out a qualified writer to create the content for your videos. Using one writer for the entire series will help to give your copy a more coherent and professional appearance. The writer can assist you by creating copy which is informative and useful to your readers but is also well written, clear, concise and easy to understand.

If your niche topic is highly specialized you might have to provide the writer with product information as well as research materials to ensure the content is informative and accurate. Additionally, you should review the content once it is completed to verify the accuracy and ensure it sounds like you. You can find writers on a number of “writers for hire” sites on the web.

Once you have the content, you can record your videos using a video camera or digital camera with a video option. If you are interested in doing fancy effects, you can purchase a blue screen cloth quite cheaply on eBay. Camtasia is a wonderful tool to use for assembling your video and publishing it as a Windows or Flash video.

Professional Production
If you do not feel comfortable producing your own videos, you can hire a professional to do it for you. It will not be cheap, but it is better than not having any videos at all. You could also buy PLR videos that allow you to rebrand them with your name and website, but if you are giving them away, make sure that it is permitted by the vendor of the videos.
Feedback

When distributing your videos, you would be wise to request feedback from the users at the conclusion of the video. This should be completely voluntary. You may wish to give a free gift to those that respond. The users that respond can provide you with useful feedback which will be extremely helpful. You can use it to improve your video, or in the launch of a similar video campaign in the future. We are planning to make a special offer to potential customers who will give us feedback on our plans for our video site. I'll let you know here when we make the offer.

P.S. Have you seen my new site Mr Idea's Ebookstore. As the name implies it is stocked with ebooks, scripts, websites and more.

Using Online Courses for Internet Marketing

Why Online Courses?

Online courses, or email courses are a very popular way for savvy Internet marketers to promote their products and services. Online courses or email courses essentially include short online presentations or emails which include insightful information on a particular niche subject and include a line or two advertising a related product. The better courses today are being offered as a series of videos.

These courses are usually offered in multiple, short segments to keep the students interested in the topic. This type of advertising can be quite powerful and many of the participants do not even realize they are being subjected to a marketing campaign. I have used them a number of times. This article will discuss creating and distributing an online or email course for the purposes of advertising your business.

Create Your Course

The creation of an online email course should begin with a solid idea for a series of educational articles which pertain to your business and will be of interest to your potential customers. Educational email courses, if sufficiently rich in content, can frequently be sold for profit themselves. If you are interested in using the course as a marketing tool you will most likely be offering the course free of charge in an effort to entice potential customers to purchase your other products or services. Sometimes the sole objective of the course is to get readers to surrender their email addresses for the entrepreneur’s email list.

Running Shoes

Determining the topic of your courses is very important because it can dictate the success of your marketing effort. Consider an online retailer of running shoes. This business owner may want to develop a series of email courses on subjects such as training for a marathon, preventing injuries, increasing speed and running for fun. Each of these courses may contain a few segments which offer different perspectives on the subject. These courses are ideal for this business because they are subjects which are likely to be of interest to the customers of the business.

Likewise a real estate agent may opt to offer email courses on subjects such as understanding mortgage options, finding a lender or house hunting. Again these are all subjects which are likely to be of interest to the real estate agent’s clients.

Distribution of Your Course

The distribution list for your online or email courses should mostly include members of your target audience. This can be achieved by offering the course as a download somewhere online where only interested Internet users will be likely to view the course. Another way to deliver the course is by emailing it to recipients who have specifically expressed an interest in receiving more information about your products and services by submitting their email address for this purpose.

Once you decide on a subject for your online or email course, you will need to prepare the course. You could just gather a bunch of Private Label articles and stuff them into an autoresponder, but this is not recommended.

Professional Writer

If you cannot write it yourself, seek out a qualified writer to create the content for your online or email course. Using one writer for the entire series will help to give your copy a more coherent and professional appearance. The writer can assist you by creating copy which is informative and useful to your readers but is also well written, clear, concise and easy to understand.

If your niche topic is highly specialized you might have to provide the writer with product information as well as research materials to ensure the content is informative and accurate. Additionally, you should review the content once it is completed to verify the accuracy and ensure it sounds like you. You can find writers on a number of “writers for hire” sites on the web.

Feedback

When distributing your email course or launching your online course, you would be wise to request feedback from the users at the conclusion of the course. This should be completely voluntary. You may wish to give a free gift to those that respond. The users that respond can provide you with useful feedback which will be extremely helpful. You can use it to improve your course, or in the launch of a similar marketing campaign in the future.

If you followed the Frank Kern “Mass Marketing” launch, you understand how valuable free content can be to your success.