6 Tips for Better Recordings When Creating Your Infoproducts

If you're creating audio or video information products, you're probably using one (or more) of the following programs:

• Camtasia (screencasts)
• Sony Movie Studio / Sony Vegas (live-action video shots)
• Audacity (audio recordings)

No matter which program you're using, here are a few tips for getting better results in your final product:

1.  Record in Short Clips
It's much easier to figure out how to split your information into manageable chunks, then record each piece individually.  Once you're done, you can splice them together so things appear seamless.  But if you have to go back and re-record something, it'll be much easier to do.  The worst thing to have happen is to record a long clip and then realize you need to re-record something that's in the MIDDLE of that clip.  Save yourself the headache and record in smaller pieces.  This applies to audio and video.

2.  Don't Stop Recording When You Make a Mistake
This also applies to audio and video.  You're going to flub a few lines…it's almost guaranteed.  But don't worry about it and definitely don't start back over from the beginning.  Just pause for a few seconds, collect your thoughts, then repeat whatever it was that came out wrong (if only we could do this in real life, right?).  The good thing about pausing for a few seconds is that not only does it give you time to figure out what you want to say, but it also makes it easier to edit that section when you get around to editing.

3.  Be Sure to Use a USB Headset/Microphone
For audio or Camtasia type videos, be sure to use a USB headset.  You'll have the option of choosing a USB headset or one that plugs directly into your sound card.  Choose the first option since you'll get WAY better results.  Connecting to the sound card causes too much noise and your audio will sound unprofessional on most computers.  And get a headset, not a desktop microphone.  There's too much variation as you move closer or farther away from a desktop microphone.  The headset mic pretty much stays the same distance from your mouth.  Speaking of which…

4.  Be Sure the Microphone is Far Enough Away From Your Mouth
Do a quick test run and see how it sounds.  If you're popping p's, try moving the microphone away from your mouth…either higher above your mouth or below your chin.  It'll still pickup your voice but you won't have to worry about those annoying spikes that are made when speaking certain words or letters.

5.  With Camtasia, Don't Move the Mouse So Much
Don't move the mouse in Camtasia recordings unless you have to.  The less motion there is on the screen, the easier it is to edit later on without things looking weird.  But if you mess up something you said while you were scrolling the screen for absolutely no reason, it's going to look weird when you edit that out since the screen will jump from one place to the next.  Minimal motion is a good thing and makes life easier later on.

6.  Edit Ruthlessly
This is where your project goes from sounding like a high school kid made it versus sounding like a pro.  Little things can go a long way, like of course, editing out those little goofs, editing out large gaps of silence (maybe while you were thinking about what to say next while recording), and getting rid of those annoying sounds of you taking a breath (no on really wants to hear that), the umms and ahhs and other random sounds.  For some things, you might want to keep the same amount of space but just get rid of the sounds, so just insert silence over the noises and you'll be good to go. 

And yes, some will probably say just release it.  It doesn't have to be perfect. 

Ask yourself which version you'd prefer.  You'll make the right decision.

Popularity: 61% [?]

Product Creation Perfectionism and at Least Four Things That Are More Important

If you're serious about getting your online business going this year, you might have already decided that an information product business is the way you'll get started.  One of the things that's likely to come up is "product creation perfectionism". 

One important thing to realize is that the product is really the least important of the items that matter.  It took me awhile to get this.  It sounds counter-intuitive but it's true, assuming that you have at least a decent product - not perfect, but good information that represents a fair exchange of value for what you're charging for it. 

If that's true, then there are more important pieces of the puzzle you should probably focus on rather than trying to make your "good" product "perfect".

1. Getting traffic to your site - of course you need to get people to your site in order to make sales.  This goes without saying, but I'm saying it anyway.
2. Improving the conversion rate of your sales page - once you get people to your site, are they buying?  If not, why?  What can you do to increase the rate at which they purchase and, therefore, how much each visitor is worth to you?
3. Offering a premium version of your product - once people are purchasing, can you add something to the offer to create a premium version?  Maybe you can offer a free consultation, paid support for an additional fee, a quick start guide, or something else that at least a percentage of people will be willing to pay extra for.
4. Offering backend products - are there other related products that you have or that you're an affiliate for that you can offer your buyers?  Are those offers on your thank you page, in your follow up email sequence and other "leaky" places?  Again, the goal here is increasing the visitor value for a given amount of traffic.

Focusing on tweaking, perfecting or adding to your product before you even start promoting it will probably just leave you spinning your wheels and with an empty bank account.  You can always go back later on and add to it, rework those pieces that need updating or tweaking.  You'll also be able to get feedback from customers who purchase the initial version.

So the bottom line is if your product is good enough to get "out the door", start promoting it, get traffic to your site and work on converting that traffic to improve visitor value.  Down the road, you can come back and add to it.  Just be sure you don't start promoting something that's garbage - of course, it should still be valuable information for your target market.

Popularity: 70% [?]

It's a Shame for You Not to Have Your Own Infoproduct - When These Tools Make It So Easy

It still amazes me how inexpensive it is to get going with an information product business.  I'd say the biggest expense is probably the time it takes to go from idea to product, assuming you tie a dollar amount to your time.  Other than that, it doesn't really take all that much, whether you want to create DVDs, CDs, printed materials or some combination of the three.  And I'm talking about quality products, not just some dinky ebook.  Looking at my own "product creation toolbox", here's what I came up with as must-have (or at least near-must-have) items:

• Camtasia Studio - Probably one of the most expensive items you'll need but well worth it since it's likely to be one of the most used items too.  Great for creating online/downloadable video products or retail-ready DVD products if you have a few other things mentioned below.  Demonstrate nearly anything that can be done on the computer or create and record yourself giving a presentation using PowerPoint or something similar if your market isn't specifically computer-related (meaning this works for just about any market)
• Audacity / Sony Acid Music Studio - If you want to create audio CDs, podcasts or other content in purely audio format, you'll need a way to record and edit audio.  Audacity is open-source and is sufficient for most uses.  I'm playing around with a trial version of Sony's Acid Music Studio which is more robust, but I'm not convinced that it's not overkill for what I need…same goes for most product developers.  Audacity is probably sufficient and is another one of those programs I can't believe is free.
• USB Headset - For recording audio/video with Camtasia or just plain audio with Audacity, you'll need a good headset.  Go with a quality USB headset but be sure to keep your receipt.  I had to try a couple before finding one that worked well with minimal noise on the recording.  Don't go cheap here.  Sound quality is critical for producing a decent product.  Go with a headset versus a desktop microphone to avoid changes in sound quality or volume.  With a desktop mic, your distance from the microphone can change and make the sound inconsistent.  A headset is definitely the way to go so get one that's comfortable.
• Office Suite (MS Office, Open Office, Google Docs) - For printed materials like newsletters, checklists, resource guides, special reports and the like, you can't beat free.  Like many of you, I have a copy of Microsoft Office on my computers but there's absolutely NO NEED to purchase it for what we need.  Instead, pick up a free copy of OpenOffice which is open-source software that mimics MS Office.  Or, just sign up for an account with Google (if you don't already have a GMail, AdWords, or AdSense account).  Then use their Google Docs online application.  I've been surprisingly impressed with what Google's put together with this. (Or did they just buy out some company to acquire this like they did with YouTube?)
• Photoshop Elements - For basic photo editing and other "image stuff", I like Photoshop Elements.  I have an older version that I bought on Amazon for about $35.  You could use something like GIMP which is another open-source software tool, but I found that most of the freely available online instructions showing how to edit photos and other tasks were based on Photoshop.  Photoshop Elements has nearly the same layout and baseline set of features for what most of us will need.  For me, it was easier to use that piece of software rather than try to figure out how to do something using GIMP based on instructions not specifically designed for GIMP.  I use this along with a template to create DVD case covers and other artwork.  This barely makes this list since it could be outsourced, but sometimes it's just quicker to do it in-house.
• Quick 3D Cover Creator - Might not be required but it makes for a nice added touch and isn't too expensive.  This software allows you to take images created in something like Photoshop Elements and add them to templates for DVD case covers, CD covers, software boxes and other layouts.  It's pretty neat software, easy to use and not that expensive, though not absolutely essential since this too can be outsourced.  If you're interested, just Google the term "quick 3d cover" without the quotes and it should be the first result.
• Sony Vegas Movie Studio (with DVD Architect) / DVDFlick - If you want to create a DVD, you'll need a way to take that raw footage and put it in DVD format, then burn it to a disc.  If that's the case, you can use DVDFlick which is another open-source software tool.  I had hit-or-miss results with DVDFlick (mostly "banging-my-head-against-a-wall misses") and also decided I wanted to be able to create DVD navigation menus that appear when the disc starts up.  I figured I might also want to be able to edit live-action video for some other projects I'm working on.  For those reasons, I'm currently using Sony Movie Studio which is the mid-range option out of Sony's line of three video editing packages.  It allows you to do the video editing piece and comes with DVD Architect which allows you to create DVD navigation menus.  Amazingly affordable for what it does.
• Kunaki (with PaypalKunaki script) - Once everything is created and ready for sale, I use Kunaki to handle fulfillment.  You just upload your data to them using their free downloadable software and you're all set.  They can even take payments if you want.  However, I decided to use the Paypal-Kunaki Integration Script created by Steven Lohrenz as an alternative.  This allows me to incorporate Kunaki into my own sales pages…works great too.  There's also a version for WorldPay that was just released.  See Steven's site for more info.

 

Popularity: 72% [?]

Another Great Reason to Have Your Own Products

The other day I got a really cool gift from someone I don't even know (yet).  It's the best kind of gift too, a totally unexpected surprise.  It was from Richard Lee, a fellow internet business blogger who I've mentioned a couple of times on this site.  Anyway, it was pretty cool to get that in the mail, though I've been lazy about getting over to the UPS store and it's been sitting there for almost three weeks - and he was probably thinking I was an ungrateful SOB for not at least saying thanks (again, sorry about that Richard and my sincerest thanks for the CD).

Okay, so a couple of points.

First, here's the link to the CD:

Motivation and Distraction Management  (goes straight to the order page, not an affiliate link)

So why do I think you should drop everything and go get a copy of this CD pronto?  Because whenever you get a room full of entrepreneurs or wanna-be entrepreneurs together in a room and ask them what their toughest challenges are, staying focused and actually GETTING THINGS DONE are two things that almost always show up on the list. 

My thinking is that anything that can help you knock those off the "what's-holding-you-back" list is a good thing.  In fact, I got several good ideas I'm going to use when it's time to write the next batch of articles to promote one of my products.  If you do the same, you'll more than make up the cost of the product, making that factor irrelevant.  Of course, that assumes that you have your own product…

You DO have your own product, right?

Well if not, this little story is yet another reason for why you should.  You see, by creating your own product, you now have something of value.  Normally your goal is to exchange that value for money.  But what about offering certain products as bonuses, or even giving something away for free (with good reason, not just willy nilly)?  What about trading your product for someone else's?  I know for a fact this is done, though usually behind the scenes. 

Really the sky's the limit but I want to keep this post short.  The point is that if you're just an affiliate or just building AdSense sites, you don't really have much to offer your peers in the way of a "value exchange".  Not to mention the difference in profit potential. 

Something to think about.

Popularity: 98% [?]