Finding the right domain extension

This is very important and sadly, many “good” domain names are taken.  So you need to use your creativity to find a good domain name.  We recommend using a “.com” name if at all possible.  If you are an organization or non-profit, you could also use the “.org” domain.  The last option would be to find a .net domain name.  I would rarely recommend using a “.biz”, “.info”, “.tv”, or any other options that might be offered.  Generally people use “.com”, “.org” and possibly “.net” when searching online.

Finding the right domain name

1. I wouldn’t recommend using numbers, hyphens or dashes in your domain name.  That can be too hard to explain to people.  You want people to be able to remember your domain name and easily spell it.  You don’t want to get so creative with your domain name that no one can remember it.
2. Use a tool like, BustaName.com to use keywords to see if your ideal domain name is available

Purchasing your domain name

1. There are a lot of places on line where you can buy your domain name.  Most of them charge around $10 per year, which is an easy investment since you are building a business around this domain name.  It’s also good to buy a domain name if you think you might start a business with the same name.  Purchasing a domain for $10 to secure that domain is a simple decision to guarantee that it’s around when you want to use it.
2. We use Dreamhost for our domains and hosting and even have an affiliate relationship with them.  But you can buy your domain name from other sites such as GoDaddy.com.  However, I’ve heard a lot of complaints about GoDaddy’s customer service and don’t recommend them.
3. You can also use Dreamhost for your hosting.  However, you might want to wait a bit until you hire a website developer to create your website.  Even though we use and recommend Dreamhost, they might have their own set up which might benefit you.  Plus, there’s not sense in spending money on hosting right away when you don’t have to.

Sit back and congratulate yourself on finding, purchasing and securing your domain name.  You’re a step closer and ready to build your online presence.

We’d love to help you with any website needs you may have.  If  you’d like to know more about our web design service and for a free quote, fill out the form below and tell us how we can help you.  We’ll give you a call to see how we can help with your web, marketing or media needs.

So I have been thinking of the best way to get the word out about our company, what is the best and most effective form of marketing? I think if every company mastered this, than it would obviously be successful. So what is the answer? Well, in my humble opinion, word of mouth is still the best form of marketing.
Now, word of mouth, has obviously been around since people could talk. So with all of the new interactive media and technology, how is word of mouth still the best. Technology is constantly changing, but something that isn’t changing is the fact that people talk. So the better question is…. How are you using the newest technology to create word of mouth marketing for your business?
Video on smart-phones and on the web is a powerful way to create word of mouth. I couldn’t help but notice these things about how people get their news these days, it is:
1. Instant
2. Mobile
3. Interactive
4. Dynamic
With that said, video just happens to be all those things as well. So find ways to integrate video into your business to create that word of mouth that is so powerful to any message. Exit Row Productions is constantly looking at new ways to do this for you. Let us know if we can help.

Video of the Month:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nSsBr67BqA

10% of YouTube’s videos are available in HD

Only 10%?  Think how easy it will be to stand out from your competition?  If they have an old standard definition video and you have several Hi-Definition videos, which video do you think people will watch?  Exit Row Productions can create a video strategy that includes high quality HD videos.  That way your videos don’t look outdated on your website and YouTube.  Since most people across the country have broadband internet, they expect to have high quality videos.  And why not show your products, services, staff, testimonials, training or anything else in HD?

Give Exit Row Productions a call and see how we can help you.  We love talking with people to create a video strategy that incorporates HD, YouTube and web friendly formats.  It’s what we’re passionate about doing.  Let us do it for you.

YouTube reached over 700 billion playbacks in 2010

That’s a LOT of video being watched in one year alone.  Were your videos watched?  How many times were they viewed?  If you don’t know the answer, or if you don’t have any videos, than give Exit Row Productions a call.  We work with local companies in the Dayton, Columbus and Cincinnati, Ohio area, but we also have traveled across the country to create high quality videos for our clients.  We’d love to work with you on a video strategy that will utilize the Google friendly nature of videos found on your website and YouTube.  Having video on your site will greatly increase traffic and keep the visitor on your site.  Would they rather read about your product, or watch an engaging video?  I think we both know the answer to that!

We all know that video is the most powerful way to share your message.  What videos do you have on your website?  How many videos do you have on Youtube?  Do you know how many people are watching your video on YouTube’s mobile platform?  Exit Row Productions can work with you on all these aspects and create a video strategy for your website, YouTube and mobile websites.  So no matter where people are looking for you, they can easily find your videos.

Let Exit Row Productions help you create a video strategy of how to best utilize YouTube, social media, website, and the other platforms available.

If 2 BILLION videos are viewed every day, are people viewing your video?  Do you have a video?  If you don’t have a video, why not?  You’re missing out on a huge opportunity to share your story of your product or service.  Chances are that your competitors have videos of their products and services.  You could share video testimonials, live events, training, marketing, promotional pieces and so much more.  Let Exit Row Productions help create a video strategy to help your company be a part of those 2 billion videos watched on YouTube.   We work with companies and organizations locally in Dayton, Columbus, Cincinnati but also work with companies around the country and beyond.  We’d love to help and won’t push anything on you…we promise.

YouTube is localized in 25 countries across 43 languages

Do you sell internationally?  Would you benefit if people in other countries know about you and your services?  This stat is hugely important if you have an international client base.   Knowing that YouTube has a broad international reach can help you market, promote and sell your products.  Let Exit Row Productions help you create a video strategy which can include your international reach.  We have access to translation services, actors and voice over talent and can create a video in any language you need.  And YouTube is probably located in that area.

How are you capitalizing on the the increasing amount of people watching videos on their Smartphones?  Let Exit Row Productions help create a strategy to boost the viewership of your video on Smartphones, your website, social media outlets and much more.

For video in the Dayton, Columbus, Cincinnati Ohio area and beyond, let Exit Row Productions handle your video, web and media needs.

See what Scott Puopolo, Cisco VP for Internet Business, says about internet video and where it’s going.

Boring slide shows are a thing of the past with the interactive elements of a review video.  Think of everything you can put into a video!  We can add some interactivity and motion graphics to a boring Powerpoint presentation or photo slideshow.

The reason it’s good to get interviews through video, is that they can be edited down to a reasonable length.  This banquet has a schedule and it’s better to have concise video pieces rather than having each board member get up and talk at length.  Those in attendance only hear the important aspects, and not all the details that come to mind when each person is speaking live.

Do you have an annual review meeting or banquet?  Let Exit Row Productions put together a high quality video that recaps everything that happened.  We can work with you on scripting, concepting, interviews, production and post-production.  We can do it all, or work with you on each aspect.

Let us know how we can help you with your next annual review meeting or banquet.  973-673-8450

In the past, they had used one camera, but quickly found that two cameras would add another way to keep the otherwise, dry training a bit more easy to view. We love it when people have the vision to use video in this capacity. First, Think about how much money they saved by doing a live internet video stream! They had people in other countries, who obviously couldn’t make the meeting, as well as those that were in far away States. These people didn’t have to fly into town, but could watch online. Secondly, this company had enough vision to have us edit down the footage into manageable videos that will be on their website in the coming weeks.  That way, if people couldn’t watch the live video stream, they could always watch it on demand.  This means that everyone could get updated on the news, no matter where they were, or when they could view it.

How could you use video to save money, inform, update, market, and promote?  The ideas are endless.  We love hearing from our clients on how our videos helped them.  And we love working with new companies to create a video solution.  Perhaps it’s a marketing campaign, training videos, web video series, product videos, video FAQs, or customer interviews.  The ideas are endless.

Give us a call to see how we can help you.  937-673-8450

I was invited to be on a panel discussion today at the New Media Dayton monthly event.  A monthly gathering for those interested in media, marketing and social media.  The topic was “trends to look for in 2011″ and I was asked to be with other social media and marketing geniuses (I was honored just to be on stage with them).  We started a discussion that I want to continue here.

All Hail King Google:

I’ve been noticing a shift in trends in 2010 and look to see an increase in the coming years over a potential “battle royale”.  Over the past several years we’ve seen the rise of the mighty Google.  I Google everything: questions, spelling, directions, information, events, recipes and more.  Google was built by extremely smart engineers who have a secret algorithm that gives priority to fresh and relevant content.  But, adding regular content like: blogging, news, updates and information will greatly help you as it is captured by Google and you get higher rankings.  Having video on your site is huge too…find out more here.  Google relies on how many times people use your site and how many sites are linked to yours.  This can be good and bad.  It can be good in that you might get a lot of “hits” to your website because of a promo you run.  It can be bad because while you may get a hundreds of visitors to your website, they might not translate into customers or people who return to your site. While Google is extremely valuable still, it might be trending to something else.  Google has been king of search for a while and we have even called it, “the information age”…but a shift is coming.  I think we are heading into the “social age”.

Socially Acceptable:

In today’s discussion, the topic of marketing, information and the social component came up.  April Mescher of ZipSetGo.com made a comment about how everything is going social (social media with Youtube/Twitter/Facebook/LinkedIn, online check in through Foursquare, Groupon, etc).  She shared the term “Friendformation”, which got me thinking.   People are moving away from raw, impersonal data to personal recommendations on everything from which restaurant to eat at this weekend, to which vehicle to purchase.  We ask other friends and colleagues where to do business and and where not to do business.  I want to know what my friends thought of a movie or what others in the business community think of a new trend, rather than depending on the cold, hard statistics.  We all depend on personal connections…and this trend is growing.  We were created to be social in our interactions and this is coming out through social media.  Keep an eye out for the “Friendformation” vs Information battle (grab some popcorn, it could get interesting!).

The Great Divide:

Here is where the the shift happened.  Facebook, who has approx 500 million members, has decided not to open up their information to Google.  That means  that Google, the kings of information and mathematics, can’t comb through all the information that we share freely.  I believe that Facebook (along with other social media outlets) will be challenging the search engine and become something even greater.  A social search engine.

So how does your business use: Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, LinkedIn, Yelp, Foursqare, Moolala, Groupon, etc, etc?  Do you just depend on a static website that is 5 years old?  Do you engage your customers, clients, friends and relationships?  Yes, it can be intimidating since “times are a’ changing”, but the shift is happening.  Consider this your warning.

Agree, disagree?  What do you think?  Leave a comment and we can all chime in!  (which proves the social aspects that I’m talking about!)

During the project our client changed their mind on what they wanted from the film several times. It got to a point where the direction of the project had shifted enough that the footage that we had wasn’t going to be enough. Mid way through we had to come up with a creative solution in order to not have to get more footage, and go outside of their budget. Through some after effects and some editing we were able to come up with a creative solution that they were happy with. In the end Cardinal was very pleased with the final result and it met the creative and professional balance that they wanted.

We always get a concept approved before we move forward with anyone. This was an example of someone wanting to go outside of the concept after we had already filmed. We never want to go over budget, but more importantly we always want the client to be proud to show their video to everyone (after all, that is the point isn’t it?). With our knowledge of Post-Production, and the tools we have in place we were able to work with them to create a great video without having to raise their cost. Here is an example of the video that they posted on their YouTube channel:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSsrEyV-VbA

That statement in and of itself is controversial. Not only can you not make a viral video, you might not be able to make a video viral. It seems as though everyone wants to have a “viral video” these days. That is well and good, however you cannot create a “viral video”. Wikipedia defines a viral video as one “that becomes popular through the process of Internet sharing, typically through video sharing websites and email.” Now let me explain how you can do this. You must first make a video that is full of great content. Whether that content is funny, interesting, educational, or just crazy is up to you. Once a video is created than you can attempt to make the video viral. The key word there is “attempt”. The bottom line is that if no one wants to watch your video, than it will not go viral.
There are some things to consider when attempting to make a video that can go viral. As a business you must first consider what the goal of your video is. There are several questions to ask yourself:

- Who do you want to watch your video?
- What kind of people do you want watching your video?
- How many people do you want watching your video?

It is important to answer these questions before you go producing a video. If you do not care who sees your video, and you just want as many views as possible than your content could be wide open. If you want to market the video to your industry than the content will need to be slanted towards that particular industry. So while there is no way to make a “viral video” there is a way to make a video that has a good chance of going viral.
The key to producing a video that has the best chance of going viral is, like I mentioned before, great content and also a distribution strategy after the video has been produced. The video must be a video that people will be inclined to watch. It is critical for someone who specializes in video to create a video that they know people will watch. Ideas sound good in a board room, but we are talking about internet viewers here. People are impatient and very critical of online content. There is so much out there, so you must find a way for yours to stand out. Also, it is extremely important for someone who is knowledgeable of social media to spread your idea. Once the video is online, it must spread, and one of the best ways to do that is by using a company who understands how social media works. Exit Row Productions are specialists in both content creation and video distribution online. We would love to help you create videos that go viral.

Videos of the Month:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAllFWSl998

www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8cAU475dQo

www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnJX2FiW-ik

Web Pick of the Month:

Letter Me Later

Merry Christmas!

1. Youtube is the second largest search engine behind Google.
2. Americans now watch an average of 30 minutes of Video online per day (see article here)
3. Video is over 50% of the bandwidth used online  (see article here)
4. Having video on your website can help you jump to the top of the Google search page (see article here).
5. Videos were 53 times more likely than traditional web pages to receive an organic first-page ranking (see article here).

You’ve probably noticed the swing from traditional marketing and media to social networking on sites like: Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn and more.  In fact the growth of these site is staggering.  Did you know, if Facebook was a country it would be the 3rd largest in the world.?  And Twitter has over 105 million users and is adding 300,000 per day!

But did you know Youtube was the most buzzed about social networking site of the year!

YouTube has come out on top in a ranking of 2010’s most buzzed-about websites and social media services.  This year was the year of video — in volume and positive mentions — of YouTube…The Zeta 2010 Buzz Awards measures the mentions of 125 of the top social media sites to determine not just popularity but how people feel about those sites, too.  “We held a mirror up to the social media world and try to get an understanding of what people are saying about the various social networking sites,” said Al DiGuido, CEO of Zeta Interactive, a digital marketing agency in New York City.  People seem to be saying good things about YouTube and Flickr. The blogosphere spoke positively about YouTube 91% of the time and about Flickr 98% of the time. Those positive mentions, along with the sites’ volume of mentions, landed them in the top two spots on the list.

If people have such a positive attitude of YouTube (even more than the popular Facebook, Twitter and Groupon!), you can count on the fact that people will be searching for business related topics on YouTube.

Let 2011 be the year that you start harnessing the power of video on your website, YouTube, video sharing sites and more!  Let Exit Row Productions help you formulate a plan based on your specific needs.

We’ve been serving both large and small businesses for almost 10 years and LOVE doing it.  We’ve got to see some amazing companies doing incredible things.  Here are some projects that we’ve done for some of our clients…and we could do the same for you.  We’ve had clients all over country and have been overseas doing some amazing projects as well.  But, the thing we love most is using creative ideas to convey messages.  We pride ourselves in the creativity that we bring to the table.  Some projects don’t allow for overtly creative ideas, but when given the chance…we can give some out of the box ideas.

Here are just a few things that Exit Row Productions has done in the Dayton area and beyond

• Marketing pieces
• Training videos (examples here)
• Customer testimonials (see here for examples)
• Local and national Commercials (see a video of ours that was on MSNBC)
• Trade show videos
• Commercials
• PowerPoint videos on steroids
• Interviews
• Presentations divided into segments and spread out over time through social media  (see here for examples)
• Website FAQ (examples here)
• Video success stories (examples here)
• Video case studies
• Videos for non-profits (we shot this video for the Y)
• Creative promos (we love creative…and have some very good ideas…not to brag)
• local government and city promo and intro videos

These are just a few types of videos that we can do.  How can we help you?

The Digital Entertainment Group, recently released some stats that show physical media sales are dropping.  Which means DVDs are going the way of the 8-track and cassette tape.   Digital delivery is gaining in consumer confidence and comprehension as they understand the importance of this format and how taking one video and applying it across multiple platforms can save money and increase exposure.

According to The Digital Entertainment Group, “digital distribution was 13.%% of overall spending and consists of electronic sell-through (EST) and video-on-demand. EST was up 37% reaching $432M with VOD  jumping 20% and ending the nine-month period at $1.2B”.

Having high quality content in digital form is exciting for us at Exit Row Productions because we can make a video one time and deliver it across multiple platforms.  This means that your online video efforts are far more vital than in the past since everything online (especially video) is growing so rapidly.  In fact, we work with our clients after the video is made to help with distribution.  We offer our expertise on digital delivery through websites like YouTube and across multiple social media platforms for ultimate exposure.

Let us help you today with your video needs.  Whatever your distribution needs are, we can take your concept to completion and help you maximize the distribution of your video online.  Contact us today for more information about how we can help you.

Don’t forget about the 20% discount for Dayton Business Spotlight members. It’s our way of saying thank you for investing in the Dayton region.   Contact us today for more details.

We all know Kroger as the best grocery store in town (and the country!) but did you know Kroger has a television department?  Each region has its own internal television department that handles training, promotions and news updates that is sent out to their employees each week.  They do an amazing job of speed and quality with all of the video projects that go through this studio on a weekly basis.

Because of the high work load in August and September, Kroger TV contacted Exit Row Productions to come into the studio in Cincinnati to work for 7 days on editing several video projects.  Last year Exit Row Productions also did some work with Kroger TV and they asked us back for more this year.  Projects ranged from promotional content to several training series that had a tight deadline that need to be started and completed.

The station manager had this to say about the services that Jeff Long provided while there.

I am grateful for Jeff’s help.  I really like the way he is able to pick up on a project and, from a mere description, take it through to completion.

If Kroger TV uses Exit Row Productions for their editing and video needs, than imagine how much we can help you.  Exit Row Productions specializes in taking projects from concept to completion and can also handle the distribution, social media marketing, and even website creation to display your new videos.  Give us a call to see how we can help you.

Earlier this summer, the Atlanta based North American Mission Board, contacted Exit Row Productions for a new website campaign they were starting.  They asked Exit Row Productions to create several videos for the upcoming Why Card website release and booked them to shoot the videos in Virginia.  The website chronicles the lives of 3 people sharing their stories about what their lives were like in college and how one relationship drastically changed their lives.  Each person’s story tells of the pain they held internally while trying to find meaning and how a new relationship changed their lives forever.  We talked with the Athlete, the Party Girl and the Drug Dealer.

Each video was shot on location at the university they attended in high quality High Definition at 1080p for maximum quality.  That way when it was put online the quality was kept but we were able to get it into a manageable file size for the end user.

North American Mission Board plan to roll this out nationwide soon and will also let churches and organizations around the world know of this website and and these stories.

Check out the website and watch each video to see what each person had to say.  Click here to view the website and videos.