How to Use Video to Cash In On the Rapidly Changing World Wide Web
By Jim Daniels
Fact: The Web is changing. In case you haven’t noticed, over the last couple years it has gotten much faster. As a result, the Internet experience is changing for millions of users. Today, I’d like to show you how to cash in on this important development…
Broadband high-speed access is finally reaching critical mass. More people now have high-speed access than those who are still stuck on slow dial-up. This means new technology and information delivery methods are finally becoming mainstream.
The rapid growth of high-speed Internet connections has given birth to one technology in particular that you need to be focused on: Video.
The businesses adopting video in this still-early stage are cashing in big-time. Even small mom and pop Web shops and affiliate marketers are seeing amazing results.
So exactly how do you cash in on this rapidly advancing technology?
As entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk has shown, all it takes is having a niche and a little creativity. You may have seen one of his wine videos. In just a few short years, they have helped him gain widespread recognition as the world’s “informal” wine expert. Gary’s videos are simple, yet effective. He sits on his couch, turns on his camera, and tastes wine. He then answers questions submitted via his Facebook application.
Perhaps you could become the next Gary Vaynerchuk in your niche. You have to admit, it sure would be a fun way to make a living. If you’d like to explore the possibilities, the following crash course on how to leverage video for profit will help you get started…
1. Use Video to Inform.
Video makes great content. More and more people are watching video online to learn new things.
For example, when visitors arrive at my new website for aspiring affiliate marketers, a video near the top of the page introduces them to the profit potential of affiliate marketing.
At another site, I invite visitors to watch a video featuring one of my clients. It shows them what it is really like to earn a living from the Internet, and provides some genuine insider advice on how to achieve this goal.
You no longer need expensive equipment to create videos and upload them to the Web. Any video camera from any electronics retailer will work just fine. If you have a video camera that you purchased within two or three years, its resolution will be good enough. Though, of course, any new camera will be far superior.
You can also use your computer to make “screen capture recordings.” That’s how I created the training videos for my ezWebBusinessBuilderprogram. I started by putting my lessons in PowerPoint format. I used a program called VoxProxy to create an animated narrator for them. Then I simply ran the PowerPoint presentation and recorded it using Camtasia (the best software for this). The result was a CD with a series of video lessons on how to build a Web business from scratch.
By the way, if the idea of creating your own videos doesn’t appeal to you, not a problem. There are lots of video-sharing sites where you can find informative videos that you can post at your site. Then all you have to do is paste the video’s “embed code” into your Web page. (I’ll give you a list of some video-sharing sites later in this article.)
2. Use Video to Grow Your Opt-In E-Mail List.
Developing an opt-in e-mail list is still one of the most powerful ways to expand a business online. It’s a process that you can set up once and then watch it grow.
The best way to use video to grow your subscriber list is with a “squeeze page”- a single Web page that has an informative video on it. After watching the video, your visitor can request more information about the subject - maybe in the form of a digital book or special report - through your autoresponder opt-in form.
Then, once the new subscriber has opted in to receive that information - as well as additional information they might be interested in - your autoresponder can (and should) follow up with relevant offers on a regular, pre-determined schedule. This makes sales for you literally while you sleep.
3. Use Video to “Pre-Sell.”
Whether you are selling your own products/services or you’re selling as an affiliate, there are several ways to use video to pre-sell.
For example, when I sell my software, I show my visitors a video review from one of my customers. I also show them a sample training video from the software itself. From the day I added those videos to my site, I saw an increase in sales.
A good way to get traffic to your “pre-selling videos” is to e-mail subscribers who’ve opted in at one of your squeeze page videos. Remember, these people have asked you to contact them when you have information they might be interested in.
One client of mine recently sold thousands of dollars’ worth of guitar lessons with a video about his emergency plumbing nightmare. It was hilarious… and it got people to buy. (You can find it at RockGuitarTechniques.com.)
No matter what you are selling, you can use video to increase sales. Make a video of your product or service being used. Ask one of your best customers to do a video testimonial. Search YouTube.com for existing customer reviews or demonstrations of the products or services you sell. You may be surprised to find something you can use right away.
4. Use Video to Generate Website Traffic.
There are many ways to get traffic using video. A simple way is to post videos about your product or service at the Web’s popular video-sharing sites. You simply create a free account… then upload the video. Make sure you put your website address in your video description, as well as in the video itself. That will help route traffic from the video to your site.
Here’s a list of the top video-sharing sites…
YouTube.com
Video.Google.com
Blip.tv
Revver.com
Jumpcut.com
After posting a video at one of these sites, don’t stop there. Continue sharing it at several social-networking (Web 2.0) sites. When done tactfully, this can create a nice flow of viral traffic that can actually be hard to slow down… even if you wanted to!
Top social-networking sites include…
Digg.com
Del.icio.us
Furl.com
Twango.com
Vsocial.com
The goal is to have your video create a buzz and be spread virally via these networks. Only the most entertaining (and even quirky) videos go viral, so try to think outside the box when creating yours for these sites.
I hope these ideas get you thinking about how you can use video to make money online - even if you’re brand-new to the Web.
In fact, I spoke with someone today who’s been using the video marketing strategy outlined above for just a couple months… and he’s already made $6,000. And he started from scratch by promoting affiliate products. So, yes, you can do it too!
[Ed. Note: Jim Daniels has been helping people earn their living online since 1996.
Learn how to profit from the video revolution here. Use coupon code “april2008″ and save $20 per month. Be sure to check out Jim’s site for examples of how you can use video in your Internet business. And learn how to set up an autoresponder here.
This article appears courtesy of Early To Rise, the Internet’s most popular health, wealth, and success e-zine. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.earlytorise.com.]
The Worst Self-Marketing Strategy Ever Devised… and Why It Fails So Spectacularly
By Bob Bly
Many years ago, I taught a class at the Learning Annex in New York City on how to make a six-figure income as a freelancer. One student, JR, wanted to break into writing TV commercials for Madison Avenue, and he had devised what was (according to him) a brilliant self-marketing strategy for getting hired.
In actuality, it was the second-worst self-marketing idea I’d ever heard in my life.
JR told the class that he had written some “brilliant” TV commercials.
The Super Bowl was only a few weeks away at the time. JR’s strategy was to show up at the offices of Madison Avenue’s biggest ad agency and show the copy for his commercials to the creative director.
The creative director, he reasoned, was under tremendous pressure to produce great Super Bowl commercials for the agency’s clients. By bringing those great commercials with him, JR would save the day - and be hired at an enormous salary.
This was a terrible idea for all the obvious reasons:
All the commercials for the Super Bowl had been written and shot months earlier.
The creative director had never heard of JR. She didn’t know who JR was or whether he had any qualifications or talent. So the chances of her agreeing to see him were miniscule to none.
JR had no idea which of the agency’s clients were going to be running Super Bowl spots. Even if he did know, he hadn’t been briefed on the product positioning or the campaign strategy… so how could he possibly write commercials that achieved the clients’ marketing objectives?
I gently told JR - and the rest of the class - that doing work on spec for a client who hasn’t asked you to do so is an absolute waste of time. However, stupid as it is, there is a self-marketing strategy that’s even worse: giving an unsolicited critique of something a potential client has done - a new product design, an ad campaign, a website - in the hopes of being hired to fix it.
Why is giving an unsolicited critique even worse than doing unsolicited work on spec? Well, think about it.
You send a letter to a business telling them their website stinks… or their customer service people are idiots… or their product is lousy. There’s a good chance that the recipient of your letter is the person responsible for approving that website, training the customer service staff, or designing the product.
So right away, you have begun the relationship by insulting them - saying, in effect, “You don’t know what you are doing.”
They probably don’t agree that they’ve done a bad job… or else they wouldn’t have produced the site, training, or product in the first place. You come along and give a contrary opinion - highly critical and negative. They think, “Who the heck are YOU, bub? Why should I listen to what YOU say?”
As they see it, your opinion is self-serving: You are a vendor, so your objective in reaching out to them is to get them to hire you. Worse, here you are, spending your time reviewing websites, calling companies that aren’t your clients, and telling them how bad their sites are - without being paid to do so.
This causes them to think that if you were really any good at what you do, you’d be swamped with projects - and not cold calling strangers trying to rustle up work.
I’ve frequently been on the receiving end of this “You’re doing it all wrong and I can help you fix it” strategy - especially from Web designers. And speaking as a prospect, I can tell you it not only doesn’t work with me, it’s also annoying and offensive.
Just last week, I got yet another such call from a Web designer.
“I was looking at your site and it really is poorly designed,” TN, the Web designer, told me. “I would love to help you improve its performance.”
“Do you know my marketing objective for my website?” I asked TN.
“Uh, no,” he admitted.
“Well, TN,” I said. “If you don’t know what I want the site to do for my business… and you don’t know its current performance metrics… how can you possibly know that you can improve it?”
I let him stutter and stammer for a few seconds, before politely ending the call.
My friend RA, who once ran a mail-order business selling information products for gamblers, was also a victim of the “You’re doing it all wrong and I can help you fix it” gambit.
SH, a newbie freelance copywriter, wrote RA an unsolicited two-page critique of his latest direct-marketing package. SH closed his letter by suggesting to RA that his marketing results would be greatly improved by letting a “professional copywriter” (like SA) work his magic on it.
RA and I both had a good laugh over this… because RA is universally acknowledged (except by SH, who didn’t recognize his name) as one of today’s top direct-response copywriters.
Irritated, RA sent SH a testy letter pointing out this fact… and noting that the package SH thought was so terrible was, in fact, a blockbuster control. Which made SH look stupid and silly.
Conclusion: Doing a critique OR work on spec for a potential client who has not asked for it seems, on the surface, a sensible approach to marketing your professional or technical services. But it is not.
My advice:
- Never give unsolicited advice or criticism.
- Don’t offer solutions until you really know what the problem is - and the only way you can really understand the problem is for the potential client to tell you.
- If you want to show the potential client how smart you are, stop pontificating. Instead, ask intelligent questions and listen to the answers.
[Ed Note: Bob Bly is a freelance copywriter, the author of more than 70 books, and co-creator of ETR’s Direct Marketing Masters Edition program. Sign up for Bob’s free monthly e-zine, The Direct Response Letter, and get more than $100 in free bonuses.
This article appears courtesy of Early To Rise, the Internet’s most popular health, wealth, and success e-zine. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.earlytorise.com.]
The 25-50-25 Formula for Business Success
By Bob Bly
“I was quite eager to learn about marketing, and began reading everything associated with it,” one of my subscribers, KM, told me in a recent e-mail. “However, with AWAI’s Golden Thread e-zine, ETR, and, of course your insightful newsletter, I find myself reading more than applying. How do I sift through the worthy (but time-consuming) information that would benefit my business? Sometimes I force myself to read, fearful I may overlook some exceptional nugget. Help! Where do I stop?”
I hear similar stories all the time…
You are interested in some aspect of marketing - whether it is copywriting, Internet marketing, whatever. But you are overwhelmed by all the information being offered on the subject. (After all, we live in the Information Age.)
So you go “information crazy”… buying every course, attending every conference, reading every e-book, listening to every recording, and dialing into every teleseminar you can find.
Before you know it, a month… six months… or a year has gone by - and you are no closer to your business or career goal. That’s because you’ve spent all your time reading, studying, and learning the thing you are interested in… rather than actually DOING it.
Sadly, you are suffering from a syndrome I call “analysis paralysis.”
All the information you are taking in has overloaded your circuits. You can’t process it all, sort through it, and figure out what to do first. So, instead, you do nothing. You take no action - other than to order yet another course or report to read.
You have become a marketing-information junkie - avoiding the harsh realities of the business world by retreating to your favorite comfy chair with yet another neat marketing book.
You spend all your time reading about starting a business. So there is no time left to actually start or run a business. You are an “armchair entrepreneur” - more enamored with the idea of entrepreneurship than the actuality.
Fortunately there is an easy solution: the 25-50-25 rule. It provides a simple guideline to help you get unstuck.
The rule says there are only three ways to learn a process (e.g., how to start an Internet business) or a skill (e.g., copywriting): studying, observing, and doing. The 25-50-25 rule says that to master a skill or process, and put what you learn into practical action, you must divide your time as follows:
* No more than 25 percent of your time studying - i.e., reading books, going to bootcamps, attending workshops, listening to recordings in your car.
* No more than 25 percent of your time observing - watching what successful people in your field are already doing. If, for example, you want to become a direct-mail copywriter, this means reading and analyzing the direct mail you get in your mailbox.
* At least 50 percent of your time actually DOING the thing you are studying and observing. For example, if you want to sell information products on the Internet, you are spending 50 percent of your time creating your first product… designing your website… or building your list.
The idea is similar to Michael Masterson’s Ready, Fire, Aim approach. He says that you should take action right away, and then learn as you go.
Acquiring business knowledge is a worthwhile activity. But without action, that knowledge is worthless to you.
KM’s worry that, by not reading everything, he may miss a “nugget” of information is accurate: You will never know everything there is to know in your field, or even most of it.
But so what?
You don’t have to know everything - or even most of what there is to know - to succeed in most endeavors.
For example, there are hundreds of strategies for making money on the Internet. But you can make a six-figure annual income online using only a few of them, even if you never bother to learn the others.
In freelance copywriting, there are many top writers who write only one type of promotion. Or work in one narrow niche. And they make a fortune doing so.
When we were kids, our parents and teachers told us to study, study, study. But I see many people today much more enamored with studying and reading about marketing and entrepreneurship than actually doing.
Well, I understand that. Reading about marketing is fascinating - and fun. But the money is in the doing, not the reading.
Follow the 25-50-25 rule, and you’ll be doing - and making money - at least half the time.
[Ed Note: Freelance copywriter Bob Bly is the creator of The Direct Response Letter, the author of more than 70 books, and co-creator of ETR’s Direct Marketing Masters Edition program.
Learn specific strategies for how to take action on all your business and personal goals with ETR’s Total Success Achievement program. It’s not too late to sign up and learn how to make your longest-held dreams come true.
This article appears courtesy of Early To Rise, the Internet’s most popular health, wealth, and success e-zine. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.earlytorise.com.]
