Bob Bly's How to Profit from the New Online Video Craze
Available on AddVideo2YourSite.com, this ebook is presented by world class copy writer Bob Bly. He edited the content, written by someone else. Bob has a huge following in the copy writing crowd, which says a lot. Copy is what sells, and if you're good at it, you can sell a lot.
This ebook comes with one bonus: Online Marketing That Works by Bob Bly. Mostly it's about email marketing and list building, which is still very important for your business success.
Now on to review the ebook:
Good stuff about the How to Profit from the New Online Video
- The book weighs in at 69 pages including the cover page. That's a nice length. Not too long winded, you can easily get through all the material.
- Add Video 2 Your Site clearly sets out how to plan your video, tips for shooting your video, tips for editing your video, and how to upload it to the internet.
- Layout is pleasant, and there is a clickable table of contents.
- Price is $39, which is mid-range for ebooks these days, and if you need this information, that's not a price that should stop you from purchasing.
Not so good stuff about How to Profit from the New Online Video
- No pictures in the tutorial text. Screen shots of where to click are not included in the instructions on how to use the movie editing programs.
- No video of how to make a video.
- Not enough references to other video resource sites. Only one stock music site is mentioned, for instance.
Some particular points I'd like to pick on:
- "Also, if a web page has video, Google search results show a thumbnail image of a frame from the videos next to the search listing." (Page 7)
This is highly dependant upon your search settings, your browser, and is not true for just any site. On a search in Firefox with my Google toolbar open, I get two thumbnails, one from YouTube, and one from ExpertVillage.com for a search on 'how to sew a dress video' (no quotes). The same search in IE7 without a Google toolbar log in for the same phrase has absolutely no video thumbnails. My video tutorial series dominate the results, but not one thumbnail of them appears. - "Keeping visitors on your web page for longer is the first step in increasing your conversion rate."
I thought that myth was shot down long ago.
"The longer you have to show the visitor why your product or service is the best solution to their problem, the better chance you have of making the sale." That's the meat -- you need to solve their problem, and video doesn't change that. - On page 49, it is recommended to use Viddler and autoplay. I thought that bad habit died with video. If you want to get someone to close the window as fast as you can say "click", just set your video to autoplay. People do not like having their media autoplayed, especially if they are surfing at work! Leave that play button up to the visitor to click.
- While the control issues for Viddler discussed on page 50 sound important for an advertisement, web2.0 is about community. If people cannot leave comments, download your video, or add tags, you will be losing out on a lot of the advantage of video. I can see the interest in allowing only yourself the right to embed your video on your site, as someone might embed your video on a site that you find offensive.
- There is no reason to go get a cup of coffee after your upload to Viddler. You should be using Tubemogul.com to upload more easily and be able to track your videos and compare to your competitors.
- The promise of lifting your conversion rate is made, but not much information is given about testing your conversion rate before and after.
- If you want to affiliate market this product, the affiliate link does not go to the specific landing page, it goes to Bob Bly's list of ebooks. This is not the best landing page for driving targeted affiliate traffic. For a book that starts off with a long winded discussion of what a landing page is, this is ironic.
Check out Improve Web Site Conversion Rates with Online Video www.addvideo2yoursite.com .
