Nothing like being insulted by an erudite person

If there's been a consistent narrative to this year and every other in this decade, it's that most of us, Bernanke included, have been so easily bamboozled. The men who played us for suckers, whether at Citigroup of Fannie Mae, at the White House or Ted Haggard's megachurch, are the real movers and shakers of this century's history so far. That's why the obvious person of the year is Tiger Woods. His sham beatific image, questioned by almost no one until it collapsed, is nothing if not the farcical reductio ad absurdum of the decade's flimflams, from the cancerous (the sub-prime mortgage) to the inane (balloon boy). An excerpt from the NY Times

Counting Bits of U.S. Life

More adults play video games than take education courses. Americans drink more bottled water than alcohol. One in 10 male students said they carried a weapon to school within the previous month. And while abortion rates keep declining, one in three births are to an unmarried woman.

Those and 1,400 other tables add up to a profile by numbers of the United States, as defined by the Census Bureau and other government agencies in the 2010 Statistical Abstract of the United States. They quantify everything from the impact of the technological revolution to the effects of the latest recession.

An estimated 110 billion text messages were sent on cellphones in December 2008, more than double the 48 billion in the previous December. The value of retail sales online soared from $24 billion when the decade began to $128 billion in 2007.

Meanwhile, the number of pieces of mail delivered by the Postal Service, which began declining in 2007, dipped in 2008 to the lowest in a decade. The number of daily newspapers dropped to 1,408 in 2008 from 1,480 in 2000; circulation plunged to 48.6 million copies from 55.8 million.

Women, already a majority among new recipients of bachelor’s and master’s degrees, pulled even with men among new recipients of doctoral degrees in 2007 for the first time.

About 3 in 10 people who married in the early 1990s did not stay married long enough to celebrate their 10th anniversary.

Last year, employers ordered 8,263 mass layoffs (defined as when an employer has at least 50 unemployment insurance claims pending at least 31 days) compared with 5,363 the year before. For the first time since 2000, retail sales declined; spending on lottery tickets increased.

More Americans spent their leisure time hunting with firearms than playing baseball. Twice as many bowl as play golf.

Americans are consuming more fish, wine and watermelon, more Italian cheese than American cheese, and they are drinking less milk but raising more milk cows.

If you are thinking of moving to Harare, Zimbabwe, it has the highest cost of living for Americans working for private companies abroad — 143 percent higher than Washington, D.C.

La Paz, Bolivia, and Tegucigalpa, Honduras, are bargains at 16 percent of Washington’s living costs.

The statistical abstract is available from the Federal Government Printing Office and the National Technical Information Service and online from the Census Bureau.

A NY Times Article

Video Distribution and the SEO factor

What if I told you that there was a surefire way to make your website standout and POP. .. would that be of interest to you? And what if I further told you that this method is inexpensive, easily accomplished, and has a 50 times greater chance of landing you on Page 1 of a search result?

I thought that would grab your attention.

What is the secret ingredient, that magic potion, you ask? The answer is, not surprisingly — video.

It turns out that of all the things you can do on your website to engage viewers, create more page views and get higher search engine rankings, adding video just may be the best.

Forrester Research did a test and found that when search results are blended (that is, they include text, video and images) videos that are search engine optimized give you a 50 times greater chance of ending up on the all-important first page of a search result.

But here's the catch: You can't just add a video to your site and expect a great search engine result for that page. The video must be search engine optimized, that is, it must contain key words in the file names, captions, and so on. That same Forrester blog indicated that less than 20% of all online marketers search engine optimize their video.

If you want your video to be picked up and analyzed properly by Google and the other search engines, you must not only add SEO keywords to it, but you must actually "submit the video to Google using XML tools.

Putting your video on YouTube and embedding the YouTube player and URL into your site is insufficient. "The traffic and the rankings will be applied to YouTube and not your site.

Obviously properly SEOing a video offers a tremendous opportunity.

1. It helps attract new customers by virtue of the SEO factor

2. It engages them, reducing the "bounce rate" and

3. It can help increase your conversion rate – that is, the number of people who visit and then end up buying something or calling for more information

ABV produces professional videos that are affordable for a company as small as one person and distributes them, properly titled and tagged for SEO purposes to all the major video sharing sites.

Roger Stix, Producer

Atlanta Business Video

http://www.atlantabusinessvideo.com

It’s a New Age Marketing For Professional Speakers and Trainers

By Roger Stix

Being a Professional speaker or trainer is a performing art. Speaker marketing has always been about creditability, message, stage presence and the ability to communicate clearly.

In the old days speakers used written testimonials in their marketing materials. Filming or video taping performances was unusual and costly and getting a copy of the tape (remember Beta?) was something you needed to negotiate in advance. And the uses were limited.

The most professional speakers would combine presentations into a video tape demonstration, “demo reel”, have it copied and give it to their agent for distribution to prospective clients. The process was expensive and time-consuming. Oh, and those tapes your agent sent out were rarely returned. I’ve heard stories of agents sending out an average of more than 20 tapes to get one booking.

To be successful today, speakers need to adopt their marketing efforts to the new reality – video and the internet. You need to have several of your presentations video taped. If you are presenting before a big audience you should consider having 2 cameras at the event, one to capture you from the back of the room and the second to capture audience reaction and get alternative angles of you from the audience perspective. Tell the videographers where you have injected humor in the presentation so camera 2 can be in a good position and ready to capture the audience reaction. The more professional your video looks, the more professional you look, and, visa-versa. Beware; poor video quality will not make a positive impression.

The Demo Reel

Today’s demo reels are not really reels but flash files that can be played over the internet. Think of a demo reel as “the best of me”. They usually are a combination of several speeches, organized to showcase you stage presence, strength of presentation and your topics. Professionally edited demo reels do not have an elaborate introduction or background music or self-aggrandizing introductions. If you have several topics which you speak on, include them but don’t mix it with a TV interview, which is material for a separate reel. Total running time should be about 5 minutes and include nothing but your best, even if that means it will run for only 3 minutes.

The reel is about performance and message. A professional reel starts with a simple short slide containing your name and contact information. Then immediately proceeds to your best, most forceful presentation and important message followed by the second, third etc. Meeting mangers can read about your book, prior engagements, and your TV appearances in your resume.

An effective demo reel will lead visitors deeper into your website. Your reel is your most important tool. For more information on demo reels read Demo Reel Secrets for Actors: How to supercharge your reel by Derrick Boelter.

Organizing a Sophisticated Internet Marketing Campaign

Now let’s examine how a sophisticated, multifaceted the internet marketing campaign should be organized. Your second-first most important marketing tool is a professional looking website with appropriate meta-tags and a sign-up form to collect the email addresses of visitors.

Another critical ingredient is an email newsletter. This requires that you collect business cards form as many people as you can. Your audiences are good targets for subsequent engagements and to sell additional online educational programs.

Remember, your marketing campaign will evolve and grow as you do as a speaker. New speaking topics will need to be added as will clips from presentations before large audiences. Always, always try to get a copy of any video of your presentations or interviewes.

All the video’s we will be discussing can be used in many ways; on your website, in email marketing, in blogs and social networking. Then there’s posting on video sharing websites like YouTube and Metacafe.

SEO and Video Distribution

About 6 months ago, Google started placing a lot of weight on web video in SEO rankings. Virally distributed video, properly meta-tagged often come up at the top of Google organic search results with a thumbnail. Additionally, properly tagged, these videos can be linked to your website and increase your sites organic search ranking. We offer a service that distributes to about 25 of the leading video sharing and social networking sites.

Website Walk-on Videos

A“WalkOn” video starts to play immediately when a visitor lands on the site. It gives you the opportunity to speak directly with them and gives visitors an immediate opportunity to assess you (think Wink) and your delivery. Statistics show viewership of involuntary video plays drops off precipitously at 45 seconds, so you want to keep this short.

Embedded website videos

Showcase your reel on the first page of your website. This video should be embedded, require a voluntary click and be visible without having to scroll down. When visitors voluntarily click to view a video they are more likely to watch for a longer time because the act of clicking indicates an interest in the message, so a 5 minute reel will not be too long.

Video blogs

For one speaker I’ve made video blogs, an inexpensive video shot against a green screen with a background added. These videos can run as long as necessary to discuss new topics, relevant current events and as video versions of articles.

Video excerpts

Another excellent use of video presentations is to extract 1 to 5 minute video snippets from previous presentations and repurpose them for your website and elsewhere.

Monetize your existing material

Many speakers have programs on DVD they sell after a speech. These programs can be converted to flash and sold from your website too, complete with workbooks. No new program creation, no postage, no duplication and no left over inventory. The best practice is to distribute through a website that controls the number of views allowed, limits the computers they can be viewed on and can not be copied. To find these sites Google “digital rights director”.

Closing

Being a Professional speaker or trainer is a performing art. Written accolades are no longer effective. Your computer has a display and speakers, use them. We’re in the show me era and video is the most effective way to showcase your skills. There are costs involved but they eliminate printing, duplication and will keep you competitive and profitable in the 21^st century.

Roger Stix is the Founder and Producer at Atlanta Business Video, ABV produces affordable, professional HD video captured on location, at speaking engagements and in our green screen studio. Our collaborative, post-production editing process ensures client satisfaction and compresses completion of projects that might take weeks elsewhere, into days, reducing cost. Now, anyone can take full advantage web video without budget-busting prices.