Ever wanted to create a video for your company, brand or service?

Maybe you’d like to try VLOGGING - which is short for video blog.

Jendi Pagano from www.simplevloggingtips.com is speaking today at FitBloggin’ 11 in Baltimore. 

She’s a bundle of energy and full of wonderful video creation tips.  Here are a few of the notes I took during her presentation.

Pretend you’re sitting down and talking to a friend.  Tape a picture of your friend on the camera and just pretend you’re talking to them. Speak in your natural voice and just talk to them!

Top Vlogging Tips:

• Look presentable- take a minute to comb your hair
• Have a blog - this helps you push out content
• Background – what builds your expertise? If you are an exercise guru, why not vlog from the treadmill? Something that requres a  Have your diploma in the background?
• Timing- 2 to 4 minutes is a good length, but 30 seconds can work as well.
• Call to action- This is important for your marketing.  Make sure the viewer knows what the next step is.
• Stability- Don’t let the camera wobble.  At least keep your arms at your side and rotate your body if you don’t have a tripod.
• Content – Make sure the content is not too complicated, keep it simple.  Use an outline to stay on track.
• Lighting- on a bright sunny day, film in the shade a porch or under a tree. Sun up and sun down (dawn and dusk) is a great time to fim.  Indoor lighting is not the best, try to get near a window or use daylight bulbs in your lights .
• Audio – if they can’t hear you, it’s no good. Camcorders pick up the audio from their microphone with a max of  3 feet.
• SMILE – This helps you to relax and also helps the the person watching you to engage with your content.

Don’t go for Perfection: Limit yourself to 3 takes.  Practice ONE time all the way through before you start to film — either talking or in your head.  This helps you not to ramble.  Also, many times you have an idea what you want to say, but you’re not sure how to end.  Practicing through first eliminates the ums, awws, and stumbling rambles.

Try only one new thing at a time!

Don’t be afraid to have a pause in the video.  It’s more natural.  Regular films do it, so don’t be afraid of it.

Easiest videos to do

• Testimonial. What do your clients or customers say about you?
• Intro or  welcome.  This is perfect for your about page.
• Product demo’s or reviews – practice with it first. You don’t want to fumble on air.
• Training – use your FAQ’s as a source. What do people always ask you?
• Promotion – writing an ebook? Make a video about it

What camera to use? Kodak Zi8.  Flips just went out of business.  But use what you have.  Your phone etc, you’ll figure out what you need.

Editing: don’t let it intimidate you. Ways to make it better:
Take angles- shoot from eye level, low, bird’s eye, slanted.
Add titles, credits
Keep it a good length (2-4 minutes) and a good pace - not too fast or too slow.
The most used transitions are cuts, wipe, dissolve or fade.  Most editing software has lots of choices, but don’t feel you need to use all the choices or people will get seasick!

Watch the video all the way through — Jendi says that she has seen some that people didn’t watch the whole thing through because the ending was so obsure.

• Music adds a lot, but you don’t need much.  Make sure you have free royalty free music.
• Check out: music bakery
• For those who are frugal abouth their music:  Incompetech is about $5 through PayPal
• Internet archives - older things may not under copyright anymore
• Partners in rhyme
•  Seabreezecomputers.com/tips/freemusic.htm has great links to other pages
• istock has music for a low fee

Jendi ‘s videos have made it to the top of YouTube.  How did she do it?  Tag your YouTube video with similar tags to other popular videos with similar content.  Or create a video response to a popular post with similar content to your brand and use the same tags.  After the person watches the popular video, they will be directed to watch your video if you have the same tags.

I just signed up for her newsletter and got a great ebook with lots more tips.  Here blog is filled with lots of other tips for creating, editing and distributing video on the internet.

More tips posted at the FitBloggin site.