The Money Gym | Chapter 1

Hi there!  I’m learning how to podcast via my Wordpress blog rather than using previously trusty Hipcast, as I’m having issues with the Hipcast podcast not going into the right catagory, then the players disappearing when I manually change the catagories.  With thanks to Mike Stewart for his great tutorials and software downloads on audio and video blogging with Wordpress!

Video Blogging – Zero to Hero in 60

If you have been thinking that you want to start blogging, to promote your business, then I have some great resources for you.   Blogging for business is all about people getting to know, like and trust you and if you click on Mike’s links below you can find out how companies from tour operators to bug exterminators to carpet showrooms are all getting in on the act!!  You just have to check out all the case studies but the Carpet Depot one is an absolute classic – scroll down and click on the “who works here” video.  Makes me want to go to Atlanta, Georgia for all my carpet needs – they are all so sweet!

There are a number of inexpensive turnkey solutions to do streaming video online, the best of which is Armand Morin’s Generator suite of products including InstantAudioGenerator and InstantVideoGenerator.   However, easy to use as this is, it will lock you into a small but recurring payment for the life of your website.  If you are not at all techie minded, this is probably the best solution for you however and Armand’s products have some nice little extras like being able to quickly record a video using the cam on your computer and send out your message as a video postcard – great click through rates on those, let me tell you. 

If you want to learn how to do it yourself, step by step, and get more skilled while still using easy-to-learn tools, then you need to get to know my audio and video mentor - Mike Stewart - you can check out his great – and very inexpensive – tutorials here (which I have and I swear by!)  

http://www.fromthedeskofmikestewart.com

Mike owned – and may still own for all I know – his own recording studio in Nashville and speaks at every internet marketing event as he’s passionate about using audio and video on the internet. He has some very inexpensive tutorials on DVD or to download, and walks you through all the equipment you need (and never more than you need!)

He has just released a great one-hour audio with Tracy Childers, of FLV Producer fame and here’s what Tracy had to say about it.

“This certainly is an exciting time to be on the cutting edge of video. The past 3 years have been absolutely amazing.  The great news is that more is yet to come. I just finished an interview with Mike Stewart “The Internet Video Guy”. We talked about using video on the internet and what the latest and most effective trends are. The interview is just over an hour long and we posted it for you online at:
http://www.tracyandmikevideo.com You can listen to the whole thing from the site or you can download the mp3 file. It’s in the top right corner of the page.  Look for the Yellow Play button or the mp3 download. You’ll definitely want to hear this call. Wait until you hear the results he shares that he and his clients are getting with, “Video Landing Pages”. If you don’t know what that is, don’t worry we explain it specifically in the interview. http://www.tracyandmikevideo.com Have a great weekend and keep making more videos! Best of Success, Tracy Childers FLV Producer

You can also view this video about how to go straight to video blogging with Wordpress, using a custom template, by InternetGenius, which I found on one of my new homes www.viddler.com/wealthcoach

Video & Audio – A Simple Guide

If you want to add video and audio to your blog / website (and you should!)  there are a number of inexpensive turnkey solutions to this, the best of which is Armand Morin’s Generator suite of products including InstantAudioGenerator and InstantVideoGenerator.

However, my mentor in all of this is Mike Stewart who you can find at www.FromTheDeskofMikeStewart.com – he owns his own recording studio in Nashville and speaks at every internet marketing event as he’s passionate about this. He has some very inexpensive tutorials on DVD or to download, and walks you through all the equipment you need (and never more than you need!)

TECHIE STUFF:  I use either a handheld digital FlipVideo (great quality and perfect for testimonials) or a simple inexpensive camcorder on a tripod, and a really decent mic which makes a huge difference (either a hand-held mic or a lavalier mic which clips to my collar and plugs into the camcorder) or a desk based studio quality mic, which connects to my computer via an Edirol soundbox.

I have a lightsnake which connects a mic to the puter without a soundbox, but have never managed to make that work – same with my firewire which connects the camcorder to the puter. So I soldier on with USB connections and they work fine.I use Mike’s simple bit of software which captures the sound and video together into a short .AVI video which I can then edit. To edit, you can use Windows Movie Maker (Start menu > Accessories > WMM) or now I use Sony Vegas Movie Maker – allows you to layer the “5 essential elements of great TV” which is moving pictures, still pictures, sound/music, effects, text. I then turn the edited .AVI file into either an MPEG or WMV file for uploading to YouTube / Google Video, or a FLASH movie for streaming from our own site.To create the latter, I use Mike Stewart and Jim Edwards FLV Producer software (very inexpensive) then their FLV Player Creator, which uploads the video and the code for the “little TV” you see.

All of these bits of software cost between $40 and $90 and they all simplify the process and streamline it.

OUTCOMES: To give you an idea, I can film a short movie and have it online in about 15 minutes. Just yesterday, someone booked on one or our workshops and quoted the podcast as how she heard about us.

If you upload a big video file to Google, such as a .AVI or .WMV file, you can then download it as an MPEG4 which you can then easily video podcast for folks to look at on their new iPhone – we use Hipcast.com which also podcasts audio and video via iTunes, but I do know how to do it from your Wordpress blog too now.

See some examples at www.MoneyGym.tv or on our TV channel at YouTube – www.YouTube.com/wealthcoach

Only So Much Grazia You Can Read!

You know things are bad on the boredom front when you start looking forward to the One Show.  It’s a bit like South Today but a teeny bit livelier.  A teeny bit.

I’m two days into recovery from the removal of my gall bladder operation (see the whole procedure here on YouTube - I didn’t dare watch before but fascinating now, watched it three times so far) and when the drugs have kicked in the boredom also kicks in. 

When it hurts I’m happy to sleep, when it doesn’t I’m swapping from blogging, to poker, to reading to watching day time tv including endless re-runs of Homes Under The Hammer (I’m quite enjoying the latter when not shouting at the TV “Don’t sell, WHY are you selling?!!”

Then you think “I can’t stay in bed any longer, I’m getting up” and like an old lady stapled in half, you totter to the bathroom and by the time you get there you remember what you just went through and why you were in bed in the first place.

Steve is being an absolute angel (well, he says it’s not actually making much difference me being in bed!) and even the kids are behaving themselves ……largely.

It was the drain that is causing the pain apparently – must have been attached to my lung by the feel of it.  Still, I’m able to haul myself upright on my own today, shame as it was quite fun being winched about by the gang!

Tomorrow I’m going to work the “machines behind the scenes” on the Money Gym Gold wealth surgery webinar, then spend the day learning how to podcast etc, using our new Wordpress blog as taught by my audio and video mentor Mike Stewart.