Whether you are just starting up, or have been spinning your wheels at an Internet Marketing business for a while now, it might be in your best interest to read the information that I am about to share with you.

I have been working at my affiliate marketing business since 1999 and have implemented the 3 suggestions that I am about to share with you, with great success. It’s fairly simplistic in theory, yet can boost your career to levels you might not otherwise enjoy.

Read on to see how some easy steps can generate a 5 figure income for you.

1. The Importance of a Professional Work Space

Make sure you have a professional atmosphere for your work space. This will help to eliminate unnecessary distractions that often come with working out of the home, such as kids, pets, and even neighbors who want to chat if they see you coming home, or leaving.

A great way to do that would be to have a separate room as your office. Now, I know that everyone isn’t going to be able to dedicate an entire room, so get creative. I once knew of someone who emptied out their closet and worked in it as a built in work space. Someone else turned their garage into an office.

If you can’t find an area that is shut off from the rest of the house, then choose an area in the home that is not heavy traffic.

Next, find the right home office computer desk and make sure that everyone in the home knows that it’s your work space, not a play area, or gathering spot for everyone to talk.

By allowing yourself to have a professional area, professional results should soon follow.

2. Backlinking Your Way into Success

If you are not sure what backlinking is, then your Internet Marketing business is missing out. Even if you are actively using a backlinking system, you might not be working it to your best advantage.

It’s a combination of numbers and quality that makes or breaks your backlinking attempts. While quantity is important, so is quality. The quality I am speaking of is where you are backlinking to, as well as content you are submitting.

Backlinking is placing a link on another site, which directly links back to your site. If you do it right, you could significantly increase quality traffic right back to you and your business.

The important thing to do when placing backlinks, is to place them on sites that are deemed of high quality by Google, especially since they have this fascinating system to weed out the ‘junk’ from relative and quality material. Article farm sites will do nothing for your business, no matter how many backlinks you have placed on them. Don’t waste your time, or your reputation.

3. Quality Backlinking Categories

When it comes to backlinking, there are basically 4 categories you will find yourself in, from zero backlinks to serious multiples. Keep in mind, that when I am talking about distribution, I am referring to articles that are placed on quality sites, not article farming sites.

A website with zero backlinks isn’t going to do much for you, no matter how much work you put into it, or efforts into making it an attractive site. Without the backlinks, your site will sit there, with very little traffic, and all your hard work in creating the site is for naught.

If you have 5 to 10 articles that are distributed to guest sites, then you have the equivalency of the backroom efforts you originally put into your website. This will generate some traffic if you have placed them on high quality sites, but not anything significant.

Next, we see sites that have placed up to 30 articles on other sites. Part time affiliate marketers can easily do this, with moderate success, as long as they are placed on sites deemed to be of quality by Google. It’s a great way to build a part time income.

Now, we have finally reached the mega category. This is when you have distributed more than 100 articles to high quality sites. By doing this, it allows for a decent full time income. The reason is if you have two links attached to these articles, it’s a minimum of 200 links directly linking back to your site.

While this isn’t typically achieved overnight, it could be done within a year. If you are looking for a full time income, it’s worth the effort you put into it. And, nobody says you have to do it alone.

4. Guest Content and the Key Points to Utilizing It

Finding the proper sites and connecting with them might seem a bit overwhelming at first. However, without making the effort, all your hard work that you put into your business will probably not pay off in the end.
Let’s take a look at the key points in making guest content work for you.

• Google has Eyes. Google has the tools to weed out the farm articles and focus on quality content and sites. They not only can spot it, but they embrace it. So, by distributing quality articles to high quality sites, Google does a lot of the inside work for you.
• Win-Win for Everyone. More and more sites are accepting guest content, because it helps to keep their site current and updated. They get new material for free, and you get backlinks to your site, making everyone happy.
• Check the Guidelines. Before making contact with a site owner, read up on their guidelines for posting guest content. It’s also wise to peruse their site, to see if what you have to offer is pertinent and will flow with the other material.
• Making Contact. When you make contact, suggest a couple topics that you would like to contribute, and why you believe it would enhance their site. Build up a rapport with them by offering quality material and respecting their guidelines and wishes.
• Developing Content. After you have made the contact and have started a working with at least 30 sites, create enough content to submit approximately 10 articles to varying sites each month. This will build up to that mega category I talked about in no time.

If you get up to that status, you could be generating enough income to outsource some of the work for you, with freelance writers, and a staff for submitting the articles. By doing this, it allows you more time to focus on other avenues of income.

5. Tools to Help

I talked briefly on the proper work space but tools can be as equally important, especially if you are reaching for, or have achieved the mega site mentioned above.

Technology has come so far in helping us achieve success from home. Some of the useful tools available today are business video conferencing, iPhones, and portable tablets.

Video conferencing is great for holding meetings without leaving your home. This is especially convenient if the people you are conferencing with live all over.

Smart phones and tablets allow you to easily ‘check in’, no matter where you are.

With rapid changes in technology, I try to stay in touch with what is new and available. I find that it’s important to keep up, so I can make the necessary adjustments to my business to keep it current and successful.

I am interested in hearing what you have to say, or if you have any ideas to share. Please leave your comments in the box below.

About James

James Martell is a full-time affiliate marketer since 1999 and wrote the book on affiliate marketing – Affiliate Marketers Handbook back in 2002 among many other tools to help others make money with affiliate programs.

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Imagine a new company working hard to build its business and client base. This company plans out each message it is going to make public, evaluating whether each one fulfills its purpose in driving the company forward. As it gains customers and momentum, suddenly the business shifts to taking care of existing customers. The company stops creating relevant content and, as a result, misses out on many opportunities for growing the business.

Failing to produce quality content as an established company is a major mistake. Even when you have a reputation as a leader in your field, you need to be focused on maintaining that reputation on an ongoing basis. You want people to respect your company and feel like you are a leader in your field. One of the best ways to do this is by continuing to produce high-quality content, which might include blog posts, emails and white papers. If you can prove that you are knowledgeable in your field and are willing to share that knowledge–even if it doesn’t result in increased sales for you–people will be more likely to trust your word in the future.

Why Bother?

One of the top reasons to focus on content is that it helps solidify your online presence. Google’s recent Panda update to its search engine algorithm puts a significant premium on the quality and depth of content on your site. If you are continually updating it with high-quality content, you will probably maintain your website’s search ranking. When your content quality or quantity drops, so will your ranking.

Respond to a Need

When creating content, don’t just write the first thing that comes to mind, but instead, be intentional. For example, Alert1 offers products like life alert systems that respond to what they see as a need for their consumer base. Likewise, your content should respond to a need that you see in your audience. What is lacking in their knowledge, skills or tool set? You want to equip them with valuable information that will help them excel in making wise decisions or being better informed.

Expect Results

As you produce quality content on a regular basis, you will find that your customers feel more in touch with you, and are more likely to work with you again. You can make yourself and your site valuable assets to consumers by sending regular email updates with information not just about your company but about market trends and things that are relevant to their needs. In addition, quality content will help you continually build your client base as people find you online and come back because they know that you are an expert in the field with valuable contributions to make.

Now is the time to focus on quality content again. Get started by making a blog on your company’s website and updating it with engaging articles several times per week. Create white papers about industry trends and make them available on your website and at your office. And don’t forget the power of email newsletters to keep clients’ loyalty with interesting and informative content on a regular basis.

About Joseph

Joseph Baker has worked in the business world for over 15 years, specifically in management. He has led development and management teams, and implemented budget reductions both professionally and as an independent contractor. In his many years of experience within the business world, Joseph went from acclimating corporate America to social marketing trends to developing marketing/management strategies for small business. In addition, he has led strategic planning and systems of implementation for nine organizations, both public and private, and worked extensively with small businesses.

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The world of business is always changing, particularly for businesses that market themselves directly to consumers. In the coming year we’ll see some old trends gain more steam while new trends pop up to revolutionize the world of online commerce. Below are five trends you can use to take advantage of shifts in consumer culture and technology.

1. Deals

Customers are constantly trying to save money, especially with the economy in its current state. If you want to attract new customers, start offering more deals, whether buy-one-get-one-free offerings, coupons or other promotional offers. There are numerous social coupon companies you can get involved with to reach a wider audience and attract some new regular customers.

2. The Death of Flash

It’s been a long time coming, but Flash will significantly reduce in importance in the coming year, being replaced with HTML5. When Steve Jobs refused to support Flash on the iPhone and Apple’s other mobile devices, he signaled the beginning of the end for the aging technology.

Adobe itself announced that it was ceasing development of Flash for mobile platforms and television and that it would instead focus on HTML5. If you want to stay current and support as many systems as possible, put down the flash and start using the latest and greatest in HTML.

3. SEO vs. Traditional Navigation

There’s evidence that consumers are increasingly using search engines in place of built-in site navigation to find products and services. Though building clear, simple navigation in your site is an important part of search engine optimization (SEO), throughout the next year SEO will actually improve your site navigation. Users will stop searching through your site looking for something and will be more likely to leave if they don’t find what they want quickly. Focus on optimizing your site and individual pages for the services and products you want to highlight.

4. Platform Agnosticism

Building for specific browsers or devices is a dead end. There are far too many combinations of software and hardware to try to please everyone and still maintain your sanity. Users expect that they can visit your site from their Mac at home, Windows PC at work and Android phone on the go without experiencing any loss of quality or usability. Don’t disappoint them by making them jump through hoops to give you their business.

5. Mobile Devices

Speaking of phones, mobile devices are becoming a bigger piece of the ecommerce pie, a trend that’s sure to continue in the coming year. With phones and tablets getting faster and more capable, people are starting to use them for a wider variety of tasks, from reading their favorite blogs to purchasing Christmas gifts.

Make a mobile version of your site to make it easy on your mobile visitors, giving them a clean interface but still allowing them to access every feature possible on your website. If you offer a service, such as online payroll or banking, it’s even more important to allow access to your site to mobile users. When it comes to finances, people want to be able to check their standing quickly and easily. If you come in with a killer interface across all devices, you may see new customers signing up due to your dedication to mobile.

About Joseph

Joseph Baker has worked in the business world for over 15 years, specifically in management. He has led development and management teams, and implemented budget reductions both professionally and as an independent contractor.

In his many years of experience within the business world, Joseph went from acclimating corporate America to social marketing trends to developing marketing/management strategies for small business. In addition, he has led strategic planning and systems of implementation for nine organizations, both public and private, and worked extensively with small businesses.

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As Internet usage continues to evolve at lightning speed, it may be hard to remember the time when maintaining a website and an up-to-date “web presence” was enough for a small business owner to stay relevant and reachable. These days if you want your website to even be seen and visited repeatedly, then it likely means maintaining a blog – it’s almost automatic.

While blogging certainly isn’t new, you may be aware that it can play a vital role in helping a website rank high in web searches – especially these days when having fresh, useful content that is shared via online social networks can give your site an added boost of search visibility (at least in Googleland).

But maintaining a blog is not to easy. Producing content is only the beginning. There is also all that networking, reader engagement, reading and commenting on other blogs, promoting posts, and exchanging links. Even with all the time-saving apps and tools out there for busy business bloggers, blogging can sometimes feel like a big, black hole, siphoning away precious time and energy that you could be using to run the other areas of your business. It is thus little wonder why there are so many over-committed business bloggers out there coming down with a strong case of blogger’s burnout and why so many blogs seem to die out and disappear.

If you need to be blogging for your business and you feel that the blog will soon go the way of a super nova, then you should keep the following points in mind:

1. Before you make any changes to the way your blog is managed, make sure you are clear about your blog-related goals. Is the blog your business or is it a periphery support to improve your website’s performance with the search engines or to funnel traffic to your website where a possible sales conversion can happen? It makes a difference and will significantly affect how you choose to maintain the blog both now and in the future.

2. You could hand over the blog’s content production to another person or group but give the arrangement some thought before plunging into it. Many business bloggers will find themselves in a catch22: If you outsource the role and start relying too much on outside posters, then you risk losing the flavor that makes your blog unique and that can impact your readership and ultimately the overall value of your blog. In many cases, you may need to still “show your face” on the site in order to retain readers. This means continuing to make some regular contributions to the blog, responding to readers’ comments, or posting videos.

As an aside, if you decide to increase the amount of guest posting on the site, you also have to factor in the time (and money) required to sift through, read, and edit guest post submissions, which can get numerous if your blog is popular and ranks well in the searches. You also need to have some clear guest posting guidelines or else you’ll be deluged with sub-par, spun, promotional, or inappropriate “submissions.”

3. You can hire an assistant to manage the technical maintenance of the blog, such as answering inquiries, handling guest posts, and promoting the blog’s content on social networking sites. But make sure your assistant is up to speed on the blog’s guidelines as well as the nature of your business. You should also use extreme caution when handing over any social networking responsibilities to another person since the chance (and potential cost) of a slip-up is pretty high, and any blunders will be attached to you and your business.

In short, blogging for your business does not have to be an overwhelming burden. With a little forethought, you may be able to successfully unload many blog-related responsibilities and avoid all the burnout.

About Gary

Gary Barzel is the manager of business development for Fastupfront. Fastupfront offers merchant cash advances and business loans for existing businesses in need of working capital.

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The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) could spell doom for the Internet – or at least the current state of the Internet in the United States. Businesses large or small will be adversely affected by the proposed federal legislation that could hold them legally accountable for copyright violations made by websites they link to or other businesses with which they’re affiliated.

SOPA was created with noble intentions as a way to combat copyright violations and reduce the amount of piracy on the Internet, but the fact that the federal government is sticking its hand into such a poorly understood area (digital piracy) should set off alarms in every citizen who has even a tenuous grasp on the concept of the Internet.

Giving the federal government and copyright holders the ability to censor one site on the Internet will allow them to censor many more than intended. The legislation is so broadly written that it would be almost impossible to limit the legislation to its intended purposes; in fact, our ability to speak freely and produce our own content could be severely hampered by SOPA.

Why Does SOPA Exist?

SOPA was created to combat the slate of websites promoting piracy and offering copyrighted materials illegally. The proposed bill would give the Department of Justice and copyright holders the ability to shut down or block websites that promote illegal content as well as the power to force ad networks, payment providers (like PayPal, payroll providers and possibly even banks) and Internet Service Providers to cease any business relationships with the alleged offender.

What Will SOPA Do?

If your business is closely tied to the Internet – if you’re an online retailer, for instance – the effect will be more direct and measurable, but others who aren’t as closely tied to the Internet could still feel its effects. Internet companies could be forced to cut ties with other businesses or could be victims of SOPA themselves if major competitors decide to use the powers granted to them by SOPA for their own gains.

If you run a blog, then you could be a clear target since anyone leaving comments could conceivably post a link to a SOPA-violating site. Internet companies across the country could fold either due to a SOPA shutdown or the increased funds required to ensure they are not linking to illicit sites. The act could spell doom for social networking sites like Reddit or Facebook, which relies on community interaction. No one with an online presence or connected with an online business would be safe, it seems.

What Can You Do To Stop SOPA?

If you’re concerned about the direction Congress is heading with SOPA and its counterpart, PIPA, consider contacting your local House Representative and Senate member and letting them know how you feel and why SOPA is a bad idea. Find a site, like Stop American Censorship, where you can find more information such as town halls in your area, ways to lobby Congress, help censoring your own website in protest or more information on SOPA and PIPA.

By equipping yourself with as much information as possible you can be prepared to offer a defense of free speech on the Internet and shoot down the arguments made by big businesses that are only looking out for their profit streams.

About Joseph

Joseph Baker has worked in the business world for over 15 years, specifically in management. He has led development and management teams, and implemented budget reductions both professionally and as an independent contractor.

In his many years of experience within the business world, Joseph went from acclimating corporate America to social marketing trends to developing marketing/management strategies for small business. In addition, he has led strategic planning and systems of implementation for nine organizations, both public and private, and worked extensively with small businesses.

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Our Expand2Web Expert group is a membership group which offers ongoing training and support for web consultants who work with small business owners. This is the seventh installment of a series of member profiles to showcase exactly what you can do when you put your knowledge and training into action.

Julie’s love of the internet and its technology grew from her early experience with network marketing. Back in the 80s, network marketing was a face to face business, where you met or called local people and had real conversations about the products or the business opportunity.

This was also at a time when computers were new and pretty expensive! Julie remembers buying her first PC for about $3,000 and being afraid to use it for fear of losing files or software programs. Her 13 year old sons were not fearful, however, and she quickly learned that computers were not meant to be feared and every mistake could be fixed.

Using her computer and the internet opened up new doors in Julie’s network marketing ventures. She was no longer limited to marketing just in her local area…she was able to reach across the country via email to spread her message and recruit team members.

As her team grew, Julie created a website where she planned to post all the tools she was using and to offer advice to others who wanted to replicate her strategies for running a successful networking marketing business. This was her first foray into web design but it opened up many new learning opportunities.

After spending many months learning as much as possible about web design, local SEO, and niche marketing, Julie opened her doors to other clients who needed this same expertise.

“Since I’m new to the business, I didn’t have a portfolio to show prospective clients. Instead, I put together a video of sites that had been built using the SmallBiz Theme and explained to them that I did not build those sites, but all of them were built using the theme I love and use. When they saw that basically anything can be done with the SmallBiz Theme, they hired me.”

Julie’s networking skills serve her well even with an internet business. She is a member of the Expand2Web Expert Group where she met fellow member Laura Heuer. The two became fast friends and are now partners in QRDivas.com, which has become a one stop source for all your business’ QR code needs.

She also saw a need in giving other network marketers their own website instead of using the standard company-issued website used in many MLM companies. Those cookie cutter websites don’t allow the consultants to perform their own SEO which greatly affects their search engine rankings.

What does Julie find most exciting about having an internet business? The instant gratification of seeing your work in action immediately and the ability to measure your results to see what’s working and what needs improvement.

If you are one of those people stuck in the learning mode, wanting to know everything possible before making the leap to start your business, Julie encourages you to “just start! You don’t have to know everything before you begin. If you just start with one thing and get really good at that, you can add from there.”

You can find Julie sharing her networking and internet marketing expertise at Cloudbloomers.

Julie’s design portfolio includes Cloudbloomers.com, Ambience-Spa.com, QRDivas.com

Take a look around your own community. How many small businesses are in your town or city? Do they all have websites? Your possibilities for growing your web consultant business are vast but if you feel you need some more training, come check out our membership group. You’ll receive regular training sessions and support from our experts and current members.

This is Part 7 of a series about how to create marketing videos for your business using Powerpoint slides. Here are the first six installments:

Part 1, How To Design Powerpoint Slides for Videos
Part 2, How To Choose a Topic for Your Marketing Videos.
Part 3, Adding Animation to Powerpoint Slides
Part 4, Choosing Music or Voice Over for Your Powerpoint video
Part 5, Testing Your Powerpoint Slides with a Slideshow
Part 6, How to Film PowerPoint Slides Using Jing vs. Camtasia

The last step of this PowerPoint video series is about syndicating and marketing your video for others to see. It’s not enough to just post it on your blog and on YouTube. You need to use your keywords carefully and publicize it.

Using Social Media to Publicize Your Video

YouTube is considered the 2nd most popular search engine so creating a YouTube channel and uploading every video is very important. Even more important is using carefully selected keywords in the title and description so your video is found in the search engines.

Also important is placing your website URL at the very beginning of your description. This helps with SEO but also gives the viewer an easy way to find your website for more information.

Obviously, post the video to your website – either in a main post or in the sidebar – and tell all your social media friends about it. Always include the link to your video in your tweets or posts, especially on Facebook so the thumbnail photo appears in the post, sparking peoples’ interest. Start a discussion about your video topic on your Facebook wall and on Twitter. Ask for comments and discussion among your YouTube subscribers.

Syndicating Your Video to Other Video Sites

YouTube is obviously the leader of video sites but consider taking a few minutes to submit to other video sites. Why bother? Submitting to multiple video sites gives you the opportunity to have multiple search engine rankings for the same video, all on one page.

For instance, if you use your keywords and descriptions carefully and have your video posted on your website, YouTube and 5 other video sites, chances are very good that you could get up to 7 search engine listings for that one video and they usually appear very close to each other. Your other option is to just post the video on your website and on YouTube which gives you only 2 search engine listings.

The more listings your videos gets in the search engines, the more people see you as an expert in your field, which in turn will lead to more people visiting your site and possibly buying your products or services.

How To Syndicate To Other Video Sites

There’s great debate in how best to syndicate your videos and to how many sites. There are certain automated tools that will syndicate to multiple video sharing sites all at once but the prices differ dramatically and there’s no way to customize each video for each platform. These tools include Traffic Geyser, Hey! Spread, and Content Buzz.

To submit videos manually, you will first need to setup accounts at the video sharing sites you choose. This takes some time initially but after the set up all that’s involved is logging in to the site, writing your title & description, then uploading the video.

Some of the other popular video sharing sites include: Google Video, Brightcove, Vimeo, Viddler, Blip.tv, Metacafe, Photobucket and Daily Motion. These sites all have a page rank of 6 or higher, which may be good for your rankings (there doesn’t seem to be a definitive answer on that yet). At the very least, you will have large communities exposed to your video and your company branding.

Also do some research for any niche video sharing sites that might apply to your business. Highly targeted viewers will always have a higher conversion rate than just random people seeing your video.

Following the Terms of Service

Do yourself a favor and read the Terms of Service for each of the video sharing sites you want to use. They will have different rules about the size of the videos and also what types of videos are acceptable. I once had a client lose his Blip.tv account because they thought he violated the TOS.

Video marketing can be a very powerful marketing tactic but you definitely need to make a plan to implement it well. Plan out how many videos you want to make each month / quarter / year. Plan out the topics, create your profiles at the various video sharing sites, and mark on your calendar the days you will film each video. Also decide if you want or need to outsource the production and / or syndication portion and how best to publicize your videos.

We’d love to hear your thoughts on video syndication and on this series as a whole so please do leave your comments below!

According to recent findings by Symantec, we’ve experienced a dramatic decline in the amount of email spam sent worldwide since August. Some 200 billion spam emails were sent every day in August, dwindling to 50 billion daily in December.

Spam has long been the bane of legitimate email marketing firms, confusing users and making them less receptive to email newsletters they have intentionally signed up to receive. Email marketing is a fast, low-cost way for small businesses to target specific demographic groups and maintain contact with previous customers. By sending out regular, personalized company updates and helpful content, businesses can build a relationship of trust with consumers.

The sharp decline in spam over previous years has many benefits for various digital marketing companies, giving them some breathing room in their campaigns and making it easier to reach consumers with their messages.

Origins of Spam

In the context of the Internet, spam refers specifically to the use of electronic messaging systems to send unsolicited bulk messages indiscriminately. This is an important distinction that keeps things like email marketing newsletters and unwanted private emails from being considered spam.

The first Internet spam message was sent by Gary Thuerk to 393 people on ARPANET in 1978. From there it spread across the Internet, though the most prevalent form of spam is email spam. In the beginning, spam was mainly used as a way to advertise legitimate products but now it’s being used to scam recipients and infect their computers with viruses in order to add more power to the spammer’s arsenal.

Spam Distribution

In the early days, spam was spread from single computers, though once ISPs began cracking down on the practice, spammers had to find new ways to spread their unwanted messages. As the volume increased it became increasingly difficult for one centralized system to send out spam messages, so more nefarious means began to emerge.

Spammers began employing viruses to infect recipients’ computers, giving them control over the computer’s email programs. This allowed them to send billions of emails from a decentralized network of computers, ensuring that their spam networks could not easily be stopped. One of the largest spam organizations, SpamIt, was recently shut down after one of the central operators of the company, Igor A. Gusev, fled the company due to an investigation by the company’s home government of Russia. SpamIt runs a massive botnet for sending out its unwanted messages and its shutdown dropped email spam messages by about 20% worldwide.

Email Strategies

The definition of spam is narrow, though many people still call legitimate mass emails spam. Due to the prevalence of spam messages, many recipients assume that any form messages or advertisements they receive are unsolicited and report them as such, even if they sign up for the service.

Marketers can overcome this confusion with a few simple strategies. First, they should employ unified branding across their social network accounts, websites, print ads and emails to ensure a strong connection with consumers. If a consumer recognizes the brand immediately, they’re less likely to delete the message.

They should also be made aware that they’re signing up for a newsletter. Sign-ups should not be automatic but the option should be prominently presented so the user knows what to expect.

The “from” field of each email should be instantly recognizable to recipients and the subject line shouldn’t contain any flag words like “deal”, “sale” or “discount” as these words scream spam.

Lastly, personalizing the content of each message will go a long way towards keeping the recipient’s attention and staying out of the SPAM folder. Include the person’s name and indicate that the message is a follow-up to a recent purchase or base the marketing message on their shopping history.

Spam has been steeply declining lately, which makes it easier to stand out as a legitimate marketer, but that doesn’t mean anyone should get lazy and employ shady tactics.

About Joseph

Joseph Baker has worked in the business world for over 15 years, specifically in management. He has led development and management teams, and implemented budget reductions both professionally and as an independent contractor. In his many years of experience within the business world, Joseph went from acclimating corporate America to social marketing trends to developing marketing/management strategies for small business. In addition, he has led strategic planning and systems of implementation for nine organizations, both public and private, and worked extensively with small businesses.

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We are on the lookout for Guest Authors to share their expertise with our readership. For consideration, please visit our Author Guidelines page and submit your ideas to our Content Manager. We look forward to hearing from you!

This is Part 6 of a series about how to create marketing videos for your business using Powerpoint slides. Here are the first five installments:

Part 1, How To Design Powerpoint Slides for Videos
Part 2, How To Choose a Topic for Your Marketing Videos.
Part 3, Adding Animation to Powerpoint Slides
Part 4, Choosing Music or Voice Over for Your Powerpoint video
Part 5, Testing Your Powerpoint Slides with a Slideshow

Now that you’re ready to record your powerpoint slides, you need to decide which recording program fits best into your budget and which features you need the most.

Jing is a free recording program that allows you to shoot short, 5 minute screencast videos. It’s very simple to use and is available for both PC and Mac but there are no editing capabilities. There’s no way to cut out mistakes or to add music (unless you have the music playing in the background but you might lose some sound quality).

You are also limited to recording a maximum of 5 minutes, which is actually helpful. Your audience members are likely to start losing interest after 2-3 minutes so forcing yourself to get your message out in less than 5 minutes is a challenge worth taking.

There is a very affordable paid version of Jing for $14.95 per year, which allows you to film via webcam, produce an Mp4 video file and automatically upload to YouTube.

Camtasia is a full-service recording and editing software which allows you to film, edit and add special effects to your video. There are no time limitations, you can produce your video in many different formats, and you can edit your voice over and/or add music to the video. You can even splice multiple videos or photographs together to create something new. Keep in mind, however, that all these features come with a $299 price tag.

If you’re new to video production, certainly try out Jing first. Once you’re convinced that video marketing will become a part of your marketing plan, then invest in Camtasia.

How to Record with Jing

I’ve had difficulties recording a full-screen video using Jing so first you want to set up the slide show to play in a smaller window instead of full screen.

In Powerpoint, click on the Slide Show tab, then click on Setup Slide Show. In the popup box that appears, choose Browsed by an Individual (window). Also be sure that Using Timings (if present) is checked off.

Play Slide Show in Small Window

Open up Jing. When it opens, it will appear at the top of your screen as a yellow sun. Place your mouse on the yellow dot and click the left icon, which is the Capture command.

Capture a Jing Screenshot Video

Now you’ll see two gold rulers. This is to set up the recording area on your screen. I find them a little clumsy to work with but basically the brightly highlighted part of your screen is what will record. Anything in gray is outside the recording margins. Click the Enter button on your keyboard to set the margins.

Setting the Recording Area with Jing

Note: if you need to adjust these margins after you clicked Enter, just mouse over the outer edges of the margin and you can drag it to any size you want.

Once your recording area is set, you will see a small box with icons, either on the bottom or the top of the recording margins. The one that looks like a video strip is what will start the recording.

Recording Video with Jing

It’s very important that the Powerpoint tabs at the top of your screen are NOT within the recording margins because once you hit that Record Video icon, you have a 3 second pause before the video starts. During this pause is when you need to press the From Beginning slide show button to get that started.

Countdown to Start Recording with Jing

You will also see whether your microphone is muted or turned on. There is a small mic icon next to the video icon in the control bar so if it’s not at the setting you want, simply click that icon to make that change.

Once the countdown is finished, your slideshow should be playing automatically with your rehearsed timings. If you’re narrating the video, begin speaking now.

Next to the control panel is a timer. This is how long you’ve been recording. If you run right up to the 5 minute mark, Jing will stop recording by itself and you can then save the file to your Screencast account. If you finish earlier than 5 minutes, simply press the square stop button on the left. The video will open up in a new window to replay and this is where you can name the file, save it, and upload it to Screencast.

Recording with Camtasia

A very handy feature built in to Camtasia is the ability to start it from Powerpoint. Once your slide show is ready, click the Add Ins tab. Here you will see a Record link with a few different icons. Clicking the red dot will automatically start the Camtasia Recorder.

Start Camtasia from PowerPoint

Or you can open up Camtasia and choose the Record PowerPoint option. Both ways will get you to the same spot.

When the recorder opens up, you will see a highlighted space surrounded by dotted lines. These are your recording margins that you can set to any size by either dragging the margins with your mouse or by entering the dimensions into the size box. You can also choose if you want your webcam on and/or your microphone.

Setting Recording Margins with Camtasia

Start your slide show and then press the red Record button. There is still a countdown before the recording starts and then you will see a green flashing border at each of the four corners of your recording space, indicating that everything inside that space is being recorded.

When you record with Jing, you need to do the voice over at the exact same time. You can also do this with Camtasia but it’s not mandatory. Since Camtasia has editing capabilities, you can record your voice over separately and then simply add that track to your video during the editing process. The same is true for adding music.

You will also see a control panel just outside of the recording area. This allows you to either stop or pause the recording. When you press stop, the video immediately starts to replay and you have the option of saving or deleting it. If you need to make edits, click that option; or if you got it perfect on the first take, click the Produce option.

Saving Your Camtasia Video

If you choose to Edit the video, Camtasia will open up and you will see your video on the screen, ready for it’s music, graphics, voice over, or other special effects. There are really too many things to explain about Camtasia that I can’t possibly cover all of them here.

Editing Your Video with Camtasia

Two notes to remember: when you’re ready to produce your video, choose the Mp4 format unless you have a specific need for a different format. Also, the longer your video is, the longer it will take to render into the finished file.

We’d love to hear about and see your completed PowerPoint videos so please leave us a comment below if you’ve followed the steps of this series. The last installment of this series is how to syndicate your finished video.

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