For more information on using Camtasia software, please check out our video creation products available at: http://www.learncamtasia.com/purchase-courses/

You can do all that by yourself…OR…you can leverage Joint Venture (JV) partners and make it happen in a hurry. That’s what I do!

The best JV relationships I have all started as a result of meeting people in person. Here are some examples:

Jeff Mills Boost Seminar (Spring 2010): I met marketer & writer extraordinaire Jason Fladlien. I live about 30 minutes from the venue so I drove in for each day of the event. This particular morning, Jason was giving his presentation (that I said I would be there for) but I got held up and had to watch from home of Jeff’s excellent Live Seminar Video feed.

And when Jason gave me a shout-out from the stage and found out I wasn’t there…check out what he says! OMG.

I also re-connected with some old friends like Susan Schmidt and Larry Loik (who was also presenting). He gives me a nice mention from the stage as well:

The point being: Meeting brilliant, well-connected, extremely successful folks and becoming friends and JV partners rocks!

Having them call you out from a room full of other marketers (and a world-wide video broadcast audience)?

Priceless!

I’ll be attending Jeff Mills last Boost Seminar on Oct 22-24, 2010 in Minneapolis, MN

Ticket prices are $97 for the entire 3 days, and the price DOUBLES on Friday, October 1. So you’ll want to take action today and claim your ticket by clicking HERE.

Some of the amazing speakers coming:

• Rick Raddatz (an ex-Microsoft guy like me! Can’t wait to meet him!)
• Mike Hill (met him when I spoke at Ken McCarthy’s System Seminar in 2008)
• Vince Tan
• Daven Michaels
• Paul Lemberg of StomperNet fame
• and others!

Hey…if you can make it, track me down and I’ll buy you dinner!

GET…TO…LIVE…EVENTS!!

See you there?

Lon

Adding a Unique Selling Proposition

So my job this week is to think about the various benefits our course has over any other course that exists and why people should choose to take it versus taking a live on-site Camtasia class, purchasing a book on Camtasia or just searching for some YouTube Videos on screencasting. As you have your own video course completed you will need to start thinking about what is special about your course.  You have to think about what makes your product unique in the market place and why  your target market would want to spend their hard earned money on it, rather than use that money to buy some competitor’s course or even spend it on some new furniture.

Start Brainstorming

So start brainstorming what makes your course different. If it is exactly like someone else’s course you best hope yours is cheaper. So, after a little brainstorming  today I came up with a some features of our course that set us apart from our competition 

• Videos that can be watched over and over when you are ready to learn the material
• Twice Weekly live Webinar sessions with the instructors (Lon and I) to go over materials
• Accountability and mastermind sessions to keep students on track and focused on productivity 
• Community forum to submit your videos for critique
• Opportunity to meet other students via the social network site for joint venture projects
• Additional Videos showing the exact step by step procedures for how to produce a marketing or tutorial video
• Videos, Templates and files to help students create autorun CDs and DVDs

Now of course, I have to take time to translate those into the benefits students will receive when they use those features such as

• Less frustration in trying to figure out things on their own
• Faster video creation
• Higher quality videos
• Saving time trying to research the answers to their questions
• Live people to bounce ideas off of
• Shortcuts for less stress

etc. etc. I think you get the point.

Translating into Copy

Then you need to take all those items and make them into cool looking copy.  This is always the hard part for me because I feel like I border on the edge of being fake when I take my real honest words and spice them all up.  But what you are really doing is generating excitement for your product. If you can just write the way you talk when you are describing things to someone else on the phone and you get all excited about it it should come out just fine.  i got a lot of my ideas for writing copy from this salesflow document from the Conversion Doctor.

For example something like this (these are not really going on our salespage they are just examples).

• Get instant download access to the exact script template we use to create storyboards for videos for our top clients… to keep them hiring from us over and over again!
• How xxxxxxx not only records 10 videos in a day, they process and upload those videos in one step! You’ll find out exactly how to duplicate our success… and you’ll NEVER go back to the old way ever again
• One of a kind, never before released xxxxxxx  to post videos customized for your members, automatically add your video to your comments and posts, and more!
  Lookup swift codes United Kingdom banks

See how each bullet looks like something fun and exciting? You don’t want your salespages to be all boring or no one is going to read them. They should remind you a little of the infomercials you see late at night where it looks like the salesperson is on their tenth cup of coffee.

Add Some Case Studies

Testimonials are great and all but if you really want more people to buy your course you need to add a few student case studies. I am currently tracking down a few of our Camtasia training students to see what they have created as a result of taking our training. If you have some former students that you have coached or trained live you might be able to see if they have created any products or made changes to their business as a result of your course. This is more valuable proof than just having students say you are a great teacher or they liked the course. Prospective students want to see what others have actually done with the information. During our Camtasia Live sessions I am spending time doing some serious motivational coaching with our students to get them off their booties to start creating those videos they have been saying they want to do. I want to have tons of case studies to add to our salespage over the next year.

If you want to see the before and after you can look at our current salespage here LearnCamtasia.com then come back to look at it in about a week when I have spiced it up and let me know what you think.

Best,

Why?

Several reasons:

1. Trying to record a vocal narration and record video footage at the same time leads to mistakes and extra editing.
2. I can take a recorded audio source file and drop it into Audacity to remove noise, equalize, fix volume levels, etc. to end up with a clean audio track.
3. It’s easy to snip out big mistakes OR take advantage of the subject of this QuickTip which is:

Record Vocal Takes in 3’s

There are times when creating and using a script are a really good idea.

For example, when crafting an important sales message  you want to treat your video script like “sales copy” and using a script let’s you craft that message as such.

But what you DON’T want is to sound like you’re reading from a script!

Solution?

As you record your audio, try doing multiple “takes” one right after the other and what you’ll probably find is that the second or third time you say a written passage out loud, it sounds more “natural”.

Watch this short clip of how the pros do a voice-over of a script and you’ll see what I mean:

Did you notice how several of the voice actors would pause…and then pull another shot at the line…and maybe even another try?

Did you also notice a difference in the dynamic of what each take sounded like? A different inflection leading to a different emotion, a subtle change that changes the feeling, etc.?

Why do them one right after another?

Because when you do…it’s stupid simple to listen to each one…pick the best – and snip the rest!

Now, you obviously don’t need to do this ALL the time. But I find it really helps especially when recording from a script where you can easily come off sounding like you’re reading…

To find out more and the step-by-step tutorials on exactly how to do this, check out the full Learn Camtasia 7 Course
HERE.

I love the creative use of “stop-motion” video frames and interesting backgrounds like the hand-drawn video monitor that serves as a display for screen capture content.

Oh ya…and it’s a really good overview as well!

Nice job Techsmith!

In version 6, to add custom images to your videos, you had to add something called a Custom Callout (in a somewhat complicated procedure) before you could add them to your timeline.

In Camtasia 7…it’s sublimely simple!! Check it out:

I totally LOVE this new feature!

Seriously, this could be worth the price of upgrading alone.

Oh…and this is a very small taste of the kind of content in the new, soon-to-be-released Learn Camtasia 7 Training Course. Stay tuned!

Lon

since 2002 and I’ve searched over the years for a better video screen capture tool. Haven’t found one yet…

Today, Techsmith has released Camtasia version 7 and these are my initial impressions after having been testing out the software for a couple of weeks with a pre-launch evaluation copy from Betsy Weber.

I’ll keep this short for now and give you some highlights. Of course, I’ll have more in-depth tutorials on the way!

Here’s a little preview video I did using the Search Story concept to show off a few of the features:

What’s New in Camtasia 7?

1. A New Look

The first thing you’ll notice is a sporty new look in Camtasia Studio.

I’ll be honest with ya…it does take a little getting used to if you’re a seasoned Camtasia user. It is, after all, a major interface change.

That being said, I’m finding it to be a well layed out structure as I work with it more & more. Especially as it incorporates some of the new features and how you access them.

Thumbs Up

2. Camtasia Library

One of the most useful things is a new Library feature that let’s you store all of your video elements (music, custom callouts, sound effects, video backgrounds, etc.) in one place! Nice…

One click access to all this stuff is useful enough but it gets even better…

You can also highlight any content on the timeline and right-click to ADD it to your library making it ready for future use! This is especially handy for Title clips & Splash Intros or anything else you might want to “re-use” in future projects with a simple drag-n-drop.

I like the fact that they have include some royalty free music tracks to use and some wicked cool new animated backgrounds, Title clips, and lower third “sets’” from folks like Digital Juice that you can use!

And also, you can share libraries with others.

Techsmith is providing some Library additions that you can grab:

Camtasia Studio Library Assets

Two Thumbs Up!

3. New Callouts

Camtasia 7 has some upgrades & additions to it’s Callouts. The legacy ones are all there but a new batch of shapes have a much nicer, less cheezy look and Effects like transparency, new Styles with greater control over how they look.

A few new “specialty” Callouts are also available:

Sketch Motion Callouts

I love these! They are animated callouts that you can use that “draw” themselves!

It’s like you have a pen (your choice of color, thickness, etc.) and you can have a circle or oval, square or rectangle, or arrows drawn in the video in real-time to highlight an area. I also like the “scribble it out” one.

Keystroke Callouts

These let you show viewers exactly what keystrokes you used and when you used them. I haven’t played with this one enough to decide if it’s useful but you can also just insert a “Control-C, or “ALT-D”, etc. image to indicate keystrokes for your viewer.

Two Thumbs Up!

4. Cursor Effects

This I find to be wicked interesting. In previous versions, you could add a little highlight, or rings when clicked, etc. to your cursor when recording.

Now, as long as you save your recording as a CAMREC file, you can add or modify all those attention-drawing items (and more) at editing time!

Included are also the long awaited “spotlight” & “magnify” effects and a cool new “warp” effect. You can also just make your cursor bigger!

No more having these effects burned directly into your recording. Add or change them while you edit. Nice!

Two Thumbs Up!

5. Audio Enhancements

OK…I’ve always had extremely mixed feelings about Camtasia’s “Audio Enhancements” like Noise Removal, Volume-Leveling, etc. More on that in a minute…

New to this version is the ability to get some nice control over fading in and fading out and volume levels for an audio track.

If you are adding intro / outro music or want a music track playing throughout your video but still be talking over it? This is awesome!

That’s the good news…

 Three Thumbs Up!

Now…the BAD news:

The other audio enhancements like noise removal and volume level?

Still mess with EVERY AUDIO TRACK!?!? OMG!!! Ouch…

How can I use this neat feature to get my intro music just right…and then have it basically destroyed if I need to level the volume of my narration??? FAIL.

The workaround is to do  noise & volume stuff first, render out to AVI and the pull it back into Camtasia…ugly.

Ya…oh well.

6. Widescreen Presets

As you saw in the video above, there are now more presets available including new widescreen dimension settings. This is becoming increasingly important for certain viewing devices and for uploading to YouTube.

7. YouTube Integration

This feature is now improved from previous versions. Basically, you can now connect directly to YouTube at production time. It works as a preset so…you can’t really change any of the quality settings.

I don’t know…not very useful in my opinion but for those looking for “easy” I guess it’s OK.

No Thumb Opinion…yet.

8. Improved Recording Engine

This is really kinda sweet. Under the covers, Camtasia now records your content much better and faster. On XP machines you’ll notice a significant difference in the speed at which it captures and records motion on your screen.

Vista and Windows 7 users will see upwards of a 40-50% improvement in capture frame rate.

If you are recording videos playing in your browser, Flash animations, full screen motion, stuff like that…this is a big enhancement!

Worth the Upgrade?

The pricing for Camtasia Studio 7 is the same as previous versions and the upgrade bill is still $149.

When you look at the performance improvement, new features and gadgets I think an upgrade is a reasonable consideration.

I think most users will have to weigh in the factor of a bit of a learning curve since there is a new interface (I’m still getting used to how you “select” with the new Timleline Playhead…) and my feeling is that…

As with Camtasia 6 when it first came out…lots of users will take a wait-and-see stance.

You can download the 30-day free trial and check it out for yourself:

Camtasia 30-day Free Trial

This is a fully functioning trial. You can install it and run version 7 right along with any previous versions you have installed…it doesn’t write over your current installations.

Love to hear what YOU think!

Lon

Ya know, images and visual "elements" are a big part of what makes a Camtasia video captivating and not…well…boring! Here’s a cool little resource I found and have used in several videos to add a bit of "Huh?"

Don’t be fooled by the somewhat "cheesy" nature of some of these or the fact that it seems like the site is geared to teenagers.

It’s the creative nature of the nifty things we can make that’s interesting here:

CLICK to Watch
Duration: 6 minutes

Make your own at: ImageChef.com

Be sure to let us know what you cook up!

Enjoy

 
CLICK to Watch
Duration: 21 minutes

At first, I thought the green highlight was kinda cool but if you want to remove it from your Camtasia videos and didn’t know how to do that?

Here ya go!

It’s super simple…

Interested in Learning Camtasia FAST Lookup swift codes United Kingdom banks ? Be sure to click HERE to check out the full Learn Camtasia Course! Complete instruction from Planning to Marketing Personal coaching Live online twice a week Cool bonuses!

Love to hear your feedback so leave a comment below.

Lon

New Camtasia 7 Callouts

Adding callouts to your videos is always a quick & easy way to add visual interest or emphasis to a talking point.

Camtasia 7 has some new callout styles and, even cooler, something called sketch motion callouts. These are “animated” callouts you can drop in that will “draw” themselves into the video.

Nice…

Camtasia 7 Cursor Effects

In Camtasia version 7 you will be able to help your viewer follow along better by editing the mouse pointer to enlarge it, creating a spotlight, and visual “clicks”.

“But Lon…we could do that in Camtasia 6!”

Ya…but not on the fly during the editing process! Ya.

Plus…there are new and much cooler effects (a spotlight and better looking “click” highlights) and a Cursor Track added to the timeline for more control over the effects.

Stay tuned!

Lon