Viral Video
Podcasting 1-2-3, or How to Make a Google Video
By
Robin A. Brown 
Video Podcasting, or viral videos are
all the buzz in promotion these days. If you aren't fond of keeping
a written blog, and you never got past the technical obstructions to
audio podcasting, you may be in for a pleasant surprise with video
podcasting. It's surprisingly simple to make appealing videos, host
them for free on popular video sites, and drive prequalified traffic
to your site or business.
The shoestring budget version
of making videos
- Use the free Windows Movie Maker
that ships with Windows XP. That takes care of your basic
editing needs including video effects, transitions, adding
titles and credits, narration or other audio track, and
exporting to a .wmv file type. Obviously if you find that your
videos become extremely popular, you will want to target the MP3
file type for getting the full ipod revolution affect. Open
Windows Movie Maker and you have a task toolbar that includes
importing video, audio or images. Even if you have no video
clips, you can do a lot with still photos. Consider first
importing your site logo and using a video effect such as zoom
in to imitate camera movement. With a digital camera, you can
shoot a series of still photos and import them to make a stop
motion video. If your digital camera has video capture
capabilities, take full advantage of it.
- For branding purposes, you may
want to purchase some stock music or a stock music loop for
commercial use. There are sites that offer free loops for
personal and non-commercial use. The right background music can
add a lot to your video and branding efforts. Just click on
Import Audio in the Windows Movie Maker task menu and then
switch the view of your workspace to timeline. Drag the audio
file to where ever you like, as many times as you like (repeat a
loop for a continuous background).
- Click on "Save to my computer"
and choose a video quality. While many times the "playback on
computer" is fine, you may want to see if your video looks
better in high quality. The file size will be larger, though.
That's it, you're ready to
upload!
Upload to Yahoo Video, YouTube.com,
AOL Video, Google Video, and any other video hosting sites you
prefer.
Optional: Want to
get fancy? Start a blog and use the embed features from Google Video
or YouTube to embed your videos into your blog. Use an RSS to HTML
converter such as CARP to pull your blog entries onto any site you
like to promote your video blog.
You can use this method with an
extremely small investment of time and money. You can produce viral
videos, video tutorials, video product reviews, just about any
marketing method you can think of. Be sure to feature your brand
logo, and in sites that allow a link, such as Google Video, add your
site link for viewers to find your site.
