Archive for the ‘video’ Category

This month marks one year since my son Roger launched the custom cms web design for Haggetts Aluminum in Florida. Just last month the owner mentioned how pleased they are with sales coming from the website. It makes my day to get happy web design client feedback since Roger chose a career in website design and took over the CodeRepair.com site.

The team at Haggetts is very busy and they credit the performance of their website as the key reason.

A quality web design with proper optimization will attract traffic from search engines. The real goal is to make a positive first impression so those visitors stay and become customers. It’s great knowing my son, who’s slogan is “The next generation in custom website design”, has made a difference for Haggetts Aluminum.

Check out the custom home page awning factory video tour showing how they manufacture custom aluminum awnings. That 2-1/2 minute video presentation is a dynamic sales tool 24/7 with the factory tour, background music, and narration.

Does your website attract search engine traffic and make a positive first impression? If not and you’re ready for a new custom cms web design or makeover of an existing website, contact us today for a prompt review and quote, or follow the link in the first paragraph to check out Roger at CodeRepair.com.

The custom cms website for Corky my puppy was upgraded by adding a custom WordPress blog theme to match the main site. Recent work on the site includes the redesign as well as a series of custom video productions for the Life with Corky website and his story of a shelter dog in text, photos, and video.

Here’s the YouTube version of the latest episode entitled Corky Goes to Doggy Jail, and you may watch all the Corky puppy videos on YouTube, too.

The background music used as the Corky theme song was purchased with royalty free rights from the Music Bakery. All photos and graphics were created by me as part of the custom cms website design. Stories are told in the first person as dicated by Corky, narrated by me, and suitable for all ages. Don’t call the crazy house just yet.

The purpose of having a dog website is to promote adoption of shelter pets worldwide. You can follow Corky the shelter dog tweets on Twitter, also.

This web design related review is for the online video display features at Flickr.com. After uploading personal still photos to my Flickr account, I decided to test the video option. I wanted to see the Flickr video display features including size, quality, and video player layout. The quality and layout were excellent. The size options were a surprise.

The video may be embedded on a blog like here with a choice of sizes including Flickr’s suggested 400 x 300 as shown below, or even your original actual size if larger. The 8 second test video below is our puppy sneezing and the original was 640 x 480.

You may see examples of the different video size, quality, and player features of this same short video on Flickr as follows:

See the small thumbnail 100 x 75 view of the sneezing puppy test video on the tags page at Flickr. Look for the triangle play button to id videos. Yes, the tiny 100 x 75 video does actually play right on the tags page!

The medium gallery displays a 240 x 180 medium size sneezing puppy (Look by date for content dated 4 Sep 2009). This video plays on the gallery page with sufficient detail without going to the permalinked larger version.

Finally, the large 480 x 360 view and permalink page shows the same puppy sneezing clip in HD, and the player and view quality are excellent.

Here’s a summary of my review of the Flickr video display features. The video player display, quality, and size options provide a positive viewing experience. Video duration is limited to 90 seconds maximum and 150mb file size if you have a free account, or 500mb video size for a Flickr Pro account. If you have a longer story to tell, try YouTube. You may learn more about uploading and sharing videos with Flickr on the Flickr video help page of FAQs.

You may want to compare my sample video by viewing longer YouTube videos of my puppy Corky with opening graphics, soundtrack, and narration, also. I was pleased and impressed with the Flickr video display features for short personal video clips including audio.

A new web design video tutorial demonstrates masking photographs to clip the background, and then combining two photos for a web graphic illustration. This client purchased a stock photo of a boxer being punched and wanted to convey a message about new internet users being abused in an upcoming web design. The second photo overlay in this web design graphic adds a business shirt and tie to the boxer’s bare chest to look more like an internet user.

Next, a new custom business card artwork gallery #2 features 50 more full color business card examples. Most include the business card front and back to show how card backs may be used for small ads, or a call to action. The gallery uses an advanced web design technique in CSS to display 50 cards larger than actual size in half an open browser window. Enlarged business card views display instantly as you mouse over the thumbnails, and do not use javascript or flash. In addition, each card has a caption describing the company business product or service in plain text for added SEO value.

Finally, both card galleries have a new comment for clients who want to order fewer than 5000 new business cards. The printer I recommend now offers 1000 2-sided full color UV coated cards for $30 plus tax and freight.

Watch the advanced photo edit video for web graphics on my main site, or view 100 examples of business card artwork in the original 50 card gallery or new Gallery 2 with 50 more designs, and then email me from any page with questions about custom graphic art for web design or print.

A new page of our main site provides web design advice for small business owners including a CMS web design video tutorial just released today. The video demonstrates how the Small Business Resource Center website was converted from static pages to CMS or Content Management System generated pages using plain text.

The video includes a tour of the backend admin section of this site, and a demonstration of how new pages may be added to a CMS based design in plain text without having to learn or know HTML code. An important aspect featured in the web design tutorial is how my custom designed CMS system provides simple methods of adding META information for search engine optimization, or SEO, also.

At the same time, a new episode on the Small Business Website Mailbag podcast provides advice and information about web design using CSS styles, or cascading style sheets. The podcast show notes link to the video, also. The new and easy-to-use technique for creating a new small business web design with CMS relates to CSS for separating content and presentation and is a big part of this latest web design service.

Existing customers with static web design pages created by me are welcome to inquire about converting their website to an owner managed content management system. A $500 discount off my published price is good for existing customers and valid through June, 30, 2008. Watch the CMS web design video tour and podcast episode about web design and css styling to learn more, and then don’t delay as the end of the month approaches.

Quite often professional voice talent creating video or audio production use a teleprompter. For small business website multimedia production, there’s a low cost alternative to expensive dedicated teleprompter solutions when adding video or audio to your web design or podcast.

After considerable research of teleprompter software reviews, the Prompt! software from DataWay Multimedia Canada, Inc for $44 USD is my recommended choice. A free lite version may be downloaded, also. Here’s the list of features from their website, MovieClip.biz:

• Text can be imported and exported
• Simple text editing is available
• Native files can be saved
• User customizable controls
• Macintosh or Windows playback
• Control over font size
• Mirrors text display on screen
• Mouse or keyboard control
• Lite version available
• Multiple resolutions
• Works with most remotes (not included)
• Cheap!

Prompt! version7.0 is a standalone application that allows keeping multiple windows open during recording. My advice is preparing your audio script in NotePad and then load it into Prompt! with copy and paste. The scrolling text may be adjusted by size, color and background, and scroll speed. The Lite version is limited to 2500 characters, so you may want to do a test drive with Lite before making a purchase.

Using a teleprompter for short clips or full presentations allows readers to focus on content to eliminate gasps, oohs, or aahs during recording. Speaking extemporaneously is very difficult for most small business owners, and a prepared message is more likely to enhance the multimedia production. Reading from an audio script will be faster and more professional when adding audio or video to your website, blog, or podcast. Download Prompt! here.

Here’s another example custom video production to demo combining still photos, narration, and background music for small business website designs. This uses a set of original photographs that I took in 1989 when my wife and I had the pleasure of a ride on the Goodyear blimp Columbia that I won in a drawing.

The video may be viewed as entitled Goodyear Blimp Photo Slideshow on YouTube also.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khTVDZnzyrE]

The background music is my theme for videos as well as audio productions used on my small business advice podcast. Note the transition between slides and the effect used for the sequential appearance of titles in the intro and exit credits. If you are interested in a custom audio or video for your small business website, contact me with what you have in mind.

Another of my published articles targets small business commercial website design advice with tips on using multimedia such as audio, music, video, or flash. My core business is custom website design for small business owners, so consider this excerpt from the article quoting a reply to a site owner who was considering flash:

“Why would you want to add a flash scene to your site? In my list of “Don’t do this” for website design, flash is at the top of the list. It has zero SEO value, and the file size is intolerable for people on dialup. With more than 50% of internet users still on dialup you cut off half your potential visitors by having flash. Unlike videos that allow visitors to make a choice of play or not, flash loads automatically and cannot be avoided. People visit commercial websites for information. Flash is “entertainment” and most people want answers to problems, so my advice is stay focused on text content that search engines can index.”

You may want to read the entire article “Multimedia and Search Engine Optimization” here.

The most serious issue for using multimedia other than zero value for SEO is failure to offer visitors an option to play or not play. Any large file that automatically loads or plays will hurt the visitor’s experience. They are on your small business commercial website for information or answers meaning solutions to problems. Text content is usually a better choice for SEO puposes.

One point made in my article illustrates the potential problem of an employee looking for a restaurant on company time. A client wanted music to play automatically on their restaurant website. That employee searching and caught for unauthorized use of their computer could very well be fired because that site owner felt compelled to entertain visitors without giving them that choice.

Custom website video production services for small business owners are now offered as part of custom website design from the Small Business Resource Center. These dynamic and affordable videos and screencasts are perfect for product demos, site introductions, new product or service intros, company training, or even real estate virtual tours.

Watch this latest video tutorial about free methods to produce voice narration for your custom website video, and then consider the value of a permanent advertisement on your small business website.

Title: Video Narration Using Audacity
Play Time: 3 minutes, 14 seconds

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbmMdnrVk6E]

Imagine the positive first impression made with a custom video on your website. Combine voice, music, and video to enhance the visitor experience and memory retention of your message. Compare the price of custom videos that I produce to made for television ads, and the cost of adding a quality video on your website becomes very affordable.

Unlike print ad costs that are paid every month or week, your video ad reaches your audience forever without a recurring advertising budget.

Learn more about custom website video production services on my main site including custom video content tips for small business owners. Contact me for more details.

Here are steps used for creating custom videos for clients from an excerpt of my main site:

To maintain competitive pricing, the client will participate in steps 1 through 4 below, and the balance of the production steps 5 through 10 will be provided by the Small Business Resource Center, as follows:

1. Plan Production: Agree on video message and overall content presentation
2. Create Script: Write script for narration based on intro, main content, outro
3. Video Content: Collect graphic elements, photographs, and movie clips for video
4. Voice Content: Record the background voice narration as MP3 from the written script
5. Music Content: Choose background music from stereo music selections in my library
6. Arrangement: Assemble video elements to match the production plan and script
7. Edit Tracks: Edit the video, voice, and music tracks for quality and synchronization
8. Mix Tracks: Combine tracks with the video, voice, and music to create the final video
9. Production: Create and compress the video for maximum quality and smallest file size
10. Distribution: Present the video for online website display for your website or blog

Special Note on Copyright: All content contained in your video must be original material that does not violate any copyright laws. Client supplied material listed under video content above must be your exclusive copyright owned material only. The stereo music tracks for your video are selected by the Small Business Resource Center from my library of royalty free music that was purchased with full rights to use in the production of your video.

Read the video content guide on the main website, or view custom website video examples.