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Thanks to Brian Edmondson, who makes all the videos for Overcome Everything’s ListBuilding Club, I found a new flash player for my EasyBlogTricks.com blog. I need to do an overhaul there because of the changes to WordPress 2.7, but haven’t had the time. Still, this new player will really make things easier for me. I’ve had lots of trouble keeping the videos (especially the video on the front door) working.

I think I have a solution!

The site is LongTail Video at: http://www.longtailvideo.com/

There are complete installation instructions, and you can download the player free, as long as you’re not using it for commercial gain. Since EasyBlogTricks.com is just an information site, I can use it with the non-commercial license. But if it works as well as I think it will, I’ll definitely buy a commercial license for only 39 Euros, which translates to about $50. You may think that’s a lot for a video player, but this one is very customizable. It rocks!

There are plugins for things like:

• Running rolling ads in the player. Stick one into your blog’s sidebar.
• WordTube converts your site to a “YouTube” type environment in a WordPress blog. Neat.
• Viral allows you to have a share function and will allow viewers to see other videos you have created

There are different skins you can choose from, as well, from simple to insane.

The add-ons are quite interesting, too. Here’s one made just for my specific purpose:

“The Simple Flash Video Plugin builds on the plugins that already allow easy posting of .flv or .mp4 files on the popular Wordpress platform. It also enables advanced stats tracking of your viewership via Simple Stats.”

Sweet! Tracking stats and a cool player, too!

If you’re into video, and you should be, this is a site you should definitely check out. I’m learning more about video and all the cool things you can do with it every day, and it’s becoming the medium of choice online. Think of these things:

• People are used to watching TV. It’s only natural that since the speed of our connections continues to improve that video will become more and more popular with the Internet audience. Just look at YouTube and how fast it’s grown over the past 3 years.
• Creating video is often easier than writing. Many people hate to write, and video is a perfect solution. Video products will become the norm, rather than the exception.
• Video is fun to create and to edit. Making short films and editing them to show to an audience is getter easier and more fun to do all the time.

So, it’s time you jumped into video. If you’re already there, trust me… you need to check out LongTail and their very cool product.

So, today is Monday, and as with every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, etc., I’m working like crazy. I totally love what I do, but our company is growing and there are tons of interesting things coming up.

Today, Tellman launched “The Tellman Show” on video, for example. (You can see it at http://www.viddler.com/explore/Tellman/videos/10/ )

He’s just incredible and has more ideas and energy than any person I’ve ever met before. I love being part of his company–Overcome Everything, where I have the awesome job of being Content Manager.

To be honest, I’ve never worked with a group of people that I respected and cared for so much. It’s very cool, and after two years, I wouldn’t trade what I do at OE for any other job.

So, here’s the thing…

I’m to the point where I need people, so I’m gathering a team.

• I need a videographer who can make Camtasias and work with Sony Vegas, for example.
• I need writers… People who can write articles, special reports, or whatever else that’s not copy.
• I need graphics savvy people who can dress up a report or physical product.
• I need people who are comfortable with fulfillment and getting all that together.

Might YOU fit the bill?

Are you looking for some extra income, albeit sporadic? This isn’t like a job, it’s like extra help when the time presents itself, like when we’re doing two launches simultaneously, or rushing to get the latest newsletter down the pipeline. I need people for when the work just gets too heavy for me & Brian to handle. Brian Edmondson does an awesome job of creating videos, but he’s only one guy, too.

So, here’s what I’d like you to do:

Post your resume online. Then, come to the blog here and post a comment, letting me know where it is. I’ll happily check it out, and if I can utilize your incredible skills, I’ll contact you. Please remember to add your email address to your CV (resume).

And… Here’s a trick so you don’t get spammed…

Make your email address an image. Use screen capture software to take a picture of your email address and make the picture clickable. The spammy robots will never know.

Anyway, if you’re interested and have the skills, let me know! I need someone who knows English very well and is pretty well versed in Internet Marketing, too. So, keep that in mind. Not every project will be about that, but when the project requires IM knowledge, it’s important that you know what we need.

Looking forward to working with some of you! It’s always a blast!

I love the first Tuesday of the month. That’s when Kyle Battis, Brian Edmondson, and I do the monthly “Marathon” calls. We call them that because they last for three hours! During them, we answer questions about the content for the month in the ListBuilding Club and Internet marketing questions in general.

Why do I love it?

I just love helping folks who are new to this business. If I’d had The ListBuilding Club 5 years ago when I started with Internet Marketing, I’d be so much further ahead than I am now. And the ability to ask experts questions about what I was doing would have been invaluable.

The people on the calls are generally stuck with something. Either they need to focus on a niche, they have a technical issue that is easily solved by someone who’s been around a while, or they need explanations of the who, what, when, where, and why. I totally love being able to part the clouds for them. Some of the simplest things can be so danged frustrating when you start!

That’s what makes the ListBuilding Club so awesome. You can have a business up and running in a very short period of time, if you just watch the videos and take action! That’s the thing most people leave out. They watch and go, “Yeah! I should do that,” but they never do.  What’s cool about the members of the ListBuilding Club is that most of them take the time to DO, and they’re finding varied levels of success.

It’s awesome!

And I have to say that Brian Edmondson is awesome with video. His instruction is simple, but not simplistic. He’s straght-forward and has a good camera presence so that people warm up to him instantly. He makes the learning painless.

I could go on and on, but it’s because I’m kind of high right now. No, not THAT kind of high… The kind that makes feel good about helping people.

Love it!

OK… You guys happy now? I changed my theme.

I kind of like this new one, and don’t plan any changes for a least oh… the next quarter at least. Let me know what you think… Especially those of you who were hating the last one. You’re my review crew!

So, got home today from jvAlert, and I have to tell you that the last day was totally rockin’.

I was there for Simon Leung. Whoa. The guy knows the backroads of Google because he used to work for them. There are things he can’t tell you because he signed a non-disclosure agreement, but what he can tell you and told us was invaluable.

Believe this…

Simon says (no pun intended) that you should have a different landing page optimized for EACH keyword that you have in AdWords. Whoa. He even said it’s a lot more work, but that’s Google. He gave us about 12 strategies about what Google wants to see. Since I run the AdWords campaigns for Overcome Everything, it was a pretty cool perspective. I think I’m going to study Simon quite a bit more.

“Million Dollar Mike” Morgan was up next, and I just think the world of him. He’s been great to me in the past and I can’t wait until the call on the 19th. He gave some pretty awesome copywriting pointers and made everyone smile. Mike just rocks, and I finally got to meet him in person. kewl

I got a lot more than just information at jvAlert, folks, with the most valuable being a whole new bunch of friends.

The first day, I made a friend from Slovakia named Lucia, who is just starting out. (You’ll be hearing from her; I have no doubt. ) Lots of newcomers like Kevin Puls, Bonnie Cramner, and Steve Leadbetter. Lots of people coming on in some pretty interesting niches. Keep a lookout.

And totally lookout for Carrie Wilkerson. She’s a hoot! And a very smart business lady, who walks around without her shoes on. She runs… what else? TheBarefootExecutive.com I really enjoyed spending just the little time with her that I could.

And there were my old friends, Brian Edmondson, who introduced me to Jason James and other friends of his; Cyndi Parker of TrafficMOM.com and Birgit Ratz Cheung and her husband Eugene. All tops. Oh, and how could I forget, my old friend Charles Burleigh? I’m was so glad to see him out and about, meeting folks and having fun. Of course, Mike Paetzold was there, ribbing me about my old theme (Happy now, Mike?) and Steve Roye, who never fails to make me laugh harder than I should. Har. And Ross Goldberg and Eric Stafford were there, too.

I also made new friends Willie Crawford, who I was fortunate enough to sit beside at dinner the other night; Alan Bechtold, Laurie Steffen and Jeff Wark, and even met Bob the Teacher.

But the coolest thing was when someone came up to me and told me that they were on my list and asked what I was working on. I totally enjoyed meeting Bonnie and having a long chat with her.

And another long chat with Deremiah, a truly incredible man. In an world with an overwhelimgly high percentage of “me firsters,” this guy is “you first.” He never fails to ask what he can do for you, and that’s pretty cool. He’s gaining lots of respect by this attitude in the IM world, and there’s no doubt in my mind that he WILL go far. And sing? The man sings better than Stevie Wonder. We got to hear a really great Deremiah version of Happy Birthday at dinner on Saturday. Nice.

Ken McArthur is wonderful, of course, and everyone loves him. What’s not to love?

But the whole weekend, the question I kept hearing was, “What’s with Tellman’s hair?” LOL I told him we love him both ways–with or without.

So, that’s about it. jvAlert totally rocks the block, I’m telling you.

I’m getting to be a real whiz with Camtasia. I guess when you make enough videos, that happens. Well, if you go through Camtasia’s course, which I plan to do someday, you know all this stuff up front. But I’m the kind of chick who likes to learn by doing, you know. I just jump right in and only look for help when I want to do something that I think is cool, but don’t know how to do. I’m terrible that way. I never read directions, either.

Anyway, today, I was making a pretty simple video, and I didn’t like the beginning. But… I thought. [see the little light bulb go on over Pat's head] Well… hmm… a PowerPoint could spice this up a bit.

But the trouble was: How the heck do I get the video and the PowerPoint to live together in one short film?

huh.

Well, when I thought about it, it was pretty simple actually.

• Record a video for both the PowerPoint and the screen capture. (I did the screen capture first, which was smart because then, I knew what I had to say when recording the PowerPoint. I left pauses where I wanted the video to kick in, you know? You can edit those out, which is pretty cool.)

• Then, on the storyline, put the PowerPoint in first, then split it where you want the video to come in.

• Plug in the screen capture video at that point

• You can split the video where you want the PowerPoint to come back. If it’s the end, that’s really easy because the end of the PowerPoint will still be there. But if you want PowerPoint and video to alternate, you can just continue splitting and alternating.

You may think it makes things jerky, and it probably will if you do it too much. Yet, Camtasia does a good job of making smooth transitions. You can always add transition screens to make it look even cooler, too.

This is probably soup simple for the video tech heads, but it’s an adventure for moi.

I’m really getting into this video creation stuff. It’s not just fun, it’s important! I really think it’s the way of the Web, folks. If you’re not at least exploring the possibilities of video, you’re behind the curve. I’m learning a lot working with Brian Edmondson, who’s doing some kick butt stuff for Overcome Everything, too. Brian is da video guy and he rocks.

But… I’ve also been watching Andy Jenkins’ videos about making videos over at StomperNet. Whoa.

Nothing like learning from a pro. I feel blessed. And thanks, Andy! You rock — out loud.

My site on blogging is all step-by-step video, so this is making it better all the time. Love it!

Well, sort of.

I got Launch Formula Marketing for my membership site. $250. Easy to use, right?

Totally wrong.

It’s probably mostly my fault because I’m not a PHP programmer. I understand it ever so slightly and can do things like alter my blog template, for example.

But I can’t do anything with my membership site.

It’s working for members, which is what my main concern is. They’re great, and they make me feel good about what I’m doing almost every day. I have the best members in the universe. Really. They rock!

But…

I’m setting up this fabu teleseminar series. It’s got people like:

Tellman Knudson (of course) of The List Building Blog

Brian Edmondson (why definitely) from Blog with Brian He’s got an awesome customization. I’m jealous.

Mike Paetzold (a real WP kinda guy) from Mike Paetzold Recommends

Reed Floren, who’s amazing on Facebook. His JV group is really active and once I’m settled in with this membership site stuff, I’ll be getting in on some really great JVs, just from being a member.

Ken McArthur, who uses his JVAlert blog for some amazing bonding with his audience. JVAlertLive starts tomorrow!

Andy Duncan of Netslingers.com, who uses his blog for a niche audience.

Stephen Pierce–don’t you just wait for his dtAlpha Talkback emails each week? I know I do. I love to listen to this man talk. He’s very generous with his information and the way he gives it to you is totally charming and inspiring.

Ted Demopolous, who wrote Blogging for Business, and a few more books on the topic. Smart and very nice guy.

And lest I forget, one of my favorite people–Mike Morgan, or “Million Dollar” Mike Morgan. His copywriting skills are so STRONG that his sales letters have already pulled in a million bucks in a day. Wish I could afford him.

And there’s going to be a cool mystery guest, too.

So you can see why I’m desperate to get this working. I just contacted a programmer. In my heart of hearts, I hope he can fix this.

Or, I’m going insane.

Want to come?

Go sign up for the series at http://blogging4boomers.com It’s free!

And then, check out the membership site. I have tons of great stuff inside and add more every month. You don’t have to be a Boomer, but we’re the ones coming online, trying to eke out just a little extra to survive.

I hear you! I feel your pain! I’m a Boomer, too!