Free Marketing: 101 Low and No-Cost Ways to Grow Your Business, Online and Off

CHAPTER 37

ESSENTIAL VIDEO MARKETING TOOLS

The tools and software that make using video increasingly simple will undoubtedly continue to get better. As of this writing I have some favorites, but as with all technology these recommendations could be very out of date within a short time. The resource page of this book will contain up-to-date links and advice as well, to help you make video as simple and as effective as possible.

Some basic tools to help you get started with online video:

• Kodak Zi8 camera or a Flip video camera (or your cell phone).
• The Kodak Zi8 is currently one of my favorites. It's one of those tiny video cameras with the added benefit of an external mic jack that creates great audio. I recently won a couple of these and I can say they are fantastic. My kids are taking great videos and posting them easily to YouTube (my 10-year-old has it down). The price is coming down on all-powerful video equipment, and even cell phones are becoming capable of capturing good videos.
• Sony Vegas Software. This software is currently the standard for video editing for many online marketers. Find a teenager to do the editing for you ... they know how to do this stuff.
• YouTube, Viddler, EZS3.com, and Easy Video Player.
• The sites YouTube, Viddler, and Vimeo are all options for hosting and playing your videos. These are public access services where random viewers are likely to stumble upon your content.
• For larger videos, many marketers (including me) are starting to use EZS3.com's ...