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You’ve heard it countless times before. Videos can help you sell - and if a picture is worth a thousand words surely a video is the magic answer you’ve been looking for?

Well - yes and no. Since the advent of fast internet connections video is almost ubiquitous on the web, largely fuelled by YouTube and the like. Today you can watch video clips that are entertaining, informative, and educational. Some videos have hit millions of views, but largely these are those that have taken on a life of their own. Videos that are part of a meme that is sweeping the net, or even creating one.

But in the internet marketing world videos are mostly used to build up a buzz or to convey an emotional response. Those videos of sunny beaches and fast sport cars and big houses you see on certain business opportunity sites… they are there to sell you a dream or a perceived lifestyle.

Sometimes video can be informative. A screen capture video that is simply a recording of your desktop is ideal for tutorials, reviews, or product and site tours. And these are the easiest to create. But, yet again, they have almost reached saturation level. To create a screen capture video just grab yourself a copy of the now open source Camstudio (an older version of the retail Camtasia) - or better yet, the Internet Marketer’s version. Hit record, and start your demonstration

Another kind of video will feature a live recording. You can accomplish this easily with a webcam or digital camera or even a higher-end mobile phone. You don’t need to spend on quality video equipment. If you utilise a green-screen backdrop, you can even use fancy special effects but that is probably a step too far for the average marketer (though not impossible). The main problem here is that many people are simply not comfortable presenting in this manner.

One important point: Is a video strictly necessary? I for one find it easier to read and absorb information as text, and much quicker. A page or two of text can be read more quickly than watching a ten minute video. WIth text, you can easily scroll back and forth to find what you need, and you don’t even need to take notes as it’s already there before you.

The best kind of video, in my opinion, are those that compliment the main website or product. Screen capture videos are fine, but can be dry. Something with a quick, powerful message that gets the information across quickly is better. And it’s easy to make these too!

Here’s what you’ll need:

A free copy of Google Picasa

And that’s it! Believe it or not, Picasa has the ability to combine images, add transitions, add text and captions, add an audio track, and save the whole lot out as a video file. It will even upload it to YouTube for you.

Simply prepare your “slides” before hand using images, screenshots, or even text pages. You can use a simple free image editor such as paint.net to do this. If you want music, grab your music file or spoken track, and then let Picasa work it’s magic.

Technorati Tags: camstudio, camtasia, internet marketing, internet video, picasa, Video Marketing

I haven’t been looking after this blog lately - the last post was over a month ago, but this is just a quick note to let you know that I *am* still around and I’ve just taken a short hiatus.

Normal service will resume

Since this Blog is more or less about making money, I should make some comment on the current economic crisis, and how it can effect you. I’m by no means an expert on this, but from my own research from those who know better I have made a few conclusions. This is mainly advice on the UK market - but the “credit crunch” and the problems it is bringing are global.

Please use the comments on this post if you have advice.

1. If you hold investments, perhaps in shares and funds, you should remember these are long term investments. Don’t panic: for one, these funds are now buying shares at a lower price. The market always moves in cycles and there are not many fund managers who are making a profit in these times.

If you have your money in one of the collapsed banks I sympathise. I don’t know the US market, but in the UK your investments are guaranteed up to £35,000 per bank by the government. If you have more than this it’s advised you split them between a few institutions.

2. Your mortgage: House prices are in general falling. It depends when you bought yours and how much you paid as to how much it concerns you - prices were rising rapidly until relatively recently.. If you are looking to buy a home, perhaps it’s worth waiting longer as the downturn is expected to last a little longer. If you are looking to sell, be aware prices are unlikely to rise for at least 2 years or so according to the experts. And, of course, there are far fewer buyers who can arrange mortgages!

In the long term, house prices are always a reflection of supply vs demand, and land is a finite resource.

3. Spending power: Since this blog covers Internet Marketing, which mainly concerns selling, it’s worth noting that peoples spending power has taken a blow. This could mean a reduced income for you as people cut back, even if your primary income stream is from running advertising. However, it also means there are a lot of people out there who are looking to start earning a second income of their own… And who knows, now be the time to launch that new Surviving The Credit Crunch book

So what can we read from this?

A. Don’t Panic. Things will get better, one day, but it makes sense to ensure your savings are in the safest place. Basically this downturn won’t last. Those who claim this is the end of capitalism as we know it and the death of big banking are jumping the gun.

B. Look for opportunities! Even in a market thats in a downturn, opportunities exist. One mans crisis is anothers chance to capitalise. For example, share prices are lower so those willing to take a risk can source some real bargains, and certain credit and finance related products are in demand.

Technorati Tags: credit crunch, economics, economy

I was going to add this to the roundup you’ll see in the next post, but I thought it deserved some more explanation.

This is a massive collection of over 100 products with resale rights, all with salespages, so in effect it’s an instant repository you can use to build your own resale store, create bundles, create giveaways, create One Time Offers - or whatever you want.

The reason I like it is because instead of hitting the web to find products you can offer you’ve got it all here in one package! It’s only $27, but imagine how many packs and offers you can extract from it.

Want to create a bundle for Giveaways? Something to offer as a signup bribe for your list building efforts? Complimentary products you can use as upsells? Just grab this gigantic package

Big Birthday Blowout

Technorati Tags: internet marketing, marketing products, master resale rights, resale rights

Here’s a quick roundup of the latest freebies, dimesales and bargain products I’ve come across:

1. Social Marketing Giveaway

This is a JV Giveaway focusing on Social Marketing related products. You’ll find a lot of products you can download, if you sign up to contributors lists. Be sure to check our Freebies Blog for more Giveaways and a free guide to using them.

2. Secrets Of Elite Marketers

Free Membership Site packed with interviews and profiles of top marketers. The idea is, see how they achieved success and take tips or emulate their tactics yourself.

3. The “Murray Secret”

This one is hard to classify, but basically it’s a combined free report, list builder, and giveaway. Signup and download contributors products but again - ensure you read our guide to giveaways so you don’t get flooded with e-mail…

4. Review Press

I like the possibilities here - this lets you turn Wordpress into a product review site! If you’ve read “The Conduit Method” you’ll understand how lucrative and traffic attracting a review site can be This is not free, but it’s only $12 - and you can get 100% Commissions.

5. Four Resale Rights

I’ve mentioned this before when I talked about Vouchers, because it includes “Voucher Machine”, but for your $9.97 you’ll also get Rolodex Poster, Copywriting Automator, and Affiliate Promo Machine. And you’ll get a salespage to sell all 4 yourself - as each comes with Master Resale Rights. A nice package to offer to your own customers - and of course some truly useful products to utilise yourself.

Technorati Tags: Freebies, giveaways, internet marketing, interviews, jv giveaways

Screencasts - a video of your actual desktop, along with commentary - are very popular in marketing circles: they are used to create tutorials, reviews, and all kinds of recording.

ScreenCast-O-Matic is a free tool that allows you to do all this from your browser.

It might not be the best solution for your use, because the screencasts are hosted at the site, but for a quick review or a quick tutorial there’s nothing simpler.

As a kind-of bonus, there’s a lot of screencasts already hosted there. So search for Hosting, or Blogging, or other search terms and you’ll find plenty of tutorials to help.

If you want to make screencasts to host at your own site or even resell as part of a package you’d be better off with the free, and opensource Camstudio, or the internet marketing variant which adds features such as redirect to url here: Camstudio Internet Marketers - for $9

Technorati Tags: camstudio, internet marketing, internet marketing video, screencasts

I’ve updated the Traffic Tips page at this site, so it’s in the new design and re-written. This is basically my master sheet of traffic generation methods. It’s every method that works, all on one page.

So if I get asked “How Do I Promote My Site” again, I can just point that person right there.

Seriously, there are a lot of myths and misconceptions about driving traffic to your site. Although there are a myriad of more specific techniques, such as those that work for one specific service, or those that work for one obscure niche everything really falls into one of the categories here:

Traffic Tips

I’ve kept that page as clean and informative as possible and I’ll update as the need arises, so if you want to point your visitors somewhere for traffic tips, consider mine (hint).

I was going to make that into a blog post, but that would bring all of the rest of the blog (sidebars, etc) with it. And I really wanted it to be clean and quick loading for those that need it.

Technorati Tags: advertising, hits, internet marketing, marketing, promotion, seo, traffic tips

I’ve just created and uploaded a major new package of Marketing Products, which you can have for free!

This is one of the best compilation packages I’ve created to date - you can download it at the link below.

There are TEN items in total, ranging from eBooks to Software that will help you sell and promote your products and sites online. Individually, these also have rights included so you can use them in your packs, sales, membership sites and offers if you so wish.

You’ll get:

Real World Traffic Strategies
Contact Automator
Unleash The Book Within
The 17 Method
PPC Affiliate Marketing
The Newbie Toolkit

…and much more!

Free Internet Marketing Products

Technorati Tags: free ebooks, free software, internet marketing, marketing downloads, marketing freebies