Does the idea of video recording yourself seem too intimidating? Has this ever kept you from getting a simple sales message out on YouTube?
I thought so. I feel that way too. I did a quick search on Google, and these are some of the issues that were raised when making a video for any purpose.
Right off the bat, I was told to buy the most expensive camera I could afford, since the quality of the video will suffer unless the camcorder is first rate.
The next thing I learned is that you have to have a tripod that costs at least $100 – $200 to insure it’ll be solid and firm enough not to wobble. I also learned you need a portable microphone and a “Lavaliere Microphone” (though I didn’t even know what that was).
There was EXTENSIVE advice on zooming, panning, lighting, composition, editing, narration – and even sorting and packing your equipment.
I haven’t even addressed the issues of cue cards versus memorization – keeping background noise to a minimum – inflection – facial expression – and, (my personal favorite) – STAGE FRIGHT.
All of this would make a lot of sense if you were re-making “Gone With The Wind”, but it’s way over the top if you’re just trying to explain or sell something.
If you’re like me, you understand the incredible power of YouTube and other video sites. You know that more and more internet traffic is video (52% as of this writing), and that if you want your message to get to the most pairs of eyes, you have to go video. The question some of you may be asking is: “How do I avoid all of that other nonsense mentioned above?”
Good question. You could go for some expensive video editing software and – after overcoming a steep learning curve – create one of those masterpieces you see on YouTube from time to time. You know what I mean – a clever series of written messages which fade in and fade out, or leap on to the screen and then leap out, or dance around in a circle – all accompanied by perfectly synchronized music, of course.
But if you just want to get across a simple sales message, you might conclude that all of the above is overkill. So why not look into “text to video” software?
If you haven’t heard of it, don’t worry. I hadn’t heard of it either until recently. But actually it’s been around for a while – only nowadays the speech sounds less robotic. The idea behind it is to simply paste or type the words you want spoken into your computer and it gets converted into audio speech.
This type of program makes creating a video as simple as writing an email. When you consider that more and more people prefer watching and listening to a message, rather than reading words on a screen, you can see the value in this.
The main item missing is the visual aspect. When shopping for a good text to video program, you should consider the nature of the visual presentation. My advice would be to avoid a program that simply flashes the words up on the screen as they are being spoken. Instead, focus on one that produces a computerized image, since this “feels” more comfortable for the average viewer.
Tags: Make money