What is Camtasia Software?

Camtasia 7 is very powerful software that you can use to capture your computer screen, or use to edit video that you’ve recorded with another type of camera like a webcam. You might wonder why you would want to conduct screen recording but when you consider that by using software such as Camtasia to record your screen you can then teach anyone how to do something on the computer. Some of the functions you can complete using Camtasia:

Record Desktop – Perhaps you want to show your mom how to block people on Facebook, or you want to show employees and contractors how to add an appropriate email signature using Gmail or Outlook, you can do it. You simply set up the software, record your screen, and speak into your microphone while you conduct the task that you’re trying to demonstrate.

Screen Recording – You can create a PowerPoint presentation, and then record it as you conduct the thing that you want to show someone how to do. You can probably imagine many different tasks that you’d like to demonstrate to show others how to do.

Screen recording enables you to create a variety of Camtasia tutorials that will be useful to your employees, contractors, staff and / or students. Additionally, any type of event can be captured and edited using Camtasia software. You can use a combination of presentations, captured digital footage both action and still, and use the Camtasia software to bring it all together in a professional format with voice overs and special enhancing using highlighting, text, flash animation and more.

Camtasia software is used by many University professors to create tutorials for their online students and even for extras for their traditional classes. Once you create the tutorial using Camtasia the software automatically creates the end product in the form you choose whether for viewing via a website or whether via a download in another format. When you’re done creating your training video, you’ll be given a choice to publish in many popular formats such as FLV, MP4, MPEG, 3GP and others.

These various choices will enable you to post your end training video on your website, within an email, within a membership website, for download, and in many useful ways for the intended recipient, your target market, to watch and learn from. You can use these training videos to train your audience how to do something, or why they should do something, adding interest to your offerings thus increasing your expert status exponentially.

Online video is quickly becoming one of the most prolific and effective marketing strategies for your business in 2011 and beyond! You can learn more by visiting http://www.learncamtasia.com.

 

Basic Elements for Website Success

When someone decides to sell their products or services on the internet, the first thing they usually do is set up a website. After that first step many people feel lost as to what to do next.

There’s pay per click, affiliate programs, social networking, search engine optimization, blogging and so much more.

How do you decide what to do first?

It might seem like the first thing to do is start bringing a steady stream of traffic to your website so you can start making those sales. Before you do that, the best thing to do is make sure your site is really ready to get traffic coming through the door.

If your website isn’t ready to sell, there’s no point in bringing a single visitor to it because they’ll just come and go without doing a thing for your business.

Here are four things you must make sure you have taken care of before you send anyone to your website:

1. Keyword Research – If you’re not doing keyword research then you are blindly guessing what people want. You need to find out what people are looking for and give it to them.

This is a very important step and it’s often overlooked. I can tell you for the longest time I thought keyword research was boring and not that important, so I ignored it. I spent a lot of time building websites that very few people came to visit.

Once I decided to actually research what people wanted and then used those keywords to optimize my site, I began to see traffic growing because people were searching for those terms.

Doing your keyword research doesn’t have to be hard. One of the best sites to find very targeted keywords is Wordtracker.

2. Copywriting – You don’t have to be a copywriting wizard to have great copy on your website. The words you use on your site determine what happens when those visitors stop by. Make sure you KNOW what you want them to do so you can tell them to do it.

Every page on your website should have a purpose.

There are really only two basic actions you want your visitors to take when they come to your product or service website:

– They can buy from you.

– They can look for more information.

If you keep these two actions in mind then everything you write can have a purpose. Of course you want to keep a good balance and not try to sell all the time, or not give away free information all the time.

3. Tracking – Once you start getting visitors, you’re going to want to know where they came from. If you know where your visitors are coming from then you can go ahead and do the same things to bring more traffic to your site.

Some hosting programs come with a statistics program, but not all of them give you the information you need.

Google offers a great program called Google Analytics that you can use to create very detailed reports and track details of where people come from and what they do on your site.

Here are some things you’ll want to track:

– what sites people visit from

– what pages they visit

– how long they stay

– what keywords they search to find you

4. Newsletter or Mailing List – The majority of people that come to your site won’t buy at first. So, you want them to take that second action of looking for more information.

You don’t have to do a big newsletter each week if you don’t have the time. Another option is to have a quick tips list each week. It’s just a quick way to keep in touch, give people some valuable information, and make an offer every now and then.

If you make sure you have these four things in place before you start looking for website traffic then you’ll be setting your site up for success!

If you need any help getting started, join me as I teach you in this online video, webinar and email coaching program everything you need to know about creating successful websites and blogs with WordPress.

 

Create Training Videos – Common Questions & Answers

Creating training videos can move your business forward to the next level establishing yourself as an expert in your niche. Whether you use the videos to train clients or employees creating free or low cost training videos will give you the extra oomph that you need. You can in fact, create an entire business around training. Some common questions about creating free training videos are:

How do I record my computer screen?

Simple! Use a program such as Camtasia, click a few icons to start up the program and before you know it you’re recording your screen. You can record your screen to show anyone how to do anything on a computer such as: how to zip or unzip a file, how to upload a video to YouTube, how to solve an algebra problem, and much, much more, the sky is the limit — only your imagination can hold you back.

Can I give away the videos I make free?

Of course! You can give away free videos to your clients showing them important information about how to use your products or services. Additionally, video is a nice “premium” gift to give buyers for another purchase of some kind, or even an incentive to purchase more. For example, if you sell color cosmetics you can include a video on the proper way to use your product.

What if I want to charge for the training videos I make?

Then charge for them. Simply create a sales page for your videos, market them and watch the orders come in. Training videos can be hot property especially well made ones that avoid skipping important steps. If you know how to do essentially anything from planting a container garden to making graphics, you can record it your work as you complete it, describing everything you do, and provide the edited recording as a teaching tool.

Does it cost much to create a training video?

No, training videos don’t cost much to produce if you learn how to do it yourself. Even if you hire an expert to edit your raw footage from your flip cam or other camera the cost is well worth it. However, there are free and paid programs that you can use to create your training videos yourself if you care to learn. The trick is learning how to use the software and learning what the best ways to set up the videos are. You can do it quickly and today if you get started.

Making Video Tutorials can be one of the fastest products you will ever create and there is nothing like the power of video! Learn how to create quick video tutorials for fun and profit by visiting http://videotutorialprofits.com.

 

User-Friendly Website Design

When I started my first e-commerce website I think it was very useful that I knew how to create and edit my own websites. Without having that skill it would have been frustrating and time consuming to try to figure out the best way to design a user-friendly website that I could edit and add content to myself.

I see this as a common problem with those looking to build websites.

Many people pay thousands of dollars to a designer who makes them a beautiful site. Then what? The site just sits there like a bump on a log, doing nothing and getting nowhere because the owner does not have a user-friendly site they can actually edit on their own. Many people blow their budget on getting the site designed but have nothing left to pay for expensive website updates anytime they want to make a change.

That’s why I believe it is imperative that you learn how to update and add content to your own website, even if you are going to hire someone to do it for you.

How do you update your own website?

It’s not as hard as you might think. You don’t have to take years of graphic and website design courses. You don’t have to learn complicated coding that looks like a foreign language you’ll never figure out. You absolutely don’t have to pay thousands to get a professional looking website up and running.

Website Builders

The first way you should know about to build your own website is a website builder. A website builder is usually a website that you log into with templates you can use to build your own website. This is fairly restrictive but the good thing about a website builder is that it’s very easy to use and much like using a program such as Microsoft Word to build your website.

Blogs

A blog is actually a website, it’s just in a little different format than the standard website. You can get a blog up and running fairly quickly and easily and you can also update it with very little experience.

The problem with both methods to build a website is that the content is hosted on another website. When you host your website anywhere but on your own hosting you are taking a risk that it could be removed at any time and you are also giving up control to the place where you host your content.

My recommendation for the best way to design a user-friendly website that users can edit content easily is WordPress. Yes, WordPress is also a blogging platform but it can also be used to build a more traditional looking website. It is easy to edit and if you know how to edit Word documents you can probably hit the ground running with this program.

No matter which way you decide to go to build your website keep in mind who will own your content when you’re done, how long it will take you to learn the program and if you can outsource the work at a later date should you need to.

Now I’d like to invite you to join me as I teach you in this online video, webinar and email coaching program everything you need to know about creating user-friendly websites and blogs with WordPress.

 

8 Important Features of Professional Website Design

Many people who are just getting started online want to create a free professional website so that they can prove to themselves that it will make money before they spend hundreds or thousands on a full blown web design. That’s usually a smart move.

You will, however, at the very least want to pay for hosting so that the content you post online is yours. If you post to free website hosting sites then you are often giving up your authorship rights and your control of the website. If at any time, for any reason, they decide to shut down your website you will have no recourse or ability to get it back.

With that in mind, it is entirely possible to create a free website that is both professional and profitable.

Here are some features you’ll want to include to ensure your website is a success:

1. Includes an ‘About’ Page – To new visitors you are a stranger and they don’t trust you yet. An about page will start to build that trust so that you can make offers they will respond to. All good websites must include an about page.

2. Includes Contact Information– Now imagine your visitor is ready to buy but they just have one quick question they need answered first. They look around but can’t find your contact information anywhere! Don’t let this happen and make sure your website has full contact information including phone number, email and mailing address so your potential customers can choose their preference.

3. A Clear Call to Action – No matter what the purpose of your website is you must let your visitors know and call them to action. Are you looking for them to call you, order a product, sign up for a free consultation or hire you? Tell them in clear, direct words so they don’t miss the entire point of your website or individual pages.

4. High Quality Graphics – I once heard a colleague say that it’s better to have no graphics on your website than have poor quality graphics and I completely agree! Make sure any graphics, logos, backgrounds, etc are of the highest quality.

5. Easy to Read Font – The worst websites are the ones that nobody can read. The best font color for reading is black with a white background. Don’t put a barrier between you and potential customers by making your website hard to read.

6. Free Newsletter/ Ezine or Giveaway -A large majority of first time visitors will never buy from you and never return. What you need to do is catch their attention before they leave by offering something free, a sample that shows them what you offer. Do this in combination with an opt-in form so you can build your list and build the trust that is so important to future sales.

7. Privacy Policies, Website Disclaimers and Copyright – Again, trust is huge. The online world of marketing is very easy to break into and that means there is a massive problem with scammers and thieves. Show your potential customers you are not one of them by having proper disclaimers, privacy policies and protect yourself with copyright notices.

8. Well Thought-out Website Navigation – You want your visitors to find what they are looking for quickly. If they can’t find it in short order, they will leave. Make sure you have a well thought out website navigation that isn’t overpowering with too many links. It’s better to make sub-pages than to give your reader too many options right on the home page.

WordPress has many great free and paid templates available that let you create professional websites quickly.

So there you have some of the most important features of a professional website design.

If you want to learn how to make your own free professional website, join me as I teach you in this online video, webinar and email coaching program everything you need to know about creating professional website designs with WordPress.

 

Building a Strong Internet Presence with WordPress

It’s true that a small business may not be able to compete against a large corporation when it comes to national media exposure, celebrity endorsements, and other aspects of high priced advertising campaigns. In the past, a small business owner was limited to the marketing exposure they could receive locally. Thanks to technology, that has all changed. Today, building an internet presence is especially important for small businesses.

A strong internet presence will open the small business up to national exposure and give them a chance to compete with large corporations. Small businesses are no longer limited to doing business in their local area. They can now work with clients all over the world.

The simplest way to start building your internet presence is with a blog. There are many blogging platforms to choose from, most of which are free. This will allow you to have your own “place” on the web, where you can share your views, opinions, and information and start connecting with other people.

When you are ready to take the next step, you can begin building a website. Depending on the type of blog you started, you may be able to simply add pages to it in order to create your website. WordPress, for instance, is a wonderful example of blogging software that you can also use to build a website.

You can also use an HTML editor such as Microsoft Front Page or Adobe DreamWeaver to build your site, as well as site builders you find on the web. If all of this sounds too technical, enlist the help of a good web designer. They will consult with you to determine the look and feel that you would like for your site and then they will create it for you.

Many people turn to the internet every day in search of information. By providing quality content on your website, you are helping the search engines find you, as well as send others to you.

Another way to use information to draw visitors to your website is through article marketing. This is the term used to describe the process of creating articles and distributing them to article reprint directories. Other website owners and bloggers search these directories in order to find content to put on their own sites.

If they select one of your articles, they are obligated to put your author bio box at the end of the article, which you get to write. You can use this bio box to direct people to your website.

Building a strong internet presence can easily be achieved, even by small businesses. It may take a little time, but it will be well worth it in the long run.
If you are ready to begin I’d like to invite you to join me as I teach you through this online video, webinar and email coaching program everything you need to know about building your own strong internet presence with WordPress.

 

Using WordPress For Your Business Website

So you’re interested in using WordPress as your business site – smart move!

But before you dive right in to planning and designing it, you’ve decided to do a little research.

WordPress is most commonly known as a blogging platform but it’s grown in popularity as a website platform for both large and small businesses.

Why Use WordPress For Business Websites?

Easy to Install – With a good hosting program you can simply install WordPress with a few clicks.

Easy to Update – One of the features of WordPress is the easy to use visual editor. It’s called a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor. You could compare this type of editor to using Microsoft Word to edit your website as it’s very easy to use and many people catch on to using it quickly.

Plenty of Add-Ons (Plug-ins) – With WordPress you can get add-ons (plug-ins) that increase the functions and change the look of your website. Compared to having customized features added to a site designed specifically for you, the cost will be highly reduced.

Customizable Look – There are many ways to customize a WordPress website so that it matches your business and branding. You can add your own logo or header, change the background, add your own colors, add links and more.

Built in Blog – What many people who are not familiar with WordPress are unaware of is that you can use the program to create both a website and a blog all in the same spot. This is so much more convenient than having them separate.

Search Engine Friendly – Another great feature of the program is that it helps you optimize your pages and posts.

Building a Community – If you choose to also have a blog on your website you can work on building a community around your website. Writing blog posts that build relationships with your target market is an effective way to build trust and earn more sales in the long run.

Easy To Change – As businesses grow and change so do their website needs. It’s silly to assume that the first website or design you start with will be your last. Most businesses go through a large number of changes. WordPress makes it easy to change your look with themes. A theme is added over the top of your content and when you decide to replace a current theme, it doesn’t affect your existing posts and pages.

I hope these points will help you decide if using WordPress as a business website is the right choice for you.

If you have made your decision, I’d like to invite you to join me as I teach you through my online video, webinar and email coaching program how to design your own business website with WordPress.

 

Easy Website Design Changes with WordPress

I was talking to a friend recently about using WordPress as a website. She asked me a great question that I receive often and thought it deserved a detailed response.

The question was:
“Can you change your WordPress theme without affecting or recreating your website’s content?”

My answer:
“Oh my goodness, yes!”

The fact that you can make such a quick and easy complete website design change with WordPress themes has to be one of the greatest features of the program itself.

Let’s compare this feature to your typical ‘old school’ HTML website. When designing a HTML website, you (or a website designer) can spend hours upon hours creating and updating your website’s look, colors, layout and ‘theme’.

With a WordPress website however, you can choose from the thousands of themes available. Some themes let you change your entire color layout with the click of a button, others let you keep the overall theme but change the width, or number of columns just by checking a box. Not only that, WordPress designers are constantly working to create new and better professional quality themes that users can purchase for a very reasonable price.

Adding the fact that the tradition theme usually requires expensive website design software like Dreamweaver or Microsoft Expressions (where WordPress is free) the choice seems to be a no-brainer.

So how does it work?

Here’s what happens when you change your theme:
1. You choose a new theme and upload it to your dashboard.
2. You go to the ‘appearances’ section of your dashboard, click your theme and confirm.
3. That’s it!

Here’s a little description of the anatomy of a WordPress website along with which parts are ‘theme-based’ and which are ‘content-based’:

Theme-Based
Header – The header is that top portion of the website. The header changes with your theme.
Columns – Many themes have two or three columns. The layout of these columns is based on the theme.
Footer – The footer is usually theme-based. This means if you do any major customizations in the footer (the very bottom of the site) they will usually need to be re-done or copy/pasted when you change themes.

Content-Based
Pages – You can create pages of content within your site. They do not change when your theme does.
Posts – These are very similar to pages and the only major difference is posts usually take comments and pages usually don’t.
Sidebar – If you use ‘widgets’ to add content in your sidebar then this will be content-based and there will be no effect when you change your theme.
Comments – There’s no effect on your comments when you change the theme other than to take on a possible new look of the theme you change it to.
Plugins – Plugins are not affected by changes in themes.

What’s important to realize here is that your theme is completely separate from your main website content. A theme is like a “dress and makeup”. You can quickly and easily change looks anytime you want.

Now that we’ve explored one of its greatest advantages, I’d like to invite you to join me as I teach you through my online video, webinar and email coaching program how to make a website with WordPress.

 

Video Tutorials on a Budget

One of the most expensive things you can buy these days is software. It seems like the price just keeps going up as the technology becomes more complex, with no stopping point in sight. Fortunately if you need to make tutorial videos and you need to create training videos there are some open source (free) options as well as some low-cost options.

After you determine your budget if outsourcing is not an option, then take a look at the open-source and low-cost software offerings such as:

AviScreen – A windows based screen capturing software, this software is limited in scope but very useful for creating soundless how to tutorials about pretty much anything that requires you record your computer screen.

GoView – This is a semi “in the cloud” option that records your screen and audio to create training videos that do a great job and look professional. Download the recorder, then make your recording and share instantly, no need to learn how to upload anything since GoView hosts your recordings for you. This program is in BETA so there may be a charge later related to hosting. But it’s worth a try now while it’s still free.

Camtasia – This is screen capturing and video capturing software that has many professional quality functions, yet, it’s very inexpensive compared to other fully-featured software products. It also has a relatively short learning curve if you spend just a little time learning each day. There are a variety of training products that you can purchase to help learn this amazing software.

PowerPoint – If you don’t have PowerPoint you can also use OpenOffice to create powerful presentations then use a screen recording software such as AviScreen, GoView, or Camtasia to record your screen while presenting the presentation. Creating training videos has never been easier than it is today. The amateur can look professional without spending six figures.

If you’re already good at doing something, when you create a training video the hardest part will be getting yourself organized so that the process goes fast. The next hardest part is choosing the right software to make your job easier and look professional to boot. If you get organized and choose the right software you’ll be able to create powerful and professional training videos fast and easily. What’s more, your training videos will get results. A training video is almost better than being there in person because the trainee can look at the video again and again even when you’re not there.

Creating training videos on a budget is simple to do if you get everything prepared before you get started. Don’t expect to be perfect, but do make a script that you can loosely follow so that you don’t miss steps. Preparation is the key to making budget training videos.

Making Video Tutorials can be one of the fastest products you will ever create and there is nothing like the power of video! Learn how to create quick video tutorials for fun and profit by visiting http://videotutorialprofits.com.power of video!
 

Free and Easy Website Design Tools

Designing a website doesn’t have to be a costly venture. It all depends on how you go about it and if you choose to use free website design tools.

If you choose to hire a website design firm you can expect to pay thousands of dollars. Even when hiring a firm there is work for you to do. They will need your input on design ideas, content help and your overall knowledge of the business you run or intend to start.

Maybe you want to do it yourself to save some time and learn a new skill. The first thing to do is start researching just how to build a website yourself. You’ll find out that there are a number of ways to do it:

1.  Write code:  This is very time consuming and it’s like learning a new language. If you want to learn, great, but unless you plan on becoming a coding GEEK this is probably not the option for you.

2.  Computer Software: You can buy software programs to install on your computer that allow you to create a website and then upload it or edit it live when connected to the internet. This is an option but it’s not free and there is a learning curve.

3.  Online Software: There are many software programs online that you can use to build and host a website. Some are free, some are paid, some are included with your hosting.

So let’s say you pick option three, using online software. Next, let’s explore some of the free website design tools available online:

Website Builders:

Weebly: This is a company that offers a free website builder. The disadvantage to this is that it is hosted on their server, meaning you have less control.

WordPress: WordPress is well known as a blogging platform but it is also excellent for designing websites. You can get high quality templates for free or paid to design a website. WordPress comes free with many quality hosts such as Bluehost.

Photo and Graphics Editors:

When designing a website you usually need some graphics. Photoshop is the program most commonly associated with graphics creation but its costly. Here are some other options:

Picnik: This is a great online tool to help you add a professional touch to any images you want to include on your website, and it’s free.

Gimp: Gimp is a program you will need to download to your computer but it does a lot of what Photoshop can do and it’s also free.

There are tons of resources you can find online to help you build your website for free. My absolute favorite for building websites is WordPress.

If you are ready to get started, I’d like to invite you to join me as I teach you in this online video, webinar and email coaching program everything you need to know about easily creating your own website or blog with WordPress.

 

Customizing Your WordPress Website or Blog

Almost everyone who installs their own WordPress theme will want to customize the header. How you do this depends on the theme in question.

For most themes, you can use an FTP manager like Filezilla and then go in and replace the current header image on the theme. Again this will vary by theme so the best way to determine how to change your header is to find out if there are any support files with your theme and read them.

The best thing about buying premium themes is that they almost always come with user support as well as forums and files to make installation and customization easy for you.

Other items to customize:

Sidebar – Many people want to remove the ‘Meta’ information that is added to WordPress by default. You may also want to add an email opt-in and RSS Feed info to your sidebar. The easiest way to make changes to the sidebars is to find themes that are ‘widget’ ready. Widget ready themes allow you to easily add and remove widgets to your theme without knowing any special or custom coding. You simply click on the widget selection under ‘Appearance’ in the left menu of your WordPress software.

Background Color – If you know some HTML the background color is fairly easy to edit. In WordPress find your Stylesheet and the background color coding is usually very close to the top of the stylesheet. Again, this is made much easier if you choose a WordPress theme with different color options. There are many themes out there that now offer various color options. This would mean that you don’t need to make any coding changes yourself. Woo Themes is a great choice if you are looking for themes with different colors.

Footer – You’ll want to add your copyright to the footer of any blog or website you create with WordPress. You can also go to the CopyScape website and grab a graphic that shows your site is protected by copyright. To edit the footer you will need to go into your themes source files. These are found under the Appearance section but this time you will need to click ‘Editor’. Adding company information as well as privacy policy links in the footer section is a good idea also.

When choosing a theme look at what options are available. This will make doing the customization much easier when you come to it.

Ready to get your own WordPress website and theme set up? Join me as I teach you in this online video, webinar and email coaching program everything you need to know about customizing your WordPress websites and blogs.

 

What You Need to Design Your Business Website

So you’re ready to build your own website on the internet. Congratulations!

You’ve made a smart decision by researching just what you will need. You see, it would be a mistake to just take the advice of the first person who tells you how to build a website. You likely have a relative or friend who knows how to make a site but that doesn’t mean it’s going to suit your needs.

Let’s find out exactly what you need to design a website.

1. A Business Plan – You might not think of a business plan as an essential website design tool but it absolutely is. The first thing you need to know before you do a domain name search is what you intend to do with your website. You see, websites can do a lot of different things.

A website is kind of like a puppet. It’s up to you to pull the right strings and make it do what you want it to.

Here are just some of the duties a website can perform:

Online Brochure – Maybe your business is pretty much offline and for now you want to keep it that way. Your website can be nothing more than an online brochure that directs people to pick up the phone and call you for your products or services.

Ecommerce – Maybe your business plan is to have a full blown ecommerce site selling physical products through an online shopping cart.

Information Products – Maybe you want to offer digital ‘information’ products through your website.

Services – Do you want to sell services online? This is another function a website can perform.

2. A Domain Name – The next thing you need to do to design a website is get a domain name. It’s important to choose a domain name that fits your business and that is easy to remember. It’s almost always best to choose a .com domain name because that’s what people remember and type in most.

Before you buy a domain name, it’s also a good idea to do keyword research to find out what people are typing in to find your business in the search engines. Then you can create a domain name that closely matches what people are looking for.

3. Website Hosting – Once you have a domain name you will need to host your website somewhere. It’s kind of like paying rent for the space your website occupies on the internet.

Find a host with a good control panel that offers you easy to install software programs and also good website statistics tracking.

4. Website Software or Coding From Scratch – Now the final step is to actually build a website.

This can be done in a number of ways:

From Scratch – Unless you want to spend a lot of time studying, creating and editing coding forget this option!

Website Builder – A website builder is a piece of software that is included with some hosting companies and allows you to build your website online. These can be good but some have limited options.

Website Software – There are many different programs out there that will help you build a website without having to know the coding behind it. Programs like Dreamweaver, Microsoft Expressions and NVU are a few. My favorite is a blogging software called WordPress that allows you to create blogs and websites through your hosting control panel.

Finally, building a website is a process. Break it up into various steps if you have to but remember that it’s not going to be perfect from the start. Accept that, get going and give yourself permission to fix it as you go.

Here is a resource that shows you through online videos, webinars and an email coaching program just how easy it is to design your own business website.

 

Make Your First Video Tutorial – How to Record Your Computer Screen

Creating instructional video tutorials using specialized software is easier than ever. By using specialized software to record your computer screen you will be able to create training videos on any subject you can imagine. Whether you want to show someone how to check their email, or how to use Skype, or how to use your software or complete a task relevant to your expertise, you can make a video tutorial by recording your computer screen.

The reason you may want to make tutorial videos is because making a video tutorial is the next best thing to showing someone how to do something in person. In fact, it may even be better because you can show someone once, and if they can’t remember they can replay the video tutorial over and over again until they get it. Additionally, you can earn extra money showcasing your expertise by selling your tutorials for cash.

How to create video tutorials is simple if you know what software you need. You need the right software, and you need an expertise. Ensure that you practice what you want to teach several times in order to avoid skipping important steps, keeping notes as you go along, so that your final video tutorial is perfect. You can use software such as, AviScreen, GoView and Camtasia to record your screen to create the video tutorial.

Follow these steps to ensure a professional video tutorial as your finished product:

Step 1: Decide what you want to record – You likely are well versed in many different topics such as “How to Build a Bird Cage”. You can use a webcam to record parts of the steps. Use video editing software to edit the steps. Then you can put it all in a PowerPoint slide show. Next, you use the screen recording software to record the PowerPoint. Or maybe you just want to create a fast show recording your screen on “How to Set Up a Google Email Account”. In that case, you simply use the right software to record your computer screen as you complete the process while narrating it with your microphone.

Step 2: Pick a software – There are different software you can use, alone and in conjunction with others such as Camtasia, AviScreen, GoView, and SnagIt to create both moving and still shots of your screen. What software you pick will depend on your budget, and skill level. You can learn how to use almost any software by watching tutorials.

Step 3: Write a script – Always write down the steps and a script. Go through your process and write down the steps so that you won’t miss anything.

Step 4: Perform the script – After you write your script, perform the script. You don’t have to follow the script verbatim, but you should follow the steps so that you don’t accidentally skip over anything. That way your tutorial will be very professional. Ask a friend to view it before you set it for sale or out in the public allowing them to critique your results. This can help you add in any steps you may have missed.

Step 5: Edit recording – Using the software, edit the video tutorial taking out “umms” and mistakes. Knowing you can edit as you are recording will help you not have to stop and start numerous times. Just keep going and then edit out your mistakes.

Step 6: Format for viewing – Depending on how you plan to deliver the video tutorial, you will format your final product according to what is needed.

Step 7: Finish up – You’re all done – sell it, give it away and promote it!

Making Video Tutorials can be one of the fastest products you will ever create and there is nothing like the power of video! Learn how to create quick video tutorials for fun and profit by visiting http://videotutorialprofits.com.

 

Tips for Building a Successful Affiliate Website

You’ve chosen affiliate marketing as a main or supplementary source of income. Smart move!

Now it’s time to create your marketing plan and you want to know how to build a successful affiliate website to make money with your promotions.

The first thing you need to do is choose how you will set up your site. You have a few possibilities here:

1. E-commerce Style – This type of site is set up as if you were the vendor. You choose a niche, target market or product line and build the website around showcasing the products.

2. Information Style – An information type of site is built to first get information seekers and then convert them into buyers.

3. Blog Style – You may want to start an affiliate blog where you blog about your experiences from a personal point of view.

4. Combination of Styles – Of course you can have any combination of the styles mentioned above.

In order to make your decision you need to consider the resources you have on hand. For example: an e-commerce style site will not require a huge amount of content to get started but promotions will be key. An information style site will require a large amount of content and it’s a good idea to create search engine optimized content. On the other hand, a blog style site will require a lot of personal time and attention. Each style has it’s advantages and disadvantages so consider them carefully.

Regardless of the type of site you choose, here are a few key elements that affiliate sites should contain:

– Call to Action: Don’t think people are just going to come to your site, read your stuff and look for something to buy. You need to make sure that you call them to action very clearly. It’s also very important that your message and your call to action match perfectly, that will allow you to get the greatest response and the best clicks.

– Case Studies: People love case studies because they can see what happens when real people have used the products. Gather case studies. Start with your own if you have none, look on the companies website and ask them if you can use their material or track down users and create case studies. Be careful not to hype or mislead, just state facts and always give a clear picture of reality.

– Reviews: Product reviews are also great selling tools. People who are looking to buy something will often do a search for product reviews before making their purchase. Make sure your affiliate site’s product review comes up by building incoming links to that review.

So there you have a few tips on building a successful affiliate website. This is just the beginning of your affiliate marketing journey.

The next thing you’ll want to do is make sure you offer your target market an email list and plenty of follow up information in order to convert them from ‘lookers’ or ‘information seekers’ to buyers. Don’t let them find your affiliate site and then leave without buying!

Convince your website visitors by inviting them to sign up for your email list.

Now I’d like to invite you to join me as I teach you through my online video, webinar and email coaching program everything you need to know about building your own money making affiliate website with WordPress.

 

Turn Your WordPress Blog Into a Website

Want an easy way to start a website? If you already have a WordPress blog then with a few simple tweaks you can turn your WordPress blog into a website.

You see, a WordPress blog allows you to have both posts and pages.

Let’s talk about the difference between the two:

Posts:
A post will show up on your blog page. Posts are most commonly listed in chronological order with the most recent post first. They are commonly available with a comment form for users to comment and interact with the blog author. You usually find blog posts by checking the blog page for the most recent post, by clicking on the category you would like to read a post from or by clicking on the archives by date to see posts from that time.

Pages:
A page is very similar to a post but there are a few differences. Pages do not show up in chronological order as they are normally not dated. A website page is what you would normally find in a menu bar across the top of the website or in the sidebar. These are much more ‘static’ pages. Typical website pages are ‘Home’, ‘About’, ‘Contact’, ‘FAQ’, etc.

So how do you turn a WordPress blog that now just lists posts into a website that also has pages?

What you need to do is go into your WordPress control panel and follow these steps:
1. Create as many pages as you would like for your website. Make sure to create a page you name ‘Home’, this will be used as your homepage. Also create a page named ‘Blog’ which you will use for your blog posts page if you are keeping your blog.
2. Now you will need to go to the ‘Settings’ area that you can see in the menu on the left side of your blog. The drop down menu under Settings will have an option named ‘Reading’, you’ll need to click that.
3. The first option will be ‘Front Page Displays’. Click on the option ‘A Static Page’.
4. Next you will need to set which page you want to be your homepage. As mentioned above choose the page you labeled Home for the homepage and the page you labeled Blog for your posts page.
5. Scroll down and click to save your changes.

That’s how you change your WordPress blog into a website. Please note that this will only work on a blog that is installed on your own hosting.

Imagine how much easier your life will be with a website you can actually update. That’s what a WordPress website can do for your business. Find out more by joining me as I teach you through my online video, webinar and email coaching program how to create your own WordPress blog and website.