Great Job By David Tonight!
Fantastic job by David Rose from MagneTVideo.com tonight at our Internet Marketing Meetup on video marketing.

Video Secrets Meeting Summary on ScentTrail

Summary of  tonight’s MEETUP at Atlantic BT is on ScentTrail. Will post a link to David’s presentation.

Martin’s Story
Imagine you are on a beach. Suddenly water moves swiftly away. Fish flop and dance naked in early morning sun. “Tsunami,” we think involuntarily. We live online, via CNN and in a global village so we know a big wave is coming. Internet marketers stand on just such a beach. We face a coming web video marketing Tsunami.

“This is better,” I thought before testing a 3 minute video on the home page of the $6M site I managed as a Director of Ecommerce (before joining Atlantic BT as Director Marketing). “Run it,” I said watching our metrics nervously. Never test in production without a B option you can easily roll back too. Good news this day was I’d learned the “rollback” lesson. In four hours site conversions tanked by a full point (about $3K). “Kill it,” was my next command before the site walked into a end of summer weekend with such a conversion train wreck.

“What happened,” my boss asked me. Ever wish you could jump in a time machine and go back a few years traveling with the knowledge you have now to just such a moment? Here is what I know now that would have helped then:

• Read vs. Video = VIDEO
• 3 Minutes is an eternity online (1 minute or less now).
• Video on the home page is TOUGH (lots of views but converting traffic can easily be lost never to be heard from or converted again)
• Too polished doesn’t work well online – rough edges establish immediacy, authenticity and authority (strangely enough)
• Videos create VERY HOT spots immediately below them, so include a Call To Action (CTA) in the video that mirrors a CTA immediately below the video (or, if video is on product page keep it far enough away from the MAGIC BUY button as to NOT create confusion)
• Videos are EMOTIONAL and that is a good thing
• Videos “SEO” well, pop nice on YouTube, can spring legs and walk around the web (via embed codes) and are easier to get top listing on than text (LOTS EASIER but getting harder as I write this)

This list could get longer, but you get the idea. A quick note about video and SEO. Spiders can’t “see” video so tagging, linking and surrounding text can be very important. I learned another video SEO secret today from David but won’t spoil his January 24th presentation. Want to know a very cool video SEO secret that is EASY and POWERFUL you will need to join us for pizza in a few weeks.

What I know without any doubt is VIDEO is a powerful Internet marketing tool. Powerful enough Atlantic BT is working with David Rose and MagneTVideo.com to learn how to provide video marketing services. The end of my story is we finally figured out a winning video formula (less than 2 minutes, on the product page, make the product the hero and pull in wisdom of crowds reviews). Pays to have a good team, a patient and trusting boss and a B option.

The net of our tests was conversions on product pages with videos quadrupled. New products already on a roll set new records. Older products starting to wane got a new lease on life. How many failures before finding the winning formula? My team created about ten different videos before we found the winner. Who has that kind of time confronted with social search, the real time web and Internet marketing as we know it today? A: No one, thus asking David and MagneTVideo to share “inside baseball” secrets so Atlantic BT can offer easy to buy, effective web video marketing.

There are many great video marketing providers including friends at Atlantic Creative, Big Fat Film and RHEDPixel (they did the work mentioned here). I also have a good friend who runs a cool company called mailVU in Charlotte. We are working with David and MagneTVideo to combine Atlantic BT’s web development and Internet marketing power, learn cool video marketing secrets to share with customers and potential customers and surf the monster video marketing wave coming in the web’s direction.

Hope you can join us for our monthly Internet Marketing Relativity Meetup on Tuesday, January 24 (Join Raleigh Internet Marketing Meetup Here).

Martin

PS. Lifted image at the top from an excellent article “Why Use Video Marketing” by Sneh on Buzzom.com.

Apple iPad (source: Apple)

It may not have the best name, but the Apple iPad has generated some intense buzz lately. Mobile Internet traffic on the iPad has surged so fast that it has already jumped ahead of Blackberry and Android in Internet usage (source: Net Applications). Games, apps, and even books are being bought at a rapid pace. I have had my iPad for awhile now and have had the chance to mess with all of its features. It’s hard not to like the iPad. By no means is it perfect, but if we take a step back and look at it from a global perspective, the iPad could truly impact mass media as we know it.

Everything is going digital these days. Thanks to devices such as Amazon’s Kindle and Barnes & Noble’s Nook, books and publications are the latest to convert to a digital format. I will briefly explain how the iPad handles media from five different industries and more importantly, how it may potentially impact these industries for the future.

Music

Buying music on the iPad is no different from buying it on an iPhone, or even a personal computer for that matter. Thanks to the iPad’s larger screen, Apple is able to closely resemble the shopping experience that you would typically find on a desktop computer. More screen means more room to advertise and promote featured items.

Listening to music on the iPad is enjoyable with its ample quality speakers. Of course, don’t expect the iPad to replace your surround sound system anytime soon.

Verdict: The iPad’s storage limitations are a big downer, but the quality of the sound and the usability of the iTunes music store is a breeze with its larger screen. I wouldn’t expect the music industry to alter itself because of the iPad anytime soon.

Impact: Moderately Low

TV, Film & Video

Netflix streams videos to the iPad

I have to admit, I am a big fan of the DVR. However, there are times when I either forget or cannot record my shows and watch them whenever I feel like it. That is why I have been addicted to going online to watch them. Most networks publish their recent episodes within 24 hours, available in high resolution. The iPad certainly takes advantage of streaming your favorite TV and film videos. Apps such as Netflix and ABC make watching your favorites a breeze.

Browsing and purchasing videos through iTunes is just as easy as buying music on the iPad. But I’m putting my bets on free streaming video to be successful with the iPad.

Verdict: The high resolution screen and ample audio quality make watching videos enjoyable. The lack of Flash certainly restricts the amount of content available to users, but I think that limitation is will soon be non-existent. Expect the TV and Film industries to provide greater access and more intuitive, engaging ways for users to watch their content.

Impact: Extremely High

Web

One of the most popular features of the iPhone is the ability to browse the web with a similar experience to a desktop computer. The problem the iPhone had was that websites would get scaled down beyond the point of legibility. This not only used more bandwidth but also frustrated users. Websites either got optimized for the iPhone or ignored the problem entirely.

Nike optimized their flash-heavy site to HTML5 standards, specifically for the iPad (source: Apple)

The iPad’s larger screen reduces the amount of scaling that websites had to endure. This nearly eliminated the legibility issue that the iPhone had with most websites. Apple has made it clear that they will not allow support for Flash on the iPad. While there are plenty of websites that use flash, they will need to find alternatives if they want their content to display on the iPad.

The real question that comes to my mind is at what point do we [as web designers] allow the device to render websites as it sees fit? There were a great number of websites that were optimized for the iPhone. But should we ignore optimization since the iPad has that larger screen? Or should we take the opportunity and make it just as unique as every other device? Sites that have taken the time to get up to current standards for the iPad have been generously promoted on Apple’s website.

Consumers who are used to browsing the web on the iPhone will find no trouble doing the same on the iPad. For newbies, I think they will.

Verdict: The larger screen is greatly appreciated when browsing the web. Some will argue over the lack of Flash, but I find it outdated, too restricted, and sluggish to be beneficial on mobile devices. Fluid websites really take advantage of the two orientations that the iPad has available. The web industry will certainly have an opportunity – and in my recommendation should act upon – to provide a richer experience on the web with technologies such as HTML5, CSS3, and Javascript.

Impact: Moderately High

Books

Thanks to the Amazon Kindle, e-book readers have been populating the markets as of late. I can carry around all of my books in a single device. What the iPad does that other e-book readers don’t is display books in color. It will only be a matter of time before other devices like the Kindle and Nook release a color version, but for the time being the iPad shows books in their true form.

Some may argue that the iPad will cause eye strain due to the fact that it is backlit, whereas the Kindle and other e-book readers use e-ink technology. Other than the usual amount of eye strain I get from looking at monitors all day, I haven’t experienced any additional discomfort due to reading books on the iPad.

The iBook store is a breeze to find books and even download samples. For the most part, you’ll find discounts on e-books compared to their printed version. The iPad allows the books to be read in two orientations: 1 page at a time (portrait) or 2 page spread (landscape).

Book publishers will have a larger market to target to and they should be able to take some risks due to the lower costs associated with digital books distribution.

Verdict: The iBook store is visually impressive and I believe will be a big hit for those who read popular books. The current library is large, but not large enough. Once other publishers jump onboard (and trust me, they will), I think reading books on the iPad will become second nature. No more paperbacks! This could potentially be huge for higher education.

Impact: Moderately High

Magazines & Newspapers

Wired Magazine will set the standard for e-publications (source: Wired.com)

I will admit, one of the reasons that I decided to even look at the iPad in the store was the demo that Wired Magazine posted online awhile back on their app for the iPad. They took their printed publication (which is amazing in itself) and created an iPad app that not only showed their publications, but showed them in an interactive way that will, in my opinion, revolutionize digital publications.

Newspapers, such as The New York Times and USA Today, have shown that the news can be interesting and interactive! The large screen size of the iPad allows publications to use a more traditional print layout, but at the same time give it interactivity.

Verdict: Depending on how publishers approach the iPad will determine if this media is ready to go digital mainstream. Some of the magazines are charging premiums for their digital editions, which may sway people elsewhere. Early apps show promise of what could be to come in the future. It may be too early to tell, but there is a huge demand for this media to go digital.

Impact: Extremely High

So What Do You Think?

Okay, so I’ve given my thoughts on how the iPad could potentially impact mass media. What are your thoughts on the iPad? Is it setting the standard for digital media? I’d like to hear from you.

It seems like there are thousands of SEO checklists that can be extremely useful when analyzing a website.  However, some are more complete than others.  Here is a list of the best SEO checklists available today.

• The Best Damn Web Marketing Checklist, Period!
• SEO Checklist by SEO Design Solutions
• 15 Minute SEO List
• The Beginners Checklist to Small Business SEO
• SEO Checklist by RankPage SEO
• 25 E-commerce SEO Tips

SEO Checklists (Video)

SEOmoz Whiteboard Friday-SEO Site Reviews Step-by-Step

SEO Checklist with Vanessa Fox

More WebProNews Videos

Website Checklist with Jill Whalen

SEO Checklist – SEO Fundamentals by iWeb Media

SEO Checklists (Graphic)

Image Credit: Elliance

SEO Checklists (PDF’s)

• SEO Checklist by THAT agency
• Sparkdogs Blog Marketing and SEO Checklist
• Tinted Pixels SEO Checklist

Have a useful SEO checklist that is not on this list? Let us know!