Joint Venture Lightning

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/

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 love shooting testimonial videos.

They’re great for building your self-esteem and confidence. They’re also great for building your prospects trust in your capabilities before they risk contacting you for more details.

I like to shoot testimonials for my clients within the first week or two of starting a new project so that I can get their clients’ perspective on how they do business, what differentiates them in the market, etc. This info helps me focus the sales message and content for the marketing and website.

I like to shoot my own testimonial videos for Joint Venture Lightning after about a month so that my clients have had a chance to work with me and see results.

You can see these new testimonial videos here:

• George Schaefer with TrainingMyHorse.com
• Geoffrey Zimmerman, Author of “Love Never Dies”

If you have ANY happy clients at all then you absolutely MUST get them on video singing your praises.

I use a simple interview techniques so that my clients don’t have to prepare ahead of time by trying to remember some script. I want their comments to be completely open, honest and spontaneous.

You can either leave your interview questions in the video, the way I did with Geoffrey Zimmerman or you can cut them out and just leave the clients comments the way I did with George Schaefer. How do you know when to do either technique?

Simple. If they answer your questions in complete sentences by re-stating the premise of the question in their answer then you can cut out your side of the interview. If they only answer the questions then it makes more sense to leave your comments in the video.

Good luck and Happy New Year. May your 2008 and beyond be prosperous and peaceful.

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.

One of the most powerful ways to drive targeted traffic to your web site is through the use of video.

As I mentioned in my welcome video, I would be discussing web video in future posts. Well that time is now. One of the first things I do with every single one of my clients is to discuss how we can convert their content into a visual format for video.

The obvious answers are:

• testimonials
• product reviews
• demonstrations
• welcome messages
• call to action ie: subscribe to my mini course or newsletter

The less obvious answers can include the main content that we plan to sell. Most people tend to think in terms of text content like e-books, white papers, and special reports. Customers almost always prefer video content for the following reasons:

• testimonials and product reviews are much more believable
• demonstrations are more easily understood
• welcome messages are more personal
• calls to action become more powerful
• perceived value of content and its quality goes up
• video is more fun to watch
• customer gets a sense of time and urgency

Once I have the basic videos shot and edited, I upload to the web with an awesome FREE video tracking and uploader service call TubeMogul. This service lets you upload your videos once then distributes them to 12 different video hosting services on the web. An added benefit is the powerful tracking feature built in. You can see what kind of results your videos are getting after they are online.

To use TubeMogul, register for a free account and click the upload tab at the top of the page. Here you will find a page with the 12 different video hosting services. You will need to go to each and register for their free accounts before you can load your login and passwords to TubeMogul. I have listed each site’s registration page below for your convenience:

• YouTube
• Yahoo
• MySpace
• MetaCafe
• Google
• Revver
• DailyMotion
• Blip
• Brightcove
• Veoh
• Crackle
• StupidVideos

It takes a few minutes to get signed up on each site but once you have done that and confirmed your accounts on each then you can load your login and password for each into TubeMogul. Then you only have to upload videos once, hit launch and TubeMogul sends it to each video hosting site for you. This saves you TONS of time.

There is a more powerful version of this type of service… if you can afford the fees. It’s called TrafficGeyser. It uses the same concept of upload once and distribute to many. The difference is that TrafficGeyser can send your videos to over 50 different web sites where TubeMogul only goes to 12.

When should you use TrafficGeyser? When you know your landing pages are converting well and the sales you generate will more than cover the costs of the monthly fees. I start my clients off with TubeMogul to test video response and conversion rates then when we start making money, we boost it up to TrafficGeyser.

I’ll cover more on this subject in future posts. I hope that helps get you started.