Ready to get started? Let s dig in! First, a bit on WHY video is so important...

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1 Tutorial NICHE SUCCESS BLUEPRINT MODULE TWENTY TWO Niche Success Blueprint Start to Profit Training Course Module 22: Using Video To Grow Your Business In Module 21 you learned how to create professional product reviews, creative ways to promote those reviews, how to engage your market in product discussions - and how to use that engagement to easily increase your traffic & revenue. I mentioned that videos are great for increasing your exposure (and your conversion rates!), and also for connecting with your market on a more personable level. In this module you ll learn more on video creation, video marketing, and using video as part of your overall content and marketing strategy. If you don t feel comfortable creating talking head videos or being on camera, don t worry! You ll learn ways to still use video in your business even if you don t like the idea of getting in front of the lens. :) I ll show you ways to use other people s videos for your benefit, how to create various types of videos, free and low cost resources for video creation, and simple tips to improve your videos dramatically! Ready to get started? Let s dig in! First, a bit on WHY video is so important Lynn Terry ClickNewz.com Niche Success Blueprint: Module 22, Page 1

2 Why You Should Use Video In Your Business I mentioned in Module 21 regarding Case Studies (Page 8), that nothing sells products like results! When your videos share your enthusiasm, show your progress, allow people to see the product in use and imagine themselves using it as well, etc - you engage them on a whole new level. You can achieve some of this through a series of photos too, and I encourage you to do that, but video achieves so much more by sharing a complete audio/visual experience that also includes your compelling tone and your enthusiasm. Video is a great way to increase your reach, and draw in even more people that are interested in your topic. Some people actually prefer video content over any other type, so the use of video will allow you to appeal to those people. By using YouTube to host your videos, you ll also reach people who are searching for what you offer on YouTube. If you re not there, they won t find you! YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world and like Amazon, they do a great job of connecting related content and putting more videos and publishers in front of them. This is done by showing you related videos at the end of the one you re watching, and also showing related videos in the sidebar to give you something to watch next. About Lynn Terry Best known for ClickNewz, Lynn works online full-time as a Professional Blogger and Super Affiliate. She has 17 years experience in a variety of online business models, and a passion for helping others achieve the same success & lifestyle. Visit ClickNewz.com Join Lynn on Facebook Follow Lynn on Twitter Circle Lynn on Google+ By using YouTube, and properly optimizing your videos, they ll naturally be shown to your target market and show up in YouTube searches. Of course, Google now owns YouTube and includes YouTube videos in Google search results as well, so it s a great way to increase your exposure. People that prefer video will naturally click on the video results, and those who don t will be more likely to click on your text content that comes up in Google searches. It s smart to appeal to both types! ;-) 2014 Lynn Terry ClickNewz.com Niche Success Blueprint: Module 22, Page 2

3 Simple, Creative Video Content Ideas You may think it takes expensive equipment or a big investment to create videos for your business or blog, but it doesn t - and we ll get into that more in a minute. For now let s look at easy ways to use video content, and come up with creative video ideas... Refer back to Module 21, starting on Page 5: You can use those same ideas for videos! Repurpose blog posts, or specific parts of posts, into video. This can be great for bringing an archived post back to life, or for increasing traffic to that post. Share videos via social media with a conversation starter and/or a tip and a link back to a related post on your blog. (See the photo example on Page 6 of Module 21) Guest content you ve published on other sites or blogs, or even audio interviews you ve done, can easily be used for video content. While you don t want to copy the guest post or interview word for word in your video, it s a great way to repurpose those topics in a new format, without creating duplicate content (text). Use relevant videos from other people that you find on YouTube, or any source that allows you to share/embed the video freely. See this example in my Gazelle review. You can embed them into your blog posts, or share them via social media. Look for a good tutorial or creative uses video that complements your topic. Repurpose your engagement (social replies, blog comments, questions you get via , etc) into videos. These are great sources for video content ideas! Also look for questions on popular forums in your niche for great topic ideas. For a product review video, if the product is on Amazon - look for questions asked in the reviews there. You can use video to: Demonstrate how a product, service or website works Show off specific Features or Drawbacks (positives/negatives) Share your excitement or enthusiasm more clearly than in plain text Increase your reach through video search results Drive Traffic to your blog, website, or an affiliate or sponsor s link Connect with your target market on a more personable level Improve your conversion rate (example: Module 21, Page 9) 2014 Lynn Terry ClickNewz.com Niche Success Blueprint: Module 22, Page 3

4 I gave you several good video examples on Page 9 of Module 21, specifically on how to show proof and increase your conversion rates on reviews and promotions. You can also use video to add a fun twist or a bit of humor to your blog posts. I like to include my pets in some of my posts and conversations. You see many bloggers do that. It adds to your overall personality - and even your likability with your audience. I took a short video of my Great Dane puppy with my smartphone and uploaded it straight to YouTube. Once it was uploaded, I used YouTube s editing features to add music to it, then shared it via social media. Super easy! The post to the right was on my Facebook Page (here) following a photo update of my other Great Dane wearing a T-shirt that says, You Had Me At Bacon. :-) While they re not promotional, they make for fun updates. And I used a creative twist to make them relevant to my topic. If you link to a YouTube video on Facebook or Twitter the video will display in your timeline. You can upload videos from your smartphone directly to Instagram too. To the left is the same video shared on Twitter, which displays the video just by sharing the YouTube link in your update. This same video will work well in my blog post about fun workouts you can do at home when I mention that I like to play tag with my Danes or jump around with Molly. It adds a bit of a fun factor (and personalizes) what might otherwise be a boring topic. :-) 2014 Lynn Terry ClickNewz.com Niche Success Blueprint: Module 22, Page 4

5 While that last example was more for fun, it shows you just how easy it is to use your smartphone for quick, easy videos. Get creative while you re out & about and take a few video clips you can repurpose into something relevant for your market! Adding music to your videos is easy using YouTube s built in tools: Let s say you have a blog post about the benefits of drinking water. You could take a short video of a beautiful waterfall, a clear winding river or a freshwater spring. Then overlay music, and even overlay text and links to highlight the benefits of drinking water and link back to your blog post on the topic. Simple! And no face time involved. :-) Just upload the video directly to YouTube then add the audio, text and links using the editing icons right below your video... This tutorial will show you how to create and edit annotations on your videos. Consider how you can use this creatively to illustrate your topics, or add some creative visuals that engage people in your topics in fresh ways. All you need is a smartphone that takes video, a YouTube account, and a little creativity! 2014 Lynn Terry ClickNewz.com Niche Success Blueprint: Module 22, Page 5

6 Different Types of Videos & How To Create Them As you ve just seen in the last example, you can easily create and edit/enhance videos using your smartphone and YouTube. Other ways to create videos include: Use the built-in camera on your laptop or desktop computer. For even better video and audio quality, use a webcam. This Logitech Webcam (shown to the right) is the one I purchased. It has dual noise-canceling mics for stereo-quality audio recording, as well as higher quality HD video recording. I ve been VERY happy with it. It has intelligent auto light correction and actually takes much clearer videos & photos in low light than anything else I own. See my video example & comments here If you want a quality video camera that is very user friendly in auto (meaning: it s not complicated to use, just power on & record!) I recommend the Cannon Vixia. I have the Canon Vixia HF S20 and love it, but there are newer versions available now. You can read my thoughts on it here, and see it set up in my home office here. Record Skype Video Calls and upload them to YouTube. This is a fun, easy way to create a video podcast or to create video interviews your audience will enjoy. (It s easier to record a conversation with another person than to talk alone to a lens!) A simple inexpensive solution for recording Skype Video is Evaer: Records Skype video and audio calls into MP4/AVI movies. Easy to use for your Skype video and audio interviews, conferences, podcasts, or family VoIP calls. Evaer records Skype calls with capturing original media data and there is no data loss. It is not a screen-capture recorder, video quality is not affected at all if you resize Skype video windows while recording. Learn More Note: Evaer will also record the audio only as an MP3 file, making it easy to create a video and a podcast at the same time. ;-) 2014 Lynn Terry ClickNewz.com Niche Success Blueprint: Module 22, Page 6

7 So far we ve talked about ways to shoot video. Another popular method is the free Google Hangouts On Air option. This allows you to do live streaming which is also recorded and uploaded to your YouTube channel. You can invite people to join in live and host a discussion, similar to a webinar, and it s automatically repurposed into a video. You ll definitely want to use a high quality web cam (see the Logitech on Page 6) and/or a quality microphone for live streaming. If you don t have a webcam with a built in high quality microphone, you can use an external mic. I have the Blue Yeti Microphone and highly recommend the Blue line for optimal sound quality for your videos and audios. You don t want to wear a headset in your videos. ;-) More Ways To Create Videos... You can turn presentations into demo, how-to or instructional videos. If you use a Mac, the Keynote presentation program will export your presentation into a video. If you use a PC, you can also create a video with Powerpoint. You can also use the free Impress program in the OpenOffice.org suite (similar to Microsoft Office, but free) to create presentations. You can export your Impress presentations in a variety of formats, including SWF, and use the free AnyConverter program to convert it into an MP4 file so you can upload it to YouTube or Amazon S3. Screencasting is a means of recording your screen, which is great for demonstrating software or anything you want to show on your screen - walking through a buying process for example, or creating a web-based tutorial. Camtasia is a popular software for the PC, and Screenflow is ideal for the Mac. For PC users, Camstudio.org is FREE and very similar to Camtasia (not free). In this post on Chrome Browser Tricks I used screenshots to illustrate the post. (See How To Create A Screenshot in Module 21, Page 14). Later I demonstrated those tips in a webinar, and exported the recording - which came out as an FLV file. I trimmed it down to this demo, then used the free AnyConverter program to convert it into an MP4 file and upload it to YouTube Lynn Terry ClickNewz.com Niche Success Blueprint: Module 22, Page 7

8 Simple Video Tips That Make A BIG Difference! I ve given you some creative ideas, and great tips & resources for creating videos with high quality audio and video. Hopefully you re getting excited about all the ways you can use video to get more traffic and improve your conversions! :-) But before you start recording, there are a few simple things to keep in mind that will make a BIG difference in the finished product (your video) It s ALL About Lighting. Whether you re using a smartphone or a high end camera, the lighting will make all the difference. You can get higher quality video from a mobile phone in the right light, than you can with an expensive camera and all it s features in the wrong light. For the best results, use natural light (that means the sun!). Face your light source to get the best quality, and to reduce shadows. If you re indoors, face a window during the best hours for catching natural light. Lighting is the KEY to making quality videos. They also make great continuous lighting kits for indoor video. You can see my lighting comparison here for a visual example. A great webcam can work out nicely too, even in low light if you turn up your screen brightness to shed light on your face. See my webcam video example here. Whatever you use, I recommend you do a quick test video for a few seconds first and review it to see if you need to adjust your location or your lighting before shooting your video. 2. Frame Your Background. Now that you have your location and light source figured, make sure you frame your background for the video. That means: consider everything that is in the actual video frame. Are you too close, too far away, is there something distracting in the background? You may also want to use props in your background to go with the theme of your video... The video to the right is about Curves Fitness Center. I have my hair in a pony tail, a bottled water on my desk (in the frame ) and the Curves website on one screen with my blog post about it on the other screen. This chicken soup video is 4+ years old so the quality isn t great, but I was holding a cup of chicken soup, had on my PJ s, and there s Nyquil in the background. Bingo! 2014 Lynn Terry ClickNewz.com Niche Success Blueprint: Module 22, Page 8

9 3. Make Eye Contact. You have everything in place, a good light source, and you re ready to shoot. Look directly at the lens of your camera or webcam. This may seem like a no-brainer, but it was something I really had to practice at myself - perhaps because I m a natural introvert. :) I still catch myself looking off or looking down quite a bit, and have to make it a point to look at the lens while I m talking. Interestingly this has really helped me become better at making eye contact in person, which has been great for making more solid connections at events and meet-ups. The trick (for me) is to get someone in mind, and talk to the lens like I am talking to that person. Just like when you re writing content, getting in response mode really helps you to be less stiff and much more personable in your videos. 4. Outline Your Topic. Getting through a video shoot from start to finish is much easier if you have an outline of the point you want to get across. Basic bullet points are enough. You don t want to read a script, and you have to keep your eye on the lens. Have a point, make that point (clearly), while including any necessary information. Tip: You MUST include a call-to-action. What do you want your viewer to do after they watch your video? Include that conversationally, and make it both obvious and easy. 5. Pause for Mistakes and Transitions. It s rare to make it through even a short video without making a mistake, getting tongue tied, losing your train of thought, an interruption, or otherwise needing some slight editing. Instead of doing 17 takes, simply stop and take a long pause any time you mess up or know something will need to be edited out of the video. Pause, then start back at the beginning of the sentence before the mistake/interruption/etc. This makes editing MUCH easier as you have some space to play with. If you plan to insert transitions, stop for a long pause in those spots too, as transitions require space and will come out much smoother if you create that space for them while shooting the video. If you re using a Mac, it comes with imovie which is great for video editing. If you use a PC and don t already have video editing software, Camtasia or Camstudio.org (free) are easy enough to use. While they are screencasting programs, they do editing as well Lynn Terry ClickNewz.com Niche Success Blueprint: Module 22, Page 9

10 Optimize your YouTube videos just like you optimize your blog posts. Use a keyword phrase and a catchy title. That will get you more exposure and more clicks. Include a link in the video description, along with a brief description - which is a great place to use your keyword phrase again. Also be sure to include appropriate tags. Don t do keyword stuffing or any obvious over-optimization, of course. But do make good use of the features and fields that will help more people find your videos - easily. There IS a bit of a learning curve with creating and editing video, but it s all fairly simple and you ll get very quick at it with practice. It actually takes me less time to create and publish a video now, than it does to write a blog post. You probably have tons of fun ideas for videos after reading this module, and plenty of great resources to work with! It s time to get to work. ;-) Your Homework: Decide what type of video you want to create first: live streaming, Skype interview, screencast, presentation-tovideo, talking head (meaning: YOU, on camera), etc. Create your basic video outline with your main talking points and a call-to-action. Make a list of everything you need, or need to do, before recording your video. Download any software you need, do a lighting check, frame your background, etc. Have Questions? If you have questions, join us on the ClickNewz Forum: Join the ClickNewz Forum You can also post questions for Lynn Terry on one of the following social networks: Join Lynn on Facebook Follow Lynn on Twitter Circle Lynn on Google+ If you would like hands-on help brainstorming your business or setting up your website, contact Lynn at: AskLynnTerry@gmail.com to discuss low cost private or group coaching options. Record, edit and publish a video this week! Have great product reviews buried in your blog archives? Bring them back to life by creating a demo video that links to your review, or repurpose your review into a video. If you have questions about this week s tasks you can reach me on Facebook or at my Forum. Otherwise I ll see you next week in Module 23. *cheers* 2014 Lynn Terry ClickNewz.com Niche Success Blueprint: Module 22, Page 10