This is especially true when it comes to the younger generation. Do you think you are going to get them to read that much? :) I doubt it. It is just so much easier to watch a video.

I do think there are some good ones out there, but I hear you lol. But yes of course you want to produce quality and you also need to think about how helpful video is to many. It does not always need to be a work of art to be helpful. There are so many times I got stuck on Wordpress for example. Where do I go? I go to Youtube and sometimes those videos are just screen recordings showing the steps without someone even talking, but it solved my problem and was exactly what I wanted to know.

One thing is sure, if you do not do video creation, you are losing out on a massive amount of traffic.

Depends on your niche too I guess

Perhaps? I am struggling to think of a niche that cannot benefit from video traffic though.

So totally with you, Ann. Give me a well written user guide over a video any day. Quite aside from anything else, I can go to the TOC or index and find exactly what I'm looking for in seconds, compared to rewinding or jumping forward in a video and hunting for it.

And the American ones in particular are so full of fluff.

Phil true, it has its pros and its cons but here I guess it is circumstancial. For me if I have a Wordpress issue then this is exactly the opposite scenario for me though. Instead of having to look it up in a thick manual or articles I simply type in what I struggle with in Youtube and up comes that 2 minute explainer video showing me exactly what it is I need to know. But yes I guess here it definitely depends on the circumstances. I will agree with you, that sometimes text is definitely king!

It is also interesting how the personal preference here differs and that is what is so awesome about it, coz it shows that there is therefore definitely a market for video as well as articles.

Sure, I totally understand that Ann and I are in the minority here and that video must become an important part of my marketing and education strategy.

I love a thick manual that has everything I need to know in the one place, with a well organized TOC and index.

Yes I agree that any niche will benefit from the video traffic, but I think some niches lend themselves more easily to video promotion than others. I’ll bite the bullet and do it at some stage, just mulling over the subjects, style and delivery.

Thank you, Schalk, that was a very generous amount of your time that you put into that reply.

And I totally agree. I know I have to open a YouTube channel and I know I have to learn how to make decent videos.

And I also agree that your face on camera is an important trust factor. Cringe-worthy though it might be!

The videos I like are the ones where there's a screen capture happening with a small talking head in the lower right corner, which expands to full screen when the screen capture pauses for a point to be explained. Very professional looking.

Yes I am happy with those kind of videos where my face appears small in the right hand corner while doing screen recording explainer videos lol. I have some of those :)

And you are welcome!

Very helpful reply to Phils questions, thanks for taking the time as this is an area I will need to look at in the near future

Thanks

Kevin

You are welcome! Glad I could be of help.

No worries, its all a learning curve for me having started from zero a few months ago so every little helps. I just watched your embroidery video on youtube and gave it a like!

Have a great day

Kevin

Lol thanks so much Kevin. Yes Youtube for the embroidery business is a very lonely place at the moment. And I am a bit stuck here because it is not like my online marketing niche I used to have where I got loads of stuff to say and loads of products to review. I know very little about embroidery and I do not do embroidery and neither do I personally own any embroidery machines etc. If you read my article "My first sale - 9 days after joining WA" then you will understand that the embroidery niche just came by chance and I realised it is making money although I do not have much interest in it.

So it is one of those funny odd situations where I am actually marketing something I do not have that much interest in or knowledge about - but here is the crazy thing. I actually do enjoy the marketing of it somehow. I know, it sounds crazy and I do not even know how it works myself lol. But it all just started through trying to help a friend out with his embroidery business.

Youtube though I am now stuck because I do not possess the software myself and I do not do embroidery lol. So this is going to be a very tricky one. In regards to the articles, it does not come naturally and I have to do quite a bit of research and learning myself in order to create articles for the embroidery niche.

So yes this will of course not be my main niche of interest, but that does not mean that I will not work hard on making this a great success.

My niche used to be more in the fitness, supplement and online marketing niche. I do still have quite a bit of following on my social media platforms for the fitness niche so might be able to continue down this avenue. What is perfect is that I sell a fitness program for pregnant women lol so this connects very well with the embroidery niche and selling baby products.

All the best, Kevin!

Intersting, thanks again for the response. Are you planning to market the WA platform in the future? I have almost the opposite problem to you.

I won't go in to it here but my background is health and fitness and have studied this to a high level (maybe we should talk!). My focus has switched however to plant based diets and veganism.

I have been eating a whole food plant based diet for about 8 years and the science and topic interests me so I enjoy writing about it.

The issue I have is that there is so much competition out there, a lot of it very poorly informed and really no high value products to market unless you produce your own plans etc.

My goal at the moment is to get the site to a size that I am happy with and increase my online knowledge as I do so.

I will then review how I focus my efforts for revenue generation and probably look at doing the bootcamp and marketing WA.

Have great day and keep in touch

Kevin

Yes I started re-building from scratch the embroidery site on the second of January and I am busy as we speak now re-building from scratch a site of mine called Product Spotlight. So Product Spotlight will allow for the promotion of WA, Jaaxy etc. And tbh as it is so broad I can pretty much promote any products there lol. The idea might also be to provide some online marketing tips there and to recommend online marketing software that works.

Yes we can certainly talk about the fitness niche. I had a fantastic fitness program that I promoted from one of the top body builders in the world so it was a really well put together fitness program based on proper science. The issue is that it seems that they do not care to go the affiliate marketing route anymore. I think they told me in a personal email that they got hacked and lost a crazy amount of money in the process and also very angry customers. That is what might have changed.

And I am livid as almost all my promotion was just around his fitness programs and now this looks a bit like a dead end as well. Haha so yeah things are not always that straight forward, but yip, one thing at a time.

And then out of interest, without being biased. Do you look and feel any better being on a plant based diet only?

Hi Schalk

I think that sounds ideal, it will give you the flexibility to adapt with what works. I think I will take a similar route once I am happy with what I have on my niche site and I feel a little more comfortable with all of the technology.

Yes I'm 53 now and won't go in to lots of detail here but from my mid 20's through to early 40's I was always in the gym and have taken just about every supplement available.

I started having health problems and focused my attention on health and health span (so longevity plus health), rather than just short term goals.

Because of this I had to "relearn" much of what I though I knew and I have learnt a tremendous amount in the past 10 years

In answer to your question, I feel really healthy, I never really get ill now, I have lots more energy and all of my annual health checks are so much improved from 10 years ago.

Do I look healthier? well of course thats subjective, I was quite heavily muscled before and now I am 20kg lighter.

I have a very slim face so peoples first reaction if they haven't seen me for many years is that I look to slim but that is my natural makeup.

Plus of course I'm 53 and not 40 so we do change a lot. But I would absolutely advocate a plant based lifestyle for anyone interested in long term health, so yes as far as I'm concerned I look and feel better.

Have a great week and keep in touch, if there is anything I can help with give me a shout

Kevin

I agree with Phil. Thank you for taking the time to share your experiences, thoughts and recommendations here. You have provided some great information and food for thought.

Hi Kevin, it will be very interesting to hear your take on what you would recommend for the competing bodybuilder in regards to meal plans as you have now seen both sides of the coin. I agree with you that a plant based diet is probably the best for long term health. However if you are to compete in the Arnold Classic I guess you can't really avoid meat, can you?

The bodybuilder whose program I was selling is called Ben Pakulski. Maybe you heard of him? He is from Canada. In 2013 he came second in the Arnold Classic which was probably his greatest achievement to date. He at some point had an alternative veggie meal plan that you could offer to those that want to avoid meat. However, I asked his opinion on whether you can get the same kind of results on the veggie plan than his standard recommended meal plan that does contain a lot of meat and his answer to me was that if you want to stay scrawny and weak then be on a veggie plan only and avoid meat, as he said that he tried it.

However what he is saying here needs to probably be taken with a pinch of salt because for me the pinnacle example of a guy that is super fit and super healthy and very well built is Frank Medrano. He is on a plant based diet only. I don't know if you know him, but if not look him up. It is absolutely insane what he can do with his body. You will see what I mean when you watch his videos and he must have insane strength. However, he has the fitness model kind of look and not the bodybuilding look.

So I guess it depends on what it is you would like to achieve in the end. Not sure what your take is on it, but I would say plant based diet = more healthy but if you want to be a competing bodybuilder in the Arnold Classic and stuff like that, then I guess it will be impossible to achieve those kind of results without having meat in your diet. Do you agree on that or do you think it is possible to be a competing bodybuilder in events like the Arnold Classic on a plant based diet only?

Thanks @SondraM. I am glad if anyone was able to take something useful from the information I provided. Wishing you all the best here on WA! Kind regards. Schalk Zeeman

So by the way it is amazing what kind of video creation people are doing these days with their phones and even stuff like Facebook Video Live is really awesome to connect with your audience and you can actually upload those type of videos created via Facebook directly to Youtube or download it first, edit it and then upload it to Youtube. It is pretty amazing, but I myself have not tried that as yet. I should really, but I am not really that kind of person that likes to go live on Facebook and stuff lol. I should really as I can see how valuable it could be, but yes I first need to think how to connect with only my business audience on Facebook and making sure my friends and family are excluded in those ones lol. I think I know how, but just not came round to doing so as yet.

Thanks, Marion. I have used Snagit for screen capture but if I decide to upgrade to Camtasia I'll get back to you.

Marion, I am new here and therefore I am still a bit uncertain when it comes to certain aspects what is allowed and what is not allowed on WA. You mentioned "ask for my affiliate link". Are we allowed to do that? I for example the other day had people ask me what Wordpress theme I was using and the person went off to go buy the theme I recommended to him and I was thinking, darn - it would have been so awesome if he would have bought through my affiliate link as he is buying it anyways and I did recommend it to him.

But I was thinking to myself - nope none of this is allowed here on WA and thinking even the private messages are scanned for promotion I understood and understood you can get banned for any type of promotion even inside private messaging. So can you provide me with some clarity on where to draw the line? What are we allowed to do and not allowed to do on WA in this regard? Many thanks for your help in this regard. Much appreciated.

Kind regards
Schalk

I can't interpret the rules, Schalk, but I try to follow them. Spam is a NO NO!

Thank you, I will have a read again. I am just trying to get my head screwed on correctly doing things right as do not want to get into trouble but do not want to miss out when opportunity presents either lol. Sometimes it's these little grey areas that I struggle with as I am not always sure if I am interpreting the rules correctly.