Pond5: A Great Way To Make Money With Your Video Footage

Pond5 stock footage agency offers you one of the most common and FUN ways to make money with your video footage. While we were at NAB in April, I shot this short video during a visit to Pond5‘s booth. Pond5 is not just one of the largest stock agencies in the world, it is also one that we have used and highly recommend.

In this video I tell you:

• How Pond5 works, i.e., how and when they’ll pay you;
• The difference between selling your footage for editorial or commercial use;
• What you need to have when you shoot stock footage – if you don’t have this, it will limit your income potential BIG time.

Next week, I’ll post a follow up video on using Pond5 for your own videos. So check them out and see what type of footage you have in your library that you can start making some money on!

Don’t Forget the Paper – Why Business Cards Still Matter

(Thanks to Christopher Wallace for today’s guest post.)

There’s a curious phenomenon going around.

Last week at a conference meet-and-greet, I met a man who lives in Phoenix, a city I often visit for my job. We connected on a work level and talked about doing business together soon. He even offered to take me golfing at the exclusive club where he has a membership.

Eventually the conversation came to the point that we exchange cards — except that he didn’t have one.

“I gave them up a few months ago,” he said, explaining that he now utilizes a smartphone app called Bump to trade contact information. I’d heard of it before, but hadn’t yet downloaded it to my Android phone. As it turns out, it’s the 8th most popular free app ever.

Even if you’re not exchanging contact information by bumping phones together, chances are that you’ve sent or received electronic business cards online. This technology is incredibly useful — in a split-second, you’ve got someone’s phone, email, website, and pertinent social media handles stored into your contacts, without having to type anything into your device or computer.

Nevertheless, there’s something deeper that’s missing in these exchanges. Before you considering going completely digital to distribute your contact information, consider these important points:

Paper Helps You To Be Remembered

Follow-up contact is important after making a business connection. Although Facebook has now acquired a chunk of this market share from business cards, even that outlet isn’t as effective. The moment when someone pulls a card from their pocket or wallet and remembers meeting you — oftentimes days or weeks later — is invaluable.

If you immediately join a vast sea of electronic contacts upon meeting someone, chances are you’ll never be thought of again. On the other hand, if later on, they take the time to type your contact info into their phone or computer, you’ve just jumped up on the importance-meter.

There’s a second, on-the-spot advantage to business cards as well. How many times have you been introduced to someone and then launched into a lengthy conversation, only to realize minutes later that you didn’t retain their name?

Break out your card. Chances are, they’ll hand you one too. A quick glance will remind you of their name, personalizing your parting words, instead of leaving you standing there awkwardly when they call you by name and you’re left speechless.

Business Cards are Cheap and Timeless

Pound-for-pound, there’s no marketing tool more cost-efficient than the traditional business card. The concept of a ‘calling card’ dates back to 15th century China, and it’s only been growing since. That’s because business cards can cost just pennies to print.

Compare that to the going rate of a billboard along a major thoroughfare in your town or a 30-second spot on television. Both of these mediums are constantly evolving. Billboards have gone digital, with complicated pay scales. TV ads are being usurped by viral YouTube videos.

It’s hard to keep up. But what’s one of the first things any new business owner does when they’re ready to open up shop? They order business cards. That’s a ‘trend’ that’s not going to fade anytime soon.

Cards Get Right to the Point

Our jobs aren’t as simple as they used to be. Sometimes, they’re best explained by a graphic, a company logo, or a bullet point breakdown of the services you offer. Business cards let you do all of that. Of course, design is of the utmost importance. If no one has ever complimented your business card, it’s likely either boring or unattractive. Think of ways you can convey your strongest attributes and put them on your card. You want to seem memorable, qualified, and professional.

Of course, just because you’re using an old-school form of self-marketing doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t adapt. If you work in a different city every week, do you really need a physical address on your card? Maybe not, but you may find it useful to include your Twitter handle. Perhaps you’re a designer or creative-type — why not use your card to point potential clients to your Pinterest page?

Remember to stick with a standard-sized card. You want to stand out, but not in an annoying, ‘doesn’t-fit-in-your-wallet’ kind of way. White space is your friend. Don’t feel like you have to fill every square millimeter of space. Convey your contact information clearly and attractively, and you’ll have a winner of a card.

I’ll admit it. I downloaded the Bump app to my phone this week. It’s a useful tool, especially for updating the contact info of old friends and acquaintances. Still, I wouldn’t be caught dead at a trade show without a stack of cards.

From billboards to commercials to print ads, traditional media marketing involves somewhat-blindly putting information out there and hoping the right potential customers will see it. With business cards, your information goes straight into the hands of people you’ve already had face-to-face contact with, encouraging them to remember you after you’ve parted ways.

Christopher Wallace is Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Amsterdam Printing, one of the nation’s largest providers of promotional products for businesses large and small. Amsterdam specializes in custom pens and other promotional items such as calendars, laptop bags and T-shirts. Christopher regularly contributes to Promo & Marketing Wall blog.

SteddiePod – A Tripod, Monopod, Jib And Boom All In One? Yes!

I almost walked past the SteddiePod booth at NAB. Lucky for me and them, they had some well trained booth workers who drew me in long enough to get my attention and get me to take a serious look at their product. Meet one of those enthusiastic people in this short video we shot at their booth.

At first I thought, “Oh, great. Another camera stabilizer that doesn’t work well.” Boy, was I wrong! I’ve owned and worked with a number of stabilizers and have never been as excited about a product as I was the SteddiePod. You’ll see why when you watch the video.

(If you aren’t able to see the video, you can go to YouTube and watch it there.)

The SteddiePod has many functions and performs them all well. With its fluid tripod head and three stable legs, it serves as a highly portable tripod. It works great as a handheld stabilizer and you can quickly get high, stable shots when extended to its full 77 inch height. It serves well as a handheld  jib arm. It does so much yet only weighs a little over 5 pounds.

Seriously, if you are wanting some smooth moving camera shots, the SteddiePod should be at the top of  your wish list. It is on mine.

Recommendations:

Barber Tech SP1SH STEDDIEPOD Camera Stabilizer - $449 (On sale at B&H)

Target Marketing – Get Your Marketing On Target – For Free

I try to keep my magazine subscriptions down to a minimum because I don’t have time to read them all and I hate to waste paper.  The only two magazines I routinely read cover-to-cover are National Geographic and Target Marketing. National Geographic’s editorial and photo quality is second to none and I enjoy reading that one purely for entertainment. Target Marketing helps me keep up with trends in both online and offline marketing.

Target Marketing covers a wide range of topics that are relevant to any business, whether you are retail, online, business-to-business or business-to-consumer. For example, the May issue has articles on social marketing strategies (you have to be living in a cave to not realize how important that is becoming), how to use QR codes (something I’m experimenting with on a festival I promote), is direct mail dead (no, it isn’t) and several more subjects that are useful in my businesses.I learn a lot just reading the ads and checking out the advertisers. Want to know more about mailing list rentals, copy writing, accepting payments online, printing? It’s all in there. Their website is top notch and a good example of how to design a website that works.

Although it says $10 on the cover, a subscription to Target Marketing is free, so you have no excuse for not taking my advice and subscribing. Go to Target Marketing’s subscription page to get your subscription today. You can thank me later.

Livestreaming From Anywhere – Livestream Introduces The Broadcaster

Livestreaming from anywhere…now it’s easier than ever to reach your audience.

A couple of years ago we were asked to shoot a business seminar and stream it live to make it available to a wider audience for a fee. We frankly didn’t know a thing about livestreaming so we went online, found several resources, asked questions and came to the conclusion that we didn’t want to do it.  The technology was daunting and there were so many ways that things could go wrong and we couldn’t be guaranteed that we’d even have a strong, consistent internet connection at the venue.

I realized how much things have changed when we saw the Livestream Broadcaster at NAB. This compact and amazing piece of hardware is smaller than a paperback book and weighs just 5 ounces, yet it gives anyone with a videocamera that has an HDMI out  (many cameras, like our Canon Vixias have this) the ability to stream live HD video to the internet without the need for a PC. That last sentence bears repeating: livestreaming video without needing a PC. This little bugger has built-in wireless 802.11b/g/n 2.4 Ghz and USB 3G/4G connectivity. You can mount it via hot shoe to a camera and you have a complete live broadcasting solution. Amazing.

The Livestream Broadcaster can be connected via HDMI to a single camera or to multiple cameras running through a switcher. The Livestream Broadcaster will encode the video in real-time in high quality H.264 and AAC audio at up to 2.3 Mbps. It will then stream it via Wi-Fi or a USB 3G/4G wireless modem (modem not included). Control the Livestream Broadcaster on the device itself or … get this … remotely from anywhere in the world via the Livestream website or via the Livestream for Producers iphone app.

Of course this requires a Livestream Producer Account, which costs $45 per month for unlimited, ad-free streaming. For those of you who offer pay-per-view livestreams of your events, you can see how this cost is very reasonable in exchange for not only getting the ability to do an event from anywhere but the reliability of deliverability to your paid viewers.

The Livestream Broadcaster costs $495 and ships by May 31, 2012. It includes a quick start guide, 12” HDMI to mini HDMI cable, 12” Ethernet cable, 3 AA batteriees, 12V DC power adapter with international attachments, ccable pouch and camera shoe mount. And the little critter is pretty darn attractive in it’s red housing with blue OLED display. Can it get any better?

So now that live streaming isn’t such a technological challenge nor is it excessively expensive, can you think of ways you can incorporate live streaming into your business? We’d like to hear from you about that.

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