by Lou Bortone, Certified Guerrilla Marketing Coach & Video Whiz

As a former television producer and video editor, I’ve got some deep-seated beliefs about video quality. After 20 years in TV, old habits die hard. To me, a “jump-cut,” or video where the scene or frame “jumps” or cuts without a smooth transition, is the cardinal sin of video. In traditional television, jump cuts or bad transitions are simply unacceptable. That’s why we use devices like cut-aways and B-roll (background footage)

But online video is totally different. Anything goes. Quality takes a distant back seat to content. Even those dreaded jump cuts seem to be tolerated. I can’t fight back the tide any longer. I give up! I guess I was wrong to insist on broadcast quality when it comes to online video. After all, sometimes I just use a $35 web cam. And my only “real” video camera is a cool, little $150 “Flip” cam. (OK, so my video partner has a professional $15,000 camera!) Still, I’m finally willing to drop the quality argument and join the online video masses.

The thing about web video is that it’s easy and accessible – so anyone can play! The medium is the message, as sixties scholar Marshall McLuhan once said about traditional television. And when it comes to online video, only the message matters.

It’s not easy for a former TV producer to say this, but don’t worry about the quality of your online video. Just fire up your web cam and join the party. Jump in. Upload to YouTube. Put your face on facebook. Online video is guerrilla marketing at its core: Fast. Easy. Inexpensive. And driven by imagination more than technology.

Want an even cooler, easier way to send and receive video postcards at the click of the mouse? Stay tuned and watch this space for a really big announcement about a new environment that leverages the best of Web 2.0 innovations like online video. It’s going to change the way we collaborate and communicate!

Lou Bortone is an author and entrepreneur with extensive experience in marketing, branding and promotion. Before starting his own company, Lou was an award-winning marketing executive in the media industry. Lou served as National Promotion Manager for E! Entertainment Television, and later as Senior VP of Marketing and Advertising for Fox Family Worldwide, a division of Fox, in Los Angeles. Today, Lou helps entrepreneurs and solo professionals navigate their online businesses with services such as copywriting, video production and creative services. Sign up for Lou’s free mini audio course about using Online Video at http://www.TheOnlineVideoGuy.com.

How to turn your website into a TV channel with video blogs

by Lou Bortone

Online video, video blogs, vlogs or vodcasts are all different names for the same basic concept: Using the Internet to broadcast a video message. As an advertising and promotion tool, online video continues to explode in popularity. Putting video on your Web site or blog is a low-cost way to get in on the “Online Video Revolution” and differentiate your product or service. And it’s never been easier or less expensive! There are several ways you can use your own “TV channel” on the web:

• Tape a personal introduction or welcome message for your website
• Publicize or highlight a special product offer or company promotion
• Share company news, updates or executive briefings with your customers
• Use your video for product demos or training
• Videotape customer testimonials to generate new business

Shooting: Of course, before you can jump into Online Video, you have to have a video! Fortunately, this has never been easier. What you use to shoot your video depends on your goals, budget and available equipment. Since your video is headed to the web, quality is less of an issue than if the final product was for TV. Web video can be shot with a standard consumer camcorder or, you can even capture your video using an inexpensive webcam. Remember, your final product is only going to be as good as your raw footage, so shoot more footage than you think you’ll need and get several different takes and angles.

Digitizing: Next, you’ve got to get your footage into your computer in order to format it for uploading to the Internet. In most cases, you can just connect your camcorder directly to your computer and transfer the footage right into your editing program. Then, get your video Internet-ready with the editing/movie software that came with your computer, such as iMovie on the Mac and Windows Movie Maker for the PC. For a more professional product, you could upgrade to Final Cut Pro for the Mac or Adobe Premiere for the PC. Once the footage is “digitized” in your editing system, you can optimize it by saving the file as a QuickTime movie or an MPEG-4 video file. (Some systems will give you additional options, such as saving your video as a Flash file).

Vlogging: Although you can post your video on free video hosting sites, you’ll need to set up a blog account if you want to create your very own video blog. You can set up a free blog very easily at Blogger.com. Other blog platforms include Movable Type, TypePad and WordPress. Once you’ve got your blog platform, you’ll be able to create posts – including video.

Bringing it home (to your website!): Most online video hosting sites also allow you to copy the HTML code and “embed” the video into your own blog or web page. Take the video you’ve posted on YouTube or Blip.tv, for example, and just cut and paste the HTML code they provide for your video right into your blog’s HTML editor. There are more advanced methods, but using “embed” codes is fast and free!

Tips &Tactics:

Finally, here are a few special considerations for web video:

• Since your screen is typically much smaller on the web, avoid wide shots with a lot of people in them. It just doesn’t translate well on the Internet.
• Avoid pans and zooms. Rapid movement is harder to watch on a smaller screen.
• Keep it simple. Don’t go crazy with a lot of titles and graphics. They may be too small to be effective.
• Keep it short – Less is more on the “short-attention-span” Internet!

For a quick-start demo of uploading video to YouTube in under three minutes, check out this brief Camtasia video at: http://onlinevideoguy.wordpress.com/2007/05/26/video-upload-demo/ Then just experiment by posting your own video online and you’ll soon see how easy it can be. I look forward to seeing you online!

© 2007 Lou BortoneLou Bortone is an award-winning writer, marketer and television producer who spent over 20 years in the television industry, including several years as Senior Vice President of Marketing & Advertising for Fox Family Worldwide in
L.A. Today, Lou specializes in helping entrepreneurs create breakthrough video for the Internet. Email Lou at lou@theonlinevideoguy.com or visit http://www.theonlinevideoguy.com

Listen to Internet Superstar Marlon Sanders’ rant on

“Getting it Done!” Pretty funny, pretty true.

http://members.audiogenerator.com/postcard/?3700353X1166

(this is on an an audiopostcard, it is a cool and easy technology)

Enjoy, Mitch