Camtasia: The Screen-Capturing Powerhouse That Makes Video Blogging Easy

Do you use video on your blog yet? With the Internet continuing to lower our attention spans and the fact that everyone has their own learning preferences, adding a bit of variety to your blogging routine will not only spice up your blog, but may just help attract new fans and followers as well.

Of course, you already know that. But you’re likely held back by one of the biggest drawbacks to video blogging: fear of the camera. Here’s the good news – with Camtasia, you can create and edit engaging, informative, and entertaining videos for your blog without ever getting in front of the camera.

I admit I have not yet posted videos on my blog.  I've been learning the skills necessary to do this right along with you.  But I have been creating and posting them on my Facebook page.  And that's how I discovered this great tool!

Planning the Perfect Vlog

The first thing you should do before firing up Camtasia is to create an outline. It doesn't have to be anything extravagant, but you do want enough info jotted down so that once you start recording, you’ll remember all the key points you want to cover.

Since Camtasia is primarily a screen-capturing tool, chances are you’ll be showing your audience several webpages or apps. Save some time and get this set up beforehand. Not only will it save time, but it was also prevent any mishaps such as typing a URL incorrectly during the recording process. Making that kind of mistake certainly won’t ruin your video, but it might fluster you enough that you feel self-conscious about it, so taking this extra step will help your vlogging confidence level.

Aaaand, ACTION!

Now that you know what you’re going to cover, it's time to start recording. Simply click on the record screen button to begin. Camtasia will offer a few presets, such as full screen, 640 x 360 pixels, and some other common sizes. You can choose a preset or drag the edges of the recording area to suit your own needs.

If you're going to be talking during the recording, make sure that you have audio enabled before you begin recording. Again, Camtasia offers several options here based on your computer’s sound card and microphone, so be sure to test out a few variations to find the audio setting that gives you the best quality sound. (Note: Camtasia does give you the option to add audio narration after your video has already been recorded. So, if something happens and you don't capture your voice, know that you can still do it at a later time.)

Now it's time for action. If your video is a 'how-to', start the process of what you're teaching your audience. For example, if you're teaching them how to create custom menus using a menu widget in WordPress, then go through the entire process of how to do it step-by-step. Teach them exactly how it's done.  These types of videos are an excellent source of content for your audience.

Post Production

Once you’ve finished recording your video, it’s time for a little post production. You can spend as much time here as you like, adding fancy transitions between scenes, cutting out all your “ums” and “ahs”, and zooming in to highlight important steps. Camtasia makes all this incredibly easy with a full-featured suite of editing tools.

But also keep in mind that your audience might not demand such polish. Sometimes the best vlogs are those that let your true personality shine – including your little speech idiosyncrasies. So don’t spend hours and hours in post production. That will only make you dread vlogging in the future. Instead, have a little fun with it, and send it out to the world.

Am I Able To Make Cash with an MLM Home Based Business?

A question from a subscriber prompted today's blog post.  Am I REALLY able to make money with a network marketing home based business?  YES!

Each day legions of people decide to start their own home based MLM businesses.

It costs very little to start up, there is not much risk involved, and the business model has been proven to work - and work well.

What You Need to Know about Beginning an MLM Business from Home

If you would like to know the hard facts about MLM, there are lots of points to consider.

If a sponsor tells you that you will get rich quick, this isn't true. You will have to work really hard at the beginning to build your business. True, a successful sponsor who has been in the business for many years might have forgotten all the hours of labor involved when starting. But I promise you, if they are successful, they did the work.  You must be prepared to do so also.

There are only roughly thirty MLM companies which have been around for more time than about ten years. There's definitely not much wrong with the business model as these thirty or so companies have proved. The ones that failed either didn't set up their businesses correctly in the beginning or were using questionable business practices.

The ones that failed did so for two main reasons. The major reason for failing is the quality or desirability of the product, and the second reason is usually that the compensation plan did not work.

MLM Home Based Business Due Diligence

Prior to starting any MLM home based business you must inspect the company's compensation plan rigorously. Understand it completely and raise questions. Understand the system that they use. Many compensation plans have names like matrix and binary, so be certain that you understand exactly what these terms mean.

Inspect the product. Raise questions and investigate whether it is well publicized, and ask yourself if it is something that is of high quality and not something that may be bought less expensive from a local store. Also, what is the likelihood or recurring orders?  Is the product a consumable that will be reordered regularly?  Will people wish to buy the product in 10 years time? If they do not, then the product and your business will both vanish. Is the product line constantly being updated with new products to keep current with market demand?   

If you have a company to mind, get on forums and find other people to chat to who work for that company.

You'll have to look out for people who've failed though. The attrition rate is particularly high in any MLM business, usually because people think they are going to earn money from the first day, or they don't put in any effort.  When these people fail, they can become very vocal about claiming the company or the business model itself is a scam. Rather than admit their own failure to do the work necessary, they have a tendency to look for something or someone to blame.   

What It All Comes Down To

If you would like a successful home-based MLM business you will have to work diligently, find out about your product and company and commit lots of time to your business. It's very important that you find out everything about the business before investing your precious money and valuable time into it.

It's also necessary that you've a business plan, which should ideally include a sales and marketing plan, one for the product and one marketing your opportunity even before you sign that check. There are two ways to earn money in MLM. One is to sell product. The other is to sign up others to do exactly the same as you.

If you don't have a plan, you will never make it happen.

Essentially lead generation is going to be the most time-consuming part of your MLM business. Are you capable of building a domain and do you understand internet based marketing? Do you know how to push traffic to your website?

How are you going to advertise? Will you take part in a company or a team financed advertising cooperative? How much are you willing to invest in your business? How much time are you prepared to provide your downline team in the way of coaching and advice?    

All these questions must be addressed during your due diligence and done long before you sign on the dotted line. This preliminary investigation and fact finding will be the most significant difference between owning a successful MLM home business or one of the many that fails within a few months.

Do you need more network marketing tips?  Sign up for my newsletter!  And get a Facebook Ad cheat sheet just for subscribing!

Are you looking for a great network marketing opportunity?  Check out the company I work with.

They Laughed at Me

Network marketing? Are you crazy?

Aren’t those illegal?

No one makes any money with network marketing. Everyone knows it’s just a rip off!

That’s just a scam!

These are just a few of the reactions I have gotten when presenting my business opportunity to prospects. And although it doesn’t happen often, I admit that when it does, it can be frustrating and discouraging.

And it’s worse when it comes from a family member or friend. They KNOW what you do. They have

seen that it works. They should know I care about their well-being and want to see them succeed. 

And yet the questions come and then the ridicule. It’s like being slapped in the face.

There are hundreds of reasons to join a network marketing business.  You have been downsized and

can’t find a new job. You would like to retire but can’t afford to. Your health won’t allow you to continue in your current job and you don’t know what else to do. You would like to spend more time with your children. You have to replace the income of an ailing spouse. Or maybe you’re just tired of working all day for someone half your age that makes 3 times what you do.

When David Letterman asked Donald Trump what he would do if he had to start over, the answer
amazed me. He said, “I would find a good network marketing company and get to work."  Now, you
may not like his politics or some of his actions, but you have to admit one thing.  Donald Trump
knows how to make money.



Many other famous entrepreneurs like Warren Buffett, and Rich Dad Poor Dad author Roberrt
Kiyosaki are also either directly involved in network marketing businesses themselves or recommend it to their followers.  And if it’s good enough for Donald and Warren and Robert, it’s good
enough for me.


Sure, there are bad companies out there with questionable practices.  That's true of ANY business.  And for every one that is skating along the edge of ethical, legal practices, there are plenty of legitimate companies with amazing products and that are dedicated to helping their representatives succeed. 

Network marketing can help you transform your life. Do you have dreams? Do you have the persistence, perseverance, patience, and discipline to realize them? Yes? Then the power to change your life is in your hands.

I can’t promise you it will be easy. In fact, I can guarantee you that in the beginning there will be days you want to quit. That’s just the nature of starting a business – any business, not just network marketing. I can also promise though that if you don’t give up, you will be successful.

So, now I let them laugh at me.  But I don't bother to laugh aat them.  I'm too busy running my business!

MIstakes I've Made

Do you think the top money earners don't make mistakes?  You'd be surprised!  We all make mistakes.  No one is perfect - not even the 'gurus.'  What makes the difference is how you react to your mistakes.  Do you learn from it and move forward?  Or do you let it throw you completely off track and quit?


I've made many mistakes in my entrepreneurial journey.  And I have learned valuable lessons from each of them.  Hopefully, you can learn from some of them so you don't have to make the same ones yourself!


Mistake #1:  Starting out without a clear plan.


When I first decided to try my hand at being self-employed, I had no idea how to start or even what type of business I should try.  Almost my entire career at that point had been spent in the US Navy, in a skill that did not necessarily transfer well to civilian life and certainly not as an entrepreneur.  As a consequence, I tried everything I heard of - coaching (hard to do when you don't know anything), affiliate marketing, network marketing, blogging for money.  You name it and if I had heard of anyone making money from it, I tried it.  The only problem with that is if you don't have an idea of where you are going and plan to get there, you tend to scatter yourself all over the place and never focus on any one thing long enough to become successful.


Lesson learned:  Take the time to determine exactly what your business is, set your goals, and then determine a plan to get there.  It may seem slow starting, but trust me, you will be successful much more quickly!


Mistake #2:  Listening to anyone who was making more than me.


It's true that there are many VERY successful home-based entrepreneurs.  And it's also true that once many of them reach a certain level of success (or even when they haven't), they decide to add coaching and training to their business model.  This means there are LOTS of people out there telling you what to do to build a business.  And I listened to all of them.  Some of them actually knew what they were teaching and were helpful.  Many really didn't but just saw coaching as a way to make more money.  But, just like trying many different types of businesses, trying many different methods of marketing before you understand even one of them is like throwing a handful of darts blindly at a target.  You throw all of it out there and hope something sticks. 


Lesson learned:  Twofold on this one.  First, just because someone is successful doesn't necessarily mean they are able to teach you to do the same.  Find a coach or mentor that is right for you and stick with them.


Second, learn one skill at a time.  Master it before you move on to the next.  Again, you will get impatient as it seems slow in the beginning.  But once you become the expert and start seeing results, you will be glad you did it this way.


Mistake #3:  Focusing on money instead of providing real value.


Yes, we are all in business to make money.  But I was so desperate to make my business work, I tried things and sold products that in my heart I knew just weren't right.  And because of that my efforts were lackluster at best.  Not to mention that the people who did come to me weren't satisfied.  Who knows how much damage that did to my reputation and how long it took to overcome that perception? 


Lesson learned:  Focus on providing real service and value to as many people as possible.  Instead of setting a goal to make as much money as possible, set a goal to change as many lives as possible.  When you give and create value, the money will come.  Promise!


Mistake #4:  Buying every course, book, and program marketed to me in the hopes that I would find the one that would change my life.


Now I have a closet full of courses, books, and programs that I have never even opened - and a lot less money in my bank account.  I didn't make myself any richer but I sure lined the pockets of many internet marketers. 


Lesson learned:  Before you join another program, enroll in another “opportunity”, or buy another product, ask yourself these questions.

1. Does this add to or complement your existing business? If the answer is no, cover your eyes and walk away!

2. What will you have to give up to make time for the new project? If you can't fit the new project in your day and don't have anything you can give up to open a bit of time, turn your head because this is not for you.

3. Will it generate enough profit to make it a worthwhile investment of your time? While you cannot guarantee that a project will make money, sometimes you can make an educated guess.

 

4.  Are you willing to devote the time and effort it will take to make this worthwhile?  There is no such thing as an easy, overnight path to riches.  There is no magic button, no secret formula.  It will take time and work.  If you don’t want to give up either of those, move on!

Mistake #5:  Trying to be someone I'm not. 

I saw how successful people acted.  How they presented themselves.  How they spoke, and wrote, and interacted with others.  I tried to be lots of different people in the beginning.  Ken McArthur.  Felicia Slattery.  Bob Jenkins. Many others.  Surprisingly, I failed each and every time.

Lesson learned:  I am not any of those people.  But I am the best "me" around!  Sure, I can learn some things from each of them.  But I am most comfortable - and most successful - when I acknowledge that I am a boomer-aged, slight nerdy (ok very nerdy), somewhat irreverent, woman who tries not to take life too seriously, who cares passionately about her family, friends, team, and customers.  I have a penchant for speaking bluntly which some can find disconcerting.  I love words and use them sometimes just because I like the way they sound - which some find pompous and arrogant.  I can be somewhat impatient with you when you don't seem to want your success as badly as I want it for you.  And I make mistakes.  Lots of them.  

What about you?  What mistakes have you made?  What have you learned from them?  Maybe you don't want to talk about them, but maybe - just maybe - we can all learn something from them!       

6 Ways to Crush It in the Next 6 Months!

2016 is half over.  The first 6 months have come and gone.  Are you on your way to reaching your goals?  No?  Well, don't worry!  There is still time.  We have 6 more months to go.  And here are 6 ways you can crush it by the end of the year!

1. Develop a valuable skill. Are you a top-notch marketer? Great coach? Inspiring speaker? Techno-geek? What are you or what do you want to be known for? Develop and hone that.

2. Ignore the word "no." How do you do that? Get more "no's". Sometimes no simply means not right now. Share your story repeatedly. Get it in front of as many people as possible.

3. Network your way to success. Attend events. Company events. MLSP events. Local networking events. Participate in discussions on Facebook groups. Stay connected with people wherever and whenever you can.

4. Hustle at your own expense. Stop chasing the sale or the recruit. Chase the experience. If you chase the experience, the sales and the recruits will come. Knowledge, experience, and execution is the new money. Get the knowledge. Gain the experience. Execute! Make money!

5. Recognize and take advantage of opportunities. Stop procrastinating! What are you waiting for? If you want it, you've got to go get it. You can't wait for confirmation from the rest of the world.

6. Trust your gut. If this is something you want to do, just do it! If it's not, don't! Don't do something just because someone else is. There are no guarantees in life or business. I love MLSP and Ariix. But I have enrolled people in both who never made it work. Why? Because they didn't really want to do it. And because of that, they weren't willing to do the work necessary to become successful at them.

It's July!  The rest of the year is waiting.  You can still make 2016 your year to shine.  Are you ready?  Use these 6 tips and let's do this!

Interviews Make Engaging and Informative Video Blogs

People buy from those they know, like and trust. And when it comes to working online, this is even more important. So, how do you get people to know, like and trust you? You do this by providing your target market with opportunities to get to know you better. One of the best ways to do that is through video blogging.

With as much as technology has changed and things have become simpler, there's no excuse for you to not be video blogging. Just sharing written content on your site or in other avenues (guest blogging, writing articles, etc) isn't enough. People want to see a face and hear a voice. People have begun to expect it.

If you don't want to put just your face in front of the camera for 3-4 minutes (remember, keep a video short and sweet - anything longer than 3 minutes and people generally begin to lose focus and get bored), doing a video interview is a great way to get around this. Having someone else on screen with you will help take the focus off of you.
Here are some easy tips for video blogging using interviews.

The first thing you need to decide is what software you're going to conduct the interview with. Skype is easy to use and a free option. Then there's always the newer option of doing a Google Hangout and recording the interview that way. These options are great if you're interviewing someone that isn't with you in person. If you're doing an in person interview, you can use your smartphone, a little handheld video recorder, an iPad, etc.
 
Once you know how you're going to conduct the interview, think about creating an outline or preparing some questions for your interviewee so they are prepared ahead of time. Keep it simple. Just jot down a few keywords or something that will help you stay on track and remind you of everything you wanted to cover.

That's all there is in terms of preparation. Then it's just a matter of finding a time that both you and the person doing the interview with you can meet to do it. It's always a good idea to do a quick test beforehand to make sure that audio and video on both ends is working and that recording is clear. There's nothing worse than having a great chat full of awesome information only to realize once it's over that there were technical issues and you didn't get the recording or the audio is messed up.
 
You can make a video interview even more interesting by conducting a roundtable where you bring several people together for a discussion. Again, Skype is an option or Google Hangouts. Of course, the more people you have you'll have to try as hard as possible to stay on track and keep time limited.

If you want your community to get to know, like and trust you more, it's time to start showing them who you are. Put yourself out there on video and let them see the real you. If you're just starting, interview video blogging can help you get more comfortable being in front of the camera because there will be somebody else with you.

MLM Attraction Marketing Revealed

MLM attraction marketing is a web phenomenon that has become increasingly popular over the past several years. Before this time, online marketing had followed a simple pattern - marketing consultants running after shoppers and trying to make them subscribe to the services that they were promoting or to get the products that they were selling on their business websites.

Because these marketers were all competing for the attention of the same individuals, the method could frequently be very daunting and was seldom terribly profitable.

But MLM attraction marketing has made dramatic changes in the industry. Rather than marketing pros having to follow folks to buy products or promote their business sites, these people now work to brand themselves and attract their clients straight to them, instead of to their business website. Imagine!  Branding yourself instead of your current company or products! (If you don't understand why that's important, hop on over to my website and get on my newsletter.  Branding is one of my favorite subjects)     

Basically, the marketing expert is the brand - not the company that he's employed for or its products, but the marketing pro himself.

So how do you go about enticing people to yourself and your private brand? You start by considering what pulls you to other people. You are interested in people who show they are truly interested in you and they actually care about you; people who show they're concerned about your problems and troubles, and who have something to offer you that may really enhance your life. So this is what you must become, so that others will be drawn to you. You build your private brand by forming relationships, and by providing answers to the issues, issues and concerns of those with whom you have got the relations.

If you're building your business offline, the same elements apply but you are usually limited as to how many new relations you can form and maintain simply thanks to a shortage of time.

But online, using the world-wide reach of the internet, there aren't any such limits!  You can build and maintain relationships with hundreds, even thousands of people around the planet using state of the art communication technolies.

Think e-mail autoresponders. Offer something of value like a free 5 day bootcamp or other value-based content in return for their contact info. Then simply follow up over a period of time. Provide phenomenal worth and, over time , your new contacts will come to know, like and trust you as the leader they are trying to find and may finally join your business.

So where do you get all this value content, bootcamps and webinars to attract your target market? There are two realistic decisions.

You can create your own content, publish it and promote it. And each top level marketeer will ultimately do this at some level. Or you can invest in one of many mlm attraction marketing systems now available and use the content they provide.

This is commonly a smarter choice, especially at the beginning, because you can gain immediate access to complete training webminars, bootcamp series and even software manuals produced by top earners. You offer this good quality content free and it brands you as being an individual of value.

One of the lessons that online marketers have learnt from experience is that it is tough to succeed when everyone seems to be doing a similar thing. The sole way to succeed is to differentiate yourself and stick out from the crowd. MLM attraction marketing systems are so powerful is that they enable you to do exactly that.