The Secret Pays (3)

Video Questions about Cameras, Lighting and Sets Answered

The questions about online video keep coming. A client sent me these questions and I figure many people can benefit from my response: 1. What camera are you now recommending – brand name and model? I answered this question about buying camcorders a couple days ago. My favorite continues to be the Flip HD. There are now so many variations that you really just have to pick the one that appeals to you most. My general recommendation is to buy the most you can afford. And I suggest going with HD (high definition) since so many of the video distribution sites are moving in that direction. 2. Where is it best to buy this video camera? I buy just about everything on Amazon. But shop around. You can find deals everywhere so I don't have a "best" recommendation. 3. Should I buy some lighting equipment? Hmmm. Lighting is not my expertise. Good lighting in video is important and it also depends on how you intend to use the videos. You may be able to get away with the lighting you have. Here's a video about lighting videos that may be helpful (thanks to an article by Mike Stelzner where I first saw the link!) 4. If I do a series of videos to the same audience, should I utilize the same setting and background for each video or mix it up? That depends. What kind of message and/or image do you want to project to your audience? Are you producing tips or something more akin to a regular "show"? Is your audience conservative or hip? What do you think they would want? (Hint: do a survey!) Gary Vaynerchuck's insanely successful Wine Library TV may be a good model. Gary shoots a show nearly every day and many are shot at the same location, but not all. Essentially, there are no rules. You need to figure out what you want to convey and then the best way to do that. Do you have any recommendations? How would you approach doing a video series? Online Video Made Easy - a step by step program to get started with online video is currently on sale. Get a 25% ($50) discount with code OVDEC. Related Post:How to Reach 97 Million Americans - Lou Bortone's Video Tip

Business Growth and Development Doesn't Take a Holiday

What's on tap in December and January: The end of the year doesn't seem to be quieting down. Lots of great business development opportunities in the coming weeks. Following are a few events and specials that are time sensitive… Online Visibility Secrets 26 Week Action Plan to Boost Your Online Visibility so You Can Get More Traffic, Leads, Clients and Opportunities for Your Business!Exclusive teleseminar for members of the program. December 16, 5 pm ET Join OVS by December 16 and get the private, members-only teleseminar and Q&A session: OnlineVisibilitySecrets.com Online Video Made Easy On sale through December 24 http://onlinevideomadeeasy.com Discount code OVDEC to save $50 (25%) Business Blogging Master Class Atlanta, GA, January 28, 2010 Details here: http://workwithdenise.com Limited to 8 people (this event has not been formally announced yet so if you're interested, jump on it since it's limited to a few people) Terri Levine's "Secrets of Entrepreneurial Bootstrapping"Los Angeles, January 16-17, 2010 Half price ticket through December 31 - Only $149 for 2 days of training with my business coach -- an extraordinary serial entrepreneur who has built and sold many 7-figure businesses. You don't want to miss this event. I'll be there and would love to meet you in person. Free Gift for You!5 Critical Tactics for Business Blog Success 64 minute audio program: Liz Lynch interviews Denise Wakeman for her private members group. I have numerous other events and speaking engagements in the next couple months and I'll keep you apprised by blogs, twitter and Facebook. I'd love to connect with you somewhere… online or offine!

What camcorder should I use for videos to put on my blog?

Recently I answered a question on LinkedIn about what kind of camcorder to use to shoot videos for a blog. Thought you might appreciate the answer as well. By the way, the Answers feature on LinkedIn is a great way to 1) demonstrate your expertise and 2) boost your visibility! Back to my answer. When I got clarity from the person asking, it turns out they planning to shoot fitness training videos. I recommend the Flip and/or a simple webcam. But then it depends. What is the purpose of the videos and what do you want to achieve with the videos? The internal software on the Flip provides simple editing which is often enough. You can also create movies from multiple video clips and you can upload directly to YouTube (and now Facebook with recent software upgrade). You can also create channels and send videos to specific people. I use this to do video coaching and send video messages to clients. I hear the Zi8 from Kodak is great though I haven't used it yet. One of the benefits over the Flip is that you can add an external mic. For simple talking head and interviews, The Flip will do the trick. Get the HD Flip and then you'll get high def quality pictures. I use a lot of videos on my blog and use the HD Flip. You can see a post here that also explains how I do video podcasts and distribute video on the web to drive more traffic. You can see all the various Flip cameras here. You can learn more about The Flip and the software on their site. I really like the share feature for sending private video emails to clients. It's simple: Click on video, click on Share, type in email address and your message, click send.

Social Media Survey - We need your input about content and syndication

After the success of the Future of Social Media webinar Dr. Rachna Jain and I held this past October, we realized many people still had questions about using social media effectively to build influence, credibility, and visibility. The two areas participants asked about most frequently were content creation and syndication. People seem to be wondering what kind of content, and how much content to produce, and then, also, how to distribute their content most efficiently across the social media platforms. Along with this, people had questions about growing their Facebook fan page, using remote blogging sites like Posterous, and how to set up their own content syndication streams. To better define what you'd really like to know, would you please take five minutes to complete the following survey? (It's just 10 questions, and easy to answer.) Click here to take the short survey. At the end of the survey, you'll be given the opportunity to get the results of the survey, as well be notified about our next program once it's available. If you're on this early notification list, you'll get special treatment. We won't slam you with offers for anything else; we promise. Again, the survey is here. Thanks in advance, Rachna and I truly appreciate your input.

Tweet Cloud - Do you know what you REALLY tweet about?

Are you ever curious to know what exactly you're tweeting about? Sometimes it's fun to check out the silly applications that are constantly being developed for twitter. When I saw a link for tweet cloud, I was curious. Tweet cloud analyzes the text in your tweets for up to one year and renders a visual cloud of the words you use most...with the most being in the biggest fonts. I realized this can be instructive too. My top 3 words are: blog, tips and video (though it seem like the word "online" is bigger than video). That sounds about right. I like to stay fairly focused on twitter and do tweet a lot of blogging tips. I also get a lot of excellent feedback from people who appreciate the tips so I'm glad I'm on track. Here's my cloud: The one slightly annoying this about tweet cloud is that they automatically send a tweet to your twitter stream without your permission. This could be construed as spam by some. I'd prefer the option to tweet or not to tweet. Nonetheless, it's a fun way to visually see what you're tweeting about the most. Let's connect on twitter!