Hi Brendon,

Just out of curiosity is there any particular reason you host your videos with Google Video over YouTube or others?

Hi Adam

I'd prefer Youtube but when I uploaded it and it looked right to go, it wouldn't play.

I thought I'd toss it up on Google Video in the meantime to get it going.

I'll check back with Youtube now and see if the re-uploaded video is ok.

Cheers

Brendon

The video is good, but it looks like you are behind the tree! I can understand having props or something else in the picture but in this case I find the plant distracting.

I'm with Ross!

The camera should be centered on your face. Thats the focus of the video, after all! (Tragic, isn't it?)

Having the plant in the frame is great, but you don't need to draw attention to it by centering the camera there. Like this, it looks like you're relying on the tree to co-host the show!

Also, you've got a nasty audible hum in the background (is that the fluro lights?), and the voice is out of sync with your mouth movements!

And if you write up the series on its own page, I'd be inclined to introduce Seamus through text, and maybe include video/audio of him introducing himself. No need for you to explain verbally.

Thanks Ross and Anthony

Yes, that tree's like Paris Hilton - always hsedding and always trying to get into shot.

Not sure how to fix the mouth of opf sync thing - worked fine in Google Video.

I think the hum was the traffic from the street??

I'll work on it.

Cheers

Brendon

Hi. I think Brendon was right the first time. I've been lucky that he's decided to use my site as a guinea pig! I've just been so busy with client work that I'd completely neglected my own site. Now I'm getting a master lesson! Thanks Brendon.

Is that a tree? It appears in most of Brendon's videos. I thought it was bodily growth and was too polite to ask!!!!

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Dave Starr said...

I'm really glad you are putting this series together. I loved Seamus's comment too ... the cobbler's children analogy. I've often gone to a web designer's site because I've wanted to see what s/he was up to and bang! A astounding percentage of the time they have more or less of a mess ... it's your business card, make sure it isn't smudged.

There's a few problems to think through before making a video course, commercial, whatever.

We are a video-oriented society and even a cheap TV show has mega-talent and equipment behind it. It is _not_ just point at a camera at a person and clicking record. On the web one can get away with mediocre writing, one can get away with cheaply produced audio, one can get away with non-compliant HTML but, IMO amateur looking vids will not have the desired ROI.

The plant
The hair
The lighting ... flat and unbalanced .. see here:
http://www.3drender.com/light/3point.html
Video is much more in the lighting than even the camera quality.

But most important of all ... is content. Use video if there is something to show. The tree and your hands waving are not compelling content. (This goes for Matt Cutts and some other web luminaries also)

Watch the TV news. Do they report a road accident for one minute 56 seconds with the camera just looking at the anchorman?. Even if they have no tape to roll they cut from one person to another or put up a still while the reporter is feeding in voice-over.

This particular presentation would be ever so much more compelling with a still of Seamus (or a vid interview between you and him, easy to do with the power of the net and a little editing), a still of his current site, a slide of his rankings, etc.

So Dave's rules for vids:

Light
Write
Edit
Compel people to watch

But these are only suggestions, don't turn off the project, we are all figuring this stuff out as we go, and the journey can be as interesting as the destination.

Oh and one other rule ... don't hit send on first drafts when you've already cleaned things up ... dumb me ;-)

Fantastic feedback Dave

Will start doing it better next shoot.

Cheers

Brendon

Quick question - how did you find that Belfast Web Design was down in the 400s for the keyword you wanted?

Did you literally have to wander through all of the search results or do you have a nice clever tool to do it?

Cheers,
Gregor

Lots of tools about but with that one I did it manually....but I cheat a bit.

I set my Google preferences (click on 'Search Preferences' next to the search box) to display 100 results, not the usual 10.

Then I do my search.

I knew I was looking for inspiredebusiness.com so I hit Ctrl F and type inspiredebusiness in the find field.

I know in about 1 second if the site is in the first 100 results.

If not, I go to the second page (101-200 results) and try again.

Usually I don't even bother checking past 100 - if you're not in the first 10 you're not going to be found, let alone outside the first 100.

But because it was a case study I checked to make sure we knew where we were.

And this answer is good enough for a quick blog post!

Cheers

Brendon

And forgot - the tool I use now for checking where sites are in search engines for keywords is Aaron Wall's new Rank Checker tool.

http://www.seobook.com/announcing-firefox-rank-checker