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It’s been a while since I have made some drastic changes to the format at Podcaster Training and beginning with this week’s episode, I will be changing a few things. I know change can be frightening to some and welcome to others, however, I’m gonna do it anyway!

First, I am going to put uStream.TV on hold for a while. I will still do video, but I will be using Mogulus for a while as it is most likely the most stable of all of the networks running right now. I will be changing the template at http://www.newmediapro.tv, my live page site, to reflect this change. Mogulus also has a chat room, but is not solely dependent on using it, like what uStream does. Also, with Mogulus, I will have a 24 hour station running and will be able to more easily incorporate videos into my training sessions. This change will be the most drastic of all, I assure you!

Next, I will be changing the format around and will make the training more interactive. So, look for me to call on those of you that phone in, more than I have in the past. I also want to encourage others to phone in and get involved as well. This new format will allow me to do “immediate” training during the show, such as answering questions and providing additional training that is not part of the session for that night. Also, this new format will allow new and prospective hosts to call in and get some “one on one” hand holding with special consideration to Talkshoe.

Lastly, I will be incorporating more Talkshoe related training back into the format once again. Since I am a Support Rep for Talkshoe, this seems like a good time to bring back this style of training.

I will be changing around some of how I present the show as well. You’ll be able to find out more come Friday Night!

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Videoblogging is the next generation of posting ideas and products over the internet. Everybody knows about textblogging. Now they use videos for a better way of expression. This form of communication may entail a lot of resources, but it is all worth it. If pictures say a thousand words, videoblogging exceeds that by far.

A videoblog requires larger disk spaces on websites, a faster server, and a whole new set of programs to support it. Videoblogs can be fed through RSS. This is technology of syndicating your website to other RSS aggregators.

Videoblogging works with people on the internet expressing their selves. Now if you put this on a business prospective, you are up to a lot of benefits. Think of it as a powerful tool in making showing your prospective customers your line of products or your services. It’s just like showing a commercial all for free. And if you videoblog through RSS, then most probably you are getting your target market.

People like to see what they are going to buy. Some would like to see proof and be sure that they are getting their money’s worth before shelving their dimes on it. All of us know the influence of a thirty second commercial. The effect of videoblogging is similar to that. You show your product, people watch it. If they like it, they buy it. If you present it good enough, they’ll buy the product even if they don’t need it.

Now on the web, things are pretty much static, unlike in television in which all are moving. If you post something that is mobile, it would most likely catch attention. Now imaging your product parading in all it’s royalty through videoblog. You’ll get phone call orders in no time.

If your business is just starting up, you can create a videoblog right at your own home. All you need is your web camera, microphone, video software, and lights. For as long as you know how to use your camera, then you can create a videoblog.

Invest in a good web camera. The higher its resolution is the better the output. And you like to present your goods in the optimum way so get the best one possible. Make a short story, or just capture your goods in one go. Just make sure you are getting the best profile for each. Get those creativity juices flowing.

Lights are important in a production. Make sure you illuminate entirely the area you are going to use to create videoblog. The brighter the area, the crispier the images will be. You can also use lighting effects for added appeal to the presentation.

Should you require sounds for your videoblog, you need a microphone. Record you voice as a voice over for promoting the product and its benefit to consumers. Sounds are as important as videos on a videoblog. It is advisable to make your sound effects as enticing as the video.

Your video editing software can be any program. You need this to finalize your work. You can add sounds, delete some bad angles, or insert some still pictures in there too. Some programs are user-friendly and can be used even with zero knowledge on video editing. Even simple video editing programs should do the trick. Select your background carefully too. The light affects the presentation so make sure that the background and the light complements each other.

Videoblogging is a great tool but it also has it downside. It may slow down the computer so other may steer clear of it. Download time may also be time consuming especially if customer is still on a dial- up connection.

But don’t let those stop you. Let videoblogging be an alternative for you, though it is best to still keep the text and pictures present in your presentation to accommodate all possible viewers of your site.

Nowadays, the more creative you are in presenting your product to the market, they more you are likely to succeed. Videoblogging offers an interactive way of selling. You involve the customers. You instill in them the advantage of your goods. And at times, those are enough to make a sale.

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Here’s the scenario:
You have a blog, a podcast and a live video stream, all produced by you and you have three separate audiences, one audience for each medium. You want to get your blog readers to come to your podcast, you also want your podcast listeners to come to your live video stream, and likewise, you want your listeners and live viewers to come to your blog.

How would you make this happen?

Why am I asking this, you might inquire? I have been asked to do a series on Podcaster Training pertaining to just that scenario I outlined above. With more and more people getting into New Media in different ways, getting traffic to your blog, podcast and live video stream is getting more difficult as these are all perceived as being separate, but equal functions. However, the New Media Producer doesn’t see it that way and they want to combine their audiences and get them involved into the various aspects of what they are producing.

I have began to write this series and then I got to thinking that I could use some different input as most of the listeners of my show have proven to be a great source for ideas like this. Also proving that “two heads are better than one” thus making for a more informed decision.

I would like everyone that wants to give their input, to do so in the comments section here. I will then take these comments and add them to the training. And don’t worry, there will be credit given to the people that contribute to this! Also, for contributing, I will give you a special gift, but I’m not going to say what just yet until I start seeing the results! Just another incentive, I guess, to give me your thoughts!

I would like to start this series within the next few weeks, but won’t start until I have all the input I need from everyone. Please take a minute to give me your thoughts! Thanks in advance!

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More and more advertisers are adopting video as broadband continues to rise and ad-serving technologies become more sophisticated. Online video advertising is really taking off. Users’ attention can be captured and ads stand out from the crowd in an increasingly ad-cluttered online environment. It is true that video formats cost five to ten times more to serve than standard banners and they involve a lot more production and implementation work but they may well be worth all of that if they achieve greater response rates.

Where to use online video if wishing to maximize its effect, is what advertisers must carefully consider. Video to be used on the Internet should be information and communication focused while video to be used on television should be focused on entertainment.

Like everything else, there are good ways and bad ways to use video advertising. Right now most marketers are incorporating their audio-visual content into existing embedded ad formats like banners or over-content formats like pop-ups. Though this could reach a potentially large audience, viewers are likely to be less captivated and more annoyed by these disruptive and distracting placements.

Cached or streaming video on a specific destination site offers the best chance of interesting consumers in brand messages, but it is not likely to reach a large audience unless it generates a viral outcome.

Whatever you come up with, don’t forget to make it easy to open and distribute. File size is important, as is the media format. If your viral video has been created for a particular type of software that not many people use, how will you get people to spread it like wildfire?

Also, if you’ve made a video the impact will be better if you send the clip as an attachment rather than stream it. It’s cheaper and, if you’re not hosting it, it’s more viral, too.

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In the beginning, e-mail was the one way that viral marketing was started. Since that long ago day, viral marketing has gone from a marketing strategy to an art form and there are many ways to accomplish the objective of creating a successful viral marketing campaign. Seven of those ways are:

1. E-mail: It was first but it is still around and still used. It is, however, getting a little harder to use as more and more government restrictions are placed on it. Still… it does work.

2. Newsletters: This is an extension of e-mail but it a very effective tool. If you include enough timely and valuable information, a good newsletter can drive up the number of visits to your website.

3. Blogging: Providing the tools on your website to enable bloggers to interact with one another is a terrific way to get the message about your product of service out there and being talked about. Bloggers have their ears to the ground for new products and services.

4. Chat Rooms: A chat room on your website can and does encourage interaction among your customers and that can’t be a bad thing. Also, you can use the chat room to schedule special events like having an expert available to answer questions on a given day at a given time.

5. Tell-a-friend Script: If you add this with a statement saying that e-mail addresses supplied will never be shared with third parties, you can increase your potential customer list greatly.

6. Video Clips: Including cool video clips on your website will keep the interest up and increase traffic.

7. Flash Games: Although they are a little costly to start, they are an extremely effective tool to get your viral marketing campaign going. Once they are launched, they require nothing more from you.

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This is a PLR Video Set for Platinum Members.

Live Customer Service is always the best customer service and when it comes to setting up something for your blog or web site, support reps need to be standing by.
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This PLR Video Set will enable you to create your own Helpsite video to sell or post as your own work. It comes with the source AVI file that you can import into your video editor and add your own credits, screens, transistions, etc. to make this your own creation.

Download this PLR Video Set

If you have issues with the download, please contact our Support Help Desk.

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For a while now, listeners and reader have been requesting something a little more from The NMP Network. Well, the time has come to finally unveil a new project that we’ve been working on here at the network.

Premium Content

For almost two years now, The NMP Network has given away everything free of charge, even though the network has spent it’s share of money to pickup a lot of these products, ideas, research and the like. Now though, we have the technology in place that enables us to offer premium content at a low price. This content won’t be some rehashed podcasting from past shows or something that we’ve scraped off of YouTube, however, it will be training videos, eBooks, software, PLR Articles and more that we will be offering nowhere else, but to our Paid Members.

Here’s how it will work:
There is four levels of membership available. The levels are:

Bronze
Silver
Gold
Platinum

Of course, we will still offer free content to non-paying members as we always have in the past. So don’t worry, we’re not going to just offer premium content and nothing else!

Now, for you non-paying members, you will get a “sneak peek” at the premium content pages, but not the entire post or page! Kind of just a taste. On each premium content post or page, you will be notified as to what level you need to subscribe at in order to view the entire post or page. This will also give you a link to login and signup for a membership.

Bronze Memberships are $4.99 per month.
You will get access to posts that have PLR Articles that you can freely copy and use along with a download link to download the complete article. There will be new articles posted daily along with a variety of niches to choose from.

Silver Memberships are $7.99 per month.
You will have access to the Bronze Membership posts and downloads along with PLR eBooks that will be available for download and you will be free to use them as you see fit. New PLR eBooks will be posted weekly or as they come available.

Gold Memberships are $9.99 per month.
You will access to the Bronze and Silver Membership posts and downloads along with PLR Software and MRR Software that will be available for download. New software titles will be posted monthly or as they come available.

Platinum Memberships are $14.99 per month.
You will have access to the Bronze, Gold and Silver Membership posts and downloads along with MRR eBooks that will be available for download. New titles will be posted monthly or as they come available. Along with your Platinum Membership, you will also receive access to special PLR Video Series and Audio Courses. These videos and audio courses will be added on a monthly basis or as they come available.

The NMP Network has been working for quite some time now to acquire these products. To date, we have more than 100,000 eBooks, software packages and videos in our inventory. This is just our way of giving back so that you don’t have to spend out a lot of money to try and get these products for yourself or to resell, give away or just try out!

The Premium Content will launch by December 7th, 2008. Watch for the special category that is setup for this content and get ready to enjoy some really special things coming down the road for The NMP Network!

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Due to an oversight, Jeff Chandler’s WordPress Weekly Segment did not air during this episode. You will find his audio segment in his show notes for this episode.

Last week, we had our Special Guest, Larry Genkin, the CEO of the Blogger and Podcaster Media Network on for an interview. He told us a lot about his new network including who their first member was, Bill Bartmann.

Tonight, I am pleased to bring on Kevin Micalizzi from DimDim.com. Kevin is the Community Manager for DimDim and he left some comments to a recent Web Conferencing Series that I posted about.

Here are some of the questions I will be asking tonight as well as questions from the chat room too:

1. What are the primary differences between the free version and the $100.00 branded version.

2. What is the server capacity for the free version and what has the up time been?

3. What is the maximum length of a meeting?

4. Any thought being given to increase the number microphones that can be given away without using the call bridge?

5. What browser do you recommend for the ability to use the “Share Desktop” feature? I’ve had difficulty with Safari, Chrome and IE 8 Beta.

6. Can a DimDim Session be encoded or embedded on a web site or blog?

7. Are the sessions recorded and accessible after the meeting is over?

8. Since the sessions are being hosted on DimDim’s servers, does the person hosting the event use a lot of bandwidth?

9. How does DimDim compare to other services, such as GoToMeeting?

10. Can DimDim be ran as a standalone product, say if one has their own server space, like with GoDaddy?

11. Could you address and describe the “Record” feature… what actually is recorded and what format is it recorded in?

I will also be fielding questions from the chat room during this interview and will run a demonstration of DimDim, with the help of Bruce Turner, during the interview as well.

Listen to this great interview in the player below!

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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Several months ago, I started simulcasting my Friday Night Shows on video services, such as uStream and Stickam. Over time, there have been a number of issues with these services and recently, I started simulcasting again after being off video for a time. What I have found, at least for my purposes, is that none of these video streaming services can handle 1 to 2 hour long sessions, reasonably.

Last week, I recorded my show using Stickam. The recording went well, or at least, seemed to, and it even let me save my recording. All was good until I went to look at the saved recording and oops! it was gone! Not even an archived copy, nothing, as though I had not even attempted a recording at all! At least with uStream, I had something I could look at, however, it was usually in segments and not a complete show.

Anyway, I have decided to drop the video all together for now and concentrate on the audio podcasting for the show. Making the audio better, more music beds, etc. and not worry about doing video, with the exception of the occasional YouTube video or screencast.

I will talk more about this on my next episode of Podcaster Training so that I can better explain exactly what is going on here, so that I don’t discourage someone from doing video. That is not my goal here. My goal here is to keep you informed as to what is happening on my show and I will continue to keep up with the video streaming services and when they are more up to par with what I am doing, then try it again!

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No, there is not a typo in the title, I meant to say A to V, not A to Z, because in this post I will be talking about taking your podcast from it’s humble beginnings to the next level, video! Now, before you go running off saying that this is too difficult or I simply wouldn’t understand, let me tell you, been there, done that!

Without getting into too much boring details, let’s start with getting started with podcasting, in it’s original format, pre-recorded.

In the beginning days of podcasting, you would take a recorder (you remember those don’t you?) and record your podcasts and then send them to your PC through your sound card input and save them on your hard drive, then take your saved recording (all your editing was done on the fly on the recorder) and then upload your recording to a podcast host somewhere, and from there, it would propagate across the few directories that were around in those days and people would listen to it, if they had an interest. Lots of work to do this, so podcasts, were infrequent and not real popular.

Then came some new technology in software for PC’s, that would allow you to record your podcast, direct to your computer using a microphone attached to your sound card input and would allow for basic editing right on the computer and would save the recording in a proper format for uploading to your podcast host. Because of this break-through, podcasting became a little more viable for people as they could afford to do this easier now. Some had to purchase microphones, while others already had the right stuff and could go for it now!

Along comes the iPod generation and MP3 Players, RSS, and you get the idea. With the availability of RSS feeds and so many portable players being sold and more and more each day, podcasting became a medium for many small businesses up to large corporations, to use to get market their wares. But what about the everyday Joe, where do they fit in this new equation? Well, some podcast hosts setup “free” accounts for hosting that was advertising based, allowing the normal person to post podcasts about whatever niche they wanted and granted them a small, but usable storage account for these podcasts. There was a learning curve with this, and many caught on, but just as many found it too difficult to do, so they just dropped off the scene as quickly as they had came in.

In 2005, a new company came on the scene offering EVERYONE the chance to do Live, Interactive Podcasting. This company, Talkshoe, gave even the little guy a way to sign up, for free, free hosting, free storage, and a way to talk about ANYTHING they wanted, for as long as they wanted (with 3 to 5 hours) and even record it, on the fly, using a simple phone interface! The phone interface meant that there was no equipment to buy, no microphones, no hookups to the PC, etc. just place a phone call and login. You could instantly be “on the air” and start you road counting down to your 15 minutes of fame. All of this for free!

A lot of people, from novice to experienced podcasters, jumped on this site and started broadcasting. Some lasted only a few shows (some less than that) because they didn’t have the passion they thought they had or simply suffered from burnout, early on. The ones that hung in there (and many still are) began building audiences of loyal listeners and started building their own communities in this social media network. Some that dropped out of podcasting, became loyal listeners of other shows and some even found their passion again and went back for another try to only succeed this time!

Like with any technology, there is always growth. In this next “growth spurt”, along comes live, video streaming. Now, in order to do this, you MUST have a web cam or other type of camera that can act as a webcam. You also need a microphone and a “reason” to plaster your face (literally) in front of potentially thousands or viewers. When you visit any of the video streaming sites, such as uStream.tv or Stickam, you will find a variety of celebrity streams, but you will also find the “run of the mill” streams that aren’t really filling a niche as much as they are just taking up some air time. These type of streams don’t do much for me, however, they seem to have lots of viewers, so there must be something that I am missing (or not).

After you have been podcasting for a while, whether old style by pre-recorded and posting or via live, interactive podcasting, there comes a time that you feel you could expand your horizons and take your podcast to “the next level”…live video.

In order to do this, you really need to stop and check your PC (or Mac) to insure that you have enough RAM memory and CPU to handle to extra workload. Also, you must have a decent broadband upload stream (500k and up) to insure that you don’t tank everything when trying to do this.

If you don’t have enough bandwidth, stop right there, and don’t pursue it any further until you get more bandwidth. Ask anyone that has done live video about this and they will tell you that this is very important. Take into account that your live audio will also take bandwidth, add on top of that the bandwidth requirements for video and if you have enough, go for it, otherwise you should really wait to go to the next level for now.

Now, if you already have a live podcast with loyal listeners, don’t just jump ship and go straight video (because of the bandwidth) and abandon your live audio podcasts. Remember, doing this, you will be starting over and you may not be mentally prepared for the shock that comes with not having anyone watching or listening to you, like you originally had! Here, I’m talking from experience. Having done this, I found that the live video streaming services aren’t always up to par with a live show that has a serious minded niche. Especially if that show goes more than 10 or 15 minutes. If this is you, don’t try this. Believe me, you will be disappointed, I know I was.

Well, that’s the gist of what I had to say. I am preparing a webinar on this subject and would like your feedback. Is this something that you would pay to learn the ropes from someone who has been there and you can learn from their mistakes? Or is this a subject that really doesn’t have a value for you, so you wouldn’t pay for it, but would like the information presented free of charge, even though you might not get the full value of it, if it was free? One last question, if you feel this is something you would pay for, say a three hour webinar, what would you pay to learn the ins and outs of going from the basics to more advanced levels of podcasting?

Leave me a comment letting me (and others) know what you think. I really want to know what you thing about this. Thanks in advance!

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Popularity: 10% [?]