When it comes to the realm of building or marketing your online business with videos, nothing beats a good screencast. According to Wikipedia…

“… A screencast is a digital recording of computer screen output, also known as a video screen capture, often containing audio narration.”

That may be, but for our intents and purposes, they are videos. Most importantly, your visitors are not going to differentiate; that’s how they are going to see them, too!

You’ve likely watched plenty of screencasts. Most commonly they are used to demonstrate software, and often consist of little more than – like the Wikipedia description states – a recording of the screen, or software displayed on the screen. But the best ones are far more than that! More in a minute!

Best of all, the quest to learn how to screencast is going to be easier than doing ‘live’ video; screencasts are pretty easy to create, plus you don’t need to worry about cameras, filming, lighting, building a teleprompter, complex editing software, worrying about how you look “on camera” or any of the other tedious stuff that goes along with creating “filmed” videos.

And – this may be the biggest bonus for you – it’s relatively easy to bundle up a screencast and sell it! Just think; your own digital content! (Several products I’ve purchased lately consist of little more than the author talking while s/he demonstrates some tactic on a computer screen).

With that said, let’s get back to talking about how to screencast.

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Sourcing Motion Loops or Moving Animated
Backgrounds For Your Videos!

If you want to create visually attractive, compelling videos that will keep your audience glued to their screens (and if you’re reading this, I’m assuming you do) then you definitely need to included a motion loop (also referred to as moving or animated background) in your video.

You can buy these relatively inexpensively and they can make all the difference in the world to the quality of the finished product – your video will go from looking like 99% of the videos you see on YouTube to a slicker, much more polished production.

And if you happen to be creating videos for your clients, they will be thrilled!

Here are a couple of examples. This first video is a rough draft of one I created for a client (just click the screen image to watch)…

It’s a motion loop of a waterfall, which plays over and over and over in the background, coupled with an appropriate soundtrack and text.

That’s it.

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To me, a great soundtrack makes all the difference in the world when it comes to creating the sort of video that will enthrall your visitors and keep them watching to the very end.

Yes, that means you incur two additional costs for every video you create…

• The cost to purchase the rights to use the soundtrack.
• The cost of your time; chances are you’ll have to listen to quite a few tracks before you find what you’re looking for.

In my opinion however, it’s worth every penny – especially if your videos are not high-adrenaline eye candy from beginning to end.

Let’s face it – most of us creating videos to promote our online businesses don’t have the means to take on Ridley Scott in the excitement department. And while this sounds extreme, you have to remember that online, you ARE competing against the best of the best; your viewer can at any moment surf over to YouTube and watch the trailers for the newest Hollywood blockbuster or any number of zillions of other high value productions. That’s what you’re up against!

So you really do need to use every possible advantage at your disposal!

So a great soundtrack can drive the video along, and as I said earlier, keep your visitor watching until the end.

As an example, turn up your speakers and check out this teaser video I created for a new series of videos I’m doing over on the new video section of UltimateFatBurner.com (just click the screen image below to open the video)…

Now imagine this same video without this soundtrack, or with the words being spoken instead. Not the same, right?

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I’m a huge fan of SBI!. Always have been. Heck, I worked for the company for 6 years, and still do occasional beta-testing for them.

So I was thrilled to hear Ken Evoy and the good folks over at SiteSell were launching the “$50,000 Match It! Challenge.”

Here’s the challenge…

If you can find documented proof that another product, or collection of information and tools, delivers everything that SBI! does (or more), at the price of SBI! (or less) AND that product documents success to the depth that SBI! does, SiteSell will pay you $50,000.

Yes, you read that right; 50 grand if you can find a business building service that works AS well as Site Build It! (read the complete details on what you need to do here).

But if I were you, I wouldn’t waste my time.

Because there is no such service.

I know – I’ve looked at them all.

This is also the reason respected educational institutions like Penn state are using Site Build It! as the way to teach their students how to use the Web to build a successful online business.

There is no better tool.

If you’re tired of wasting your time online and just want to get started building a long term sustainable income on the Internet, check out Site Build It! today.

And just so you know; none of the links in this article are affiliate links; I receive no remuneration from a referred sale. I recommend the product because I believe in it. That’s it.

By now, you’ve probably heard of IMReportCard.com, a site that provides reviews of popular internet marketing related products and then encourages visitors to share their own experiences with them.

On the surface, IMReportCard.com seems like it fills a pretty good niche. Who doesn’t want a impartial resource to check in with when you’re considering purchasing a new Internet Marketing related product? Who doesn’t want to read feedback and comments from everyday folks who have purchased and used the products?

The thing is, I’m a skeptical S.O.B.

That, and my main online businesses are in the body building and weight loss supplement industry, where it’s common for both retailers and affiliates to create “unbiased review sites” (which are nothing of the sort, of course) as a means to generate sales or referral income.

These affiliates frequently gloss over inconvenient truths and fail to question or investigate the retailer’s claims, instead parroting them and passing them on as “gospel” truth. I’ve made a good living over the past decade doing the opposite, because it’s both the ethical thing to do, and the only way to build long term business success.

So when I encountered IMReportCard.com, red flags started going up almost immediately…

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I admit it; I have a LOT of pet peeves, but one of my biggest is “the money’s in the list” half-fallacy that certain gurus preach like to gospel to Internet Marketing neophytes; the poor folks who are just now looking to the Internet as a means to earn a living, subsidize their incomes, etc, etc.

Not that long ago, I watched a little bit of a video of a “guru” talking to a large attentive crowd of IM beginners, explaining how simple it was to build an email list you can quickly monetize…

• Set up an autoresponder
• Offer a valuable freebie in exchange for an email address.
• Market the living crap out of your subscribers, by presenting them with your affiliate offers.
• Haul your sacks of cash off to the bank.

Of course, if you’ve been doing business online for any length of time, you’ll know this is complete nonsense. If you haven’t, let me tell why this a “half truth”…

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Can you really create web videos for free?

Well… sorta.

To create a genuine “video”, you need either video footage or images which can be strung together as a “slideshow.”

So you need the means to capture video or photos – which means you need a camera of some sort, and they certainly cannot be had for nothing.

Or you need the means to create or edit images with editing software (these can be images you create yourself, or photos you import from your digital camera).

If you don’t have or cannot create your own images, you need to purchase a license to use some, so you are not violating copyright laws (I use iStockPhoto.com)

Actually, there is another option if you don’t want or cannot justify the cost to purchase the rights to the images for your video – use creative commons images, or images that are available for legal use at no charge. To find such images, go to Google’s Advanced Image search, and under the heading “Usage Rights”, click the radio button for “Only images labeled for reuse. Conditions might apply.”

Now that you have your images or your raw video footage, I recommend you try…

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The best $6 dollars I spend each month…

… is for my Hootsuite membership. And it’s not even a full $6… it’s a mere $5.99. It’s not often that a bill for anything comes in where I say to myself…

“WOW!”. “I still can’t believe how cheap this service is.”

Seriously – seldom has so much useful functionality been offered for so little.

What is Hootsuite, you ask?

It’s a tool that leverages your social media marketing.

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One of the things I like best about purchasing products retailed through the ClickBank network is that I know I can always get a refund for any product that doesn’t live up to my expectations…

… no questions asked.

Why?

Because you can bypass any merchant altogether and request the refund directly from ClickBank. They’ll refund your money on any product retailed in their marketplace for a period of up to 60 days (which is exactly why every single merchant offers a “60 day guarantee.”)

It hasn’t happen a whole lot over the years, but there have been occasions when contact with a merchant has ended dramatically as soon as the word “refund” was mentioned. It was like s/he disappeared into the great black void of cyberspace. Yes, despite claiming to offer an unconditional money back guarantee and all that good stuff.

This has never concerned me because I know I can go directly to ClickBank for my refund. And now, that’s usually what I do for any product I’m not happy with; bypass the merchant and go straight to ClickBank.

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Before beginning this discussion, I have to confess a personal bias; I’ve never really found article marketing to be a particularly worthwhile strategy in the pursuit of useful backlinks – at least, not for my particular niche. But then again, it’s possible article marketing has never worked for me because I never really bought into it, and therefore never committed the appropriate resources to it.

A self-fulfilling prophecy if you like.

Nah.

Although not being a huge fan, I do occasionally revisit article marketing, often after reading a particularly compelling and authoritative article in favor of it.

However, in late spring 2011 in the aftermath of the infamous Google Panda/Farmer update, I’m even less convinced article marketing makes a lot of sense.

If you’re not familiar with the basics, let’s briefly cover them…

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