I answer questions I receive at AskShawnCollins.com on video, and then transcribe those answers to make blog posts.
Video isn't for everybody, and I am not going to teach you how to create videos here, as that's a whole big tutorial in itself. But I will say that it's easier than I expected.
Back in late 2006, I decided I wanted to learn how to edit video, so I forced myself.
When I wrote the copy for my business Christmas cards, I included a note for people to go to a link to see a special video message. That gave me about a week to figure out video and get a video posted to put on that page.
I ended up purchasing Sony Vegas video editing software for the PC and had a completed video inside of a couple hours – just from looking at a couple tutorials.
Also, whenever I've gotten stuck, I've found that there are tons of videos on YouTube on how to do things with video editing software.
You don't have to sound or look like a newscaster. I film all of my videos in one take without a script with a Casio Exilim EX-FH20 and a tripod. I like that camera, and it enables me to shoot in HD, but really any camera that records video will do.
Anyhow, the reason I include video in the process is that YouTube is the #2 search engine. So why settle for having your original content indexed in Google, when you can also have it in YouTube?
When I answer the questions on video, my answers are in natural language and naturally keyword rich. There are services to transcribe audio, but my answers are just a minute or two long, so I transcribe them myself.
I include the questions as I receive them, so they are asked the way people really ask questions. I typically see variations of the same dozen questions or so, and I answer each with their minor differences.
As you might imagine, this strategy works well, because I achieve long-tail penetration.
Some people might get annoyed to sort of repeatedly answer the same questions. I embrace the chance to have my content out there for as many variations of a search as possible.
You can see my YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/affiliatetip.
Speaking of Google (they own YouTube if you didn't know), you can also use Google Alerts as a regular source for new content.
I still have not got into making videos on any of the topics yet. Its easier for me to write a blog post than to face the camera. But eventually I might get rid of it. Videos seem to be a great source of traffic and a how-to is always successful. I had always thought that we have to be quite good with everything before setting up a video but now am really thinking of making an informative video.