This video tip has absolutely nothing to do with President Obama but check out this free online teleprompter, the Cue Prompter.

You can try it right now. Go to: www.cueprompter.com.    We all get bored watching videos that just ramble on and on.  You only have a few seconds to catch some one’s attention.  Get to the point!

Organize your thoughts and write them down prior to shooting your video.  It’s OK to refer to your notes.  It’s not necessary to constantly look into the camera.  However, if you want your notes scrolling on your laptop screen, Cue Prompter is a pretty decent program.

When referring to your notes, most importantly, don’t read them.  Use them as a reference and speak conversationally and naturally as if your viewer right next to you.

Most importantly, know your topic.  Appearing confident and knowledgeable attracts and connects with viewers.  Personally, I don’t use Cue Prompter very often but it’s a great little program to have in your tool box when you need it.

Consistently hitting the target in your marketing efforts take lot’s of practice and a lot of testing to find out what works and as important what does not work.

It’s unrealistic to believe you will always be dead on with your marketing campaigns and business efforts but here are a few tips that can help us all along our success journey.

Business ventures require patience and a consistent effort.  First of all you have to have a purpose, an outcome or a vision that compels you and propels you to continue to move forward. Once you know what you want, here’s a proven formula for success: Patience + Consistency = Persistence.

Persistence is an absolute requirement for overcoming the obstacles that are guaranteed to challenge us on our journey.   Here’s a great quote from Calvin Coolidge that’s been hanging on my wall for over fifteen years.

Nothing in the world can take the place of Persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.

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!

The social networking community on the Internet is always hungry for news and views.  If you intend to build a fan base for your product or service, people have to know you exist.  One way is get noticed is to share your thoughts with an intent to create value for the readers.

Whether you agree or disagree with an article, go public with your views by  commenting on blogs and  videos on the web.

There’s an added benefit to being an avid reader and contributor.  Your comments with a link back to your site can create new traffic for you too.  By interacting and sharing your thoughts, you’re also boosting your SEO too.  Forums are also fantastic venues or sharing your ideas.

Here’s a word of caution.  The social networking community hates spamming and bloggers that are just promoting their stuff. Don’t use your comments as an opportunity to pitch your product or service.  Don’t comment and then close with a sales pitch. That’s a HUGE turn-off and a marketing taboo.

The key to success in any business venture is to create value through contribution.  Get creative and share your ideas with others.

If you’re thinking about making a career out of producing video for the web or want to create some eye catching content for your prospects, I can’t emphasize enough the importance of developing a library of video footage and music. It takes time to develop a library of royalty free stock footage. “Royalty Free” means just that, free for you to use over and over again without paying royalties. A great stock footage and music library is like gold.

You can even create entire projects using stock footage with products like Digital Juice. Creating variety and interest is critical to make your work look great and catch the attention of your clients and business prospects. Make your projects stand out. Remember if viewers don’t notice you, you don’t exist!

One of the biggest mistakes people make when shooting a video is a lack of attention to audio. Clear audio is important if you want to connect with your audience or prospects. If you sound like you’re clear across the room when you talk, your video will not only sound bad but you’ll also appear impersonal.

I recommend if you don’t have a lapel microphone and you’re shooting with an built in camera microphone, simply move the camera closer and fill the frame. Don’t worry, it won’t bite! However, if you can swing it, invest $50 and purchase an inexpensive lapel or shotgun microphone for your camera.

Here’s a couple of options: Sony makes an ECM-HGZ1 Shotgun microphone for about $50 and a wired condenser lapel microphone, ECM-CS10 for about $30. Check it out and happy recording.

Choosing a camera for online video used to be a big challenge. Consumer video cameras are everywhere.  How do you sort it all out?

Now with the new Flip video Cameras, shooting your web video is as simple as “point and shoot” then “plug and play.  With a simple USB connection, you can be streaming your video on Youtube within minutes.  No complicated encoding is necessary.

Really, the best video cameras to use  are the cameras YOU will use.  The cheapest video cameras aren’t neccessarily the best but the new cameras are certainly affordable with a price point of under $200. Choose a simple camera and don’t get bogged down in complicated equipment.

Web Video sharing sites  and video distribution sites number in the 100’s.  YouTube, the forerunner in online video started in mid 2006. Since then millions of smart business people stream some of their content on their own personal YouTube website channel.

There is a YouTube alternative and a lot of great options like Heyspread, Tubemogul, Viddler and Metacafe. Now live video streaming platforms like LiveStream is getting extremely popular and intergrated into popular internet business culture. Here’s a few benefits of using sharing sites and a couple of my favorites video distrbution sites.

Lighting for video is an important for producing a quality image. Video camera techniques along with the right video lighting equipment is every videographer’s ultimate goal.

However, when a person has a tight budget there are simple ways using natural light sources to produce a great looking video.  Here’ s a few video light tips using natural lighting and also mistakes people make and what to avoid.

I don’t know about you but I get overwhelmed by the amount of information available on the Internet 24-7.  It’s like a sign in the window that says: “Sorry We’re NEVER Closed!”    Now that’s scary, a business that never closes.  How do you think people are managing information overload?  They just mute it!

If you don’t want to get muted or more accurate,  Xed out or get back arrowed, then get to the point. Don’t ramble on and on.  If you’re doing talking head videos a two minute video can seem like eternity to a viewer.

If you are planning on producing videos for the web, particularly your blog or for video sharing sites, make sure your videos are relevant, concise and interesting or you’ll loose your audience real fast.