Sound Solutions: North Bank Audio Solutions

Many people are turned off by how fast technology moves. I recently got a question from someone who wanted to get into using video more to market her business and monetize her knowledge, but was puzzled as to how to get started.

She didn’t want to spend a bunch of money only to have her gadgets become obsolete a few months later. We’ll call her “Technophobe” for the purposes of this post. I don’t use this term in a degrading way. I think her anxiety around fast-moving technology highlights a common thread through the psyches of many people who want to get into info marketing, but aren’t sure how to get started. It’s also something I’ve noticed is very common with people who aren’t quite young enough to have grown up in the age of 1,000 mile-per-hour computer technology.

Here was my advice to her. I hope you find it helpful as well.

Dear Technophobe,

Don’t be discouraged by fast changes in technology. Much of that is simply marketing tactics to create perceived obsolescence so that people will buy more products. (The ironic thing is that this kind of marketing often discourages people like you - and myself - from buying anything.) The truth is, if it does the job now, it’s probably going to do the job just fine for years to come. It mantra doesn’t always work for things like computers, but now that we’re in the digital age, I wouldn’t worry too much about making a bad investment in a camera. Now is a good time to buy one.

I would go to an electronics store and try out a few cameras and just pick which one you like. I don’t have a specific suggestion. Simply find one that fits within your budget. Generally, with cameras, I would say don’t buy the very cheapest one available, but maybe a step or two up. You can find very decent video cameras for around $200.00. The cool thing about technology moving so fast is that these same cameras were five or ten times more expensive a few years back, so you’ve actually saved money by waiting.

Some specs to look for are:

* Buy a camera that uses miniDV tapes. I would avoid the cameras that export to a proprietary format because you can run into problems when you try to edit and produce them.

* Make sure it has an external microphone input. Audio quality is at least as important as video quality. This way, you can always upgrade the audio without buying a new camera.

* Pick a camera that isn’t too noisy. It’s always a bummer when you play back your recordings and there’s an annoying buzz or hum over the whole take.

Probably more important than the camera itself is that you have proper lighting when you record and that you use a tripod. Natural light looks the best, so if you can record in a space with lots of windows, that is ideal. You can supplement by placing lights (sometimes household lamps will work just fine) behind the camera as you record.

To edit your video, it all depends on your level of tech-savvyness. If you use windows, sometimes the free Windows Movie maker will work just fine. If you use a mac, iMovie will do the job. A step up is Sony Vegas Video Studio (about $100 I think) and if you want to use what the pros use, go for Adobe Premiere or Final Cut Pro. I use Adobe Premiere, but going that way will set you back quite a bit.

If you’d rather delegate the editing, there are lots of people who can do that for you. My business offers video production (http://northbankaudio.com) but we are by no means the only show in town. Shop around locally and online or ask colleagues for a recommendation.

To get your stuff online, there’s a nifty tool called http://tubemogul.com/ that will help you upload to about a dozen of the top video sites (including YouTube) in one swoop, for free. This is one of my favorite tools.

I hope this helps. Let me know if I brought up any other questions or ideas along the way.

~Caleb

Over the last couple months I’ve been quietly developing and piloting a new online marketing program that’s unlike anything I’ve seen out there, but also desperately needed.

One of my first clients to take advantage of the beta test of this new system is Tracy Monteforte of WTPowers.com.

She gave me one members only teleseminar she did about a year back and my team and I repurposed it into articles, videos and podcast episodes all linking back to her site.

Instead of her content just sitting there, it’s working for her now and the valuable information she created a year ago is getting out to her target market through multiple online media channels.

Check it out:

1. Article marketing - We transcribed her teleseminar and harvested several articles which were then submitted to hundreds of online directories and publications. This is absolutely one of the most effective ways to gain traffic and improve your search engine rankings.
2. Podcasting - We set her up with a blog powering a podcast so that people can subscribe to her content. Blogs are traffic magnets to begin with, but we harnessed the power of her audio by submitting her to dozens of podcast directories which will now spider her feed, providing links back to her site. She’s also in the iTunes library now which is a huge credibility builder. People can subscribe to her podcast via RSS.
3. Videos - We combined the text and audio components and submitted them as “viral videos” to the top video sites including YouTube, Yahoo Video, Google and Meta Cafe. Check one of her videos here:

This is great because she, like so many entrepreneurs I know, always wanted to take advantage of these highly effective, low cost online marketing strategies, but she just couldn’t find the time and didn’t have the resources to do it herself.

Want your content to work for you too? Contact us to find out how.

Many of my clients know they and their clients and customers would benefit from them creating new information products, but they get stuck somewhere in the conceptual process.

They start thinking about creating a product and end up talking themselves out of it for some reason.

One of these reasons is that they think that they should only create a product that they are a reputible expert on. This logic is flawed because there are few ways better than creating a product to propel yourself to perceived expert status.

Another reason people get stuck when creating audio or video info products is that they don’t know which idea to move forward with.

I’ll give you a hint for this one…

“Listen to the marketplace.”

What kinds of questions do you find yourself getting asked all the time? Is there something you’ve accomplished and others have repeatedly asked your how you did it? Which of your blog posts get the most views or comments? Which of your marketing emails get the best response? What other products are selling well in your target market? Even if there’s already something out there similar, your target market may need to hear it from you in your voice in order for them to reap the full benefits of the information.

These ideas are the ones you should be focusing on - not just whatever you feel like creating a product about.

If you create an information product that responds to a need in the marketplace, you’ll avoid the trial and error and guesswork that so many information marketers, coaches and consultants go through in this area. You and your customers will both benefit because you’ll sell more products and gain more new clients and your customers will get what they want as well.

Here’s another question I helped a friend on LinkedIn with. I think the answer will help the general public. Check it out:

My original question:

What questions do you have about using audio or video in your marketing or product development efforts (info products, podcasts, online videos etc).

Alex’s response:

What are some of the best ways to promote online video into directories, search engines and RSS submission sites?

My advice:

Hi Alex,

I would start by submitting your videos to http://www.tubemogul.com/. This automatically submits them all the major video engines for free.

There is also a paid solution that has some other features at www.trafficgeyser.com.

I would post videos to your blog if you have one. If you do not have a blog, you should consider creating one. Wordpress.com is what I would suggest if you are just getting started.

You can take the blog a step further by making it a video podcast. This just means you are embedding the actual video files in the posts, so you have to link to the actual source file. If you use wordpress.com, you’ll want to purchase two upgrades: custom domain and a hosting upgrade so you can have your own domain name and upload mp3 files. This will only cost $30-40 per year!

You’ll want to set up a feedburner.com account too. It’s free. This helps you track who subscribes and gives you all sorts of cool tools.

Then, submit your feedburner feed url to directories using podpusher.com and submit to the iTunes directory by installing the free iTunes software and clicking on the “podcasts” button and entering your feed url from feedburner.

If any of the above makes your head spin, you can email me at caleb@northbankaudio.com and we can either set up a consultation or you can simply delegate the work to us so you can focus on your content.

I hope this helps!

Caleb Scoville
North Bank Audio Solutions
http://www.northbankaudio.com

I’m getting ready to head to Europe for a gratuitous 30 day vacation. I can’t wait to go and see a part of the world I have never seen before.

Do you want to know the best part?

I’m actually going to MAKE money while I’m gone.

Because I planned this trip months in advance with no plan on how I was going to afford it or how my business was going to run without me, I was forced to get into solution mode. I’ll admit it - I had a few freak-out moments, but what this vacation has forced me to do is get all of my day-to-day business operations either off plate or simplified to the point of automation!

Creating this self-imposed deadline has gotten me out of the “I know I should delegate, but I’m so comfortable where I am” trap and I have now opened up nearly my entire schedule to fill with what I want. Granted - it came with some expenses, but overall - it’s been a huge growth spurt for me and my business.

I’m putting most things on autopilot and deferring most new projects until my return, but the great thing is, when I get back - I won’t be swamped and my business will be ready to launch into the next stage of growth in a way that it never would have been without this vacation.