1. Must be able to control access to the video
2. Have a sharp looking player – Youtube is a little unprofessional especially if the video goes on the the sales letter
3. Not be hosted on their own web hosting account

The third requirement can be huge because bandwidth can get very expensive if you have a lot of hits on the video and videos are much, much larger which means one simple video can suck up all your bandwidth for the month in a heartbeat.

If you want to DIY – I’d probably say go with Amazon S3. I host all 50+ videos for the Blogging Starter Pack on Amazon S3. You can purchase a nice video player pretty inexpensively from places like FlashDen. However, this still requires a little bit of technical work. Many small business owners I talk to like and want the convenience of Youtube but with more privacy options and a better player is that really that much to ask?

I personally think no but from my research, there seems to be an unserved market here. Video hosting sites that allow business/commercial for small business use (read budget friendly) is pretty hard to come by.

My first stop was Vimeo because I liked the quality of the videos there but alas – this is what I found in their FAQ’s.

So scratch Vimeo. Next, there is Brightcove. This company has many high profile customers but they do not publish their pricing and while this is not a reliable method, it kinda leads me to think they may be expensive like enterprise level expensive and possibly beyond the reach of small and micro businesses.

Finally, after running through several video hosting sites that do not allow commercial use, I re-visited a system I have been testing out – Easy Video Producer. The people who created this tool made it for network marketers who want to use videos as a method of building their list or lead generation purposes. I’m just giving you fair warning that if the video and copy on the sites looks skewed towards that, it is. Actually, they confused me a lot too but I took a chance to get signed up since it is free to check out the video system. While their user interface could be improved, it looks a bit dated and at times confusing, if you focus on the tools itself, this thing is pretty cool.

Here’s what I liked:

If you want to put your video on a squeeze page or opt-in page, they have pre-made templates, some of them fairly nice looking. All you need to do is record your video – you can do this using your normal video recording tools or if you don’t have one, a web cam will work, EVP has a on site video recorder much like YouTube you can record on the fly. Then upload or save it. They do go through an approval process which can be a drag if you’re in a hurry. Hopefully they will remove this or have quicker methods of approval. Once your video goes live, then all you need to do is copy the link to the video, copy the embed code if you’re posting on to your own web pages. Or, you can push the video to a squeeze page template they provide.

Oh and yes, you can make the video private to their network and still embed the video on your own pages which fulfills part of the requirements.

There is just one caveat – they are right now re-launching their web hosting service – a sister site. So be prepared for emails in your inbox promoting that.

Image by Keenan Milligan

Image by miki kucevic

edirect mine too. If you don’t know why, read her post. Alice does give a simple way of making redirect links too.

I did that once too but later found it was a huge problem as the list grew longer. Having something that is more centralized with stats in a nicely formatted manner and the ability to search/categorize can be helpful too. There are many link redirect tools out there. These are 3 that you can get started with.

1. Redirection – a WordPress plugin. Which makes sense especially if you are a blogger or using WordPress to manage your site content. It works well enough and is simple/straight forward.
2. Pretty link – another WordPress plugin which I found recently and considering a switch to. It does lay out all the stats nicely, very attractive clean user interface. I like the ability to make links nofollow and the frame on top for special messages.
3. Short URL script – installed on your web site. There are plenty of such stand alone scripts you can find from places like HotScripts.com. They allow you to create, manage and track clicks of each link. Some are free, some are not. May require a little bit of setup.

One thing I do not recommend though is to use third party short URL services. I think they are OK if you need quick stats that you probably don’t have to refer again or check history. But the whole idea is, keep affiliate links on your own site so you are always in control where your visitors end up.

The process is easy. Just paste the video URL, add your text or speech bubbles, add the link and BubblePly will generate a new URL for you to share the video. You don’t have to register, but if you do, you can edit and also delete the projects you’ve done.

My only hesitation is – third party URL. I guess that can’t be helped when it comes to a tool for the masses. Regardless, I’d still use a redirect so I an always control the link. Another big question is, would the video producers be happy about it? Probably not which is why asking for permission is important. But I think affiliate managers would be kinda crazy if they won’t allow their own affiliates to use their videos this way. Personally, I’d encourage my own affiliates to do so.

Now, I don’t claim these tools are sufficient to fire your graphic designer. Far from it. Keep your designer at all costs – I know I do mine. Keeping them real close. But sometimes when you want a quick button or graphic just to fill a space or get the task done, these can be helpful.

FreshBadge – I so love this one. One of my first finds in fact. Love the badges. I’ve noticed once in a while it gets flaky on me.

Tabs Generator – very handy for web designers.

My Cool Button – pretty neat.

Quick Web Creations – not free Been quite useful to me.

WP-Invoice – I’ve been wondering when something like this would be developed. Lately, I’ve outgrown my invoicing solution and looking elsewhere but I really don’t want to install another stand alone application on my site – too many software to keep track of. Having the invoicing solution directly on an existing website makes the whole business a lot more centralized and less technical management too. Best of all this is developed by a couple of U.S. Marine Corp Veterans whom I’ll always be partial to. Am definitely trying this one.

Event Registration – We use this at MomMasterminds to organize our MMWeetups (Meetups). Allows us to post which event is upcoming and let’s people register so we know who’s coming and what to prepare. I think it might be useful for arranging meetings too.

WordPress Advanced Ticketing System – so far, this is the only ticket system I see. It’s still quite new so I’ll reserve judgement on it.

Job Board – I’ve always told people that many plugins they use could be unnecessary because with a little bit of simple coding and thinking outside the box, you’ll be able to achieve the same thing without a plugin on WordPress. That’s the beauty of the system. Well this is not a plugin but a good tutorial that shows you how to create a job listing/board.

WP-Project – this plugin is getting old. I’ve talked to Nick the developer, at this point in time he’s not able to devote time to it. But it might be something you could check out in a sandbox to see if it suits you.

Blog Goals Monitor – very interesting indeed! Keeping a blog can be hard work and sometimes you need a little help motivating ourselves or seeing whether we are achieving our goals. This plugin helps you do just that.

Like this post? I blog a lot about WordPress at my blog too. Don’t forget to subscribe to my newsletter for more tech hints and specials while you’re there.

“I know how to tell my affiliates how to redirect their links but many of them have blogs on WordPress.com or Blogspot.com which does not allow them to create redirect pages or modify the .htaccess. So how do the redirect and track their links?”

That is such a fabulous question. There are many URL shorteners out there that can be used like TinyURL but they also have some flaws. Personally, I stay away from TinyURL because I cannot track clicks. My most recent favorite is Bit.ly which provides great stats. It’ll tell you how often the link is clicked, where they came from, the hour of day, the day of the week. Interesting stuff.

As much as I like it the problem I’ve recently found is, you can’t edit the URL. That’s not good because part of the idea redirecting affiliate links is so you can change out dead affiliate program links. But for quick redirects and tracking, I really like Bit.ly.

Another option, you can install your own URL shortener/redirect system just for your affiliates to use. There are plenty of scripts that can help you achieve this and you can find many of them at HotScripts.

One of the things I do and suggested to the study group is to use some kind of outlining tool or even a notebook if that’s what works best for you. I’m a visual thinker. I like to see things laid out in a mind map or process chart. I just think better that way. When I created Blog Energizer, I several index cards of mind maps. While I prefer index cards and paper mind maps, you might prefer to do it on your computer or something that’s online you can share. Sometimes that has its advantages especially when you work with a team of people. These might help.

1. Freemind – used this one for a while. Love that it can be used on different operating systems. I had one on my PC and one on my Mac, shared files easily between the two. Free and open source. Great deal.
2. Mindjet – this seems to be the cadillac of mind mapping software for Windows. I personally have not used it but I know of marketers who swear by it.
3. Omni Outliner – this one is for the Mac users. More of an outliner than a mind map software.
4. Mindomo – web based and desktop, free for basic account, $6/month premium. This looks really nice I like how interactive it is.
5. Mindmeister – one of the first web based ones I was introduced to, free basic and they have three other plans available too starting at $4/month
6. Bubbl.us – web based and as far as I can tell free. May not have as rich a tool set as Mindomo but pretty interesting overall.
7. Comapping – another web based mind map tool but the approach is group mind mapping. Team members can add/expand to ideas, share maps, email, attach documents and links instantly or at their own time. I’m kinda intrigued. For a team of 5 people, it is $119/year.
8. WriteMaps – pretty simple and straightforward, more of a flow chart system than a mind map system. Free.
9. Gliffy – this is a web based flow chart creator. You can share your flow charts with others like your assistants. I’ve used it to share and plan software project outlines with my developers and create web based ’systems’ so it’s easy to train new assistants. $5 a month for 1 user, $25/month for 10 users.
10. OneNote – Microsoft, desktop based. Looks impressive and it’s capable of a lot of stuff but my teams are not Microsoft or MS Office centric so the collaboration part of it doesn’t work well for me. It’s more of a information manager than a outliner or mind mapper but you can use it that way I suppose.

P/S: Mind maps are great for blogging too!

Unfortunately, that’s how most people realize you must be self-hosted to do certain customizations on a Wordpress blog.

Thankfully, hosting companies (such as Bluehost) have applications that offer a one-touch setup even the most technologically challenged person can understand.

Just follow the steps below and you’ll have a custom, self-hosted Wordpress blog in under 30 minutes.

Creating a Wordpress Blog Using Fantastico De Luxe

I used two guinea pigs for this article to prove just how easy (and quick) the process really is.  Jamie was switching her blog over from the free Wordpress site so she could showcase some of the awesome health products she sells on a daily basis.

Jennie was also blogging on the free Wordpress site and wanted to update to a more functional and customized theme.

Both blogs were set up in 20 minutes flat.  Here’s how:

Step One: Register

Click here to sign up for Bluehost.  You’ll be given a free domain name (or the opportunity to transfer your existing domain) for only $6.95 a month.

Step Two: Setup Wordpress Using Fantastico De Luxe

Log-into your control panel and click the button for “Fantastico De Luxe” near the bottom of the page.  You’ll be taken to a screen that looks like the image below. Then click on the link for Wordpress found on the left side of the page.

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W120

As a web publisher, frequent conference speaker, mom, and hobby photographer, I take a lot of pictures. I even studied photography in college for two years. So when I was offered the opportunity to check out the new 7 megapixel Sony Cyber-shot, I jumped all over it.

Let me start out with the Pro’s:

This camera gives a GREAT first impression – it is adorable. I was given a pink one, and my teenage daughter immediately started ‘borrowing’ it before I could get my hands on it. But it also comes in black, silver, and powder blue, so it’s not just a girly camera. The back LCD screen is very large for such a portable camera. And that tiny size is one of the biggest plusses of all – I could fit this camera in my pocket if I had to.

It is also very easy to use – I cracked the user guide only once, but it turns out I didn’t really need to. Settings are intuitive and it gives plenty of options for shooting up close, in low light, in portrait mode, and also has a video setting. It also has some smile-recognition technology so that it knows when to snap the shutter at the right smiling moment (great for kids pictures). That being said, I didn’t use that setting very much because I prefer to have more control over my photos.

And now the Con’s

Like I initially stated, I’m kind of a photo nut. So I pushed this camera to it’s limits – and found those limits sooner than I wanted to. I also compared results to my way-more-expensive Fuji camera, which was completely unfair, because these two cameras are apples and oranges.

The biggest drawback I found was that the auto-focus feature left a lot to be desired. It held up well in the middle of bright, sunny days. I’d even say the image quality rivaled my Fuji in bright light. But even as the sun was getting low in the sky, pictures were blurry. It also had a hard time figuring out what to focus on sometimes, even when my camera subject was smack-dab in the middle of the frame.

My other complaint was that any photo taken in less than bright mid-day light was also very grainy when you tried to blow up the photos (viewing or printing). That’s where my camera “elitism” turned me off.

Who would this camera be good for?

If you are picky about photo quality, need a reliable focusing mechanism, or need to professionally reproduce your images, the Cyber-shot DSC-W120 isn’t your camera (unless all of your shots take place between 10:00am and 2:00pm).

But I could have given this camera away to readers, and I can’t bear to part with it – here’s why:

1 – This camera really is IDEAL for my teenage daughter. She LOVES this thing, doesn’t care about my picky photo quality quirks, and was able to use it immediately without any help or instruction. In fact, from now on, the camera will be hers and I will “borrow it back” from time to time. She is ecstatic.

2 – There are times when I don’t want to risk bringing my big expensive camera to places (sandy beaches, swimming pools, etc.). I’m completely willing to sacrifice quality for the peace of mind I get knowing I will still get fairly decent pictures and my expensive equipment is safe at home.

3 – For web publishing, 7 megapixels is completely overkill. Even 800×600 photographs need to be reduced in size. So this camera has come in handy to take quick shots when I don’t need the high-resolution power of 7 megapixels.

Disclosure :: Sony provided this camera to me for free with the request to review their product. They also encouraged me to write a fully honest review, which I have done (as you can tell!). Sony did not pay any money for this review and did not receive anything in return from me or my company for taking the time to review their product.

Buy the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W120 on Amazon

But last week Lorelle VanFossen from Lorelle on WordPress clued me in to two Firefox Greasemonkey scripts that have absolutely changed the way I am able to respond to people who want to join the conversation on my blog.

What is Greasemonkey?

It’s like a Firefox Add-on/Plugin that allows people to write scripts that alter the web pages you visit. They are usually created to make a web site more readable or usable. Do use caution in installing them, just like with any other plugin or freeware, because they can be created for malicious reasons. But these two are safe and you will LOVE them.

WordPress Comment Ninja

WordPress Comment Ninja makes it a snap to respond to as many comments as you want to all from one screen. This means you don’t have to go out to your blog, navigate through multiple posts and pages, and you don’t have to wait for pages to reload to continue the conversation.

On your Comment Page in your WordPress Admin Panel, Comment Ninja adds a “Respond” option, which opens up a dialog box right on the page. You can enter your response and it automatically adds a link at the beginning of your comment to direct it to the person to whom you are responding to. You can then either post the comment to your blog, email it directly to your reader, or both. And it will take care of any and all of that for you while you are responding to the next commenter.

Akismet Auntie Spam

With comment spam reaching epic proportions, I gave up on trying to find ‘false positives’ that Akismet thought was spam, but in actuality was a comment from a real person. I mean, how can you seriously go through 30,000 comments trying to find 3 or so real comments – or sometimes none at all. You could spend all day looking for that needle in a haystack.

Enter Akismet Auntie Spam, which sifts through all of your spam comments, shortens each to one line, and groups multiple entries into one line. Suddenly 30,000 spammy comments fit nicely on one manageable page, and you can then scroll and find the legit comments, which are quite easy to identify.

The first time I ran this script, I found more than 7 false positives (Sorry Dane!), even from people who had commented previously on my blog. I suddenly wondered just how many conversations never happened because I was prevented from ever seeing a reader’s response! But the best part was that I never had to read through the 186 comments that “noggroona” left for me.