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The Movies That Give Us the Heebie-Jeebies

To say Halloween is our favorite time of the year would be an understatement. Between the massive influx of tiny candy bars, to the costumes, to the big party we throw, Vidyard takes the haunting season pretty seriously.

One thing we can’t live without this time of year is scary movies. And if you ask enough people, you’ll start to realize there’s one common denominator of every scary movie fan — the one that really gives them the heebie-jeebies. You know that movie. No matter how many times you watch it, there’s still always that scene that makes you jump.

So, in honour of Halloween, we sat down with our costumed coworkers on Friday and ask them about what moves really give them the creeps:

So now comes the big question! What’s your favourite scary movie? And what scene really gets under your skin? Tell us in the comments!

Happy Halloween from the Vidyard Family!

 

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Vidyard Named a Leader for Online Video Platforms for Sales and Marketing by Independent Research Firm

Report finds “more firms see video as a way to address their top challenges of using engaging content to connect with customers and prospects”

KITCHENER, Ontario – October 31, 2016 – Vidyard, the video platform for business, has been named a leader in Online Video Platforms for Sales and Marketing by independent research firm Forrester Research, Inc. The recognition comes as part of The Forrester Wave™: Online Video Platforms For Sales And Marketing, Q4 2016, which analyzed the most significant providers in the space.

Vidyard achieved the highest score for current offerings among all participants in the report, landing highest possible score for 23 of the 39 criteria, including administration, syndication and distribution features, sales enablement workflows, enterprise application integrations, reporting and analytics, global support and security. Vidyard was the only vendor to receive the highest possible scores in the player features; marketing and lead generation tools; and targeting, personalization and discovery criteria.

“Vidyard has a clear vision of video’s future that resonates with its customers and Forrester alike,” wrote analyst Nick Barber in The Forrester Wave™: Online Video Platforms For Sales And Marketing, Q4 2016. “It understands how important user-generated content (UGC) will be for brands and businesses, and it plans to roll out further support for UGC and analysis of it. Its roadmap follows up in-video personalization with support for real-time rendering of dynamically personalized video content, which will increase viewer engagement.”

The Forrester Wave methodology included a rigorous process of vendor surveys, scenario-based product demos, executive strategy briefings and customer reference calls to validate each vendor’s products and qualifications. Forrester analyzed nine vendors’ video platforms across 39 criteria.

“I believe that this research shows that video has become a core component of modern marketing and sales with businesses looking for more advanced distribution, personalization, interactivity and analytics to help them turn viewers into customers,” said Michael Litt, Vidyard CEO and co-founder. “In my view, Forrester’s work proves there’s been a massive shift in the video technology market beyond publishing and advertising. Now the conversation is about how to use video to better connect, engage and convert customers and support the entire buying journey even after the deal closes.”

In addition to analyzing vendor offerings, Forrester noted the rise of online video and its growing importance for business. “The sales-and-marketing-focused OVP market is growing because more firms see video as a way to address their top challenges of using engaging content to connect with customers and prospects,” according to the report. U.S. adults spend nearly two hours a day consuming video, more than any other online activity, and online video has become a must-have for businesses. Video conveys emotion much better than the written word, and the human brain processes it 60,000 times faster than text, according to the report.

Businesses that want to capitalize on video need to harness their own video channels and can’t simply rely on YouTube for distribution, largely because it lacks the rich analytics and integrations that come with platforms such as Vidyard. Integrations with CRM and marketing automation platforms enable marketing and sales teams to easily create and share videos with customers, track their true engagement in the content and measure its impact on revenue.

“Vidyard is an excellent fit for companies that want more than just a video repository but want to deploy and measure videos with specific integrations into CRM systems and MAPs,” Barber wrote.

To view The Forrester Wave: Online Video Platforms For Sales And Marketing, Q4 2016 in its entirety, visit here: http://ift.tt/2f0j3tx

About Vidyard

Vidyard (Twitter: @Vidyard) is the video intelligence platform that helps businesses drive more revenue through the use of online video. Going beyond video hosting and management, Vidyard helps businesses drive greater engagement in their video content, track the viewing activities of each individual viewer, and turn those views into action. Global leaders such as Honeywell, McKesson, Lenovo, LinkedIn, Cision, TD Ameritrade, Citibank, MongoDB and Sharp rely on Vidyard to power their video content strategies and turn viewer into customers.

Media Contact:
Brad Hem
Phone: (281) 543-0669
press@vidyard.com

The post Vidyard Named a Leader for Online Video Platforms for Sales and Marketing by Independent Research Firm appeared first on Vidyard.

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LIVE Stream: Donald Trump Rally in Las Vegas, NV

LIVE Stream: Donald Trump Rally in Las Vegas, NV

Full Speech: Donald Trump Huge Rally in Golden, CO 10/29/16

Could WordPress Ping Really Be Your Golden Ticket to Instant Traffic?

Meet the Team, Video Style: Josh Dunton

Meet the Team is our monthly chance to introduce you to the fabulous, quirky, talented people that work at Vidyard, using our favorite medium — video! For this episode, we caught up with Josh Dunton, Talent Acquisition Lead here at Vidyard. Learn where you can find the best all-day breakfast in Kitchener, and what Josh wanted to be when he grew up by watching the video:

What Didn’t Make the Cut

Josh has more to say than just talking about his twin brother, so here’s what didn’t make the cut:

What brought you to Vidyard?

I came to Vidyard because I was really excited about the challenge. The team wanted to grow very quickly, and that’s something I could get behind. Also every person I met during the process was really passionate about working here, and that passion really inspired me and fired me up, and made me want to be part of the team.

What’s your favorite video on the internet right now?

My favorite video on the internet right now is the NFL bad lip reading. It’s an old one, but every time I watch it I can’t help but laugh out loud. It’s just so funny what they think of to do as the lip reading.

What do you do in your free time?

Right now I spend a lot of my free time with my infant son — he needs a lot of attention these days, but when he’s asleep I like to play video games a lot. Specifically Madden … all the time. Anything football, I’m into!

Want to order your own “Hungry Mel”?

Mel’s Diner is a Kitchener institution and boasts two locations. You can find their breakfast menu here. I would also go with the Hungry Mel. That just sounds delicious.

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Full Show - David Vs. Goliath, Trump Destroys NWO - 10/26/2016

Halloween Video Ideas So Good They’ll Getcha (and Your Customers!)

Boo! It’s time for some scare-tactics for 2016!

This post has been updated for Halloween 2016! Why? Because, like those black and orange wrapped toffee candies kids are bound to get in your candy haul every year, this post never goes stale. These Halloween video ideas are still perfect for 2016, and I’ve added some new, awesome ideas that you won’t even have to get dressed up to get! So let’s get right to the goods…

Halloween is coming quickly, and the creepy/crazy/awesome holiday is a perfect opportunity to have some fun entertaining your leads and customers.It goes without saying (but I’ll say it anyway) that if they’re entertained, they’re more likely to remember you and engage with your brand. That win is better (okay, almost better) than free candy.

Mmmm…caaaaandy….

Oops…I mean…I digress.

Maybe you’re thinking, “Our brand is too serious to have some off-the-wall Halloween video”, or maybe you’re thinking, “It’s just Halloween, you can’t do anything worth the effort that will have any real impact.” Maybe, you’re just plum (or pumpkin) out of fresh ideas.

Well, Halloween is one of those rare times when brands can be silly, scary, creepy…or whatever. Halloween lets you be whatever you want to be. Your video doesn’t have to be boring, and it certainly can have an impact on your audience. Here are some ideas for a memorable Halloween 2016 video:

It’s spooky what video can do for your whole business in 2016

At Vidyard, we STRONGLY believe that video can achieve amazing results for your whole business (and we’ll get Dracula to bite anyone who says otherwise!) There is a plethora of Halloween video ideas for marketing (for some of the best ones, see below). But video isn’t just for marketing! Imagine the effect you could have on your audience if you used video for sales, internal communications and training, and even customer service and support. Like what? The possibilities are endless, but here are a few ideas to get your fresh, juicy brains going:

• Sales can try sending fun videos telling leads they will stalk or hunt them until they call them back or answer emails. (Just keep it light and jokey, and don’t get too scary – we don’t want any restraining orders!) Sales videos can even be as simple as a screen capture video (like through ViewedIt) showing the sales rep’s face and screen – but the rep could be in costume! It’s a great chance for reps to show their personality and have some fun with prospects and leads, and could help encourage call-backs – wouldn’t you want to speak to an angel or a devil or Babe Ruth or Jamie Lannister?
• What about video for internal communications? Get your employee audience engaged by creating a fun culture video about everyone’s halloween costumes, and let your employees rate the best one!
• Internal training teams can have their own fun with a Halloween video: how awesome would it be to get a notice that you have to watch a “mandatory training video” on how to survive a zombie apocalypse? It prepares your employees for the inevitable while also helping them feel more connected to their personal, relatable and fun company.
• In support or customer service? Imagine how freaked out you could make your customers if you told them you were “killing” some aspect of the product that everyone loves? Maybe your customers could have a chance to “save” your product by signing in or taking some other action within a certain time frame. Or, if you need to refresh any part of your product – you can kill one aspect that needs improvement or has bugs, and bring the product back (in a sort of Frankenstein way, bigger and better).

Video gives your whole business the power to really engage, excite, spook, and connect with your audience. So encourage different teams in your company to get involved – it’ll be a real treat!

Personalized creepiness for each viewer

You know what video viewers eat up faster than a bowl of candy? A personalized experience. Any day of the year, customers want to feel like they’re recognized and understood as the unique person they are, not marketed to as part of a mass group or list.

So give them what they’re ravenous for on Halloween: with a personalized video, you could add right into the video unique details about that specific viewer, like their name or company logo for example. Your customers would be blown away! Put a creepy spin on it (think: “We’re watching you, Blake”, or “You’re next, Katie!”, etc., etc….imagine the possibilities!), and your customers will be freaked out…and even more engaged, watching a story that includes them all the way to the end.

Are you wondering, “Holy crap, I could do something like that for my video?! HOW???!” I’m not just playing a trick on you…discover personalized video for yourself and you’ll be amazed!

Choose your own spooky adventure

Go even further with your Halloween story by allowing your audience to interact with you and determine how the story progresses. How can you do that? Through multiple players and calls-to-action. Here’s how:

The viewer watches your initial video, which ends with a CTA containing several options (that are actually links). Ask them brand, product, campaign, or story-relevant questions, and provide clickable options that each link to their own video player (What should the character do next? Where should he go? What should he buy/eat/wear/build etc?). When an option is clicked, the linked player plays in the same frame on the page. Then the new player can its own CTA options that link to even more players, giving the viewer a real “choose your own adventure” experience. Who wouldn’t keep watching a video like that? It’s the perfect way to get past audiences’ ridiculously short attention spans.

Share a product or service message

Your awesome, entertaining, or spooky Halloween video doesn’t have to live outside your brand or relevant messaging. There may be a ghoulish slant to your everyday marketing – in the telecommunications industry? Pretty much every horror movie includes a phone that doesn’t work or a phone that rings off the hook with a freaky voice on the other end. In the software industry? What if a computer was doing something all on its own? That might be exciting and intense for viewers who then learn that it isn’t actually a ghost doing it, it’s just your awesome software that’s programmed to do the work itself. You get the idea.

Check out this video from IKEA that shows how simple and effective this can be.

Or LG’s video that shows how realistic their screens are.

But sometimes it’s fun to just…have fun

Sometimes a special day calls for a light-hearted fun video that acts simply as (very) top-of-funnel, brand awareness content. Audiences love to get inside, behind-the-scenes looks into an organization; it humanizes a brand and can help your viewers relate to you. These types of videos are often shared as well, and while view counts don’t matter in the greater scheme of converting leads to customers, getting your name out there never hurts!

You can create a haunted video that doesn’t necessarily include product messaging, like the one Vidyard released for Halloween last year:

Keep it even simpler, if you want. Film your halloween office party, for example. Videos don’t have to be a big production. After all, Jimmy Kimmel’s audience videos weren’t exactly Hollywood material, but they were a great success for the late night show!

What ideas are you excited to try for your Halloween video? Let us know!

The post Halloween Video Ideas So Good They’ll Getcha (and Your Customers!) appeared first on Vidyard.

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How to Sell High-priced Products from Your Blog – with Cliff Ravenscraft

How to Sell High-priced Products from Your Blog – with Cliff Ravenscraft

Episode: 283
Who: Cliff Ravenscraft
Blog / Website: Podcast Answer Man

Are you charging as much as you could for your digital products?

Are you nervous about increasing your rates?

In today’s episode, I’m on the line with none other than Cliff Ravenscraft, a.k.a the Podcast Answer Man and host of the Cliff Ravenscraft show, a podcast devoted to helping you take your message, your business and your life to the next level. He started podcasting as a hobby way back in December 2005 and has since created more than 30 different shows and an amazing 3,300 podcast episodes. He has personally helped thousands of people launch extremely successful podcasts through one-on-one coaching, consulting, and his Podcasting A to Z online training course.

I brought him on today to talk about how to sell high-priced products from your blog. This is something that scares many bloggers, myself included, but is something that can REALLY help us take our businesses to the next level.

If this all sounds really familiar… well, we tried to cover this topic two episodes ago, and Cliff totally derailed the show with his enthusiasm for changing the world! But I promised we’d come back to the topic of selling high-priced products, so here we are. We promise to stay on topic this time.

Cliff’s Story

Cliff started out with a very successful insurance career in his family business. The company had been running since 1935, and he was next in line to take over when he left insurance to pursue podcasting full time in January 2008. At the time, he had been podcasting for about two years.

Cliff with his wife, Stephanie

Cliff started podcasting as a hobby. He was doing well financially, and he didn’t ever think that he’d be building a business based on his podcasts. His first investment in podcasting was a $35 microphone from BestBuy. A little while later, when his wife Stephanie joined him on his Lost podcast, he bought another mic for about $90. So he hadn’t spent a ton of money, and he knew nothing about sound quality, but people really connected with his show. He had thousands of listeners by the third episode!

One day, a listener sent a message saying that she loved the show, but she wished that the sound quality was better. She asked how much money Cliff and Stephanie would need to purchase higher quality microphones, and offered to write a check. From that point on, donations started coming into the show. Cliff and Stephanie set up the Generally Speaking Network at GSPN.tv to host all of their content. If you go to GSPN.tv/check, you’ll see the biggest donation they ever received–$12,000!

Soon, Time Warner Cable was calling and asking to advertise on the show.

At one point, Cliff and Stephanie were using a site called TalkShoe.com, which allowed them to broadcast their podcasts live and to take live callers. TalkShoe was just a startup at the time, but Cliff’s podcasts brought in so much traffic that they wanted to make a deal with him. They needed content hosted on their servers in order to attract advertisers. So they paid Cliff between $1,000 and $5,000 per month to host his show with them, while they were making $0 in ad revenue themselves.

Within a year of launching his first podcast, Cliff and Stephanie were running six different shows.

Building a Business

One of Cliff’s shows was the Podcast Answer Man. He has so many people emailing him to ask questions about podcasting that he thought it would be better to just create a podcast devoted to answering them. And then, he had another idea: would anyone actually pay him to teach them how to podcast? Would they pay $150 for a 90-minute webinar?

Podcast Answer Man Website

Yes, they definitely would. He sold out immediately, and people loved the content. They encouraged him to do more, and to charge a lot more money for it.

At that point, Cliff started doing one-on-one coaching at $50 per hour. He was starting to think about leaving his job in insurance to pursue podcasting full time. But his rates were too low. He says that at this point, he was closing with 3 out of every 10 people that approached him about coaching. So he had a 30% success rate with convincing people to actually sign up. He thinks that the number was so low because people didn’t take him seriously at $50 per hour. They might have been thinking that he wasn’t any good if his rates were that low.

Life was “pretty insane” for Cliff at that point. He says that his priorities were way out of whack. In addition to all of the podcasting he was doing, he was putting in 50 to 60 hours per week in his insurance job as well as volunteering with his church. He was making a ton of money, but he was burning out.

Full-Time Podcasting

Cliff says it’s really important for you to know what his financial situation was when he left his job in insurance. By the time he decided to leave his insurance job, he and Stephanie were virtually debt-free. Their only remaining debt was their mortgage payment.

He’s in a single-income family: Stephanie is a stay-at-home mom with their three kids. So it was important to Cliff that he would still be able to provide for the family when he started podcasting full time. Being debt-free was a big part of that.

He also had several income streams set up through his podcasts. For example, he had a sponsored podcast at the time that, over the course of four years, paid off their mortgage all by itself!

In addition, he had affiliate income of about $1,500 to $2,000 per month. He was also earning between $2,000 and $3,000 per month for consulting and one-on-one coaching. And, finally, he was making $3,000 to $5,000 per month in equipment sales, as an official reseller for some of the equipment he used.

Within a couple months of leaving his job, Cliff was working with Stephanie to create between 7 and 15 podcast episodes per week. This was to keep their existing podcasts going while also creating content for their GSPN Premium Membership program. For $10 per month, Premium Members got access to all of their content on the site. This is not something that he would ever do again, or something that he recommends, but at its peak the program generated about $28,000 per year.

GSPN Premium Membership program

Still, the majority of his income was coming from equipment sales at first. $50 per hour for consulting was just not sustainable, so he raised his rate to $95 per hour. He struggled with that decision, wondering who in the world would pay $95 per hour. He thought, “people are going to spend $95 for an hour to talk to me about something I love? This is crazy!” But as soon as he increased his rate, his success in closing deals improved, too. He went from 30% to 50% success almost overnight.

Cliff says he used to think that the harder your job was or the harder you worked, the more money you should be paid. But that’s all wrong: now, he says, he knows that it’s all about how much value you add to the life of the person paying you.

One-Year Anniversary

Still, at the end of his first year he was “squeaking by.” He brought his consulting rate up to $150 per hour, and he saw his success in closing clients go up to about 80%. He found that once he increased his prices again, his clients were much more relaxed and willing to let him add value to the calls instead of just answering the questions that they came in with. A number of clients told him that he should double his rates.

Cliff’s business was profitable after the first year, but he only earned $11,000.

At the time, he was still spending most of his time and earning most of his income from equipment sales, which involved a lot of free consulting on his part in the hope that the customer would purchase the equipment. Around the same time, he met Dan Miller, author of the best-selling book 48 Days to the Work You Love. Dan and Cliff got along really well, and Dan started sending over members of his audience who wanted to learn about podcasting.

That was great, but Cliff’s consulting schedule started filling up weeks and weeks in advance. He was spending so much time on the equipment sales that he was really limited in terms of the amount of time he could spend on consulting and coaching. After talking about this problem on one of his podcasts, Pursuing a Balanced Life, one of his listeners chimed in with three words that changed his life: Stop. Selling. Equipment.

The listener had done the math: with all the hours that Cliff was spending on equipment sales, he was only earning $22.50 per hour. Why would he continue doing that when people wanted to pay him $150 per hour for coaching?!

So Cliff quit equipment sales and started doing 25 hours of coaching per week. And, of course, his income shot right up.

In a Mastermind meeting not long after that, Cliff’s group tried to convince him to increase his rates to $300 per hour. But he just wasn’t confident enough. He felt safe at $200 per hour, but not $300. Eventually, they decided that if he wasn’t confident enough to go there, he shouldn’t do it. If he wasn’t convinced that he was worth $300 per hour, how could he convince anyone else?

Nowadays, Cliff charges $1,500 per hour for coaching.

Digital Products

Cliff started to notice that he was getting a lot of repeated questions in his coaching calls. One day, he had four clients in a row all asking about how to use Adobe Audition because he had recommended it on his podcast the week before.

Adobe Edition

So in October 2010, he reached out to his mailing list and pitched a series of seven, two-hour webinars answering his most frequently asked questions. Whereas a two-hour coaching call would have cost $600 at the time, he was offering these webinars for $100 each or $595 for all seven.

Once he launched the program, he made $16,000 in 10 days. Crazy! That money allowed him the time to plan and build the tutorial videos. Now, when a coaching client asks one of those seven questions, he gives them access to the tutorial free of charge, so that they can move on to more exciting questions.

His current product, Podcasting A to Z, is significantly higher in price.

Strategies for Selling

One of Cliff’s top strategies for selling high-priced products is to give away tons of value for free. He does this through his podcast.

Cliff has found that people are willing to pay for 2 things:

1. Personal, direct access to Cliff
2. Easy, fast, and organized access to information

Sell Your High-Priced Products Online

Most of the content of Podcasting A to Z can be found within Cliff’s podcasts. But the course organizes the information in a way that’s easy to access and understand. Instead of having to search through hundreds of episodes, they can quickly and easily find the information they’re looking for. And if they have a question, Cliff is always available to help.

Cliff says that his podcast is the number one thing he uses to advertise his course. He promotes the course at the end of every episode. Why? The people still listening at the end are the only people who will be willing to spend $2,000 on the course.

He also brings in successful Podcasting A to Z alumni for interviews on the podcast. This is strategic: they may or may not mention the impact that the course had on them, but Cliff will always mention that they took the course. It’s powerful social proof.

Snapchat

Snapchat is another tool that Cliff uses. It’s proven very effective for him. He once made $6,000 in a day! But the same principles still apply: you’ve got to give away lots of value for free before you start advertising your paid product. So Cliff posted from January to May of this year, every day, with no marketing message at all.

It was a great way for him to reach a new audience. Cliff devotes an hour every day to interacting with Snapchat followers, answering questions, and building relationships. When you do make your sales pitch, those relationships will really pay off. When Cliff finally advertised the Podcasting A to Z course on his Snapchat, three people signed up right away. All of them were people that he interacted with regularly.

So basically, to sell your high-priced product, you’ve got to provide a ton of value up front, build relationships over time, and then make the ask.

Any Other Tips?

Cliff says that his sales and marketing training from his insurance days has been extremely useful. If you have or you can acquire those skills, they’ll definitely serve you well.

He also maintains a personal follow up list. This is so that he can reach out to potential buyers in a personalized way. Here’s how it works:

Evernote

Any time someone emails him with a question and expresses any interest at all in Podcasting A to Z, he saves their contact details and the content of their message in Evernote. Then he sets a follow up date.

When it’s time to follow up, Cliff personalizes the content of the email based on what was in the first message. He also includes anything else he knows about this person. He’ll “stalk” them on social media and see what they’ve been up to, so that he can show that he really cares about providing value for them.

If that person still isn’t ready to commit to the course, he’ll follow up again. This shows that he really believes in his product and believes it’s a worthy investment.

Sometimes, when he’s had a few follow up emails with someone, but the interaction isn’t as warm as it was at the start, or it’s feeling a little stale, Cliff will include a personalized video in his next message. He’ll take everything he knows about the person and sit down to make a quick video, just talking to camera. This is a powerful marketing tool because there’s no way it could be a form letter. It’s definitely personal, and it makes that person feel very valued.

Where Can I Find Out More?

If you want to hear more from Cliff, you can find his podcast on podcastanswerman.com.

If you’re interested in the Podcasting A to Z course, head on over to podcastingAtoZ.com.

Resources Mentioned

• Podcast Answer Man – Cliff’s blog/website
• Cliff Ravenscraft show – Cliff’s podcast devoted to helping you take your message, your business and your life to the next level
• Podcasting A to Z – his online training course
• This Interview Was Derailed by Cliff Ravenscraft’s Enthusiasm – My previous interview with Cliff
• Generally Speaking Network at GSPN.tv – where Cliff and his wife, Stephanie host all of their content
• GSPN Premium Membership program – where premium members can get access to all of their content on the site
• TalkShoe.com – allows podcasters to broadcast their shows live and talk to live callers
• Snapchat – another tool that Cliff uses to build his audience by interacting with Snapchat followers, answering questions, and building relationships.
• Evernote – where he saves contact details of people he wants to follow up with in the future.

Infographic

How to Sell High-priced Products from Your Blog – from an interview with Cliff Ravenscraft

The post How to Sell High-priced Products from Your Blog – with Cliff Ravenscraft appeared first on Become A Blogger by Leslie Samuel.

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Want to Promote Your Site? Discover 100 Top-Ranked Sites for Guest Posts

Freelance writing for online magazines and posting guest articles on another blogger’s site are two of the best strategies for promoting your own site. You get to reach large established audiences and become an influencer in their eyes by association. You also get to introduce them to your site. Online magazines and other bloggers usually include a “Bio” or “Author” section at the bottom where you can give a brief description about yourself along with a back link to your own site.

The publisher also gains from this strategy. He can offer a new perspective to his regular audience. Bloggers can decide to “swap posts.” In the end it is a great networking tool.

The question then becomes: how do you find these highly-ranked sites that accept guest writers? Because not all of them do.

Recently I came across a well-researched document that will help you with this task titled “100 Top Sites that Accept Articles and Guest Blogs.” Written by Deborah Regen, the 47-page file is the result of her own research while pursuing ways to promote her travel blog. The PDF file costs only $5, and you can find it on Fiverr.com here. If you prefer you can also pay directly via PayPal and get the PDF via email. Email here at admin@ecotourlinq.com to use this option.

The 100 listings in the file have been divided in the following sections:

General
For Women
Travel
Food / Wine / Beverages
Parenting / Family
Personal Development
Technology
Money / Investments / Real Estate
Health / Weight Loss / Fitness
Business / Startups / Entrepreneurs

And here’s how a listing looks like, so you know what you’ll be getting:

Small Biz Trends

http://ift.tt/fSwfQf

Stats: 2 million unique monthly visitors.

What Is It: This is a high-quality and very popular online magazine. Read by business owners, vendors, and many others.

Requires application to be a guest writer first: YES

What to Submit: You have to become an approved guest contributor before you can submit any articles. Tell them about yourself first, what industry or topic you are most expert in, provide 2 – 3 sample topics you would like to write about, provide a link to your website or blog, and provide a link to one or more articles you have published online (other than your own site). Read about their submission
guidelines before applying to them – http://ift.tt/1CW6C3J

How to Submit: Send your email requesting approval to – experts@smallbiztrends.net

Here’s the link on Fiverr again if you want to buy.

Original post: Want to Promote Your Site? Discover 100 Top-Ranked Sites for Guest Posts

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Get These B2B Video Secrets – Before They Self-Destruct!

Just before the first big tech bubble burst in the early 2000s, my co-founder, Bill Wittenberg of Humongous Media, started a different business, one that had an unintended side-effect: whenever he described his new enterprise, it made everybody laugh. To be fair, sometimes they’d frown. Or shake their head. Or kick him out of their office.

“Seriously,” he’d say to stone-faced bankers and dubious retailers as the door swung shut behind him: “People will want to watch video on the Internet! I swear, they’ll even buy things on the Internet. It’s going to happen!”

Just 15 years later – and after my partner sold his business to Yahoo for more than $150 million — any B2B marketer knows that marketing without video is like milk without chocolate. Consider the lowly email. As a digital vehicle, B2B marketers throw a party when the engagement needle rises 5%. But according to Forrester Research, adding a video to an email marketing campaign lifts click-through rates 200-300%.

Or the humble tweet – yes, it can be 140 characters of crushing, Kardashianesque meringue. But it can also move a ton of product, if there’s video involved. In a recent Amazon @deals promotion, one electronics manufacturer added a video to their previously text-only tweet, and unit sales of the promoted product shot up 297%. In three days.

In fact, here’s what’s new: strategically speaking, whether it’s B2C promotion or B2B outreach, video has become the great marketing lever-arm — the preferred medium of consumption for all consumers, whether you’re buying a bar of soap for your kids, or software-as-a-service for your 100,000 employees. According to Forbes Magazine, after viewing a video, 65% of executives visit a marketer’s website, and almost 40% call a vendor.

So if the value of video is so clear to so many, why do some marketers still resist creating it? Simple: video can be hard to make. It can be time-consuming to develop. It can be really expensive. And that’s before you hire your ad agency. But after making over 3000 eCommerce, employee-training, change-management, and B2B education videos for marketers as diverse as Laddawn Packaging and Comcast Communications, I’ve learned a number of cool, even vital rules that I’ll share with you so you can maximize the chances of your video success.

1. Just because it’s Amazon doesn’t mean it’s Amazon

While many B2B marketers imagine that they’ll only reach their customers through effective CRM management or travel-heavy sales campaigns, they don’t realize that lots of B2B sales are made…on Amazon. Yes, just as thousands of general contractors now regularly drive to the B2C retail giant Home Depot to pick up needed business tools and supplies (hello big box, goodbye Fred’s Plumbing Supply), Amazon now sells directly to businesses. So what does that have to do with video? It turns out Amazon’s search engine has begun to weigh marketers’ product Detail pages more heavily if the page has a video on it. In other words, if your business customer’s search terms call for your page, and you don’t offer them something to watch, you could find yourself on page 9 (or 30) of the search results.

Conclusion: lots of your enterprise-sized B2B customers go to traditional, B2C eCommerce channels, social media timelines, and custom-content news sites, and when they get there, they want to watch a video.

2. Tone matters

One of the most important variables in the marketing equation is ‘tone.’ Specifically, most customers believe a company is telling the truth when it makes marketing claims. But the closer you get to the point of purchase, the less a customer wants to hear your sales message. They just want a little help. They want to understand what your offering. Remember: business customers come to eCommerce sites or a company’s product site because of effective marketing. They just don’t want to see more marketing when they get there. So if they want a video but they don’t want you to market to them, what do you say in the video? Facts, expressed quickly. B2B customers crave good information, in under 1 minute. They don’t want more claims. They want a video that offers proof. The key: gradually shift your tone from ‘sell’ to ‘tell’ the closer you (and your customer) gets to the point of sale.

3. Time matters

Time is of the essence. Why? Surprise: most B2B customers… are at work. They don’t believe they have even one extra minute. Video marketing has to be brief. Fact: by 1 minute and 20 seconds into your marketing video, you’ll have lost about 80% of your audience. By 1 minute and 40 seconds, you’ll have lost 90% of them. If you do create a marketing video, here is what we always tell our customers: “Brevity is the soul of commerce.” If you keep your video under 1:00, you’re more likely to get your entire message to your viewer. Be bold, be brave, and be brief – remove all but the most important marketing points, and you’ll keep your customer around for the sale.

4. Technique matters

OK, so you know you have to be quick about it, but how quick? Very: there are 3 critical video-abandonment points where customers are more likely to leave your otherwise excellent marketing video – at 0:03 seconds, 0:09 seconds and at 0:59 seconds. So what do you do to keep them with you, and watching? Offer them something – a product benefit, a surprise, a fact – at those key moments.

5. Buying is a journey, not an act

There are powerful, proven, repeatable techniques – some expressed above – that almost always guide a company’s customers to a purchase decision. But almost no customer goes from interest to purchase in a single moment. So any video marketing you create has to reflect where in the sales funnel your video will be seen. Will your message be consumed at the top of the sales funnel? Have fun. Sell key benefits. Attract interest. Salve customer pain points. But above all, keep it short (around 15 seconds). As your customer works their way closer to you and farther down the sales funnel, take a little more time – maybe 40 seconds. But just as you take more time, take fewer liberties – sell less. Tell more. Explain. Guide your customer through a buyer’s journey by offering them something, not asking them for something.

6. Repetition is OK.

7. Repetition is OK.

Our clients have found that their story has to be repeated — across multiple digital venues — to gain real market awareness and sales lift. The reason: customers get hazy quickly about terms and claims. The more technical or complex your product is, the more true that becomes. So you have to simplify and demystify in multiple places, on multiple platforms. To be sure, there has been a rise in category acceptance around the idea of technical products or features, but there has also been a swell of jargon associated with those claims. Problem: jargon is the enemy. Glaze is nice on a cupcake, but not in the eyes of your customer. So repeat the simple, simplified truth of your benefit across multiple platforms, all at once… Seriously. Repeat it. Across multiple platforms. Again and again. Repeatedly.

8. Science seems sexy, but it’s not

To manufacturers, jargon is tempting — legal departments find jargon reassuringly specific. Marketing departments believe jargon equals authenticity. But especially when the message is in a video, we’ve found the opposite: scientific jargon intimidates. It reinforces customers’ belief that they don’t know enough to be educated customers. So they back away — wondering if they really know enough to make a smart purchase. If your marketing video is successful, it’s often (in part) because it reassures your customer of their competence, not of yours.

Solution: Customers need the product story told simply, repeatedly, and without jargon. (Wait. Did I already say that? Good!) One reason for the repetition: if you sell a technical or complex product (software, cars, really good paper cups), you’re making a value proposition that’s often literally microscopic. Your microchip is faster. Your software is more efficient. Your car uses less gas. Well, guess what: your customer can’t see any of that. And with that literal lack of visibility comes a subtle disbelief in your brand’s claims. The opposite is true, too — if a brand repeats the simple, practical reasons for their claim and they use a video to (literally) magnify a product benefit, customers will flock to that simple story, and to that product.

The short of it all: Selling happens when a story gets told well, fast

Explanation and education are the new gold standards for marketing. And many B2B customers now want their learning delivered in video form, because video is on their time, it’s on their device, and it’s where they are. So make a video. Help your customer. Train your employees. Give everybody confidence. And whatever you do, make it snappy.

Okay, these rules won’t actually self-destruct, but they will help you outsmart and outperform other B2B marketers who aren’t in the know! Want more useful video marketing insights, tips and tricks? Come to Viewtopia, the Video Marketing Summit! Humongous Media will be there, and we hope you will be, too.

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How to Write Killer Blog Posts Even If You Are a Lousy Writer Like Me

The Savage Nation with Michael Savage - October 20 2016 [HOUR 1]

3 Lessons on How to Use Data to Improve Your Marketing Campaigns

We all need to start somewhere, and we all make mistakes on our journeys to becoming great marketers. But rather than cry over spilt milk (or that email you sent to the wrong list … don’t worry, we’ve all done it), what you learn from it is far more important.

I myself am far from an expert, but I do know what it’s like to feel lost when you’re trying to interpret dozens of metrics from a single marketing campaign. So I’ve short-listed some of the biggest lessons I’ve learned in the hopes that this won’t just be an awkward confessional post, and you’ll be able to learn from my experiences, too.

Lesson 1: Don’t just track vanity metrics.

Just like you wouldn’t look at view count to measure the success of a video (we know you’re better than that), you shouldn’t use inquiries, or initial campaign responses, as the only measure of success for your marketing campaign. If you track those initial inquiries further down the funnel then you get to the more meaningful metrics, like if the leads converted into opportunities for your sales team or if they generated any pipeline.

For instance, if we were to look at view counts alone, then this webinar we co-presented with Jay Baer would be our star performer and we’d be tempted go full throttle to create more webinars like it. But if we look more carefully at the data, while it is definitely a fact that many people watched the webinar, those people actually converted into opportunities at a lower rate than most other webinars we’ve done. While this webinar appears to be fantastic to engage people who are new to video for the first time, it not our strongest asset for nurturing and converting existing users. So instead of just pumping out introductory webinars that appear at first glance to be great lead gen activities, we have to make sure to balance those with webinars that also nurture and convert viewers who are further down the funnel.

Lesson 2: Wait to see the true results of your campaigns before making decisions.

If you’re using a CRM like Salesforce it’s incredibly helpful to set up dashboards or reports so you can monitor campaign progress from the moment you set it up. But be aware that you might not see the true results of the campaign until weeks, or even months, after. Why? Because sometimes it can take time for leads to make their way through the funnel and have the appropriate conversations with sales so they can convert into pipeline. So while it may appear a campaign isn’t effective at generating pipeline immediately, if you wait for those leads to trickle down it will demonstrate its true value over time (especially so for evergreen campaigns that you can continue to promote, like webinars and eBooks). Just be patient, which I realize is infinitely easier than it sounds when you’re trying to demonstrate the ROI on your campaigns!

Speaking of dashboards reports, they’re also invaluable to not only review campaign performance within your team, but also with other teams you work closely with. Reviewing the data together is a great way to find out what’s working and what’s not, but getting qualitative data like anecdotes from other teams that sometimes don’t translate into data are also equally as important. I’ve always found that sales is a goldmine of information, and conversations like “We had some great conversations with these people. Maybe we should target more prospects in the toilet industry” can result in you committing to a Squatty Potty event later in the year (link is SFW!).

Lesson 3: Don’t discount your failures.

If you’ve tracked the metrics further down the funnel and given it time to see the true results of your campaign and things still aren’t shaking out, please, please, please don’t just throw the baby out with the bathwater. You could have a fantastic idea or piece of content on your hands that just needs a bit of love and tweaking to get it right.

For instance, let’s say your sales webinar didn’t perform well. You could try breaking it up into a short demo series, or promoting it on-demand so viewers can watch it at any time, or making it interactive to allow viewers to submit their questions to get a discussion going. You can even try something as simple as hosting the next one first thing in the morning or over lunch rather than in the afternoon.

Or let’s say your new product video has a 60% drop-off rate in the first 10 seconds. No sweat. Try cropping out the fluff at the beginning, like any intros, re-record it and get to the good stuff faster, or add interactive annotations to keep people engaged.

The ways you could improve your campaigns are almost endless. By evolving and testing new ideas against the baseline, you could spin even some of your worst campaign nightmares into marketing grand slams.

Do you have any gems of wisdom you can share about how you use your data? Or want to share your biggest marketing mishap? Let me know in the comments below!

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Here’s Why I Recommend Hostagor and Think You Should Use It

Pretty much every week I receive an email from people who want recommendations about web hosting. They want to know what hosting company I use, what plan I have, what plan they should get for a new blog or website and so on. That is why I decided to write this article, so that I can refer every one who asks here. I will structure the post as a Q&A, as I believe it will make it easier to follow along.

What Hosting Companies Have You Tried Over the Years?

I have been building blogs and websites for 10+ years (started in 2005). Over that period, I tried the hosting servicers of dozens of companies. Here are the ones I remember from thet top of my head:

• Yahoo!
• A Small Orange
• MochaHost
• DreamHost
• BlueHost
• Doreo
• GoDaddy
• HostGator
• JustHost
• iPage
• 1&1
• MediaTemple

Some were good, some were average, some were terrible. The good thing about web hosting is that it’s pretty easy to migrate to another company, so I didn’t stick with the bad ones for too long.

What Hosting Company Do You Use Now?

Out of all the companies listed above, the one where I found the best technical and customer service was HostGator, and that is why I host all my sites with them now. I started with their basic plan for a single site, and over time I upgraded to a VPS and now to a dedicated server.

The technical part involves the speed and reliability of the servers, and I always found both to be pretty good with HostGator (not perfect, but much better than the other providers I tried). Same goes for customer support. While it’s not perfect, they usually reply to my tickets and fix problems that emerge much faster that what I was used to with other companies.

Can You Give Me an Example of When You Experienced Good Customer Support?

Whenever I had technical issues with the sites, their customer support resolved them pretty fast, even if it was something in the middle of the night.

On different occasions I also asked them for favors, given that I am a very loyal customer, and they always agreed to help me out. Once they doubled the RAM on my server without any extra cost, and on another occasion I run out of dedicated IP addresses on my server, and they hooked me up with one free of charge.

What Hosting Plan Do You Use?

As I mentioned above, today I rent a dedicated server with HostGator. But that is because I host many sites, and some receive a good amount of traffic, so I can justify the monthly cost.

That being said, in the past I used pretty much all their plans, from the basic one (used to be called ‘Hatchling’, now it’s called ‘Starter’) to the Business plans and VPSs. All offered good value for money, and that is why I stuck around and upgraded over time.

What Hosting Plan Do You Recommend for a New or Small Site?

When people are starting out they tend to freak out about the hosting plan, imagining that they need a powerful plan to make sure their websites will be able to receive all visitors and be fast.

That is not the case. Even a basic plan will be able to handle a new or small site with efficiency. The limitation is usually the bandwidth (i.e., how much data your site can transfer), and it’s very hard to go over bandwidth limits. The speed of your site shouldn’t vary much from a basic to a more advanced plan.

In the case of HostGator, a Starter or Standard plan are certainly enough to get you started, and the cost starts at $6 monthly or so, which is pretty affordable.

What Do You Think About Cheap or Free Hosting Plans?

If you research around you’ll find that some companies offer free hosting, as in zero dollars per month. Some do that in exchange for placing links or advertising on your site. I used those in the past on experimental websites, mostly to know how it worked. The hosting does work, but the quality is not that great as you can imagine, so I wouldn’t recommend it for any serious project.

The same is true for cheap hosting services (i.e., those that cost $2/month or so). Sure, you get a better service when compared to free hosting options, but going from $2 to $6 is not a big jump in price, but it will be a big jump in service quality.

When Do You Think I Should Move to a VPS or Dedicated Server?

A basic VPS will cost around $40 per month. A basic dedicated server will cost about $100 per month.

My rule of thumb: as soon as your site is generating 3x the hosting cost, you should upgrade.

So when you reach $120 in monthly earnings, move to a VPS. When you reach $300 in monthly earnings, move to a dedicated box.

Why upgrade? Because the reliability you’ll get will be much higher. On a shared server what other users do on the server affect your site. If a user runs a bad PHP script and crashes the server, for instance, your site goes down together. On VPS and dedicated servers, your site is isolated from the others, and this is worth the extra cost in my opinion over time.

If you want to get all the details of pricing and specs, go to HostGator.com and click on “VPS” or “Dedicated” on the top menu bar.

What Is Your Relationship with Hostgator?

HostGator is not a sponsor of this blog, and I am not earning money to recommend them. I am an affiliate, though, which means that if you signup with them through my referral I get a small commission.

That being said, I am only recommending them because I have been a customer for 8+ years and I am extremely satisfied with their services. In other words, I am walking the talk here. I often get approached by other hosting companies to promote them, but I decline because I don’t trust their services. HostGator also offers a money-back guarantee, so you can test the service and see if you like it with no risk of losing any money.

How to Get 30% Off Your Hosting Plan

HostGator offers some very competitive prices to begin with. The Starter plan, for instance, costs $5.99 monthly (if you prepay). If you use the discount code dailyblogtips you’ll get an additional 30% off your order. Click here to view all plains and details.

Original post: Here’s Why I Recommend Hostagor and Think You Should Use It

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Welcome to Viewtopia: Vidyard Announces Speakers for 2016 Video Marketing Summit

YouTube and Vine star Zach King, Forrester analysts Nick Barber and Laura Ramos, Solarwinds video director René Lego join top voices in video, marketing, content and customer success

KITCHENER, Ontario – October 19, 2016 – Vidyard today announced the speaker lineup for Viewtopia 2016, the industry’s largest annual video marketing summit being held in San Francisco Nov. 9-10.

YouTube and Vine personality Zach King headlines an impressive speakers list featuring industry analysts, video experts, marketing innovators and other business leaders. Video continues to be one of the fastest growing and most effective areas of modern digital marketing. Viewtopia attendees will hear from innovative marketing leaders about how video is helping drive results at their companies and will learn practical techniques to launch and advance their own video marketing programs, as well as how to use the power of video in other areas of the business to boost audience engagement and improve results.

“Online video is changing the way businesses connect and communicate with modern buyers,” said Michael Litt, co-founder and CEO of Vidyard. “Viewtopia is where we explore the latest trends in digital content and storytelling, and the expanding role that video is playing throughout the customer lifecycle. It’s a perfect opportunity for marketers, sales leaders and business executives to discover what’s really working and to gain practical advice on how to use video in a more strategic way to deliver real results.”

Zach King started his journey in film at the age of 7 when his parents put him in charge of shooting home videos at a wedding. Since that moment, he’s had the film bug in his blood. As a freshman in film school, he started his YouTube channel where he started posting his film projects, such as Jedi Kittens, which quickly went viral generating millions of views. In September 2013, he opened a Vine account and challenged himself to create one Vine video a day for one month. Three years later, he was awarded the 2016 Shorty Award for Best Vine Artist, and he is now heralded as the king of Vine magic and one of the most popular content creators on social media.

Forrester Research analyst Laura Ramos is a leading expert in business-to-business marketing with hands-on senior management experience in corporate, industry and product marketing; demand management; and social media. She helps Forrester’s B2B marketing clients plan, build and deliver marketing programs that combine traditional and digital approaches that lead with business issues, create thought leadership and fuel their company’s topline growth.

Her colleague Nick Barber specializes in video technologies, including live and on-demand video within the enterprise and for customer experiences. His research centers on how companies can use online video platforms for sales and marketing operations and how they can enhance their business using video collaboration and video conferencing. Prior to joining Forrester, Barber was the director of online video at IDG News Service, where he was a technology news journalist serving IDG’s global network of websites. He helped build IDG’s global video presence from both a content and technology perspective, and he produced thousands of videos on a range of enterprise and consumer topics.

René Lego is an award-winning, Emmy-nominated producer, director and videographer who currently leads video production and media strategy at Solarwinds, a leading global provider of IT monitoring and management tools. During the past six years at SolarWinds, Lego’s video team has flourished into a multi-faceted internal video production, creative and media team with over 1,500 videos released. She is the executive producer of SolarWinds Lab, a monthly customer livestream talk series, and has helped develop and expand THWACKcamp, SolarWinds’ annual online virtual thought leadership and training event, now in its fifth year.

A marketing and sales industry veteran with more than 20 years of experience, Tim Riesterer has dedicated his career to improving the conversations marketers and salespeople have with prospects and customers. His books “Customer Message Management,” “Conversations that Win the Complex Sale” and “Three Value Conversations” focus on improving market-ready messages and tools that marketers and salespeople can use to win more deals.

To see the full list of speakers and topics, learn more about the event or register, visit the Viewtopia website: http://ift.tt/2bXSe3P. Registration is $499 for the full 2-day event.

Viewtopia will also be the site for the 2016 Video Marketing Awards (VMAs) to recognize organizations and individual marketers using video content and video analytics to drive revenue and boost marketing results. Winners in each category will be recognized at the event and will have an opportunity to share their story with other attendees. To see the full list of categories, visit http://ift.tt/2eu1W0E.

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About Vidyard

Vidyard (Twitter: @Vidyard) is the video intelligence platform that helps businesses drive more revenue through the use of online video. Going beyond video hosting and management, Vidyard helps businesses drive greater engagement in their video content, track the viewing activities of each individual viewer, and turn those views into action. Global leaders such as Honeywell, McKesson, Lenovo, LinkedIn, Cision, TD Ameritrade, Citibank, MongoDB and Sharp rely on Vidyard to power their video content strategies and turn viewer into customers.

Media Contact:
Brad Hem
Phone: (281) 543-0669
press@vidyard.com

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A Shortish History of Online Video

In the years following World War II, a strange and exciting new technology emerged. Moving pictures … in your living room.

Showing eager audiences moving pictures was nothing new — people had been watching nickelodeons since the 1800s, and theatres were showing silent films and “talkies” well into the dawn of the 21st century. But, save for the wealthy owners of home theaters, one had to go out to experience these. Moving pictures were group activities, while sitting around the fire listening to the radio was the mainstay of the modern home.

Television changed that. Many wrote TV off as a fad, but soon, nearly every home in North America had a television: rabbit-ears pointed in all directions, picking up everything from news broadcasts to sporting events. By the 1950s, presidential addresses were delivered over television, and wide-eyed children watched incredible footage of the moon landing, beamed back from the furthest any human being had ever gone in our galactic front door. Moving pictures became personal.

Color TV was introduced in the 1960s, and as VHS tapes were born in the late 1970s, TV became an on-demand medium. No longer did you have to wait for your favorite show to come on, you could record it, and watch it later. No longer did you have to wait for a station to play your favorite movie, you could pick it up and watch it at your leisure, commercial-free. On-demand television was an exciting idea as early as the 1970s. And it’s no surprise that when the internet rolled around in about the same time frame, it would take less than 30 years for video to become one of the primary, and most exciting uses of this new communications network.

And that, is what we want to talk about today. We believe in the power of online video, but where did online video begin? What were some of the key milestones that got us to where we are now — a world where Facebook’s CEO believes video will be as big as mobile phones in how we communicate, and Cisco conservatively estimates that up to 80% of the internet’s traffic will be video by 2020. Funnily enough, it all began with a pot of coffee.

The Trojan Room: Laziness Breeds Innovation

While details are foggy on what the very first video was to be streamed over the internet, few people mince words over the first real “live” video stream. In 1991, in the old Computer Laboratory of the University of Cambridge in England sat a lonely coffee machine. Disappointed engineers from all over the building would traverse the hallowed halls to find the coffee pot empty, and would trudge back to their offices and labs empty handed. To help alleviate this great stress, a camera was set up across from the coffee pot, beaming its status to any computer in the building.

By 1993, web browsers had attained the ability to display images, and the camera was connected to the internet as an image that could be refreshed ‘live’ to make it easier to transmit its status. As the world wide web grew, so did the popularity of the webcam, with people checking in from all over the globe to see the status of Cambridge’s coffee pot. One could argue that in addition to being the first live video streamed daily on the internet, it was also the first viral video. The coffee pot pre-dates Google, so to find it, you had to either know where to look, or have someone tell you.

Broadcasting a coffee pot online to save engineers a walk down the hall may seem like a small feat, but this humble beginning is the first step towards the video-driven world we live in today. And as technology evolved, so did its capabilities. In 1993, a top-of-the-line modem would have transmitted and received data at 14.4k per second, which works out to downloading a 1mb image in 9 minutes and 42 seconds. Streaming a Netflix movie, at a whopping 1.5gb per film, would take 242 hours and 23 minutes, or just under 21 days. On-demand digital video wasn’t quite ready for prime-time yet, but the seeds were planted. All it needed was technology, and mainstream interest, to catch up.

Enter: Moore’s Law.

Moore’s Law and Online Video

Moore’s Law is the observation that, as technology advances, the number of transistors in a dense circuit doubles every two years. Sometimes this is the result of progress, sometimes Moore’s Law is seen as a target that must be reached so we reach it. A self-fulfilling prophecy, if you will.

While there’s no direct relation of Moore’s Law to internet speed, one could look at the rate at which we have increased our internet communications capacity in a similar light. Whether it’s advancement in technologies through natural experimentation, or simply the desire to meet the demand of ever-increasing complex online processes, our internet speed and bandwidth has continued to rise year-after-year, and with it, our ability to do amazing things online has risen too.

The late 1990s saw the rise of broadband internet, and the increasing complexity and creative possibility of internet browsers to display more exciting media. GIFs began to emerge as a popular moving image format, and some of the earliest viral ‘videos’ — adding audio to a page with moving gifs, and looping them at the same rate — began to emerge too. While not the proudest moment in internet history, few will struggle to remember the Hamster Dance, sent out via countless emails from well-meaning relatives, and spawning everything from techno remixes to awful day-time television dance parties. Like it or not, the Hamster Dance was one of the first viral videos. And a new technology emerged that would change everything once again.

The Short But Exciting Rise of Flash

Flash Video, Developed by Macromedia in the late 1990s, was officially added as part of Adobe’s Flash Player 6 in 2002, and ushered in a new wave of online video. In addition to allowing media companies to display short video online and in a format that was easy for browsers to display, Flash was also an easy platform to build animations, and would enable thousands of would-be cartoonists to bring their visions to life. Animations like the infamous Badgers video arrived in 2003, and were widely shared privately before Flash-focused websites like Newgrounds opened up to user-generated content. The now famous Numa Numa video, uploaded as a flash video, would attain an unheard of 2 million views in its first three months online.

In addition to battling for bandwidth space against Napster and a host of new file-sharing platforms, online video finally had the technology, and the required bandwidth to become a mainstream phenomenon. News networks used Flash to share their segments online, sports teams shared highlights on their websites, and humor sites like eBaum’s World and AlbinoBlackSheep became popular destinations to watch and create flash animations.

With so much video scattered across the web, watching the content was no longer an issue for those that could afford the internet connection required to enjoy it. But finding video content was still a challenge. Until Valentine’s Day, 2005.

Why You Were the Time Magazine Person of the Year in 2006

By 2005, nearly 30% of all households in the United States had “high speed” internet — using cable or DSL to access a much higher download and bandwidth rate than had been offered by telephone modems. This dramatic increase in available internet speed, coupled with digital cameras (and video cameras) becoming more commonplace, was creating an interesting intersection of opportunity.

There was a lot of video content floating around. And people had the technology to watch it at home, or at work. But where did you put it?

On February 14th, 2005, Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim, three alumni of PayPal, launched YouTube as a place for people to share their online videos, and search for other people’s videos. The first video uploaded to the site was commemorating Karim’s trip to the zoo.

Anyone could create an account, upload their content, and start building their “channel”. And people did. In less than a year, YouTube was serving 100 million videos online per day, and was accounting for 60% of all internet traffic.

Remember that intersection of opportunity I mentioned earlier? YouTube found it.

Much like television was made for people, but largely paid for by advertising, the internet was beginning to emerge as an ad-defined space as well. Banner ads and spam emails were nothing new in 2006, but truly innovative brands were looking for new ways to connect with users in a way that didn’t annoy them, but got them excited. A medium that was drawing people in every day to watch content was still an open playing field.

Nike saw an opportunity in 2005, and uploaded a three minute clip of soccer star Ronaldinho quietly trying on some new cleats, and showing off his incredible shooting accuracy (watch for it at 1:40!):

It’s grainy, shaky, and has no background music or other editing. But it was the first video to break 1 million views on YouTube the first time it was uploaded, and it ushered in the concept of viral videos on YouTube. Brands had taken notice of this new anything-goes online video platform, and Nike could proudly wave the flag that they had been the first to find real success with it. Connecting with users had gone from a television battleground to an online one.

In 2006, after breaking nearly every possible milestone in online video (and setting up a few new ones for others to break along the way) YouTube was acquired by Google for a whopping $1.65 billion. The partnership only fuelled YouTube’s growth, adding advertising features to generate revenue, and bringing so much attention to the platform that in 2008 some experts feared YouTube would collapse the entire internet infrastructure by simply being too big for it to handle.

By the end of 2006, YouTube was part of a larger collection of online applications that focused on user-generated content, and community building. MySpace, Wikipedia, YouTube, and a host of other collaborative sites led to Time Magazine publishing the controversial Person of the Year as simply “You”, representing the people who used these tools every day to redefine the web. YouTube’s role in this was center-stage, as the cover featured a monitor showing a mirror, with the conspicuous scrubber bar on the bottom of the popular online video platform:

2007 saw Facebook, at the time a powerfully emerging social network, begin to include video as an uploadable media typel to compete with YouTube. Few could predict how powerful Facebook would turn out to be, and how much this pivotal moment would affect its future success.

As with any medium, YouTube celebrities also began to emerge, with the popular Fred being the first channel to reach 1 million subscribers in 2009. For the sake of your eardrums, I will refrain from posting any of Fred’s clips as part of this article, but I will remind you that the internet is sometimes as inexplicable as it is incredible.

Streaming Video is the New Norm

While YouTube was busy collecting user generated content (and deleting slyly uploaded copyrighted material) another startup had been brewing since 1997, and would shake up online video just as much in a short time.

Started in 1997 as a way of renting DVDs by mail, Netflix launched its streaming media service in 2007, less than a year after YouTube was acquired by Google. While YouTube had worked with publishers to show some copyrighted material online through a pay-per-view model, Netflix built its model on offering big budget movies on-demand for a monthly fee. By 2013, less than 6 years later, Netflix would add television shows to its roster of streaming media, and would become the biggest source of downstream traffic on the internet, taking in a whopping 32.3%. With House of Cards debuting the same year, Netflix again broke records by launching its own high-budget programming to compete with the very network TV providers it had long used as its main source of content.

YouTube and Netflix showed the power of small companies to change the way we consume media, but big corporations weren’t entirely in the stone-age either. Hulu launched in 2007 as a television-focused competitor to Netflix’s streaming service, and led by a consortium of companies, including Disney, Fox, and Comcast. While it launched after Netflix, it remains a popular competitor to this day.

Much like Nike was the first company to truly take advantage of YouTube as a marketing channel, other large companies began to see the power of online video, and a new challenge to network television was emerging. Long thought of as the ‘holy grail’ of commercial marketing, the Super Bowl was taken by storm in 2011, as Volkswagen posted their now-famous “The Force” commercial to YouTube four days before the big game:

By Super Bowl Sunday, the ad had received over 8 million views, and would go on to become one of the most shared Super Bowl commercials of all time. While these online views can’t match the number of eyes on the ad during the Super Bowl broadcast, it showed brands that spending money creating ads for the Super Bowl could have the added bonus of making your company an internet superstar. Within a few years, nearly every brand was taking advantage of this, especially Budweiser.

The early 2010s would prove to be pivotal in the rise of streaming video, as bandwidth continued to improve, and live video became far more accessible. YouTube launched live streaming in 2011, and even the International Olympics Committee, an organization steeped in the revenue it receives selling broadcast rights to its events, chose to live stream portions of the Olympics from London in 2012. Brands like Apple and Salesforce began live streaming their event keynotes in 2013, opening up the door for countless online viewers to experience up-to-the-minute news from their favorite brands live, and share in the experience.

Live streaming, and streaming video was here to stay. So where do we go from here?

The Future Will Not Be Televised, But It Will Be Advertised

The rise in online video has been meteoric within the last decade, but few realize the costs of hosting and delivering all of this video. Consumer internet may be relatively inexpensive depending on where you live, but for brands hosting and serving millions of videos — like YouTube and Facebook — bandwidth costs are definitely a concern. Much like cable television was supported by commercials and sponsored broadcasts, online video has slowly become one of the most powerful, and lucrative advertising tools.

Facebook launched video ads in 2014, and America watched over 20 billion video ads in 2013 alone. Brands began to move commercial content from television to the web, and content like Dove’s Real Beauty Sketches and Geico’s Hump Day ads were viral sensations in the years they were published. Some brands have eschewed even creating their own content, looking to users for inspiration. GoPro’s video of a fireman saving a kitten has been viewed millions of times, and much like most of their YouTube content, was not originally produced by their team.

Even presidents began to take advantage of the popularity of online video, with Obama appearing on the popular Zach Galifianakis web series Between Two Ferns to promote Healthcare.gov. The site saw a huge increase in traffic as a result of his appearance, and was lauded as a successful way of communicating a controversial — but potentially life-saving — topic to a younger audience.

The early 2010s also saw the dawn of what many consider to be the real future of online video: mobile.

Vine, launched by Twitter in 2013, quickly became a widely popular video-only social network. Popular picture-only social network Instagram added video only a few months later. Brands immediately leapt on this opportunity to show short-form video content to their audiences, and even older brands like GE leapt on the trend, launching their Vine account a mere one day after the network was started.

By now, it had been less than a decade since Nike took home the trophy as the first video to reach a million views on YouTube and online video was no longer a fun niche market for brands big and small; it was a must-have.

The Sky is the Limit

So what is the future of online video? For one, it’s volume. Mark Zuckerberg, whose company, Facebook, went from being a small dorm-room project to the largest social network in history, predicts that video will look like as big of a shift in the way we communicate as mobile has been. And, as I mentioned earlier, Cisco is already predicting that by 2020, at least 80% of internet traffic will be video.

100 million hours of video are watched on Facebook every day. That’s 11,415 days of video content. So, if everyone is doing it, how do brands stand out?

First, brands are embracing new technologies as fast as engineers can create them. In 2015, YouTube launched 360 video, and Facebook followed suit. Brands as big as National Geographic, and as small as college football teams are using 360 video to give viewers an immersive experience with their content. Whether you’re helicoptering over a volcano, or running onto the field with Stanford at the Rose Bowl, the experience is unlike anything we’ve seen before in online video.

As people begin to expect video content from brands, innovative companies are also adding interactivity to their videos. Honda took a chance in promoting their Civic R with The Other Side, allowing viewers to flip back and forth between the family friendly version of their car, and the darker, more mysterious story that lurked beneath.

As video has matured as a marketing asset, many marketers are also looking to take video off YouTube and start seeing real results with it. Video platforms (like Vidyard – selfish plug) have emerged to help brands complement their YouTube strategy with more in-depth viewer analytics and lead generation elements. While there is always a place for branded content on YouTube, businesses that want more from their video – and to have more control over what plays before and after it – are increasingly moving content to their own websites, and keeping it there.

Personalization has also become the cornerstone of modern marketing, and brands are following suit with their video content. A recent personalized video campaign from Lenovo saw an almost 5x increase in clicks compared to their usual campaigns. And that was to a list of dead leads. If seeing their first and last name in a video is enough to drive prospects to click through and engage, I suspect we’ll see far more companies using this technology to stand out.

At the end of the day, online video is quickly replacing network television as one of the biggest sources of media attention. Streaming services like Netflix, user generated content sites like YouTube, and social networks like Facebook are making video accessible, searchable, and using complex algorithms to supply viewers with the exact content they know they will enjoy. Whether we spend the rest of our lives glued to a screen remains to be seen, but one thing is for certain: brands know how much time we spend watching content, and smart ones are taking advantage of online video as it grows.

Now, after all of this, I still don’t have a good way of knowing whether or not the coffee pot in our own kitchen is empty most of the time, but perhaps I can look at one of the latest innovations — inexpensive, video-enabled drones that I can control with my phone — to solve that.

After all, when it comes to online video, the sky truly is the limit.

The post A Shortish History of Online Video appeared first on Vidyard.

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How to Maximize Your Success by Attending Conferences

How to Maximize Your Success by Attending Conferences

Episode: 282

Thinking about attending a conference for the first time?

Can going to conferences really make a difference for your business?

In this very special podcast episode, I’m actually broadcasting direct from FinCon with some special guests. We are broadcasting live from the TradeKing Podcasting Stage right outside the expo hall, and will be talking about how to maximize your success by attending conferences. I’m here with three other members of the Become a Blogger coaching club that decided to come all the way down to San Diego, California to attend this event. They’re here to connect with other bloggers, learn lots of valuable information, and take their blogging businesses to the next level. We’re going to be talking about our FinCon experiences so far, what we’re getting out of it, and how it’s going affect our businesses.

I’ve never had this many guests on a podcast before, so this will be fun!

What’s FinCon?

FinCon is a financial bloggers conference. It’s the world’s largest financial content expo, but it’s open to anyone who wants to attend. It’s a great place to be if you have any kind of financial component to your blog. You can find more information on their website.

I was speaking at FinCon this year, so I got the chance to give away a few tickets to members of my Become a Blogger Coaching Club. With me in San Diego were: Serena Appiah from ThriftDiving.com, John Jefferson from FreeFinLit101.com, and Traci Antonovich from TheKitchenGirl.com.

At FinCon 2016, podcasting live at TradeKing podcasting Stage with myself, Traci Antonovich, John Jefferson, and Serena Appiah from the BAB Coaching Club.

Why FinCon?

All three of these bloggers are interested in finance in one way or another: Serena is all about helping you decorate your house on a budget; John wants to build your financial fitness and literacy at any age; and Traci makes great recipes that are easy on your wallet. So FinCon is the perfect place for all of us to be!

At FinCon 2016 with some of my fellow bloggers.

Traci specifically says she’s been wanting to come to FinCon for about 3 years now. What’s great about FinCon for her is that it’s a convergence of the “technical, geeky, nerdy financial people,” so you can ask any question and there’s someone around who can answer it. Plus, everyone’s got common ground in terms of being content creators who need to market and grow their businesses.

John says he’s amazed at how friendly everyone is. You can just walk up to anyone, introduce yourself, and start a conversation.

Plus, says Serena, it’s a whole different level of blogging. There’s fantastic content, and we’re all actually learning a lot in the sessions. It doesn’t matter if you’re new to blogging or if you’re really experienced: there’s something for everyone.

What’s the most valuable part of the FinCon experience?

It was hard to pick just one thing! Especially for Traci.

Serena said it’s the people and the new connections she has made. She sees a real benefit in going slightly outside of her niche. You never know where those new relationships will lead!

John was really impressed by how honest and open the different speakers were. He felt that he had an instant connection with them because they shared their vulnerabilities. We all agreed that to have a place like FinCon where people are comfortable being vulnerable is really important.

Myself with John and Traci at FinCon 2016.

For Traci, the most valuable part of the experience was getting some validation for her ideas about how to focus content. She’s looking to work budget and finance into her blogging more explicitly, so it was a great opportunity for her to test out some new ideas. Coming to a conference like FinCon can really help spur on new ideas because it gets you out of your comfort zone. Traci felt like she had been stuck in a rut of just generating content before coming to FinCon, but she’s leaving re-energized to try out some new stuff!

For me, the #1 best thing about FinCon is just connecting with people. The sessions and the information are great, and San Diego is an amazing location, and the food was really good, too. But what really makes the trip worthwhile are the conversations you have with other people. It might be just 2 or 3 conversations that really stand out and stay with you, but when you cultivate those relationships you never know what can happen.

What’s one extremely valuable thing you learned from the sessions that you’re going to implement in your business?

Serena learned the most from a short session she attended on public speaking. The presenter had a goal of mastering public speaking, and so he recorded himself every time he gave a talk. And in the car on the way home, he listened to himself and thought about how he could improve the next time. He said that the best thing you can do if you’re looking to improve as a public speaker is to invest in a small recording device so that you can listen to yourself and figure what’s working and what’s not.

Some of the FinCon 2016 speakers with myself included.

He also had some advice for watching things like TEDTalks. It’s a three-step process:

1. Watch the whole thing straight through, to get a general idea of what’s going on.
2. Watch it again with the sound turned off, so you’re focusing on the speaker’s body language.
3. Turn off the video and just listen to the audio track, so you’re focused on what is actually being said.

Serena felt that this was really actionable advice. Plus, it applies to more than just live public speaking. You could use the same tips to improve your podcasts or your videos, too. Instead of just putting content out there and moving on, it’s really important to look at where you can improve. And believe me, everybody has something they can improve on, no matter how experienced they are!

For John, the most valuable thing he learned at FinCon was about using video on his blog. So far, he hasn’t really used much video, but he is inspired to do more after attending the conference. He learned a lot about putting videos together and about where they should go on the blog. His favorite tip actually came from Serena, who often embeds a video within her blog posts. This keeps readers engaged longer and gives them another way to access the content.

Serena also suggested repurposing old content by adding video, especially if it’s a popular post that consistently performs well. You can re-energize it really easily by just adding in a video.

Traci’s biggest takeaway from FinCon was about connecting to her audience. She attended a session that focused on gearing content towards what your audience wants and needs. Traci felt that she hadn’t been connecting to her audience in a meaningful way because she had been so focused on just creating new content all the time. For example, she hasn’t built a Facebook group for her business yet. So attending FinCon has given her lots of ideas about how to deepen her connection to her audience.

Again, it was really hard for everyone to pick just one extremely valuable piece of information! All three of my special guests are hoping to come back to FinCon in the future.

What would you say to a blogger thinking about going to conferences?

A conference can feel like a really big commitment of time and resources. They can be expensive, and they might be held in cities far from home. You’ve got to cover accommodation, food, the conference fee…it’s a lot!

But John says that you’ve got to place the value in the information you’ll get back and in the friendships you’ll establish at the conference. What you’ll see and learn while you’re there far outweighs the financial investment you’ll make in it.

Traci agrees: “Where else in the world can you go and be in a room full of like-minded content-creators” and have the opportunity to meet and talk to complete strangers? At FinCon, you can just go up to someone and say, “Hi, I’m Traci”, and they’ll want to talk to you. You can’t do that on the street. Well you could, but people might not respond as well. There’s so much potential value in the relationships you’ll build at a conference.

Serena points out that it’s important to know why you’re going, though. Let yourself be vulnerable, but also have a goal in mind in order to get the most out of attending a conference.

I can say pretty confidently that more opportunities have come my way through conferences than any other way. In fact, if I wasn’t going to conferences, I’m pretty sure I’d still be working at my job. That’s how valuable events like FinCon have been for me.

Resources Mentioned:

• FinCon – the conference we were at in this podcast episode.
• BAB Coaching Club members who were with me:
  • Serena Appiah from ThriftDiving.com
  • John Jefferson from FreeFinLit101.com
  • Traci Antonovich from TheKitchenGirl.com

Infographic

Attending Conferences: How it can Make a Difference for Your Business

The post How to Maximize Your Success by Attending Conferences appeared first on Become A Blogger by Leslie Samuel.

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