Shot composition will either make your video look professional or amateur.  Most people compose a picture or a video with five feet of head room and center the shots.  With all due respect,  this drives me nuts.

Probably 90% of the people that take our picture when we’re on vacation don’t have a clue of how to frame a shot. I gave up long ago and bring a little desk top tripod and do it myself.

First of all “Fill the Frame.”  Keep your subject the main focus of the shot.  Move the camera closer rather than use the zoom.  Don’t center the shot, shoot at an angle.   Angles creates depth and depth creates interest rather than the same old boring stuff.

Rule of Thirds is a technique that has been used for years by pros.  Draw a mental grid around your subject like my picture of one of my favorite actors, Clint Eastwood.  Notice, he’s not centered, the shots at a slight angle, and the frame is open on the right side, the direction he’s looking.

Notice the tic-tac-toe grid and how his face is positioned in it.  Rule of Thirds applies to still, videos, and any kind of shot.  Whether close, medium close, long shot, establishing shot, the thirds rule.

These are just a few of the tips I share in my book,  Viral Video Ideas Follow a few of these tips and your videos will rise above the average stuff out their in cyber-land.  If you get good at composition maybe I’ll let you take our picture! Happy shooting.  Mark

I was presented a unique opportunity to develop a marketing campaign for an amazing company called Avazzia and their life-changing pain elimination device.  That’s right, it literally “zaps” pain.  The devices interface with our body’s Central Nervous System through an advanced form of electrical stimulation.

I wanted to give our subscribers a chance to review our benefit driven campaign and post this video in our showcase section of the website and what the heck, a shameless plug for Avazzia.

Did you know that specific electrical signals and frequencies can communicate through the CNS and  support the body’s natural healing response?

It’s a rush!  You have to experience it to understand how it feels.  Treating back pain and relief for neck pain alone is a multi-billion dollar industry so our objective is to help people with pain get their hands on this technology.

Our objective is to help Avazzia boost awareness of this acute pain management technology in keeping with the founders vision to put this device in the hands of millions of people.  Our campaign is people focused more than technology focused although this palm sized, space age micro-computer is unquestionably unique.  It kind of reminds me of a smaller tricorder device from Star Trek!

We demonstrate the simplicity and yes, even with a $1000 price tag (before insurance), the “affordability” of using this technology.  Living a pain free life without dangerous drugs is worth it’s weight in gold.  We ask the question; “What would your life be like without pain?”

A technology of this caliber is only available through physiotherapist and is currently being used by professional sports teams and health professionals all over the world.    But with Avazzia’s palm size devices, the “Power is in Your Hands…”

Here are some of our benefit statements about this product:

-What if you could eliminate your pain without drugs?

-What could you learn from Pro Sports teams in football, basketball, baseball and hockey about stopping pain?

-What do progressive, knowledgeable medical professionals know about pain elimination and how would you like to have access to the same technology?

-What if you could use this same affordable medical technology in your home for all of your family’s pain needs?

-What if that technology was a 21^st century space age micro-computer technology that has been cleared by the FDA and is covered by most insurance companies, Medicare and Workers’ Compensation?

We know that pain is huge problem with millions of people, so we think there’s a pretty good chance that having an affordable FDA cleared medical device in the home is a benefit.

Please take a moment and watch our promo video and let us know what you think about our campaign.  With all the hype and gimmicks out there relating to pain management, Avazzia has hit a home-run with a genuine device that will provide pain relief for years to come.

As always, your comments are appreciated.  Remember, the power is in your hands.   Thanks for participating, Mark

Successful business people learn fast that niches create riches. Finding that tribe or group of people that are looking for your product is important. But even more important is helping them find you. Why not get proactive and have there product waiting for them when they get there?

So how can you carve out our slice of the American pie in a cyber-world where thousands of advertisers and marketers are vying for attention? First of all it’s important that we NOT do what everyone else is doing. Identify a unique product or service that they’re already looking for and target your market with specific key words and search terms.

There are quite a few tools that assist you in automating the process of finding high ranking key words. What I mean by “high ranking” is key words and longer phrases referred to as “long tail key words” that will easily show up in Google on page one or two for the person searching.

The advantage of “long tail key words” is a phrase helps you to narrow your search to a specific niche or group of people. It’s too broad to just search for “shoes” when you really need a pair of “red converse tennis shoes.”

Savvy searchers get real specific about what they want to find. The question is: How do you know what they are searching for and wouldn’t it be great if there was a software that would do it for you? We’ll there are plenty of great SEO softwares that will improve your search engine rankings so those people can find you but Micro Niche Finder is my favorite. This program takes the guess work out and helps you identify those niches.

The point is this. If you are selling the product they are looking for and you want them to find you, you have to know exactly what they’re are typing into Google.

Why not find out what people want first and then respond by providing products and services that meet the need? Hmmm…. pretty good idea!

What is the Social Networking Community?  What is Internet Social Networking? It’s when people network and communicate online. We’ll that’s profound, Mark!  So what, people have been communicating for 1000’s of years — nothing new here.  The big difference is the Internet makes it  simple to make a lot of friends all over the world at breakneck speed.

How do you make friends?  The reality is, people love it when you complement them about their video or their blog.  Guess what there are powerful life-changing benefits when you make new friends online.  In addition, making friends by commenting and interacting  boosts your search engine rating.  No kidding!  If that seems self serving its not. You’re actually giving them higher search engine rankings too when you make comments.

Higher search engine rankings happen when you interact and populate the Internet with your comments and observations.  Comment about other blogger’s articles and videos and you will be rewarded with reciprocation.  The social network community thrives on interaction, so get out there and make some friends and share your comments.  It’s the old principle taught by tour old friend Zig: Help people get what they want and you’ll get what you want.  Give and it shall be given to you. Be sociable!