Saturday, October 8, 2011

Home Business - Making your own home business videos

iPhone
 Image Credit: Flickr

Are you using videos to promote your home business?  Now everyone with a smartphone or a flip ultra hd video camera is ready to start making videos for their home businesses.  The truth is that you don't even need a video camera to make videos.  They have screen capture software that you can use to make videos with your powerpoint presentations.

All you have to do is get the screen capture software and record audio while you flip through the slideshow.  This can be a good way to create video and you don't have to appear on screen.  You can write text all day on your blog or website but adding something visual can be a big help in explaining concepts.

If you don't mind appearing in videos you can always break out your video camera and start making videos.  Just make sure to practice, practice, practice.  When you record yourself you notice things in the video that you  are doing. Are you saying um alot?  Are you clearing your throat too much?  Just keep working at it until you get your video the way you want it to appear.

Another way to make videos quick just using photos is to use animoto.  They take your pictures and add music to create a video slideshow.  Its really simple to use and its a quick way to make videos for your home business.  Videos give you another way to share information with your audience.

Adjusting to the Mobile Market

Home business owners need to get ready for mobile devices.  Mobile devices like the apple iphone and the apple ipad are letting customers surf the internet while they are around town.  So now customers have access to powerful computing devices while they are driving down the road or while out shopping. How can a home business owner benefit from mobile marketing?

You have to first see how mobile marketing fits in with your business.  Lets take a real estate office for example.  Real Estate Agents are really a mobile workforce.  They have to drop everything that they are doing at a moments notice to show a potential buyer a house.  Agents just don't sit in the office like they use to.  They can laptops, mobile printers, and smartphones to make sure that they can stay connected with their clients and other professionals.

Agents know that they have to keep up with current technology because their clients do.  Now clients have just as much access to property data as the agents do.  Agents might want to setup a mobile website that keeps their clients updated.  They might want to create mobile websites for their current listings so that someone going by a property can quickly get access to information about the property.  This could include setting up qr or quick response codes that allow a prospect buyer to view pictures of the listed property from their smartphone.

Now lets take a look at the local restaurant.  Maybe its a local pizza place.  How could mobile marketing help them.  People are use to seeing advertisements for pizza in the phone book.  But now that the internet is available on smartphones do you reach for the phone book when you want to get information or do you get online and type a google search?  The pizza business owner could collect the phone numbers of their clients and offer coupons via text messages.  They could also setup a mobile web application that lets people design their pizzas without picking up the telephone and calling an order in.  This way people get the order correct because they are the ones entering the information.  The pizza place owner could use mobile marketing and search engine optimization to attract local pizza lovers.  Smartphones have apps that can tell which businesses are closest to their location.

What does this have to do with your home business?  You need to become aware of how mobile marketing is impacting your business.  How can you use mobile marketing for your business?  QR codes, text messages, and mobile websites are newer technologies that you need to learn about and apply to your business.



Home Business Owners - Take advantage of the opportunities

Why do people want to work from home?  Its the American Dream to own your own home and run your own business. Deep down people know that when you are working for someone else you really don't have control over your future.

Companies go out of business through no fault of their employees sometimes but they still need to make a living.  Also the time and energy it takes to go through the process of trying to get hired can just be too much for some people.  Instead of waiting they try to earn money using their own skills and abilities.  It means becoming their own boss.

People want to run businesses because they know that successful business owners have no income limitations. Employees know exactly how much money they are going to make at the beginning of the year.  A business owner could come up with an idea and generate more sales than they expected.  Business owners have more freedom.  They can decide what hours they want to work.  As long as they can get the job done and can find clients they can stay in business.

The internet is opening doors to business opportunities for home business owners.  With new technologies, new opportunities are coming about.  Home business owners need to stay abreast of changes that are happening in the marketplace and be ready to take advantage of them.

Home Business - Web Content for Your New Home Business Website

One of the first things that you are going to do with your home business is get online.  You have a lot of choices when it comes to putting your home business online. You can go with a free blogging system like blogger.  Or you could get your own web hosting account and create your own website.

Building websites is super easy now.  All you really need to know is what you want placed on your site. Make sure to gather any pictures or graphics that you want to include on your new site. You might also want to look into getting a logo designed for your new home business.  You can find a lot of places online that can create a logo for you.

The most important part of your new home business site is the content.  What type of website are you going to have?  What do you want people to do once they get on the site?  You need to know this so you can craft the information that you provide online. Remember the web is all about information.  You want to detail info about your products and services.  You might have great writing skills and this could be a no brainer for you, but if you are not a great writer you can still get the information you need to put on your site.

You can get content online from a number of sources. PLR is usually inexpensive content that you can change and adapt for your purposes.  Or you could hire a freelance writer to come up with content for your site.  Your first website might not have a lot of content.  You might just want to include basic information with your contact info and your services.

Taking the first step with building your home business website is not hard at all. Once you get your site up you can move on to other online social media apps and post your web site in your profiles.  Setting up a home business website gives you access to potential clients 24 hours a day.  So don't put off making your website.