The 120 Second Solution

Like it or not, the Web is turning into an environment that will be dominated by audio and video presentations. And as we have already seen, the democratic nature of the Web has allowed the best and worst to stand side-by-side.

On one side, you have the whacky viral videos that serve little commercial purpose other than to enhance the reputations of their creators; and on the other side, you have deadly boring corporate videos that lack any of the qualities that make Web-video the best sales tool a business will ever have.

In the middle are a few innovative companies that know how to deliver a marketing message by telling a business story with style and panache so that an audience will remember the message and act upon it. And yes, even a few know how, and are willing, to do it with a reasonable budget.

Pay for Content-Production Not Airtime

The non-time sensitive nature of the Web differs from the corporate world of broadcast television where the cost of airtime has seen commercial formats gradually decrease from sixty, to thirty, to fifteen seconds.

I imagine the day is not too far off when we will have a new five-second commercial format all while the broadcast regulators are allowing more commercials per half hour of programming. According to Answers.com, "a typical 30-minute block of time includes 22 minutes of programming with 6 minutes of national advertising and 2 minutes of local (although some half-hour blocks may have as much as 12 minutes of advertisements)."

We've all had the distinct displeasure of having to sit through the same mind-numbing commercial as many as three times in the same commercial break. At that rate even good commercials we want to watch become exercises in Guantonamo-style torture tactics.

It's unlikely that the independent mentality that governs the Web will ever accept a uniform presentation standard to take hold; the idea is just too conventional for an environment that thrives on breaking the rules.

That said an argument could be made for the discipline of a Web-based video presentation format that tells an effective marketing story in the most efficient and memorable manner.

Form, Function, and Discipline

Effective marketing communication is about telling your story, whether it's a fifteen-second television commercial or a thirty-minute infomercial. If you don't tell a story you aren't communicating your message effectively.

Because the Web doesn't require you to purchase airtime, your video presentation once uploaded, is available 24/7 for all to see, anytime they wish, as often as they want.

Since you have this freedom of expression, you need to ask yourself, what is the best way to implement this independence? Do you follow the standard television format based on a cost-per-second basis, when in fact the length of the presentation is mostly irrelevant, or do you drone on for half-an-hour boring your viewers to tears?

There must be a standard format for Web video that makes sense both technically from a time-to-download perspective, and from an effectiveness standpoint, delivering the message in an unforgettable way.

Like with most things in life, discipline is very important, video production requires the producer to be focused; it helps keep budgets in line; and it delivers results because there just isn't any room for extraneous self-indulgence. In addition, following a standard format provides viewers with an expectation, a promise that you will say what needs to be said, and what they want to hear, in a reasonable and efficient amount of time.

The 120 Second Solution: The 3 Act Web Presentation

Unlike cost-per-time formats, you have the freedom to fudge the timing to meet your needs. On the Web, there is no sense in cutting a presentation because it runs fifteen seconds long, or adding superfluous material because it runs fifteen seconds short. That said, it is a good idea to start with a structure that allows you to build a presentation that works; a presentation that has a beginning, middle, and end; a presentation that tells a story viewers will sit through and pay attention to. What we have come up with is "The 120 Second Solution: The 3 Act Web Presentation."

We arrived at this format by analyzing how the best storytellers spin their yarns, the Hollywood moviemakers. Your standard Hollywood movie contains forty scenes, three acts, and runs approximately 120 minutes; yes, some movies run only ninety minutes, and others run as much as three hours, but 120 minutes is the optimum.

If you accept the premise that commercial Web videos are all about telling your story, then perhaps the best solution is to take the standard, three act, one hundred and twenty minute movie, and scale it down to a three act, one hundred and twenty second movie.

A Web Marketing Campaign

Our recent thought-piece the "18 Web-Marketing Concepts That Make A Difference" was introduced by six entertaining videos comprising 'The Lost Brad Tapes,' that loosely follow the 120 Second, 3 Act Web-Presentation Solution.

Act One: The Setup

Your first act is the setup:
(1) A proper setup needs to introduce your hero (every story, even commercials, need a hero);
(2) It must contain an Inciting Incident that triggers action on the part of the hero, and;
(3) It must also create an object of desire and define the nature of success.

By incorporating these elements in your first act, you attract viewer interest, hold viewer attention, create viewer expectation, and provide vicarious, virtual-viewer participation through the actions of the surrogate hero.

In the case of The Lost Brad Tapes, the inciting incident is our hero, Brad's, failure to find the answer to the question, "How do you become a website success?" Our hero searches the world and endures countless hardships just to find 'The Man' with 'The Answer.' And who in business hasn't searched high and low for some expert who could provide a simple solution to a complex problem.

Act one also establishes the object of desire, the knowledge needed to become a website success, and it defines the nature of success, finding the answer.

Act Two: The Conflict

Act two is about establishing conflict and building tension by creating an obstacle that provides the motivational impetus to act to resolve the problem.

With each successive chapter (video) of The Lost Brad Tapes, our hero runs into a roadblock in the guise of a supposed authority who has other things on his mind, and who is ultimately of no help, but who builds the dramatic tension that holds the viewer's interest. Will our boy Brad, find the answer and will he share it with you, the viewer?

Act Three: The Payoff

Act three provides the resolution: the object of desire is secured and the need is gratified. The audience is satisfied with the knowledge gained and the ínvestment in time.

Act three of the Lost Brad videos presents an attractive host who interrupts the video and talks directly to the audience, providing a teaser of one of the '18 Web-Marketing Concepts That Make A Difference,' and points the viewer to the complete article with the entire líst of eighteen things to think about along with a complete explanation of each.

Conclusion

The Lost Brad Tapes initiative is an example of how to produce a marketing campaign that delivers a business message by telling a story by following an organizational and development structure, proven to be effective. It is not a sales pitch; it asks for nothing from the viewer other their time; and it delivers sound business advice that establishes expertise.

If Web video is on your 'to do' líst, but you're not sure how to go about telling your story, then the 120 Second, 3 Act Web-Video Solution is a good place to start.


About The Author
Jerry Bader is Senior Partner at MRPwebmedia, a website design firm that specializes in Web-audio and Web-video. Visit www.mrpwebmedia.com/ads, www.136words.com and www.sonicpersonality.com. Contact at info@mrpwebmedia.com or telephone (905) 764-1246.

How to Get the Most SEO and Web Traffic Benefits from Blogging

By: Wilbur Corncob

The best way to get people and search engines (which means more people) to your website is by getting relevant inbound links. If you have some spiffy new gimmick on your website this may be easy as everyone will be linking to you.

However, with a basic, solid web page the process maybe much more difficult and slower. How do you get people to link to you?
The best way is to empty your wallet! Ok, just kidding, but first we will learn how easy that is.

For example there is a pay for blogging service that will cost you at least $5 per blog post (ie: per link) and maybe $25 or more. Now that will eat up your budget, and fast. These paid blog links don't come with any guarantee. You might get lots of visitors and you might not get any at all.

Pay per click is another great option for spending all your money. This will bring you visitors for sure and you'll know how much each one costs. That's it. There is no long term benefit. The ads show for only as long as you pay for them. When your money isn't on the table, you don't exist!

You can buy links all over the place and again this may end up costing you a pretty penny, you may or may not get suitable results but when you stop paying the results (good or bad) stop. You gain nothing for the future.

Now blogs are a great way to get visitors and develop a long term return. Blog posts tend to stick around for a long time. The trick here is to get people to blog about your website without forking over a bundle of your hard earned cash.

A great idea is to become a guest blogger. This would be where you write blog posts for other people's blogs. Read: your links on someone else's website for free!
This puts you in the drivers seat for a couple of reasons. First you have control over exactly what is said. Secondly, if you do a good job you may have the opportunity to make regular blog posts. That will build an audience on the blogs for your writing and turn into more and higher quality traffic for your website.

The key to being a great guest blogger is to write short (3 to 6 or so paragraph) posts that are interesting, informative, humorous and relevant to the topic of the blog (and your website). Of course they should have a link to your website. Don't over do the linking. Don't make it sound like an advertisement or something you just cut and pasted from your website.

A few minutes to compose a couple of well thought out paragraphs could do wonders for your web traffic. Keep looking for guest blogging opportunities and never use the same post for more than one blog. One post could bring a lifetime of traffic.
This may well be your most effective way to developing quality web traffic and enhancing your the SEO for your website(s).

Article Source:Reprinted Articles.com

About Author

Wilbur Corncob has made a list of almost 100 blogs that welcome quality posts from guest bloggers. Guest Blog List www.glrsales.com

Make Money From Internet Writing - TOP 5 TIPS

You can make a lot of money by writing and self-publishing your own material, if you are willing to write ebooks, articles, reports or newsletters that millions of people across the United States, and throughout the world for that matter, desperately want to buy.

Today, more than ever before, is the age of information. Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, there continues to be an incredible demand for information throughout the world. There is an astronomical demand for information-packed ebooks, articles, reports and newsletters of almost every imaginable kind. You can start putting a price on information you have no doubt been giving away.

1. FIND YOUR MARKET-THEN WRITE YOUR MATERIAL

Anyone who can communicate an idea to another person, should be able to get their same message across on a written page. If you are either an expert on some subject, or are interested enough to obtain the information needed for a project, you have what it takes to go from having an idea, to self-publishing your own material in whatever format it develops into.

There are hundreds of publications filled with ads by people just like yourself, who discovered they could make a lot of money writing and publishing their own work. Looking through opportunity magazines, Article Directories on the web or other publications that cover the field you are interested in, is a good place to start looking for ideas.

Review all the advertisements in the magazines or Directories you have chosen to see what popular topics and subjects are being written about in ebooks, articles, reports and newsletters. Then ask yourself if you can come up with a better way, or have equally interesting information you can present from a different angle, or with a different twist that would also be of interest to the readers in that market. If the answer is "yes," then you can enter that market and also make some money!

2. HOW TO PACKAGE YOUR INFORMATION

After you have written your material, you will have to decide on how you will package the information to make it sell-able. Depending on your market, some packaging will sell better than others. For example, you can print your information in a series of publications, print it in a ebook, article, report or newsletter.

One thing is certain, people are paying billions of dollars to obtain well-packaged information! There are ebooks that sell for up to $100 and more, with articles coming in a close second. There are reports that consist of 10-12 pages selling for up to $10 or more, while some seminars can cost as much a $15,000 for a single weekend. It may sound incredible to the average person, but people are willing to pay top dollar for information. However, the "packaging" must be perceived as being worth the price you are asking.

But before you decide on how to package your information, you must first consider who your primary audience is, and cater to those people in everything you do.

3. FOCUS ON SUBJECT MATERIAL THAT IS SELL-ABLE

Information for your subject matter can be found in various places. For the very best results, start with your own field or expertise and turn it into a ebook, article, report or newsletter.

Focus on providing your targeted market with simple, understandable, and helpful information. It must overwhelmingly appeal to your customer's wants and desires.

Never forget that this is the age of specialized information. People are completely willing to spend their money for tens of thousands of different forms of information, provided it is useful to them. Your job is to either find a need and fill it, or create the need and supply it.

One of the best ways to get started is to sit down with some paper and write down every subject you have some degree of knowledge about. Your list of subjects doesn't have to be in any particular order. Don't force it. When ideas for headings no longer come easy, stop and start up again at a later time. When you feel comfortable that you have covered most of the areas you know, start picking out the topics that interest you the most. Then you can start researching more material for your writing projects. A great place to find material for articles is in Article Directories. You will find lots of these on the internet.

4. BASIC ADVERTISING RULES

Effective marketing is a vast field. It includes using marketing tools such as: direct mail; classified ads; signs; internet marketing; radio and TV commercials; business involvement, and more. In fact, the approaches you can take and the methods you use are only limited by your imagination and resources. There are basic rules that do not change, however. They are as follows:

Rule No. 1 - You must get a prospect's ATTENTION. The Headline is very important.
Rule No. 2 - You must create reader INTEREST.
Rule No. 3 - You must arouse the reader's DESIRE.
Rule No. 4 - Your ad must move them to ACT.

It is essential that you have a plan before you take action on developing an advertising strategy. Your plan must be based on an objective analysis that has resulted from your knowledge and research. It doesn't matter what your background is, you can learn to master the type advertising that is needed to launch a self-publishing business.

Through research and careful planning you can become familiar with the writing skills you will need to create effective adds. Obtain all the information you can from the masters in the business. Read and study every ebook, article directory, report, newsletter, ad, article, and publication you can get your hands on that will help you in developing your own successful strategies and techniques. Then bring all of that knowledge together to obtain winning results.

5. How to Make Money

You can make money from your writings in several ways. You can sell you writings in the form of an ebook or report on Ebay. You can sell it in the form of a newsletter on your webpage and ask people to subscribe for a small fee.

Another alternative method is to write your article for free but attach a link to it for some product which the article is promoting. There are lots of products on the web which you can sell for other people and earn a good commission. Sometimes up to 70% commission. Examples of such websites are Commission Junction, and Click Bank. You can submit this article with the link to hundreds of Article Directory websites for free.

The advantage of this is that you will have loads of links on the internet promoting your product. This in turn will lead to sales and profits!.Please don't blatantly promote the product in your article and don't include links to it in the body of the article. Most Article Directories will decline such articles.