Category Archives: Video marketing

Make Website Videos: 4 free tools to turn images, clips and screen grabs into videos

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Website videos are a great way to promote your business to your visitors.  Videos offer visitors an easy and welcome way to hear your message – especially for those who would rather watch than read.

Make videos for your business - here are 3 free tools for you.Website Videos Are Not Hard to Make with Tools that are Safe, Free, or Already On Your Computer

Here are 4 free software tools you can use to make videos for your website from slides, video clips or screen captures.

  1. Make a PowerPoint presentation from your slides, and save it as a movie. Look under File > Save as Movie. You can narrate it yourself, with your own script. Then upload your movie to YouTube or your favorite sharing tool.  Thanks to Julie Lynch of UncommonConsulting.com for demonstrating what a great video you can make with Power Point, quickly too.
  2. If you’re on a PC, you can use Photo Story 3. It is free from Microsoft at their download center: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/default.aspx. They offer a helpful tutorial on making your own first video from a still image. Wonder if this is where Ken Burns got the idea….
  3. If you’re on a mac, you can use iMovie to import movie clips and still images, and add a sound track. Apple’s iMovie support page helps you get clips off your camera and building  your video.
  4. Of course, Jing is a popular screen-capture program. Great for software tutorials, you can narrate your clicks and helpful hints as you record each step in real time.

Have fun making your videos – and using them to build interest in your business. Don’t forget to add a link in the YouTube description back to your business website.

More help on using your video to market your business is right here:

Want to Optimize Traffic From YouTube? Make Your URL Visible and Clickable

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This web address is visible at the top line under the video

This web address is visible at the top line under the video

You can optimize how your YouTube video sends traffic to your website. An obvious but often overlooked tactic is to place your site URL early in the description. Visitors can see and click on this link without hunting for it – it will be in plain view on landing.

To create this link, place your web address (starting with http://) within the first 65 characters of the video description for your YouTube video. Why within the first 65 characters? Because that’s about all that is displayed directly under your YouTube video (65 characters = about one line of text). Every line after that requires viewers to click to expand the rest of the description, which is hidden by default.

Important tip: Make sure your URL is 27 characters or less in length. If your URL is longer YouTube will chop off the additional characters.  If your URL is too long, use anchor text up to 27 characters in length, and anchor your URL to that.

(If you need help creating anchor text, you may need a web professional to get you started: feel free to contact me.)

YouTube allows about 1,000 characters in the description area.  That’s about 160 words, according to the Internet Business Blogger. The blogger also quotes YouTube on this very valuable point:

As the video file is uploading, enter as much information about your video as possible in the relevant fields (including Title, Description, Tags, and Category). You’re not required to provide specific information, but the more information you include, the easier it is for users to find your video! Source: http://www.google.com/support/youtube/bin/answer.py?answer=57924″

What if you already have a video uploaded into YouTube and you want to change the description to add your URL?

Here are the steps to update your YouTube video with your clickable Web Address:

1) Sign in into your YouTube Account with your Google Username and Password (Youtube is owned by Google)
2) Expand the options under your username, and click ‘videos’.

YouTube menu options under your username

Find the option to edit your video description under your username

3) Select ‘Edit’ beside the video to change the description for that video:

Edit button for YouTube videos

The Edit button allows you to update the video description (and other things)

4) Enter your site URL within the first 65 characters of your description. Begin with http://

Put your URL in the Description

Put your URL early in the description

5) Click “save” and you’re done! Now your web address is visible and clickable under your video:

YouTube makes your web address clickable

Your web address becomes a live link from YouTube

To make the most of your description, use all 1,000 characters. What issue is bothering your viewers? What words will a person use when searching for help? These are the best issues to address in your description, to make it interesting to your readers. Google indexes text — not the video itself — another reason to be detailed and accurate in your description.

Once you are done – you can post your video to your Facebook page too. (That’s a topic for another day).

How’s my driving?

Did these steps help you? Speak your mind in the comments.