Tag Archives: making videos

A Video On 5 Tips For Creating Videos

This is something different. I’ve created a video offering 5 tips on creating videos based on what I’ve learned over the past year in creating my own. Trust me, I’ve made some mistakes, mainly because I’ve been spending time trying to get used to the idea of making videos in the first place.

Think Twice About Your Movie Selection
cobalt123 via Compfight

I’ve talked about how it could be a benefit to either your website or blog to help show people what you can do for them. Since that time, I’ve actually had people subscribe to my main YouTube channel, something I never even considered before because, well, I’d never thought about it. This is something else you could look forward to if you have enough people that decide they like your videos and thus want notification whenever you add more.

You might as well get used to the reality that video is not only big right now, but it’s getting bigger. There are more than 3 billion views of videos every single day on YouTube alone; imagine how many there are if you include the other video services, including independently produced videos.

What’s the appeal for a video? Pretty much like audio you can just listen to it, or you can watch and see content you might not see anywhere else. When I do my videos I’m much more freeform than I am when I write, and that’s saying a lot if you’ve seen a lot of things I write on this blog.

There are people way more creative than I am when it comes to doing video. I’ve never learned editing, so when I do a video you get what you get. Other people’s videos might be constructed better, but if I say so myself I think what I have to say most of the time can equal what you’ll see on other people’s videos if we’re speaking on the same topic.

Of course the major thing about videos is that it brings a personable presence that writing can’t do all on its own. It probably explains why TV captures the lives and imagination of so many people, because there’s something intriguing when you can get involved in someone else’s lives and thoughts, even if on TV much of it is fake.

In your own videos, you can do things you can’t do just by writing. There are people who show you how to exercise, how to eat, how to fix things, even how to score high in your favorite video games (I don’t play any lol).

And, as you see here, I’ve written a lot about some positives of video and yet I still have the video below offering even more on the subject. I’m thinking you’re getting double your money for today’s post, and since you’re not paying me anything for this stuff, that’s real value! 😉

So with that, I present these tips to you, and hope you enjoy the video as well, and if you do don’t forget to subscribe or go back through previous videos and see what I’ve been sharing, since I’ve been doing these things for a few years now.
 


 

5 Takeaways From My Video Project

On Monday I finally ended my video project. That project was first mentioned when I wrote my post about creating content.

Oswego Sunset
Sunset Over Lake Ontario

The main idea was that I needed more videos on my business YouTube channel. I had fewer than 30 videos overall, and now I have 58 on that channel because I did a video every single day for the month of June. I shared a couple on that other post, and during this month I celebrated my 13th year of having my own business with a video post giving 13 business lessons for those 13 years, the longest video of the series coming in around 29 minutes. I’m sharing that one now:
 


http://youtu.be/roOzb1sdqYA

One doesn’t undertake such a project without having some ideas and beliefs of what’s going to happen and what the goals are.

My first goal was to see if I could do 30 videos in a row, and that was only challenged once, when I knew I’d be on the road coming home and wouldn’t get in until after midnight, and since I’d be working all day I wouldn’t have the opportunity to do a video unless I did it beforehand and uploaded it just after midnight, which I did. Other than that… I did one every single day.

My second goal was to see if I could get more viewers to that YouTube page and possibly increase my subscribers in some fashion. I had a few viewers but overall I’m not sure it was more than what I’d had before. As for subscribers, I only got 2; I’ll take what I can get. 🙂

The third goal of course was to increase the number of videos that not only helped enhance what I tell people I do, but also to have some videos in reserve that I can go back to and embed in blog posts whenever I touch upon those subjects. That’s something that not all that many people do who create videos, but it’s also one of the reasons why I tell people all the time that they should create more videos.

20140613_201833

With that said I did learn some things, and I’m going to share 5 of them with you here. I’m not sure you’ll be able to use them all but hey, I think lessons can be learned in many different ways, in many different formats. Let’s see if you get anything from what I’m going to share; after all, this IS I’m Just Sharing lol:

1. You don’t have to plan every step way in advance for anything. For this series, the only video I actually planned was #24, the one I’ve shared above. In a way, that’s how I write most of my blog posts; I come up with an idea, then I write about it. I put this out there because so many bloggers tell people they have to come up with a blogging schedule to help them figure out what they want to write about; nah.

2. Almost every subject has a lot of different things you can talk about. I concentrate a part of my main business on leadership and topics surrounding that. Except for the last video and the one above all the other videos were on some type of leadership topic, which includes motivation. Truthfully, I could have probably done 30 more, but I think I made my point.

3. Marketing is a bear when doing that much content producing. Other than weekends, I worked or traveled every single day in June. I created the videos, but since they’re on my business channel they automatically go to my second Google Plus channel but no others, and I only have 4 people I’m connected to there. Also, if you create a video via Google Hangout you have to share the video links on your own, which is different than if you create a video and upload it.

Because I did a video every day, sometimes around 11PM Central time, I’d do the video, wait about 15 minutes for it to show up, and then post the title and link to my main G+ account and Twitter. I only posted two videos to my Facebook page, and neither got 20 views; cursed Facebook. lol And because it was daily I only posted each link once except for the video above, which I felt had a chance to reach a much larger audience.

The marketing of videos, along with the time period for trying to let people know when I was going to do one, wasn’t great and I think I suffered in that manner. This taught me two things.

One, I need to put out a message asking people to let me know if they want to be informed when I’m going to do a live video on certain topics and base it on those channels so I can add those people to their own circle.

Two, for the most part it’s better to do videos at a time when people are actually awake and not about to go to bed. It a way it’s not enough just to have the content. If I did a video around 7PM instead of 11PM and only got to share it with people afterwards, they were more apt to see the link while they were still on Twitter or G+ instead of being asleep and possibly seeing it when they awoke (yeah, like that happens for most people). I don’t think the pre-notification would have done much but posting afterwards much earlier in the evening or during the day on the weekends… way smarter thing to do.

Mushroom Dude

4. Don’t do videos if you have a mirror in front of you. In the second hotel room I was in there was this large mirror in front of the desk. Sometimes I start moving my arms when I talk, and most of the time you don’t see that in the video because I have the camera mainly on my face. However, I’d keep distracting myself because I’d see something moving, which of course was me. I could have covered up the mirror or gone out to the living room / dining room area to do the videos but I was too lazy. Still, trying to avoid as many distractions as possible is smart.

5. Sometimes you have to go with the flow. When I did the video above, which was long, I had multiple times where I had to scratch my nose or face. Initially I was fighting it like a boxer but eventually I had to succumb because there was no way I was going to make it through without scratching. If I knew how to edit videos I could have stopped and then come back, but that would have looked choppy and I’m not sure that would have made the video look better.

So I announced it the first time, and every other time I had to scratch or rub my face I just did it. Hey, it was hot, and I didn’t want to turn the fan on because I didn’t want the noise messing up my audio.

Sure, you want to look as professional as possible, but there’s a thing about live, that being that, well, it’s live! When I do live speaking engagements, sometimes I get an itch, or need to cough, or will pause and drink some water. When I interact with people in person, sometimes that happens as well. I don’t think that was an issue on any of the short videos because I pretty much spoke on my message and got out. But 29 1/2 minutes? Wasn’t going to happen.

There 5 takeaways that you may or may not be able to use. In any case I hope some of you watch the video above, especially if you’re thinking about starting your own business or have your own business and might feel you’re missing a few things.
 

The Answer – Because I Like It

Last weekend when I was home I went for a walk at the lake with a friend of mine. He asked me a question about making videos that made me create a video about it. In essence he was asking me what I was getting out of making videos and I believe it was a question about publicity, making money, etc. My response wasn’t bad, which is why I’m popping the video about it below so you can check it out if you so choose.

Picture 70

However, upon reflection I realized that when I responded to the question, I felt like my back was against the wall and that I had to justify what I was doing. Sometimes all of us feel like that, where we see a question or hear a question or are confronted with something we’re doing and we’re not quite sure how to answer it. And I realized that overall my response was, well… because I like it!

Frankly, I think that’s a great answer that can be applied to many things that we do… when it’s true. For instance, anyone who tells me they like smoking when they know it causes cancer and emphysema, or that they like getting drunk and passing out every weekend, I know is lying. Anyone who says they like brushing their teeth without adding “because I want to keep my teeth healthy and cavity free” is lying because it’s not something that’s done out of pleasure… well, there’s probably one or two crazy people who might love doing it. lol

But for many things it’s the perfect and true answer, even if it didn’t start out that way. When I started my first blog back in 2005 it was with the intention of showing business proficiency. All these years and extra blogs later, I do it because I like it.

When I first started doing video I did it with the intention of improving my craft of speaking as well as getting my face out to the public in case someone liked what I had to say and needed a speaker/presenter for their organization that they were willing to pay for. After awhile I realized that I like doing them as well.

Why do I eat so much dessert? Because I like it. Why do I eat a lot of hamburger? Because I like it. Why am I an independent consultant who doesn’t have a full time job, doesn’t have insurance paid for by an employer, and doesn’t get vacation time so I can go to all these exotic places knowing I’m still being paid? Because I like what I do.

Think about the different things you do. How many of them are you doing for the pleasure of it? How many are you doing because you feel obligated? How many are you doing because you ARE obligated? What can you give up? What can you make more enjoyable to move it into the “because I like it” realm?

Anyway, that should have been my true response because, when all is said and done, it’s my reality. I hope you check out the video because in the middle of it all I reveal something about pretzels; did that get your attention? 🙂