In the previous lesson, we talked about how to obtain and add graphics to your website.
Today we’re going to put your website into motion by adding video to it.
(Watch this video…)
Main points:
1) An embeddable video from a 3rd party source.
– Easiest way to put video on your website.
– Hundreds of sources, including niche sites with videos for syndication
– Free video hosts like Youtube, Vimeo, Veoh, blip.tv, Revver, Tangle, Flickr, Facebook, etc.
-See video for demo of embedding a Youtube video on a WordPress blog.
2) Your own “live action” video.
– Most complicated method… you have to shoot it, transfer it, edit it, encode it, etc.
– Can be very expensive (ex. $4,000 HD camera, $1300 Final Cut Studio, $700 Adobe Flash, etc)
– Can be done very cheaply. Try the Flip Video camera ($50 – $200)
-Two ways to embed it:
a) Upload it to a video site like Youtube, and then embed it on your website.
Easy to do, but free video hosts have some downfalls including…
– Looks less professional
– Displays ads (overlay on video, or at the beginning/end)
– Links to the video host
b) Convert it to flash yourself, and then embed it on your website
– Free tool: FLV Producer Lite
– Free flash player included in the above tool, or you could try JW FLV Player
If you’re doing a lot of heavy video streaming (1000’s of viewers), I recommend upgrading to a dedicated server or else try Amazon S3 to host your video files.
3) Your own screen capture video.
– Great for teaching
– Effective for selling
– I use Camtasia Studio from Techsmith (Approx. $300)
– For Camtasia tutorials see: http://www.techsmith.com/learn/camtasia/default.asp
– (See video for walkthrough of my recommended Camtasia settings)
– Cool tool from Techsmith to make casual screen capture videos on the fly: http://www.jingproject.com
– Free screen capture software: http://www.CamStudio.org
– Better than the free version: http://www.CamStudioPro.org (only $29)
Recommended resource:
Click here for more information…
(A four part video series teaching exactly how to create your own screen capture videos for free.)
Action steps:
1) Think about how you can incorporate video into your online business.
Ideas: Blog content, teaching series, intro video, video sales letter, explain checkout process, give your guarantee, explain email opt-in process, testimonials, squeeze page video, exit pop video, etc.
2) Add a video to your website!
In the next lesson we’ll be looking at how to put audio onto your website.
As always, you are welcome to post your questions and comments below.
Have a great day!
Video is truly INVALUABLE right now! Great lesson, Eric!
Alex
Thanks Eric…I’d been needing some training on video creation for sometime now. I purchased a micrphone and flip camera a few months back but still haven’t put it all together yet.This will diffently help 🙂
I had no ideal there was a Pro Version of Cam Studio by Dave Guindon for 29.95. His stuff is always helpful and a great price if you can’t afford Camtasia at the moment(like me).
Hint…close out the website and a pop up box will appear to offer you Camtasia Pro for $19.95…even better!
🙂
Turn any articles into live talking videos in one click!
http://budurl.com/TalkingArticles
Thanks Alex 🙂
Cool I’m glad to hear it!
GREAT GREAT GREAT!
Thanks Eric…excellent as always!
Matt
http://www.MyDietType.com
Hey Eric,
I’ve been procrastinating on the video thing. I’m just not comfortable about having my mug online. I like the screen capture idea and will take a look at Jing and the Cam Studio option. Just need to invest in a mike – or steal one from my kids.
I’ve actually been wanting to do a video on Push Button Marketer to show people what a great program it is.
As for posting videos on blogs I’ve come across Video Poster that looks kind of easy to use. What do you think? http://bit.ly/p72oG
Cool. Don’t be afraid to get a cheap microphone. It’ll probably do the job unless you’re creating a high end product.
The tool looks interesting. If you try it, let us know how it works for you.
A very informative video lesson.
I have often wanted to put videos into my blogs and websites but tend to keep it aside just because of the amount of work involved in it/ IN comparison to this, I could write a couple of articles in that same time.
But this video was informative and gave me an insight into how I can get a video created easily.
Hi Luca,
I beleive you can find a very good mic for as low as $20 or $30 dollars…I like the small ones that clip onto your shirt. I made the mistake of buying an expensive microphone due to someones recommendation. Even though it’s a great mic it was more than I needed to spend and diffently more of a mic than I really needed ;)Live & Learn
Gary
Hi Eric,
Good post and very explanatory how-to video. I’ve been working just today to get some video streaming from one of my sites, and it took a long time to understand the details. Like anything else, putting video on a website is difficult until you know how, then it’s a snap — right?
Thanks again Eric.
Sweet Eric,, nice content,like a month ago I’d purchased a Flip video camera, it’s really worth the investment. Like Luca was saying, You should make a screen capture video tutorial about the Push Button Marketer software, just to show people how powerful this software is,,, i need a little crash course myself on that software that i’d purchased from you a while back, eventhough i know the basics.
glad to have received your email about this post today, as i have just recently been thinking about video, this will surely help. keep up the good work
Hi Eric
As usual a great teaching video. I have lost count of how many people I refer to your site . I even won a top answer on yahoo answers. You have made things clearer. I never appreciated about FLV formats….which explains a lot. Just got a bit lost with the iframe part…might need to go over that again I am working with local businesses now helping them use the internet for lead generation so instructionial free video on the blog I have just set up will be really useful.Its great added value as well.
Giod bless and thanks again Eric
Best Wishes
Denise in the UK
thanks eric. you are generous in giving and i enjoyed your teachings on videos. they rocks. ken
I have yet to make and post a screen capture video, but I have created two videos about permanent unconditional freedom from unwanted conditions that I uploaded on youtube and then embedded on my site. It was a lot of fun when I made these, but it took me quite a while; now I just need to make more videos. Thanks for the info to make the process simpler.
I just found a way to embed youtube videos on my blog automatically (http://blogprofitz.newbacklinks.com). This is by far the quickest and simplest way I found.
Did you ever splittest a salesletter with and without video? Would be interesting, how many visitors, viewers and sales more or less you get.
How many potential buyers out there have ancient, slow computers or are not able to view videos for any reasons, or have no broadband and flatrate? Are there any statistics available?
On one of my German salespages (see up there) I embedded a video in October 2008 and its conversion is lousy compared to my others. Now why? Lousy video, lousy salescopy, lousy product, or what, or all together, or do visitors just click away when they see a black hole on screen and their downloadcounter groans?
Dan from Germany
This lesson was absolutely brilliant.There is no question that video would give a huge advantage to my website. This lesson has given me a push in he right direction.
Thanks again Eric
Hi Eric, you provide more free tips on how to create video as I don’t cam studio offers a pay version anyway thanks for your tips
Proson
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then try this JV giveaway now:
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Thanks Gary.
I’ll do that soon and have fun with it before actually putting it on line
I’ll let you know how it goes with the video review (scary) and the Video Posting software.
Ironic that I should get this post today–just uploaded a video last night for my gift site. Made slide show in Movie Maker, added music and loaded in to Revver. You made a good point about the ads on 3rd party server videos. Why would we want to show our competitor on sales pages? But I do like Revver’s ad revenue program for other purpose pages.
Thanks for the tips!
Right. It’s easy once you’ve done it a few times.
Good idea, I’ll try to work in a tutorial for PBM somewhere.
Thank you much for the referrals 🙂
The IFrame is optional. I should have mentioned, I also add an additional HTML page to the folder containing the camtasia files before I upload them. The additional HTML page simply contains an image embedded (like this one: http://www.ericstips.com/LESSONS/images/lesson41.png ), and the image is hyperlinked to the actual video page. That way when the image is clicked, it opens the video page within the IFrame, and the video auto-plays (since that’s what I specified when I exported it from Camtasia).
The reason I do this is because it allows my website to load faster. Instead of loading a flash video, it is only loading the “click here to play” image.
I find that this is particularly helpful if I have multiple videos on a page. Otherwise some browsers will choke while trying to load all the videos at once.
Excellent training, as always. Thanks! The helping hand is always welcome. I just bought a FLIP, but I also just tried my first free 30 sec. Animoto videos… trying it out and now I think I’ll go for the paid (low cost) version to do longer vids.
I really like Animoto’s animation effects. For a non-techie, this is super simple – just browse images on your hard drive and Animoto uploads them and creates the video, with all its effects. Upload your own music (haven’t learned how yet) or use clips on their site (I did).
I use Snag-It for screen capture and editing the screens (one time cost – I think $47), and so I used Snag-It to overlay a title/link on one of the videos. No other paint or graphics program required. That is NOT required for the videos, and Animoto will let you write a title (I think I did on one video). It’s just that I tried SnagIt to use a photo as the lead page on the Beach Wedding Ideas video (with a title I typed) and again at the end of the video – instead of watermarking the whole thing (which I haven’t learned yet, either). Really easy.
This is a fun exercise for a non-techie, as I know I MUST use video – not just for my site visitors and more hang time on the page, but to get more backlinks from high-ranking video sites to my landing page.
Here are the two quick Animoto videos to show how easy it is for a first-timer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NqRE3WrZqw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEMiK_u3zNw
Hope this helps someone.
Yes I have split tested it. Generally videos help sales letters, but not always… which is why you need to split test 😉 (I’ll be covering split testing later in the lessons)
For a video on a sales letter to be effective, it needs to be a decent video. The placement of a video is a big variable too. Sometimes its best to put it at the top of a sales page because it causes visitors to initially stay on your site longer (and the longer they stay, the more likely they will buy). But other times, it’s better to put it a ways down into the sales letter, so that the visitor is engaged in the sales copy.
In some cases, I’ve found a video ONLY, with no sales copy, outperformed a written sales letter.
In other cases, I’ve found that removing a video from a written sales letter helped improve conversions, because it was more conducive of drawing people down into the sales copy (especially if you have VERY good sales copy).
Part of this depends on your niche too. For example, the BUYERS in my niche (Internet marketing) are most likely able to stream video. The ones who can’t afford high speed internet are probably not buyers anyway. So a lot of Internet marketers don’t worry about accomodating people on slow connections, because those people are probably not the target market.
Yes revenue sharing programs like Revver can be a nice extra income stream, especially if you have a lot of traffic.
I wasn’t familiar with Animoto… it looks pretty cool, thanks for sharing 🙂
Thanks so much Margaret…Animoto looks great…and it’s Free!! 🙂
Eric I enjoy your lessons even though I am no longer into affiliate marketing as I have lost a lot of confidence in a lot of the products that are being pushed by everyone and their relatives these days. I guess it is because of information overload syndrome.
I have a very simple two step process that teaches people with minimal computer skills that actually works.
I am planning to do some vidblogs that explains the step by step process I use.
I Just wanted to say thanks for the info Eric keep up the great work you are the only one I know of that actually helps people to learn our business and this is business lest people forget.
I am looking forward to the next lesson.
Just got back from another trip ( not as exotic as your trips) and am catching up. Thanks again for the great presentation. You do have a natural teaching style. I’m plugging along with Camtasia 3 and am about to do some upgrading. Camstudio’s limitations regarding sound integration a frustrating ( maybe your buddy fixed that). Also, I was wondering if the combination of flash and iFrames was going to have problems with security filters. Sorry to sound cryptic, 1000 emails down and another 1000 to go. But you are always at the top of my list!
Colin
Eric, I have been following your tutorials only recently. Have a lot to catch up on. Thanks for the no hype approach.
I’ll follow your instructions and start with videos on my site too! As for bandwidth, coming from a country where broadband (and bandwidth) is still a “luxury”, I often close pages with video too.
Looking forward to next lesson.
hi eric
this is to say thank you eric for all these tips
so far, i always read this email without fail they are the best freebies help i have ever come to find on the net,thanks for giving back,i have already found a way to save these vids, to my own computer,but when you sell them in the future i will still want them,i hope you make these an affiliate option for us to offer,i would have no problem offering these to newbies,or any one else.you should be proud eric for a great product of the highest value for free, thanks again for all your hard work and time put in, i learn such a lot and thank your family for us also mal.
Yeah Camtasia is definitely better than Camstudio for sound integration, and a must if you want to do sound editing post-production.
I haven’t had any problems with putting flash in Iframes, but if you come across any I would certainly like to hear about it!
thanks Eric.
Great,,, I’ll be expecting it…
Hi Luca, I got a Logitech microohone on eBay for $20.00, I bought it for Skype, but I can use it for videos as well.
Hi Eric,
Great video!
Do you have a lesson where you discuss how to use Video to drive Traffic to sites OTHER than simply uploading videos manually or using Automated software such as Traffic Geyser?
Thanks
Tim
Hi Eric,
A year ago I was banging my head against the wall tring to embed flash games into a pages on a WP site. After trying 6-7 different solutions, I finally got Kimili Flash Embed plugin for Word Press to work.
http://www.kimili.com/plugins/kml_flashembed
It didn’t occur to me that iframes would work as well. I’ll have to give it a try. I especially liked the tip on embedding an image in the post, which links to the video.
Thanks for the good tips
Dale
Wow Eric, you are the best.
You not only nail it with each lesson, but you nail it three ways to sunday.
Congrats and Thank you for all the tips Eric.
Ralph
Wow! Thanks Eric – Great Information!
Kind Regards,
Jeri
Thanks Eric. I’ve always thought videos are more complicated to make. Your presentation leaves me no excuse for not putting one up in my website.
Eric,
My theme doesn’t have page tabs so I’m wondering how I can add some kind of badge or maybe a sticky post just below header on home page that will direct visitors to page called About This Dame’s Store. I want all links to all affiliates to be on that page. Any suggestions? Also, I don’t want to lose my readership but I also like the idea of adding a syndicated video to the page. I may have to change themes if I get much more stuff on this website.
Hi! I subscribe to Ervin request, I have the software but the luck of enough time to dedicate to study documentation made me a slow learner.
thanks you in advance
Michaela
Pingback: LESSON #42: How to Put Audio on Your Website | Eric’s Tips
Yes I will have a lesson covering video for traffic. However, those ARE the two main ways of getting your videos out there: manually or automated.
However there’s more to it than simply uploading the videos, and I’ll be covering some of that stuff.
Hi
I will like to thank you for your valuable information,youve being providing, it helps alot to grow my business,
Thank you
Eric-
Congrats on another great post! Thanks for sharing your approach on the video embeds, very smart! I recently learned that slow page loads, in some cases, actually causes Google to penalize a site. Your approach here, done correctly, can alleviate that issue.
-Travis
I think you could just add it at the top of the sidebar. I see you put some other stuff on there, like the food buzz banner. So you could just put the link or banner above that one.
Another thing to think about with the syndicated videos… If you’re just using them as “supplementary” content, which comprise a small percentage of the overall posts that you’re making, then it shouldn’t be a problem. Your readers will keep coming abck if they enjoy the variety of content that you’re providing. But if the syndicated videos are the main feature, readers will start to wonder why they shouldn’t just go to the video creator’s website to get it directly.