March 23, 2010
Here is a sneak peek at a couple of the new features in Camtasia Studio version 7 from Techsmith.
New Camtasia 7 Callouts
Adding callouts to your videos is always a quick & easy way to add visual interest or emphasis to a talking point.
Camtasia 7 has some new callout styles and, even cooler, something called sketch motion callouts. These are “animated” callouts you can drop in that will “draw” themselves into the video. Nice…
Camtasia 7 Cursor Effects
In Camtasia version 7 you will be able to help your viewer follow along better by editing the mouse pointer to enlarge it, creating a spotlight, and visual “clicks”.
“But Lon…we could do that in Camtasia 6!”
Ya…but not on the fly during the editing process! Ya.
Plus…there are new and much cooler effects (a spotlight and better looking “click” highlights) and a Cursor Track added to the timeline for more control over the effects.
Stay tuned!
Lon
Posted in Camtasia, Screencast News 
11 Comments »
March 21, 2010
The rumors are true!
The next version of Camtasia Studio from Techsmith is on it’s way and will be available very SOON. This new version is considered a major upgrade and we’re excited to see everything it has to offer!
Check out a couple of teaser videos from Techsmith on the new release of their flagship product Camtasia Studio.
Will it really make screencasting as easy as a “piece of cake”?
We’ll see!
And here’s an interview with the new Product Manager, Shane Lovellete done by Technical Evangelist Betsy Weber:
Shane says:
We’ve got some great new stuff but we’re also addressing a lot of the smaller issues that have been problems for awhile that we want to help make it easier for people to use…
I’ll keep you posted!
Lon
Posted in Camtasia, Screencast News 10 Comments »
March 12, 2010
I study stuff…
It’s kinda what I do and how I come up with new tips & tricks and continue to expand my Camtasia video skills. I also find that watching what’s going on is essential due to the fact that “what works” and what people want changes SO fast.
In my almost 10 years of studying the evolution of marketing on the internet, I’ve found that most people don’t “get it” …but a handful of people do. And those are the people I study the most.
Why do some marketers struggle to get any kind of significant results and a select few absolutely CRUSH everything they touch?
Well…study them to find out!
Frank Kern is one of those folks I mentioned. If you’ve never followed a Kern launch, I suggest you do so because there simply is none better. I posted about the first step of list generation with a viral video tactic he used recently.
The actual launch phase is now in full swing and you can follow along by getting into the flow and watch the video sequence HERE:
Let me be clear about some things once again:
- Yes, that’s an affiliate link. I guess it would be stupid not to use it.
- I am NOT recommending the product. I have not seen it or used it.
- It’s gonna be expensive and not for everyone.
- I’m not even taking the time to put together a bonus like most of the 10 gazillion emails you’ll see for this.
- In fact, if I were you and was interesting in buying? I’d probably find someone with a huge bonus and buy it from them…
I don’t care if you are interested in it or not and I’m not trying to get you interested in buying it…but I suggest that you study the process.
Hidden in the outstanding free content and strategies Frank gives away in these videos are the actual elements that make this launch flow so effective.
Can you spot them? Leave a comment and let me know what you find and what you think! I’ve listed some of my favorites so far below.
Please, let’s NOT get into any kind of ethical debate over semantics or specific tactics. I get that some folks don’t like anything that has to do with “sales” or persuasion. I concede that Frank is a master at ninja NLP mind tricks…so be it.
I’m focusing on some core concepts:
- The “story”, imagery, and sound MAKE this video series compelling. As video marketers, we can rock like this too.
- Selling sucks and is hard! Instead, I want to draw people towards me and not simply push stuff .
- Success is in the VALUE that you provide.
- Doing this is a lot more work! But I’m getting REALLY tired of lazy ass marketers…
And, as Frank puts it:
1. Be SURE you know what they want (and that you can actually help them get it).
2. Demonstrate you can give it to them by helping them right from the start.
3. Make an offer that’s obviously a no-brainer for them …and do so kindly – with their best interests in mind.
4. Give them a reason to take action now.
The philosophy that we are “paid in direct proportion to the value we provide to the marketplace” is one that I completely subscribe to and I hope that most of my members and subscribers would think that I follow.
I also love the saying:
And Andy Jenkins recent launch of the Video Boss coaching program was another perfect example of a well executed pre-launch flow using basically the same video flow as the main sales tool.
I recommend this excellent post by Andy as a great example of the strategic thinking behind these two launches:
I’d like to show you how NOT to build a list
by Andy Jenkins on March 6, 2010
I absolutely love the thinking and systems behind these launch examples and can’t wait to put together a sequence of extreme value and relationship building content for my next big launch.
Your thoughts?
Lon
Posted in Cool Samples, Video Marketing 2 Comments »
March 9, 2010
Well, it’s time to gird your loins for the newest round of super guru promotin’!
Of course, one of the super-duperest gurus of all is Frank Kern. If you are on any lists you’ll certainly see emails for a new latest-greatest thingy from him called the 4 Day Cash Machine or something…
Anyway, I’ve got some thoughts on the process he’s using with video for his list building and launch that I think are worth noting.
Let me be very clear here: I do NOT know what this is all about, I don’t own it, I’m not recommending it one way or the other.
But as a fan of Frank’s methods in the past, I will tell you what I DO like:
I am lovin’ the use of video and the viral promo tactic they are using.
1. The first step in the process lands you on a video squeeze page that has Frank giving away a presentation called Core Influence of really good quality in exchange, of course, for creating an account which puts you in the launch sequence. Standard stuff…
2. What happens next is pretty cool. Immediately after signing up, you are put on a page with an affiliate link for you and a video that explains that: "If you send out that link and get x number of referrals, you can get an extra video called Core Influence 2. This is an automatic built-in reward incentive. Awesome idea!
If you’re a student of excellent ideas like me, you can follow the flow also by clicking my affiliate link (of course!) here:
Seriously, you are going to see all kinds of the standard hype emails of how somebody made $37,394.42 in blah blah days or got a 57% blah blah conversion rate…geez, I’m sick of all that crap!
My take? Don’t worry about the junk…follow and study the process. It’s brilliant!
I really don’t even know what the actual product will be here. Don’t care. Not recommending it. I’m only using my affiliate link here so I can see the cool little reward that’s part of the process. I suggest you do the same thing if it’s applicable for your friends or lists.
The Core Influence videos are excellent content and worth the watch. Frank does a sweet job with video…
I’m interested to see how effective this tactic will end up being and also hearing what your thoughts on it might be.
What do you think? Leave a comment!
Have a great week,
Lon Naylor
Posted in Cool Samples 14 Comments »
March 4, 2010
After the 2010 Google Super Bowl ad I was inspired to try my hand at making one of these very cool screencast videos. In case you missed the blog post about it, here is the Google ad that aired and my first attempt to do one:
Google Search Video Post
Check it out and leave a comment and/or Tweet it if you like!
Lot’s of folks want to know how I did that so I made a tutorial covering the details. Here ya go:
PRESS PLAY
I talk about a couple of main concepts used in this video that are applicable in a wide variety of screencast work:
1. Recording in “Scenes” - Have you ever gotten frustrated with trying to record a video because you messed up at some point or gotten out of sync? Maybe you’re just trying to do too many things at once!
2. Recording for Clarity – A couple of useful tips for getting crystal clear captures.
3. “Speed Typing” Effect – 3 ways you can get the nice fast typing effect.
4. The Power of Music – Music = Emotion and can change the entire “feel” of your video and the emotion of your message.
Cool Search Tips
Doing standard searches can be effective when telling your story but don’t forget to think “outside the box”. Here are some links to interesting things you can use that you might not know about:
Music Links
Please leave a comment and/or Tweet!
Enjoy!
Lon
Posted in Camtasia, QuickTips 10 Comments »
February 12, 2010
OK…this is one of the sweetest deals to come around in the video marketing world. It’s called iFlash and it’s from Jason Anderson & Stefan Billups.
These guys churn out awesome, studio quality videos for marketing
professionals. I mean, these are online commercials that rival
the quality of big ticket television commercials.
If you’re making your own promotional videos…check out what these
guys at iFlash Video are doing:
You may never want to make your own promo videos again. I know that sounds strange coming from me but look…even I can’t put a video like these together for myself without spending hours in the mind-numbing complexity of Adobe After Effects.
And they’ll do one 60 second video for me a month for 50 bucks each??? Duh! No brainer.
The videos are:
* 100% CUSTOM…never a boiler plate template
* They all come with professional voice-over
* You just tell them your “vision”, give them an audio script and
the go and do their magic.
They are open for business (and have been for a while)…but this
particular private invitation is for a members only area that
isn’t quite open yet.
Here’s the deal:
They normally sell their video productions for $399 and up but
on February 16th…well…that’s when the new private access service starts.
There is a $149.99 set up fee which includes your first video, and then it’s only $49.99/month to continue.
Because these are all custom made, they are only letting in 500 people for this service. I’ve talked to Jason about this and it’s NOT some stupid “scarcity” tactic. You simply cannot take on too many people and produce this kind of quality work…
Can I vouch for this service?
Well…not yet. But it certainly can’t hurt to sign up for the Notification List to check it out. I was actually invited to take a look at this by my good friend Willie Crawford. In fact, here’s an episode from his BlogTalkRadio show where he interviews the guys on using these kinds of videos:
Bottom Line? I’m pretty jazzed about getting in and trying this out! Maybe I’ll just pay the setup fee for one awesome video at a very reasonable price and then quit…I’m not sure yet.
But knowing that I can get a new one every month has me thinking… I should really come up with a topic and have one made on an ongoing basis and leverage some killer content that I don’t have to create at a stupid bargain of a price…
Let me know your thoughts…
Lon
Posted in Screencast News, Video Marketing 3 Comments »
February 10, 2010
Like a lot of folks, I was intrigued by the rare ad run by Google during the Super Bowl. Some people loved it, some hated it, some indifferent. Certainly, if loud action shots, side splitting humor, or just good ole’ fashioned big boobs are what float your boat as far as commercials go then this was a departure!
In case you missed it, here it is again:
Me? I saw a brilliant video…almost a work of art. The combination of imagery, perfect music, and use of screen capture “scenes” put together into a 60 second collage was awesome.
But when it was over, I immediately thought, “Whoa! I could do THAT!”
Since I’m speaking at Bob “The Teacher” Jenkins S.I.M.P.L.E. Event this month, I put together my own little “search story”. Here it is:
The really sweet part? I don’t have to pay $3 million bucks to air it! Actually, this clip is WAYYYY long because I couldn’t resist putting in the Cape Fear clip, so the 3 1/2 minute video would cost $10.5 million during that TV time slot.
The biggest concept to understand if you want to make one of these yourself is that it’s made up of individual “scenes” captured with Camtasia individually and then stitched together during editing.
If you tried to just grab ALL the footage in one recording shot? Hmmm…that would be VERY messy and you would never end up with anything that looked smooth. The biggest problem is that most of the scenes are “sped up” to give that cool fast typing effect.
I tried using Camtasia’s Clip Speed feature for this at first but since you can’t see the effects of the speed up until AFTER you produce, it was a TOTAL nightmare (come on Techsmith!! Uggg…).
I gave up and dropped the clips into Sony Vegas Movie Studio Platinum where the whole thing was a complete snap and I could monitor the timing and tweaks in real time. Syncing the music, sounds, and other audio was also a breeze in Vegas.
I exported to a AVI file and did the Pan & Zooms in Camtasia (which is easier than Vegas to me), and rendered it out to MP4 Flash.
These kinds of videos aren’t new. They are called Search Stories and you can see other examples on this YouTube Channel.
A big thanks to Andy Jenkins (The Video Boss) for his blog post that gave me the inspiration and motivation to whip this out.
BTW…it took me about 7.5 hours, start to finish. Planning (as usual) took the biggest percentage of time (about 3.5 hours), setting up my “shots” and rehearsal about 2 hours, and the rest in editing and final production.
What do you think?
Lon
Posted in Cool Samples, QuickTips 23 Comments »
February 8, 2010
When it comes to making great marketing videos, Andy Jenkins is (IMHO) pretty much the best around. In this second installment of a 4 video launch series, Andy provides 20 minutes of pure gold content. Nothing for sale in this one…just one of the best brain dumps I’ve ever seen on HOW to make effective marketing videos from one of the best brains in the business.
Why do I like this so much and want you to watch and study it?
Because I’ve been teaching the SAME things for 3 years!
Watch the video below and then follow along with my thoughts and observations (and leave a comment!):
Click HERE to watch
OK…here are some key points:
1. Notice Andy’s audio quality. Top notch! It’s a major contributor to the “professionalism” factor!
2. This entire video includes music tracks. Notice I used the plural “tracks”. Listen to how each track instantly conveys a very specific “feeling” and changes the dynamic of the presentation. See if you can pick out the “emotions” Andy is trying to convey with each track change and how it ties into the message he is delivering at that moment. This is powerful subconscious stuff!!
3. Within the first 10 seconds, he pulls us in with a compelling “reason to watch”. The “Fastest way to create powerful sales videos”? Heck ya! I want that! It’s the first 10 seconds that are critical to getting your message watched.
4. At :20 we get a nice dose of “social proof” in the way of comments from the first video in the series to further whet the appetite. The video is wrong, there are 1,087 comments as of this writing! Placing this scene here is NOT by chance. It’s there so we will “validate” our reason for watching it and feel like we will be “missing out” if we leave. More powerful subconscious stuff…
5. I believe that Andy probably changed the opening minutes of this video from his original script. And I believe he did that because of the feedback in the comments from the first video. Notice how he listened to what his viewers were telling him they wanted and adjusted the content to even further give us a reason to watch. TIP: ALWAYS keep your eyes open to what your viewers want and reflect that back to them in your content! Using simple footage grabbed from his comments page ended up being simple, quick, and very effective.
6. Oh…and the cool “sideways 3D-looking” effect he used in the scene? You can do this with the Camtasia “Tilt” Pan & Zoom feature. Notice he uses it sparingly for maximum effect but he uses it because it is a visual eye grabber. More on that in a bit…
7. Step 1 talks about using a…<gasp>…script! OMG! Really? Ya. Because if you are delivering a message, what you say, when you say it, and how you say it are important. I create an actual script for literally every video I create. I love his advice here: “The better the script, the happier the viewer!”
8. A sales page contains almost everything you need to plan & script a killer Camtasia sales video. I talk about this planning concept in the Screencast Profits Course in several places. Have you seen the free Affiliate Marketing Module from the Screencast Profits Gold Member level? It’s a good compliment to Andy’s content! Specifically, check out the “Getting Started Right” Chapter in this module.
9. At 3:43 Andy does an easy little trick. Can you tell what it is? It’s a slow Pan & Zoom. He takes the capture (it might even just be a static image) and slowly makes it move. You can do this in Camtasia using the Pan & Zoom feature and just set the Zoom Duration to a higher value like 5 to 8 seconds! This is effective because we are conditioned to seeing things “move”. Watch a documentary on TV sometime. You know, maybe something about history where they show old paintings or photographs? You will never see anything “standing still” for more than a couple of seconds. It will move…because a hundred years of film production experience has shown that movement keeps the viewers attention.
10. At 4:15, the Little Boss FAB technique is solid gold. It’s a variation of the AIDA (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action) method I teach in Screencast Profits only more focused to the most important elements of a good sales message: Features & Benefits. TIP: It’s the benefit that sells!
11. At 5:29, you’ll see a pretty funny graphic. Again, not a random thing! It’s called a “Pattern Interrupt” and is there to jolt you back to the message. This is another thing I talk about in the Affiliate Marketing module in the Product Demos chapter. In fact, I also use a FailBlog.org image just like Andy used to demonstrate the concept!
12. Another concept I teach is at 7:09. “People love to buy but they don’t like being sold to!" Great advice…
13. Andy uses Apple’s Keynote to create his presentation. Arguably, Keynote is much cooler in the effects department than Microsoft PowerPoint! But…I don’t own a Mac (yet) so I use PowerPoint. FYI, the beta for the next version of PPT is out and I’ll be checking it out to see if there are coolness enhancements.
14. I highly recommend all the template, image, and other resources Andy mentions. I use them all!
15. At 10:12 – Using pictures & sound for maximum “emotional” benefit. Pay attention here! Watch any of my videos and you’ll see this concept used constantly. Key point:
Use text and then relevant images to reach beyond logic and help them understand the emotion of what you’re trying to say.
But you’ll never hear me use any Yani…lol.
16. At 17:30 we get to hear about another of my pet peeves. Rehearsal! I’m just going to say this about that: “Kick ass videos are rehearsed. Lame videos are not…period.” Winging it has a time & place but don’t become an expert in mediocrity by doing it all the time! Thanks for the validation Andy…
That’s it for this video review. Can’t wait for the next one!
Oh…one more thing:
There are download links for each of Andy’s videos on the page that has the video.
I want to hear what you think and what you have questions on! Please leave a comment!
Lon
FYI: The link to Andy’s video above is my affiliate link and I’ll be compensated if you buy. I’ll have my thoughts on what I think of the product after the 4th video of his series.
Posted in Video Marketing 9 Comments »
February 4, 2010
The hands down, bar none, and a no-doubt-about-it, not even close top video marketing expert hero of mine is Andy Jenkins.
I’ve studied him for several years now and always marvel at his style (which is very similar to mine I think) and his video marketing philosophy. In fact, at times, I find it absolutely scary how much we think alike in terms of how and why to use video on the internet.
I got to meet Andy in person (finally) at Mike Filsaime’s Affiliate Appreciation event in Vegas the end of January and it turns out that his personality is pretty much the same in person as it is in his videos. I knew this when he gave me a big bear hug! LOL…
I’m totally jazzed to see that since breaking away from StomperNet that he is now coming out with what will surely be the top video marketing information around.
His new thing is called The Video Boss. I’m sure it will be great ‘n’ all…but probably not for everyone…and probably pretty pricey.
So, why am I telling you about it and why am I psyched?
Because, if Andy is true to form with the launch of this product (and I’m sure he will be), he is going to provide a TON of absolutely incredible information during the process for free.
I highly recommend that you opt-in to watch and study these videos!!!!
CLICK HERE AND WATCH THESE
I can literally promise you…it will be well worth the time.
Post your comments here and let’s discuss the tactics he teaches. You could try to also leave a comment on Andy’s first video page but…there are already 572 of them! Yikes…
Enjoy!
Lon
Disclaimer: Dear FTC, The links above are my affiliate links and I’ll get rich if you use them but I can’t promise you will if you buy anything,
Posted in Video Marketing 12 Comments »
February 3, 2010
I actually started working on my internet business the day I “retired” from Microsoft in March of 1999. I didn’t start to take it very seriously however until 2005 when I went to my first live event in Phoenix put on by a relatively unknown guy named Mike Filsaime.
I really started into the whole thing when I joined his private
mentoring group called I5 Gold (at 500 skins a month!) with some other unknown newbies: Alex Jeffreys, Tim Brocklehurst, and a guy named Bob “The Teacher” Jenkins.
Since then, I’ve watched in amazement as Bob turned out product after product, success after success…the guy is a machine!
So, when Bob announced that he was hold his first live seminar event I wasn’t surprised. And I’m very happy to report that I will be one of only 4 featured speakers presenting with him in Wilmington N.C. Feb. 26-28th, 2010.
It’s called S.I.M.P.L.E. – School for Information Marketing Profits Live Event.
CLICK for Details
You see, Bob “The Teacher” was a real life teacher before making a full time living on the net. His ability to, well, teach is nothing short of amazing. Ask any of his current “students” and you’ll find nothing but respect and admiration from them as well.
The one other thing I will mention is that if you are in this business and never been to a live event, you’re missing one of the most impactful things you can do. The relationships and friends I’ve made in these face-to-face forums has been the single biggest factor in growing my business.
Hope to see you there!
Posted in Screencast News No Comments »
content rss