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Have you ever thought why your video has got less views and visitors and another video of inferior quality has so much more? There are several reasons for this and it is worth your while to do some research to find out why this is happening.

You may have a boring looking flash screen: this introductory screen should be appealing to your viewer. It is like a small ad that tells the viewer what they will be looking at. It should intrigue the reader and compel them to take a look at the video. The flash screen should attract the viewer’s attention and make them curious about the video. You will need a good tag line that will add curiosity and encourage them to watch the video to find out more. A good tag line will ensure that your video will be found easily by the search engines.

Remember to include the play button. This is a definite call to action as the button will inform your visitors that this is what they need to do. A direct call for action like this will get your video played and seen by more people. Also include a written call for action to your viewer telling them exactly what to do to take the next step after watching the video.

Always ensure your video has updated content. It should solve a current problem for your market. If the content is outdated and does not do this you will find that less people will view your video.  Everyone likes new information or a new way to solve a problem and your targeted visitors are no exception.

The video itself needs to have great content that will interest your visitors. It is no good doing all the right things and creating a video that will not hold the visitor’s attention. Boring videos will not attract visitors and may turn them away from your website or blog. Make sure the subject is relevant and interesting to your market. The best way to spark interest is if you offer a solution to a problem your viewer has. An example of this would be to save their time or instruct them as to how they can do something. Be sure not to use too much hard sell in the video.

Do not explain too much on your video. This will result in confusion for viewers and if you make the video too long they will lose interest. A video should not last longer than 6 minutes. It is rather like the famous elevator speech, you need to attract your potential customer in around 3 minutes.

Once you have analyzed your video you can tweak it and make it friendlier to your visitors. Remember that if you are interested in your video then there is a good chance that you market will be interested too. So make your video interesting and use these points to get your video seen by the targeted viewers in your market.

Cathy Q is the publisher of the free newsletter A-Y-B. Full of tips and information on how to start and grow your business. To sign up for a free subscription visit our blog at http://a-y-b.com

The importance of sound in video has been very poorly estimated. The creators of videos have taken a lot of trouble in producing a first class video but have neglected to make audio of equal quality. Audio is an important part of your video. It makes the video come alive and brings more meaning to it.

Sound will set the mood of a video. The viewer can be swayed by their emotions if audio accompanies the video.  Silent video lacks the means to charge the viewer emotionally. Many people watch a video because it arouses them emotionally. Think about a horror movie. Would it be as exciting and frightening without the sound effects? Probably it would not.

Bad audio will ruin a video and take away its purpose. It will also divert the attention of the viewer. Audio does evoke emotions and helps the viewer to get more involved in the film and what it is trying to say. If the audio is not good then the viewer may not watch the entire video. This is a waste of your effort and frustrating to the viewer. The video will be less effective and its purpose unclear.

How to improve your audio for your video: Do not use your built in microphones for your camera to make the audio for your video. A better way would be to have a separate audio device that can be positioned away from the camera. Your microphones should be separate from the device and use XLR inputs. Be sure you have good quality preamps. This is another reason to use a good portable audio device. Try to avoid using Automatic Gain Control.

Try to have a separate person who will be responsible for the audio, so that you can concentrate on the video. There are several techniques that an audio person will need and so you should have someone handling the audio who knows what they are doing or your video will sound less than professional.

It is very important to synchronize your audio and video. There is nothing worse than having a video running and having the audio lagging. It will make your whole video look unprofessional.

To improve audio on your video, especially if it is shot outside, you can consider making a voice over for the audio portion of the video and adding it when you have completed the visual part. To do this you should record in a small carpeted room or space, where there will be less echo and disturbance. Be as close to the microphone as possible, especially if you are speaking for a tutorial type of video.

From these points you will see that audio is important to videos and you should pay attention to the sound when you create a video. A professional sounding piece will impress your viewers. Sound will make or break your video and will determine the amount of real views you will receive. Bear in mind that the amount of views will also depend on viral or word of mouth marketing. YouTube especially does rely on this form of marketing.

Cathy Q is the publisher of the free newsletter A-Y-B. Full of tips and information on how to start and grow your business. To sign up for a free subscription visit our website at advertise your business

YouTube is one of the biggest marketing tools on the Internet. People love to watch videos and will give preference to a video over a text ad. The visual factor is more impressive than just straight text. The trick to video marketing is to make it interesting for your viewers. When used correctly video marketing can draw a large number of visitors to your website. There are a few tips to make your promotions more successful.

Make your channel name more exciting. The name of your channel should be interesting to your target audience. This means that you should think of the name as a heading or title as in a sales letter or ad. The channel name should catch the reader’s attention and compel them to see what the video is about.

Make sure that you include your main keyword in your channel name so that it is easy to find in the search engines. This will draw a lot of free traffic to your channel and result in an increased number of views. If possible use a H1 tag; this is when you format the keyword into a subtitle.

Always remember to add your site’s URL to the video. There will be a space on the side bar to do this. This will ensure that those viewers who liked the video will know exactly where to go for more information. You can also put a second link to your blog site.

Remember to carefully consider tags to your video. Use keywords that have les competition. You can also link up to popular related videos so that you can get your video seen on related videos for the popular ones in your industry.

Try to use custom backgrounds for your video. This is because you can put your website URL on the corner of the video. If your video gets embedded on a website your URL will still be seen. You can make custom backgrounds for your video by using PowerPoint. Making a custom background will add uniqueness to your video and make it more interesting and attractive to viewers.

Be aware of the trends in YouTube videos, for your market. If you make use of these in your videos you will get more people looking at your video.

Always upload quality videos. This form of marketing is just like blogging you will need to consistently upload videos about your products to keep your viewers interested. However do not try to use hard selling tactics as this will put off viewers and you will lose momentum. A better way is to try to have informative interesting videos that will catch your viewer’s interest and encourage them to seek more information.

Make the video short and sweet. Viewers cannot take long videos and will not be able to concentrate. Two minutes is usually long enough and at the maximum five. The viewer will be able to look at the video for that length of time and be able to concentrate on what you are saying.

Cathy Q is the publisher of the free newsletter A-Y-B. Full of tips and information on how to start and grow your business. To sign up for a free subscription visit our website at http://advertise-your-business.com

email marketing

Email is a well established tool for marketing any product or service. Many people think that email is dead and give preference to more modern trends in marketing like social media marketing. However email marketing is still a powerful tool for promoting your business. It all depends on the relationship you have built up with your list or subscriber base. If you have built up a loyal subscriber base you will find that your emails will get opened and your readers will be responsive. The trick with email marketing is not to over advertise to your list.

The subject line: this is one of the most important factors in getting your reader to open the email. It is like a title in copywriting and must be something that will interest the reader and entice them to open the email. You need to know your list well and understand what ads interest them. People will be interested in different products and will be responsive a variety of subject lines. You will need to keep a list of good subject lines that readers have been interested enough in to open the email.

Personalizing: it is a proven fact that when you personalize an email it will get far more response. The reader will feel more like reading than simply discarding the email. Personalization is easy when you send out emails to your list via an autoresponder. This software is not too expensive and will enable you to personalize your mail with just one click. When an email is personally speaking to you it will have a far greater impact.

Make sure it can be friendly to mobile phones: this means that it should have a good preheader. This is the first couple of lines of the email. If the preheader is interesting the rest of the email will be opened. Remember that your email is competing with many other ads on a mobile and you need to catch your reader’s attention fast. The links need to be clear and separate so that they can be clicked with a touch of a finger. The mobile user is always in a hurry and is checking their phone as they rush to another task so you email ad must get their attention fast or it will end up being deleted before it even gets read.

These three points will help you to have a stronger email advertising campaign. Remember that people hate being sold to so try to make your emails interesting. This especially applies to email marketing tools like mailers, a sequence of emails about a certain product or service. Do not indulge in hard sell techniques as they are easy to see through and do not work effectively with the savvy internet user. Try to build up a good relationship with your subscribers and you will find that you get a better response to your ads. A better response means more sales and a better profit margin.

In order to make the best decision about your advertising, several factors should be considered. Advertising is the lifeblood of your business. It is also one of your heaviest expenses in your marketing budget. When you plan your ad campaign you should bear these facts in mind. You will need to choose the best performing ad and also be able to target your market. Here are 3 tips to help you increase your potential customers and increase your client base.

The best ad: you should try to get the most for your investment by selecting the best ad for your market. There is a reason that some ads will outperform others. The reason is that the ad has been properly tested and proven to be a strong pulling ad. You can test the ad by the AB method. Just place 2 classified ads for the same product in an ezine that has good response to your market. The one that does best is your strongest ad. Remember to run the ads for at least 3 issues of the publication. This will ensure that you will get the most out of your ad. If your ad is strong your will be able to gage whether it is getting good response from the publication of website where you have placed it.

Target your ad: it is very important to place your ad on the right websites and in the correct ezines so that your targeted market will see them. To do this you will need to do your market research. Analyze the most desired visitors you want to come to your website and view your sales literature. Understand who you need to target for your products and services. Once you have done this, you will need to know where they go for information etc. This will allow you to advertise in the right ezines and websites so that you can get your ad in front of the consumers in your market. You can split your lists into different categories to target them better. Different age groups can be more responsive when they go to different places.

Start small: when you advertise try to keep within your budget. Do not make a large advertising campaign, before you know what sort of response you will get. Your ad should be on places where it can be tracked and you can check response. Once you know this you can expand your campaign and make more sales. Start with small classified ads at first, when you advertise in publications and if you see a good response then you can place bigger more expensive ads.

With these three points you will be able to run a successful advertising campaign. You should always keep within your budget, so that your business will never run out of money.  A good response from your ad will ensure better profits and allow your business to grow. Remember to keep on tracking and testing your ads so that you can get the maximum response.

Cathy Q is the publisher of the free newsletter A-Y-B. Full of tips and information on how to start and grow your business. To sign up for a free subscription visit our website at advertise-your-businesss.com

Determining the most cost effective form of advertising is critical to your promotional efforts. Effectiveness in advertising will depend on what your business is. For example if you have a service, word of mouth is a very powerful form of advertising. A product can be advertised cheaply and effectively by video advertising. The most cost effective form of advertising are the ads that give you the best “bang for your buck.”

There are many ways to advertise cheaply and effectively. Using ezines and websites are still good for many products and services. Network marketing can often be advertised at forums and message boards, which are in their market niche. You can also use social network sites like Facebook. It is very important to choose targeted places to advertise. This will make your ad very effective and will give you the best value for your money.

All these ads will need to be small classified ones that are around 5 lines long. Once you have tested them you can use longer ones for sponsored and solo ads in ezines. It is important to test every ad before you use it and the best way to do this will be to use the AB method. You can place 2 ads in an ezine for the same product and service and see which one pulls the best. Whichever one is good is the one that you will use. You can use this winning ad on different places like websites and if necessary forums. You will need to be careful when you advertise on forums as their rules are quite strict.

Before you advertise on different places it is wise to do some market research. This will let you know the interests of your potential customers. Once you know this you will know which websites they go to and what ezines they read. Some businesses will want to advertise to a broad section of the community others will have a tight niche. You will need to assess your business in order to determine where you want to advertise.

To get the best value for your money, when you advertise, it is good to consider where you need to advertise and use the best ad. Try to construct your ad so that you can get the best value for your money. A classified ad should have a attention grabbing headline, display 2 benefits and end with a call to action.

If you keep all these points in mind you will get the best value for your money and have a cost effective and efficient ad campaign.

for more free information  please see http://advertise-your-business.com 

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It is the beginning of the year again and with it come hopes of a better year for us all. Despite the pessimists and politicians it really can become a better year for all of us but we are the ones to make it happen.

For all of us with businesses great and small we also have hopes for a better year and we can make it happen. Here are some tips to help you:

1. Go over the previous year of your business: If you have not done this at the end of the year it is not too late to do it now. Look into your previous year’s results for your business in detail. You will see some places where you went wrong and other places where you excelled. Learn from your mistakes and build on your successes.
2. Make a plan with goals for the year ahead: It is important to plan ahead when you look into the next year. When you do this make goals and timelines. After you set your goals prioritize and decide what you will accomplish first.
3. Add another income: In order to make more profit you should not only work on your present business but try to build another income stream. There are a number of ways that you can do this.
1. Affiliate programs: One way is to join some affiliate programs in niches related to your business. This is a great way to earn some passive income.
2. Work another related niche: You can also open up new niche markets with new products or services.
4. Educate yourself: If you are offering a service like writing or web designing try to learn more about your profession and increase your skills. I have personally spent last year doing this as writing is an ongoing learning process. When you do this you will find more job openings and better money. You can then outsource the smaller jobs and really start making a profit. Even if you are selling products you can always learn more about your market and their needs.
5. Decide to stop procrastinating: Many of us spend our lives putting things off. Make this the year that you will take action and motivate yourself to do more today, not next week or next month. Never do today’s work tomorrow because once today is gone you cannot get it back.

Remember these few points and you will probably think of a few more. With these points you will indeed have a prosperous New Year. for more information check out advertise-your business

Internet marketing is always changing and it is important to understand the different methods of selling that are available to you. You can have a great in demand product, but you really will not make many sales if you do not have the selling techniques you need in place. There are in fact many ways to sell to your visitors without them feeling that you are pushing the sale. Here are five methods of selling that you can use today.

1.      Sales page: this is a standard way to sell and if you are a good copywriter you can get a number of sales this way. It is important to apply the 3 P’s of copywriting.

a.       Personal: be sure to empathize with your reader and make your sales copy personal. It should read as if you were writing to a friend or family member about a great new product you found. Do not be too familiar but do be friendly.

b.      Precise: keep your sales letter short and focused. Online people rarely have time to read a lengthy sales letter and will be attracted by a strong focused headline and compelling subtitles.

c.       Persuasive: it is important to write compelling sales copy. You can do this by using a tried and true plan; state the problem, empathize, show that your product offers a solution to the problem, guarantee and call to action. Use of compelling trigger words is important, there are over 200 of them. These give your reader a positive feeling and will encourage them, to buy. Do not write in a hyped up fashion but use the power of persuasion.

2.      Video sales page: many people are using a video of themselves to sell their products. It is short, personal and very effective if you do this right. It also takes less time to prepare than a sales page. Once you make a good sales video you can upload it to YouTube and enjoy a huge boost in sales. Be sure it is taken with a good digital camera and the audio is good. You do not need a studio to do this but it is worth taking a little time to do it right.

3.      Social media:  leverage your social media sites. Do not blatantly advertise but make relevant blog articles and posts with a link to your sales page or video about your product or service. You need to link up all your sites and not put too many links in your blog, 2 are usually best. One for your product or service and one for another of your social sites.

4.      Website: if you have an online business you should have a website. This can be a simple blog on wordpress.com or an actual website promoting your products or services. It is always good to have your own blog site. You can easily do this by purchasing your own domain name and hosting then using a plug in like Fantastico to convert your website into a blog. It will use the wordpress.com interface and be able to choose from many templates. Try to find one that is compatible with mobile phones. Be sure that your website looks professional.

5.      Newsletter: a newsletter is very useful for a business. You can send out your newsletter every two weeks and advertise a couple of your products or services. In this way you will build up a relationship with your subscribers and they will often buy one of your products, when they get to know you. Always offer quality products and be sure that you do not have too many ads in your publication. Also be sure it is a quality, informative newsletter that your subscribers will enjoy.

Put these 5 sales techniques to work for you today and you will see an increase in profits.

We do web design and writing of all sorts. just contact me if you need any further information. or go to our website  http://simplewebdesigning.com

Article written by Cathy Qazalbash Freelance writer. Publisher of the A-Y-B newsletter for all who refuse to fail http://advertise-your-business.com

When you start your online business one of the first things that you must consider is your domain name. You may feel that a domain name is just a catchy name for your business and choosing it should not take much time. If you think like this you will be very wrong and will be leaving a lot of money on the table.

A domain name is in fact one of your most important assets to your online business. It can in fact draw a lot of traffic to your site. Here are 5 ways that this can be done.

1. Make it SEO friendly: Make sure that your domain name is centered on your main keyword. This will make sure that the search engines can pick it up easily and you will increase your search engine ranking. You will get plenty of free traffic when your domain name is search engine friendly.

2. Make it relevant: Be sure that your domain name is relevant to your business. When potential customers read your domain name they should have no doubt about what your business is all about. This will help you to brand your business and also help with viral marketing. if your customer knows what you are selling they will tell others about your products and you will get more customers coming to your website.

If your domain name does not reflect your business your visitors will not know what you are selling and will leave before you have a chance to show them your offers. You will lose a lot of potential customers like this.

3. Make it short and memorable: short memorable domain names will stick in your visitors’ minds and allow them to find your website again. Returning visitors will be much more likely to buy than first time visitors. They can also tell people about your website if they remember the name.

4. Be sure it is a dot com name: despite the fact that there are many domain names that end in “dot biz” or “dot USA” etc. “dot com” is still the best one to use. This is because search engines will look at a “dot com” domain first and this will help your search engine rankings. Visitors are also used to typing in a “dot com” domain and will remember your domain better if it is a “dot com” one.

5. Go local: if you have a local business you can add your city and state to your domain name. This will attract more local visitors to your business. After all that is why you have a website for your local offline business.

With these five points you will be able to choose a great domain name that will draw traffic to your website like a magnet.