Joint Venture Lightning

That was the topic of discussion at the February meeting of the Internet Marketing Professionals group.

The session was led by professional internet marketer & SEO / PPC consultant Zach Thompson. He jumped right in with tips for picking the best domain for your site and how to register it. Then he covered the basics for web hosting with several recommendations on service providers.

There were a few beginners at the meeting who had great questions on getting started and what Zach’s recommendations were on tools to use like WordPress, Joomla or custom build your site using outsourced web designers.

I had to admit that even I learned a few things about improving the SEO of my sites, where to locate service providers and more. I was  impressed with Zach’s depth of knowledge and I look forward to working  with him on some JV deals in the near future.

Our next meeting is scheduled for March 25th from 7:00 to 8:00 pm. We’ll planning on meeting at the Comfort Inn at the Roanoke Airport thanks to our member Lori, who works there and made arrangements for the use of the meeting space. Thanks, Lori.

I recently started a local networking and mastermind group for folks interested in internet marketing and e-commerce.

We meet on the fourth Wednesday of each month from 7:00 – 8:00 pm in and around the Roanoke valley.  Our January meeting was a hit. The topic of discussion was my favorite subject…”Harnessing the Power of Web Video.”

I explained how you can use a simple video with some proper keyword usage in the title, tags and description to get your content on page one of Google and grab tons of free organic traffic. I also covered a few free resources for syndicating your web video and using these tools for totally dominating your niche. There were plenty of great questions from those who attended and we tried to answer them all. Most stayed well past the one hour time to network and get answers to even more great questions.

Here’s a short video of comments from the attendees of the January meeting.

Internet Marketing Professionals January Meeting Testimonials from JointVentureLightning on Vimeo.

The next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, February 25th from 7:00 to 8:00 pm at the Cave Spring Library on 419. We’ll be meeting in the small meeting room back in the children section of the library.

Full-time internet marketer and SEO / Pay Per Click consultant Zach Thompson will be leading the discussion on “How To Set-up A Website. You can see the full details online and you can join the group at: http://ibd.meetup.com/841/

Social networking sites like MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, Plaxo, Uniq and others are great tools for fundraisers looking for new ways to raise money for their cause.

The key is to use these tools properly.

Think of a social networking site like this… imagine a global night club or dinner party where celebrities, authors, poets, artists, models, rock stars, and political leaders and industry experts are all standing around chatting about everything imaginable. Now imagine that this seemingly exclusive gathering is open to the public and has no cover charge to get in.

Everyday folks like us can simply sign in, look around, find somebody interesting to listen to and then join in the conversation. That’s also a fair description of microblogging sites like Twitter.

Now imagine how you would feel if some stranger just barged in on your conversation and tried to sell you something. That’s how most people try to use these types of sites… by barging in and selling without offering value and interest first.

Here’s an example of how to do it properly: I was interested in communicating with a particular donor prospect but I didn’t know quite how to introduce myself in-person. It felt like I would be “barging in” uninvited. So I found this person on Facebook and saw that they were a member of a local civic group that I used to belong to. This gave me the opportunity to comment in a relevant and interesting way with this prospect.

The result was that he “friended” my Facebook profile and we have since been  able to communicate with each other in a friendly and mutually beneficial way. The point is to establish rapport and warm up a cold prospect before you go for the appointment and the funding request.

Here’s another example: I love using LinkedIn because they have an Answers forum where you can post answers to members questions. This allows me to establish myself as a credible expert in a variety of subjects. I’m offering value first. People who benefit from my answers can give me a “Best Answer” designation and a recommendation that all builds my credibility.

People who read my answers can then contact me for other related questions and to further build rapport. Maintain these online relationships with care and you can convert them into donors over time.

In a previous post I described how I used web video syndication to get my son’s science project video in the first four positions on Google.

I went back a few days later and played with social bookmarking on sites like Digg, Furl, StumbleUpon and others. These bookmarks did two things for me. First, they drove traffic to my son’s video. Second, they gave the video two more postions on page one of Google.

That means that the video controlled postions 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, and 8 on page one of Google in just two days! Imagine what that can do for a business marketing their products online.

The traffic from organic search results goes up. The credibility of the expert goes up. Conversion goes up. Profits go up.
So, you can boost all of your efforts with web video by including social bookmarking as part of your overall strategy. TubeMogul lets you do this for free quite easily but if you want AWESOME power for totally dominating your niche then I recommend TrafficGeyser.com.

I posted my 16 year old son’s high school science project video online just for fun to see what would happen… and I was blown away at how fast it showed up on Google page one.

I uploaded the video at 8:30 pm and it was on page one by 11:00 pm that same day.

In fact, it not only showed up on page one but it totally dominates the page by getting the first four positions!

Here’s how I did it.

First, I chose keywords related to the topic of the video… maximizing methane production and renewable energy. Then I used those keywords in the title, description and tags. Then I uploaded the video to my free www.tubemogul.com account and clicked the Launch button.

Tubemogul then syndicates the video to about twelve of the top video hosting sites online including Google, YouTube, Revver,Veoh, BlipTV, and others.

That’s all there is to it. It took about 10 minutes. I checked back at 11:00 and there it was on page one!. Checked back again that same evening and it was in the first four positions.  And YES… according to Tubemogul video traffic stats his little video has had more than 100 views in the first day alone.

Now I wish my son had some kind of info product to sell so we can take advantage of the free organic traffic.

I’m conducting a short seven question survey of non-profits, chambers of commerce and associations to see if and how they are using video and how effective it is for them.

Click Here to take survey

The reason for the survey is to gauge how quickly these organizations are adopting this medium to achieve core missions. With the advent of web video, global syndication is now a reality… for FREE. It has been my experience that smaller organizations with limited resources tend to fall far behind in the adoption of new tools like social networking, bookmarking, RSS, SEO, web video, and syndication.

If you are a staff member, board member or volunteer for a non-profit, association or chamber of commerce then please take this short 2 minute survey. I’ll be happy to share the results when the project is completed.

Thanks.

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As I have mentioned in earlier posts, web video is POWERFUL.

If you aren’t using it then you are missing out on one of the most powerful forms of media available. Imagine having your own global broadcast network. That is the power of web video. And best of all it’s free.

I have been working on an interesting project with a prolific writer named Geoffrey Zimmerman. He pours out his emotions with the written word in the form of novels, poetry, short stories, and screen plays. The challenge is how do you promote a text medium with video?

Can It Be So by Geoffrey Zimmerman from JointVentureLightning on Vimeo.

Here are several tactics that we are currently using on his site www.GeoffreyZimmerman.com:

• Interviews with the author revealing the background that inspired his work.
• Video chats where the author invites readers to comment and join in collaboration or contests.
• Behind the scenes videos on his creative process
• Converting some of his old films into video for web distribution

There are other tactics in the plans for later on when we kick promotion into high gear with press releases and begin offering interviews with the media.

A key component of the video strategy is to get each video well titled and tagged then distributed to the major video hosting providers to help drive targeted traffic to the site where readers are given the opportunity to subscribe to his romantic adventure novel “Love Never Dies.”

Getting subscribers is the primary purpose of the website. The secondary purpose is the showcase his work and third is to establish his online presence and brand. This will help him build credibility with publishers and the media so that one day he can get a major publishing contract.

Here is a secret marketing tip that you might not have thought of recently… try adding a beautiful photo gallery and slide show to your website.

TrainingMyHorse.com

How does this help you close more sales?

FitClub4.com

Simple. It helps the customer or prospect believe in you as a professional.

If your site is heavy on text then you really need actual photos depicting the work you do. Don’t be shy, either. Go ahead and show yourself actually working with your clients and doing your job.

This helps the prospect to imagine themselves working with you on their own projects. It also gives you the chance to visually SELL your services in a subtle but convincing way where text only sales messages or messages that use clip art or stock photos scream SALES BROCHURE or ADVERTISEMENT.

The human mind has a way of filtering this type of hype-filled “salesy” content from your prospects conscious thought.

Actual photos seem more “real” and therefore are more believable. Be sure to add captions to give your prospects a clearer understanding of what they are seeing in each photo.

You can see several examples of this at work in my client Photo Gallery section of this website.

Here’s another tip… be sure to use a high-end camera that will give you plenty of resolution. I recommend having a professional spend a day with you and some of your best clients to get really good images that can be used in print materials as well as on the web. This will help you maintain consistency in your marketing materials and brand identity.

Trust me. You do NOT want to skimp on the photography. It’s worth it get the good stuff.

We include professional level photography in our joint venture / strategic alliance work. The photos you see in these galleries were all taken with a Nikon D40-X digital camera with 10.6 megapixel resolution.

The camcorder you see me holding in some of the photos is a Sony DVD cam that shoots direct to mini DVD’s. The resolution for video on the web doesn’t need to be nearly as high quality as the photography because the video is being compressed for faster download speeds.

If you plan on doing broadcasting of your video work then you will need to use professional level video equipment as well.

Enjoy.

Have you ever noticed the logo in the corner of every single video on YouTube?

It’s called a watermark and is used to brand the content of the video. We’re seeing this more and more as businesses catch on to the power of using video in their online marketing.

We have started using custom watermarks on ALL of our clients’ videos to help build their brands. How do you put a watermark on a video?

Good question. You need a cool piece of software called Camtasia Studio. At the moment they are offering an older version as a FREE download. Keep in mind that this powerful software package retails for over $300, so go grab it quick before it’s gone. You’ll also need a key code to open the full version… this is not a 30 day demo but the whole deal of version 3.0. Here is the link to get your key code.

You can either create your videos in Camtasia or import your existing video files. Then on the left side of the screen under Tasks… scroll down to Produce and click the link that says Produce Video as… A window will pop-up giving you file formats to choose. I like to convert my video to Flash so that it’s streaming and not a download that others can take and then reproduce.

Once you choose the file format, there will be several steps along the way and one of them gives you the option to insert a watermark logo. Select this feature and upload your logo graphic. Set opacity to about 40%, adjust the size, choose which corner you want your logo to appear in, etc. You can even have it embossed or flat. Once you like your watermark, click next. Camtasia does the rest… converting the file to Flash and adding the watermark logo throughout. Then all you need to do is upload the files to your website where it can be viewed.