“How to Create an Engaging Video”

It's sad but true: There are literally billions of other videos, audios, images, and articles competing for your target market's attention. If your video is boring, nobody (except maybe you mother) is going to want to watch it. When creating a video for your business audience you must engage them or your efforts will fall completely flat.    

Creating effective, engaging videos may take you time and practice, especially if you don't feel particularly at ease in front of the camera. These tips can help you on your way to effective video marketing:

Engaging Video Tip #1: Know Your Market

Your target market has similar interests, issues and problems. By knowing, understanding and listening to your target market, you're automatically speaking in their language and appealing to their interests. That makes you engaging!

Engaging Video Tip #2: Keep Your Energy High

If someone is an energetic, charismatic speaker, they could read the phone book aloud and make it sound good. People respond to excitement, so make sure yours is high. You don't want to over-hype it, but imagine you're talking to a group of kindergarteners and have to work extra-hard to keep their attention. Our ears are trained to pick up on change, so give your voice inflection and enthusiasm, varying its pitch and loudness.

Engaging Video Tip #3: Using Effects

Our eyes are drawn to bright colors, beautiful images and motion. See how you can incorporate these elements in your intro and closing. Watch a few videos on Youtube.com to see what captures your attention, and model what works for you.

Engaging Video Tip #4: Eye Contact

One of the most important aspects of person-to-person presentation is eye contact. Talk to the camera like it's a person, a valuable potential client or a friend. Be natural, be real and be yourself. Again, this may take some practice but you'll get it. When you get good at making eye contact you will be well on your way to establishing valuable relationships with your potential audience.

Engaging Video Tip #5: Prepare

You might be one of those rare people with the gift of gab, shooting off a polished presentation with no preparation. If you are, great. If not, then you'll need to prepare to make sure you say what you want to say in your video and get you key messages across. Don't forget to include your call to action so your audience knows exactly what to do after they've finished watching the video.

Creating an engaging video takes work. However, it's well worth the effort as your video will be working for you twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week for many, many years to come.

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"Will using Google Analytics have a negative effect on my ranking? "

If you've ever wondered if using Google Analytics on your website will hurt you in the rankings department, give a listen in as Matt Cutts explains.

Do you use Google Analytics? Why or why not? Please leave your comments below:

“Join Affiliate Programs that Complement Your Business & Help You Grow”

There is a lot to know with online business. You can find out what you need to know if you are willing to put in the time. One way to expand your knowledge base and your business is through affiliate programs.

What are Affiliate Programs?

Affiliate programs are a marketing tool used by business owners and companies to promote their products and/or services with help from other business people. The program owner creates tools in the form of graphics, copy, and more for their affiliates to use to promote those products and services. They provide specially coded links that affiliates use to send their own customers or readers to the program owner’s website. The affiliate gets credit for each person that performs the agreed upon action (a sale, a referral, a click, etc.) in the form of commissions.

Affiliate programs work well for two reasons.

The business owner has a product or service already created and needs more people to help spread the word about it.

The affiliate (that’s you) makes money through marketing, but they don’t have to develop any of the tools or products of their own to do it.

Benefits of Becoming an Affiliate

All affiliate programs are not created equal. It is best to research them to see which holds the most promise for you. Part of that “promise” is a toolbox full of online goodies to help you promote the product. As an affiliate you get to learn how to use these tools.

Many affiliate programs also offer training courses. They provide not only the tools but also articles, eBooks and reports on how to conduct Internet marketing, search engine optimization and other marketing strategies. For the entrepreneur who wants to grow their business but needs additional knowledge to do it, you can get it here for free. And, you can test out what you learn by promoting affiliate products.

Affiliate owners also provide support for their affiliates. They answer questions, publish newsletters and offer incentives to help you grow both as an affiliate and as a businessperson.

This offers you the opportunity of a lifetime for your business. Instead of investing in courses that cost you money that you may not have to spare right now (you can go back and pay for a course later as you increase your business skillset) you can learn from affiliate owners who are perfecting their own business craft and helping you do the same.

Now, the affiliate owner doesn’t want to spend unnecessary money either since they are also in the business of making money. So, they will show you ways to market their products that get the job done with minimum expense and time.

Online businesses can come with a steep learning curve. Offset the cost of learning by getting some “on the job training” through a good affiliate program. As you are earning money, you are also learning skills to grow your business without the high cost.

Looking Ahead in Your Business

Once you get your business to the point you’re ready to grow it, think about starting your own affiliate program too. Harness the power of other business owners to get yourself and you business noticed by more people.

Additional Resources:

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Online Marketers Bootcamp

Free 12 week ShoeMoney Marketing Course course click here.

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“Facebook Looking for Writers”

Remember, the old days of Google Answers? I do as I actually was one of their editors and answered questions for pay.  Google closed up show awhile ago but Yahoo Answers is still alive and kicking at http://answers.yahoo.com/ . It’s a site where people post their burning questions and then hope that someone with deep wisdom will come along and shine some light on it. Sounds easy, right? 

Well, it appears that Facebook may want a piece of that action. They’ve posted a “help wanted” form for writers’ over at http://www.facebook.com/product_application/  You simply answer three questions to the best of your ability and submit for Facebook’s approval. It doesn’t appear that there’s any money involved but if you’re selected you could get a trip to California to tour their headquarters. So, if you’ve got plenty of free time on your hands and don’t care about money, you might want to apply.

"The 10 Quickest Ways to Stop Shopping Cart Abandonment”

Image via Wikipedia

By Merle

If you sell products from your website, you've no doubt experienced "shopping cart abandonment". What's that? Never heard of it? Let me clarify. This is what happens when someone comes to your website, browses, and actually clicks on products to purchase, adds them to their cartbut never completes the checkout process. 

So why does this happen and what can you do about it? I'm so glad you asked. There actually have been studies done that show some of the reasons why people leave in such a rush. By avoiding these things in your check-out process you can help plug the leak, avoid abandonment, and rack up more sales.

Here we go:

1) Make it Clear: Ever bought something online and wondered where you were in the checkout process? Make sure you give crystal clear instructions as to what information is needed and why, and exactly where the customer is in the buying process. I've even seen some shopping cart systems that label the screens during checkout as "step 1 of 3", "step 2 of 3". Avoid confusion for a more confident assured buyer.

2) Shipping Charges and Method of Delivery: Don't hide the amount you charge for shipping. Nothing will make someone run away faster than waitinguntil the last screen and revealing inflated shipping charges. Tell them exactly how much it  will be, don't make them guess or search for it. Also, if you offer multiple shipping methods show them their options. Options on a website are always good. Shoppers like options not surprises.

3) Saving Carts: How many times have you been in the process of buying something online and the phone rings or someone knocks on the door? Offering a "save cart for later" function is a wonderful way to get distracted shoppers to come back later and complete their purchase. Isn't that better then having the session time out and losing them completely?

4) Errors: If the buyer makes an error during the checkout process, make sure to clearly point out what is missing or wrong on the page and what theyneed to do to correct it. Nothing infuriates a buyer faster than to have a step of the checkout process fail and not be shown exactly what it is. Also, if they have to go back and correct something, make sure the information they already entered is still intact, usually done by using cookies. As an added step, you may want to offer a phone number or some sort of online help for those having ordering problems.

5) Guarantee Policy: Reassure the buyer with your return policy, privacy policy  and that their credit card information is safe.  Provide a secure feeling for their personal information by using logos and securing trust seals if you can. Your job is to instill confidence in your website so people feel confident in doing business with you.

6) Too Many Hoops: Don't make buyers jump through too many hoops by limiting the number of steps in the checkout process. If you don't need certain information, don't ask for it. Simple and Sweet is better then long and tedious. K.I.S.S (Keep it simple stupid)

7) Payment Options: When it comes to the web, options are a good thing. Try to offer a number of different payment options such as mail-in, fax or even a phone option if you can take orders that way. There are still some people who don't feel safe entering their credit card information online.

8) Registration: Ever been to a website and wanted to make a purchase but couldn't until you registered, set up a user ID and password? How frustrating is that? Try not to force people to register before purchasing. It's annoying and adds an extra unnecessary step to the checkout process.

If they must register, make sure you point out the many benefits they'll receive if they do. For example, advance notice of any specials or sales.

9) Delivery Time:  Unfortunately we live in an "instant society" where everyone wants everything "yesterday". Make it clear when products are added to the shopping cart exactly how long until they arrive at the customer's door. If it's 4 to 6 days, say so, don't make them wait every day with their nose pressed against the glass for "Mr. Mailman" or the UPS driver. Not a positive experience.

10) Load Time: Make sure your website pages aren't overly bloated and don't take too long to load. Waiting for the hourglass to disappear is sure to send shoppers clicking for their back button.

So there you have it,ten simple ways you can improve your visitor's shopping experience when visiting your website. These tips will not only put more money in your pocket, but make for a happier customer all the way around.

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"How to Add a Like Button to your Website"

Social media is a great way to spread the word about your website. If you've been to any webpage that displays a "like" button and have always wondered how to do this on your own site watch this video and learn how easy it really is. This is a great way to let Facebook users share your content.

"Twitter Power 2.0 on WPIX with Tamsen Fadal"

Joel Comm being interviewed on why Twitter is good for your business.