KianAnn.com: Live Life

Yeah. Next book summary is here. Actually I’ve read this for some time already, except the last chapter which somehow I procrastinated for soooooo long as I got busy with my stuff.

YouTube for Business is a great book for people who are totally new to the online video marketing thing – it does a very good job in explaining how one should go about taking videos, the different codecs and formats and how to use YouTube’s own community features to market your video.

However, it stops there, and does not provide much for the advanced marketer who might need more detailed statistics, how to take action upon these statistics, and advanced syndication.

Here is my summary.

1. YouTube for Business
2. People spend more time online than in front of a TV.
3. People like to be entertained, educated and informed. Your video needs to meet these criteria.
4. Inform and sell, educate and sell, or entertain and sell.
5. Don’t always have to sell – for brand awareness, product support, training, communications.
6. To convert to dollars, just flash telephone number or website details.
7. Need to know why you need video in your marketing mix. Know your ideal customer and cater the videos to him.
8. Know exactly what you are promoting. Promote a solution, not a product or service.
9. What is your message? What is the diferentiation?
10. What is the measure of success?
11. What content is best suited for your goals?
12. Shoot at the correct resolution. Make sure your subjects are visible on a computer screen. Big abd bright is good.
13. Look for camcorders with option for external lighting and microphone.
14. Shoot professionally – lightings, audio, noise level, background.
15. Dress up for your recording.
16. Make the video worth watching – entertain, inform, humor, short (no longer than 3 mins), simple, focused on 1 message.
17. Have your web address appear promimently. DOn’t have to be subtle.
18. SDTV is 640×480
19. Two most common HDTV standards are 720×1280 (720p) and 1080×1920 (1080i and 1080p) – all 16:9
20. AVI – windows only, container format
21. DivX – subset of mp4, lossy
22. DV – used by many digital camcorders, usually enclosed within other formats
23. Flash Video FLV – used by YouTube.
24. H.264 – subset of mp4, aka Advanced Video Coding.
25. MPEG – MPEG-1 for VCDs, MPEG-2 quality close to DV format, MPEG-4 for Internet and HDTV.
26. Quicktime – Apple proprietory format
27. RealVideo – Heavily compressed. Designed for streaming.
28. WMV – Microsoft proprietory format. Double bit rate than of mp4.
29. XVid – Variation of mp4, freely available (as compared to DivX)
30. YouTube uses FLV with H.264 compression.
31. YouTube’s downconversion causes pixelated images.
32. Best to upload in MP4, 640×480, mp3 audio, 30fps
33. Webcam video and audio typically not good, but it comes with immediacy.
34. Effective webcam videos look immediate. Don’t bother with small mistakes. Keep it simple, watch the lighting and noise.
35. Semi-pro: consumer camcorder with good editing software.
36. Use digital camcorders (most in the market today)
37. Formats: MiniDV, HDV, DVD, HDD, flash memory.
38. Look for one that just fits your needs. No need the best. Look for image stablization, tele zoom, full HD.
39. Go for essential accessories – lighting, external mic, and tripod.
40. Get a powerful computer for video editing. Processor speed and RAM matters. Large HDD space is required too.
41. Semi pro videos good for vlogs, executive reports, product demonstrations, shooting on the road.
42. Shoot several angles, zooms and use the best of a few takes.
43. Watch what is in the background.
44. A little movement is good but don’t overuse zoom and pan.
45. Use the rule of thirds to place your subject.
46. Try close ups when featuring a product.
47. Shoot to edit.
48. Use a teleprompter.
49. Dress appropriately. Simple, dark colors preferred.
50. Professional video might pack more punch, but also may be overkill and very expensive.
51. Professional videos require makeup, has a lot of waiting for lighting setup, probably require multiple takes.
52. Free video editors – Windows Movie Maker, Apple iMovie.
53. Inexpensive – Adobe Premiere Elements, ArcSoft ShowBiz, Cyberlink Power Director, MoviePlus, Pinnacle Studio, Roxio VideoWave, Sony Vegas Movie Studio, Ulead VideoStudio.
54. Mid Range – Apple Final Cut express, Sony Vegas Pro, Ulead MediaStudio Pro.
55. High End – Adobe Premiere Pro CS, Apple Final Cut Studio.
56. Video editing – tell a linear story.
57. Avoid too much of fancy transitions.
58. Add background music to complement the action. Choosing the right track is important.
59. Keep fancy effects to the minimum.
60. Publish at 640 x 480 with MP3 audio, avi or mpg.
61. Uploading videos – title should be catchy.
62. Description – can include website address, tel number, email, mailing address.
63. Tags – keywords.
64. Can build a community on YouTube.
65. Can personalize your channel info and design.
66. Leave comments in other people’s videos – best way to get more channel subscribers.
67. YouTube has groups – share videos of similar interest.
68. Configure video sharing options when you upload a video on YouTube – comments, voting, video responses, ratings, embedding, syndication.
69. Link to an individual video, or a list of videos.
70. For the video to play automatically, add &autoplay=1
71. Video for real estate industry.
72. Vlog – communicate using videos. Post at least once a week, or more often.
73. Creating vlog posts – watch lighting, get close but not too close, dress appropriately, plain background, use a script if you want, watch the noise, keep it short.
74. Can post to blog directly from YouTube.
75. Good to use a consistent background for different blog posts.
76. Use video to show the faces in your company. People buy from people, not companies.
77. Need to promote your vlog.
78. Post your video in multiple sites.
79. Find out what your community wants, then give it to them.
80. Convert your visitors into paying customers – provide a call to action.
81. Track viewership so you can measure your success and tweak your videos.
82. YouTube has an analytics tool – dubbed insight. Shows views, popularity, and discovery.
83. Track effectiveness thru comments/video responses, traffic, using separate landing pages for each promo video, and sales (use coupon codes)
84. To promote, start with great content – entertain, educate, or inform.
85. Target your content – know who you are reaching out to.
86. Optimize your tags.
87. Write a compelling title.
88. Pick the best thumbnail.
89. Use YouTube’s community features – share with friends, broadcast bulletins.
90. Use email marketing to support your videos and keep your community if necessary.
91. Run contest on YouTube
92. Direct monetization – Video (inform, educate, entertain) directs to website that sells.
93. Ad monetization – create a website, embed videos, put ads.

If you see me repeating my points, its because the book repeated its points as it was talking about it in different sections of the book. So there just it to YouTube – Do a video that entertains, informs, or educates. Record in good environment with good equipment, upload with good titles, keywords, descriptions, and use promote it everywhere.

I realise the book is actually a little dated as I read it, because I know that YouTube does have HD videos now. The book was written in the pre-HD era. That’s some time back.

But that affects only the technical side of things. Marketing concepts remains the same.

On to my next book quickly! I’m really slow! And I do realise my “summaries” are getting longer (that’s not a good thing!)

A thought came into my mind today, as I was taking a break between my work sessions.

The thought was this:

23 weeks. Do you realise that? Really… what have you done in the past 7 months? Are you satisfied with your progress?

Are you going to end 2009 saying that “Argh, could have done better!”, or “Well, 2009 was a blast!”

23 weeks is ample time for almost anything to happen. If there needs to be a change, make the change now. Start allocating time for the IMPORTANT.

Of late, I’ve been sleeping really late (again! what’s new hur!)… and most of the time, its because I’m rushing my work. In the past two weeks, I’ve had two 1-hour-sleep nights already. I know its not very good for me – whether its for health reasons or for my relationships in the future.

I’ve spent time to restructure my business, but it’ll take time for my current projects to cool off before I can even get time to work on my longer term in-house projects, which will hopefully allow me to take more time off from the computer and my business.

I’m kinda tired and feel a little burnt out. Friends in business are telling me that this is life in the first 5 years of business. No holidays, no sleep, no nothing… well I didn’t expect it to be this bad.

I started this business for me and my loved ones to be free from financial stress, but as of now it seems like I’m going the opposite way. Haha… well, maybe I do have to backstep a few steps first before leaping forward, but it remains a fact that my plans are not that concrete yet.

Recently I watched a video about becoming a business owner – i.e. just owning a business and not working in the business. One of the questions that was posed went something like “How would you be doing if your business was 5 times as big as it is today? Would you have less work to do? Would you be more free?”

My answer I told myself? I’d be dead.

So yeah, really not accepting more projects for this year, and hopefully by 4th quarter things would have settled in enough for me to really work on my in-house projects.

I realise I also need a business mentor to bounce ideas off and keep me accountable for my own schedule, and I’m reluctant to get a “traditional” business mentor because of how businesses are typically structured. Specifically, I’m looking for someone who (1) has once transited from a full time job to business (2) has built an Internet based business only with virtual assistants, i.e. no real staff (3) work from home (4) is financially free because of this business i.e. can afford to take a long time off from work.

There aren’t many of these out there. Let me know if you know anyone like this.

I’m done with my next book – The Principles of Beautiful Web Design by Jason Bearid.

It was an PDF ebook I bought off Sitepoint a few months ago, and this is my 2nd time reading it, this time more thoroughly.

Here’s my summary.

1. Good design = relationship between elements involved and balance between them.
2. Start design on paper. Eliminate the technical limitations first.
3. Need to maximize usability and aesthetic appeal.
4. The design must communicate. It should not hinder.
5. Main components – container, logo, navigation (must be above the fold), content, footer, whitespace
6. Use a 3 x 3 grid to layout the elements.
7. Balance – Symmetrical or Asymmetrical.
8. Use proximity and repetition to create groups.
9. Items in the center are noticed first.
10. Play with placement, continuance, proportion and contrast for emphasis.
11. Navigation – left, right, three column.
12. Have a morgue file – keep screenshots of good designs.
13. Use fixed width layouts for more planned and controlled designs.
14. Know your audience and what resolutions they surf in – then design for that resolution.
15. Red – simulate adrenaline and blood pressure, love.
16. Brownish red – harvest, fine living
17. Orange – sunshine, energy, happiness, enthusiasm, creativity. Good for food and cooking.
18. Yellow – happiness and energy. Too much can be overpowering.
19. Green – nature, green with black for tech feel.
20. Blue – intelligence, faith, not good for food, sky, seas, back luck and trouble.
21. Purple – royalty and power.
22. White – clean, light, purity
23. Black – death, evil, power, elegance, strength.
24. Warm colors – red, yello, orange, pink, brown. Tend to pop out.
25. Cool colors – gren, blue, purple. Tend to recede in the background.
26. Color on computer screen – RGB (additive)
27. Color on printer – CMYK (subtractive)
28. Primary colors – Red, Yellow, Blue.
29. Secondary colors – Orange, Green, Purple.
30. Six color schemes – monochromatic, analogous, complementary, split complementary, triadic, tetradic (double complementary)
31. Monochromatic – single color + tints and shades
32. Analogous – color + adjacent colors
33. Complementary – opposite on color wheel (don’t use as foreground/background)
34. Split complementary – adjacent to complementary
35. Triadic – 3 colors equally spaced on color wheel
36. Tetradic – 2 complementary schemes
37. Have a color palette of at least 6 colors before applying to a design.
38. Diagonal lines are more attractive.
39. Use rounded corners to soften edges.
40. Use perspective/light and shadow to communicate depth and volume.
41. Web 2.0 – gradient background, rounded corners, lots of space, large type.
42. http://www.spiffycorners.com/ for CSS rounded corners without images.
43. Use sIFR to replace non web safe fonts with flash and javascript.
44. CSS type horizontal spacing – letter-spacing and word-spacing.
45. CSS type vertical spacing – line-heght.
46. Avoid justified text where possible.
47. http://www.typetester.org/ to compare fonts.
48. Garamond: old style serif fonts – historic, handcrafted.
49. Baskerville: transitional serif font
50. Didot: modern serif font
51. Rockwell: slab serif font – readable from distance
52. Use san-serif fonts for body text.
53. Fixed width fonts – use for code.
54. Novelty fonts – less legible, sparingly used adds personality and flair.
55. Free fonts – http://www.1001fonts.com/, http://www.dafont.com/
56. To select the right font, first decide on the feelings you want to evoke on your visitor.
57. Use the 62.5% font size trick so that you can manage your font sizes in pixels.
58. Pictures are visual lures.
59. Before you use an image, ask – is it relevant? is it interesting? is it appealing?
60. Legitimate images sources – take it yourself, stock photography, hire a professional.
61. http://morguefile.com/ or http://sxc.hu for free stock photos
62. http://www.istockphoto.com for royalty free stock photos
63. If you want a unique photo, best is to take it yourself.
64. Never take an image from the web unless they are marked as free to use.
65. Crop images to change the focus of the image.
66. Images don’t always have to be used in boxes. Use them as textures too.
67. Spend time tweaking images in photoshop.
68. JPEG – photographic images, GIFs – solid colors, PNG – better transparency.
69. Use CSS backgrounds to add borders, frames, or effects to images.
70. Use CSS borders to add shadows.

The book covered a lot of design theory… but what is more important was that it gave good relevant examples of these theories in practise which was very useful. There was a good deal of implementation codes as well. Great job done by Bearid, and a good read for people getting started in web design!

With less than half a year to go and 40 more books to read, I have to cover 2 books a week consistently. Well… it can be done, just a matter of how committed I am to my goals.

Today is the first day of the second half of 2009. First day of Q3 2009 already.

Time flies. Fast.

I’m happy about my progress for the first half. But I’m still darn far from the goals I’ve set out to achieve in the beginning of the year.

Really need to buck up and get focused.

I’m back here at LCCT Food Garden, waiting for time to pass before I board my plane home. Today I’m here in KL only for a day trip, leaving home at 5-ish and reaching home just before midnight.

Today, I’ve also got my Celcom prepaid mobile broadband card – so I’ll never have to pay RM30 for 2 hours of Internet Access in the hotel anymore. The daily rate for Internet Access is only RM6, and since I can access the net thru my phone, its great.

The only nuances, however, is that I will need to keep topping up the card in order to keep the account alive, and I have only one phone, so getting connected means I will not be contactable via my own phone number.

Another 9 more days, and its the last day of the first half of this year. Time flies. Come to think of it, so much has progressed since I made my first trip here to KL back in February. And its only been 4 months!

I’m grateful for my business here in KL. Today, my friend asked me if I still have capacity to take in more projects – I told him, wait – to let me settle the ones I have on hand first.

Things seem also seem to be spreading in the US. From one contact, it has now became 3 projects. The projects are a lot smaller though, but I’m not complaining. Actually, I like the US based projects – first of all, they pay in USD, and secondly, I don’t have to travel to meet them in person! Hah!

Hurray!

Its been some time since I completed reading another book. This one, Your Roadmap for Success by John Maxwell, is a great read.

Like most Maxwell’s books, this book is very detailed and provides really concrete steps, concepts and examples of the principles behind success. Here is my summary.

1. Success is a journey.
2. Success is not only a money thing.
3. If you make happiness your goal, you are almost certainly destined to fail.
4. Possesions are a temporary fix.
5. Success is knowing your purpose in life, and living it.
6. Focus on one main goal.
7. Concentrate on continual improvement.
8. Forget the past and focus on the future.
9. Where would I like to go?
10. A dream gives up dedication, gives us our potential, helps us prioritize, adds value to our work, predicts our future.
11. Be willing to give up in order to go up.
12. It takes hunger, tenacity, and commitment to see through a dream to reality.
13. There will be people who will criticize you, no matter what. Don’t let them distract you.
14. Share your dream, include others.
15. When our attitudes outdistance our abilities, even the impossible becomes possible.
16. Your attitude determines your altitude.
17. Couple a dream with the right attitude!
18. Your attitude is always a choice.
19. You can change, you can be more positive today.
20. How you think affects how you approach your success journey.
21. Associate with positive people.
22. Don’t take yourself too seriously.
23. Plan your success journey.
24. Have goals to keep you focused on improvement.
25. Articulate a statement of purpose, and have 80% of daily activities focused on this purpose.
26. Review your goals on a continual basis.
27. Never travel anywhere without a book.
28. Keep growing. Read, listen, attend seminars.
29. Be teachable.
30. Stay hungry for learning.
31. Let your learning lead to action, not knowledge.
32. Get into a growth environment.
33. Life is a one way street.
34. Face and overcome your fears. Most fears are unwarranted.
35. Fear is the price of progress.
36. Develop a burning desire to break through fear.
37. What happens in you is more important than what happens to you.
38. Feed your faith, not your fear.
39. Learn to fail forward.
40. Know the landmarks.
41. Excellence is always a choice.
42. There are no shortcuts to anyplace worth going.
43. Focus on getting good at one thing.
44. Develop character.
45. Get rid of excuses.
46. Practise self discipline.
47. Stay hungry.
48. Your family makes you complete.
49. Make your home a supportive environment.
50. Take effort to communicate continually.
51. Marriages start because of love, but they finish because of commitment.
52. Be a leader that attracts other leaders.
53. Possess uncommonly positive attitudes.
54. Raise someone up with you on your journey.
55. Make people development your top priority.
56. Limit who you take along. Spend 80% of time on the top 20%.
57. Give help unconditionally.
58. Always bring something to the table.

This Seth Godin’s post really explains my stand towards “proper education” as defined by 99% of the world.

Frankly, that is exactly what I felt about the books I had to buy when I was still in an academic institution. Those books were originally sitting in my bookshelf (and yes, I was stupid enough to buy each and every textbook my lecturers recommended as the primary textbook), but over a year ago, I took them out to make space for the thinner books that teach me more.

You know what? Those books have been lying there in the carton boxes for a whole year, and I’ve not even touched them. At all. That shows how useful and practical these books are in real life.

And its crazy. I see friends working hard at their jobs in the day, and furthering their education at night, slogging over assignments and rushing for project deadlines… Its a MAD paper chase.

Its a sad thing that papers are what our society recognizes and rewards.

If I were to choose again, I’d use the time and money trying more (and failing more if necessary) in real businesses. In that two and a half years I’d have learnt more stuff, learnt more practical stuff, and met more people.

I’m so overloaded with work. It seems like every second I’m awake I’m “fighting fire”, rushing work. Sometimes I wonder if hard work really pays. Working hard simply creates expectations for you work even harder. That’s kinda sick, but its true from my experience.

Really need to take time to balance off and chill out a little.

Oh BTW, Lata Berembun photos are up. Access them here, or just view the slideshow below.

Getting back to the jungles after 2 years of nuah-ness is fun. I’m going to have more adventure trips this year.