Dominate Your Local Market!

Put together some great guitar, a classic piece of music, a simple video and link to a website and what do you get? 40 Million YouTube views and counting. Thinking of the difference 40 Million plus visitors could make to your marketing effort?

Yes, he’s good. And that’s why he has drawn 40 million viewers. And let’s be honest here. That’s not a very good video, is it? But it gets his point across. Want to play guitar like me (i.e., very good) – then grab this course or this product and you can.

You are also good at what you do. And there are YouTube visitors searching right now for the type of information you have to share, whether that is how-to info, or products or homes for sale.

Now, I know you may not be a super guitar player, and you may not draw 40 million viewers, but just think of the power of YouTube and what it could do for your business. And best of all, it’s FREE. Every time we’ve put something on YouTube, we’ve increased traffic to our website. And increased traffic means increased sales if your website is set up to take advantage of the traffic. If it’s not, you have some work to do.

Ask yourself these questions before you put your first video on YouTube or any other video site, such as Google Videos or Revver.com:

What happens when a new visitor reaches my home page?
What do they see or hear? Is there a clear definition of the purpose of the website or just random information they may or may not be interested in?

What do I want them to do?
Every web page should have a single purpose. It can supply information, sell a product, request visitor info such as name and email, or anything else important to your business. But it can’t do all of these things at once. You need separate pages for each function. This make the purpose of the page clearer to both visitors and search engines. You’ll get better response and better search ranking.

Have I made my objective clear to them?
Don’t assume that visitors know what you expect of them. Tell them! If you want them to buy a product, state your case and ask for the sale multiple times. If you want them to sign up for your newsletter, offer them something of value in exchange for their name and email.

Will they ever come back again?
Not if you don’t make some effort to ensure that they have a reason to come back. The first thing any website needs to do is to try and capture some information from the visitor so that you can contact them in the future and offer them something of interest to get them to come back.

Remember that very few visitors buy on their first visit. When that fifth, sixth or seventh contact motivates them to action, you want to be the one making that contact.

So review your website to be sure you have some of these basic elements in place. Then put together a video for YouTube. You don’t have to be Steven Spielberg here. Just convey the information you want in a simple and clear manner. You’ll get better as you make more videos.

Type keywords for your type of business into the search box at YouTube and see what your competitors are doing. You’ll also get some great inspiration for your own videos.

Start out using simple tools like Windows Movie Maker or Quicktime and iMovie. Just get started in some way. Remember that the power of video is yours for the taking at YouTube.

How Do I Do That? Videos has just posted twelve (12) new videos on Basic Administration of Joomla! 1.0.x and Mambo 4.6.2. The new videos are listed in green on the Video List page at the How Do I Do That? Videos site.

The new videos include How to Setup Global Configuration, a subject that seems to confuse new Joomla! and Mambo users. If you want the basics on how to set Global Configuration, this video is a must.

How Do I Do That? Videos is a membership site that is free to current clients of Orange Cat Productions (OrangeCat.com and OrangeCat.net) and members of the Association of Real Estate Investment Professionals (AREIP.org) and The Bluegrass Internet Marketers Association (BIMA).

Yesterday’s post told you about the first five videos in the GIMP how-to series that were posted to How Do I Do That? Videos for all members to view.

Today, I am posting the first video in that series so you can have the GIMP ready to install before diving into the rest of the how-tos.

This video, and the complete Using the GIMP video series, are also available in a 500px version at HowDoIDoThatVideos.com.

the GIMP How-to Videos Available

A new series of how-to videos on the GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) have been introduced. the GIMP is an Open Source alternative to PhotoShop. Because it is Open Source, it is free to use.

the GIMP is a full-featured image program that can do pretty much everything Adobe Photoshop can do – but it is a lot easier on your budget. If you have put off acquiring a top notch image program because of the cost, you will want to get the GIMP.

the GIMP is also cross-platform compatible. There is a simple installer for Windows that you can download and install.

For Linux desktop user, try the GIMP website or search for an installer for your Linux platform. For example, the Ubuntu GIMP package is available here.

For Mac OS X users, the choices a bit more complicated. You can run the GIMP under X-Window (X-11) on any OS X Mac (install X-11 from your installer disks). If you only need lite version, Seashore 0.1.9, based on the GIMP GNU code, is in the early stages of development, but uses the Mac Aqua interface (doesn’t need X-11). There is some info on X-11 and Macs on the Apple website.

Once you have the GIMP installed, you can muddle through the learning curve yourself or you can seek expert instruction. If you choose expert instruction, there are a few place that can offer help.

The How Do I Do That? Videos website offers the complete set of 15 how-to videos on the GIMP to it’s Members. But membership is just $9.95 per month – that sure beats the multi-hundred dollar price tag of PhotoShop. The How Do I Do That? Videos site also offer videos on a variety of subjects. See the video list at How Do I Do That? Videos for more information.

I have been using the GIMP as an alternative to PhotoShop on my Mac under X-11 and on my PCs. Using X-11 undermines some of the elegance of the Macintosh OS, but those extra bucks I saved feel good.

Whether you need a full-featured image manipulation program or just do some light work like sizing images or touching up photos of the family, give the GIMP a try. And if you are a Real Estate professional who needs to adjust and size images for use on the web, the GIMP is ideal.

This Sunday (March 9, 2008) at 2 AM marks the start of Daylight Saving Time (DST) here in the U.S., but it hasn’t alwys been so. There have been times when DST was observed locally, creating consusion and chaos.

I remember as a child in the 1960s driving with my parents from our home in New Jersey to visit my grandfather in Knoxville, TN. We would pass through towns (especially along U.S. 11 in Virginia) that didn’t observe DST. This confusion ended in 1966 with the passage of the first Federal law regulating DST.

Chaos of Non-Uniform DST
Widespread confusion was created during the 1950s and 1960s when each U.S. locality could start and end Daylight Saving Time as it desired. One year, 23 different pairs of DST start and end dates were used in Iowa alone. For exactly five weeks each year, Boston, New York, and Philadelphia were not on the same time as Washington D.C., Cleveland, or Baltimore – but Chicago was. And, on one Ohio to West Virginia bus route, passengers had to change their watches seven times in 35 miles! The situation led to millions of dollars in costs to several industries, especially those involving transportation and communications. Extra railroad timetables alone cost the today’s equivalent of over $12 million per year.

Amtrak
To keep to their published timetables, trains cannot leave a station before the scheduled time. So, when the clocks fall back one hour in October, all Amtrak trains in the U.S. that are running on time stop at 2:00 a.m. and wait one hour before resuming. Overnight passengers are often surprised to find their train at a dead stop and their travel time an hour longer than expected. At the spring Daylight Saving Time change, trains instantaneously become an hour behind schedule at 2:00 a.m., but they just keep going and do their best to make up the time.

Manslaughter
In California, a Chevrolet Blazer packed with teenagers struck the median of a street and flipped over, tragically killing one teen and injuring several others. The teen driver, fighting charges of felony vehicular manslaughter, claimed that the street was dangerously wet and unsafe due a lawn sprinkler system. The landscaper responsible for the computerized sprinklers testified that the sprinklers were set to come on more than fifteen minutes after the fatal accident. The outcome hinged on whether the sprinklers’ timer had been adjusted for a recent Daylight Saving Time change, for without the DST adjustment, the sprinklers had close to 45 minutes to make the road slick.

For more stories and information on Daylight Saving Time, see the source for this post at: http://webexhibits.org/daylightsaving/index.html

I don’t have time to watch TV during business hours and every once in a while I miss something that is so worthwhile that I have to let you know as soon as I find out. The link to this video was sent to me by my dear friend, Jay Patel – thanks, Jay.

It is a clip from the Oprah show with final lecture of a very special person, Randy Pausch, a Carnegie-Mellon professor who has 3-6 months to live and who has been called the “World’s Bravest Man.” But his message is for all of us.

Please take a few minutes out of your busy schedule and watch this – it will be time well spent.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8577255250907450469