This month's cover story in Inc. Magazine is about how the Ford Model agency has become a runaway hit on YouTube. They started producing short "how to" videos of models applying make-up, cooking, putting together outfits and doing other things that gorgeous, thin creatures do with their spare time, and it's caught on like wild fire with young girls (and I'm sure guys of all ages). So now the modeling agency not only gets to extend their brand into a new medium, but they're also accepting juicy sponsorships from manufacturers, so they're making money from it too. Which is definitely something to think about if you have a product or service that might go well with a tutorial (for more ideas on how to use video for your business see Gary Vaynerchuck's Wine Library, plus tips on how to create buzz in "Wine and Web 2.0?").
I decided to test the waters by acting/directing/producing my own video, "Me 'n My PDA" (regrettably too late for entry into this Sunday's Oscars...but maybe next year!), to show off my brand spanking new HTC Touch smartphone, which I finally purchased after doing a little background research (see all the options I looked at on my recent post, Mobile Means of Communications). The HTC Touch offered the best features, including the touch screen (like the Apple iPhone), simple software (MS Windows), a camera, a decent screen and a pretty good price.
I used my web cam - which nowadays comes built in to many PC's - to record the 3-minute clip. My digital camera also has video capabilities - as does my new PDA (this will come in handy when acting/directing/producing the "sequel"). Since it was a simple script I didn't need to edit it (phew!), but for more ambitious projects I'm teaching myself how to use Movie Maker, which was part of the MS Office bundle that came with my computer.
The beauty of video is that it gets better ranking on search engines than regular text content might, so you'll want to post it on a video hosting site, like YouTube. I'm testing out Viddler based on this review from Webware.com, but you may want to download it to more than one site. Meanwhile over at Mashup.com they've done an amazingly thorough job of compiling a list of links any novice or experienced web videographer (in other words, artist/director/producer, like myself) would want to know: The Video Toolbox: 150+ Online Video Tools and Resources.
Check out my "masterpiece" below and let me know what you think (but please disregard that silly expression on my face!).
Friday, February 22, 2008
Quicks way to add video to your website
Saturday, February 9, 2008
Mobile Means of Communication
"Don't get caught in analysis/paralysis", was the advice my fellow blogger Lena West gave me recently when I mentioned I'd been stuck choosing between all the different kinds of PDAs and smartphones available. Lena, who writes the Tech Forward blog at Entrepreneur.com, suggested narrowing it down to the 2 or 3 main features that are most important - the "deal breakers" as she calls them.
Now that I have my own business I find myself away from my computer a lot, so I regularly go through "email withdrawal". That means a plan with unlimited internet is a must. I also want to be able to text quickly, so I'd like a full qwerty board (the one with all the keys in it, as opposed to having 2-3 letters in each key). The screen should have a nice size, especially now that my eyes ain't what they used to be. I'm often kicking myself for not remembering to bring my camera to events, so I'd like that built-in to the phone. Other little extras that would be nice are a media player, since I totally skipped the iPod craze and don't own one (that means it needs to come with a decent amount of memory to store the music), and an organizer with a phone book, calculator, calendar and stopwatch. Less important to me are things like Bluetooth, for using a wireless headset; GPS, for finding yourself!; or speakerphone capabilities.
After a little research I narrowed it down to the 4 choices you see below. To help me see things clearly I created a PDA comparison table, which you can click here to see. Keep in mind that these are only online prices - the brick and mortar stores may offer different/better deals so I would check with them as well.
Since the cost varies depending on the service plans and the phones, I totaled up the expenses for the first year, to even things out. Believe it or not the best prices were generally on Amazon.com (free Blackberry Curve if you sign up to a two year plan!), so I put direct links to their specific pages next to the pictures below.
Apple iPhone
To start out slowly I chose the packages with lowest number of minutes and texting, but they all have unlimited internet. I didn't include Verizon because their plans exclude Puerto Rico so that would mean extra roaming charges for me and who needs that. Also T-Mobile's price is less for me because they are my current carrier, so I qualify for a discount.
In the end I'm leaning towards the HTC Touch, only because it's got all the bells and whistles I want plus it's so similar to the iPhone and it actually has the lowest total cost. I'll let you know when I take the plunge...!
For more on smart phones and PDA's, read Entrepreneur Magazine's review in this month's issue: Pack a Punch.
Have you had good luck/bad luck with your portable computing devices? Please share!
