I stumbled across this video via Facebook.

It’s a rather long clip (14 mins) but you don’t feel like it is while you listen to it. Thandie Newton is quite engaging.

She uses her personal story to share how she discovered a love for herself.

She also discusses her battles with bulimia and her funny take on how therapy has it’s place.

Overall, it’s one engaging video. From her struggles with her childhood awkwardness to her continued discovery of self to her eventual acceptance of self, Thandie Newton message inspires all who listen.

So listen and see if you can see yourself in her simple message.

Try to remember what part stands out most to you after you watch it. You know what I’m going to say.

Leave your comments below on your favorite parts.

Ok. So you are ready to take the big leap into professional video. Well, not so fast. Here are some crititcal questions you must ask before you hire a video production company. If you don’t, you could waste lots of time and money.

Over the next several days, I will reveal my “5 Questions You Must Ask Before Hiring A Video Professional” series.

Each video is 1 minute or less and is easy to digest. So let’s get started.

Question #1: Who Owns The Video?

I would say this is the number one question to ask.

One of the great things about video is that once it’s out there, it’s out there. As long as YouTube is around, you can rest assured that your video is viewable for all who stumble upon it.
But there are video production companies who charge you both an upfront fee in addition to a monthly hosting fee.

Well, what happens if you stop paying your monthly hosting fee? Will the video no longer be visible online? Will you have to pay an additional fee for the video? What happens to your video?

You also want to inquire if your video will be uploaded to YouTube, the most popular video site in the world. Or are you forced to use their hosting company?

These are important questions to ask before hiring a video production company. If you fail to ask these questions, you could wind up paying unnecessary monthly hosting fees to view your videos online.

At LuckyMagenta.com you own your video. There are no monthly hosting fees involved. LuckyMagenta also uploads the video for you to YouTube for no additional fees. Please view my Website Marketing Services here. Call 646-259-3676 to book your video shoot.

And don’t forget to ask your video production company question number one: Who owns the video?

Ok. So I’m slipping 2 days in a row! But I’m determined to keep my 30 day blogging promise.

But it’s with good reason.

I’ve been working on my “The Truth About Video Marketing” 7 day video series.

I encourage you create a series in which you can share your knowledge. Yes, I know, it’s yet another marketing thing you must do. But this one is super important.

As I’ve been blogging, my website traffic has been increasing. Yea!

But I’ve realized that I’ve only completed part of the puzzle – get traffic. The other part of the puzzle is capture leads. It’s important to have a system in place in which you can lead a person from visitor to a prospect and finally into a customer. One of the best ways to do that is to capture your visitors information so that you can continue to contact them.

I’ll be creating a whole series on how to do this very thing shortly. But it’s almost midnight.

Sidenote: I once had a roommate who I loved to chat with. We’d always talk before going to bed. We both had jobs in which we had to wake up early. We would discuss everything. Then before you know it, it’d be midnight and we’d have to go to bed. She’d always end the night by saying “it’s always midnight”. That saying always stuck, and these days it seems so true.

So it’s almost midnight. But come back tomorrow. I’m launching Tip 1 of the “Questions You Must Ask Before Hiring a Video Professional”. Don’t worry it’s not fluff like “Go see their portfolio”. Who doesn’t know that.

Ok. Stay tuned. Whew! 30 day blogging promise in tact!

I’m keeping a promise to myself to post for 30 days straight. It’s 10:20pm so I’m essentially keeping my promise.

I had such a horrible day today.

I don’t typically eat meat anymore. A couple of years ago, I tried the Raw Food Diet and had the most energy of my life. I could really go. I also HAD lost crap loads of weight and was happy. I loved that feeling.

The bad part came when I had to date. Ahh, that horrible task left to the single women of New York City. On every date, guys would respond to me so negatively when I “only” ordered a salad. But I looked sooo good, and unless you are at a raw food restaurant, the only thing you can order is a salad.

I would say “Do you want me to look like this or do you want me to eat crap and NOT look like this. You can’t have it both ways.”

They’d never answer. But I eventually started to slowly “allow” myself non raw foods. Big mistake and before you know it, my raw food diet was over.

Sadly, once you start allowing a little ice cream here, or a chicken leg there, it’s hard to rid them of your system – AGAIN!

But I somehow managed to eliminate red meat from my diet. That is until I discovered Viand Restaurant on the Upper East Side. They have the best hamburgers! The bread is so soft and the meat is so tasty. The best part is that the meat is real meat and not some frozen patty.

But those hamburgers are sooo rough on my body. They zap my body of all my energy. I dragged around all day today due to the one I ate last night.

Moral Of The Story
So the moral of the story is to think twice before you eat meat, and keep your 30 day post promises. Even if you end up telling people you had a bad day because you cheated on your diet last night;-).

P.S. The pic above is my raw food version of a cheeseburger. Click here if you want to see some of my Raw Food Recipes. I used to carry that book in my purse to drool over the pictures and recipes. They are sooo good. I still keep to some of the recipes on a regular basis. Here is one of my favorites. I drink it every morning.

Green Smoothie
2 ripe bananas (They aren’t ripe unless they have brown spots)
1/2 cup of cold water
2 cups of Raw Spinach

At all ingredients into a blender and blend for 1 minute. Enjoy.

Small business resources and productivity go hand and hand when you work alone. Working from home can get uber boring. It’s not meant for everyone. But given that you do work from home, you might as well live it up.

I found this website which allows you to become your own DJ. You can pick your own songs and listen while you work. The best part is it’s FREE, it doesn’t interrupt your grove with commercials, and you get to form your own music cue.

I’m more of a white noise television kinda girl, i.e, my immense addiction to Golden Girls, Roseanne and Three’s Company.
But for all you music lovers out there, you should check out Groove Shark. This site definitely belongs in your small business resources arsenal.

You get to play full length songs of your choosing for FREE.

You don’t even have to sign up if you don’t feel like it. Unfortunately, the downside of not signing up is when you close your browser all the songs that you have painstakingly lined up will erase, and you will have to set up your music cue from scratch all over again.

But other than that, Groove Shark rocks!

How’s This Small Business Resource Relate To Videos Lady?

Glad you ask. I’m a big advocate of “doing is better than perfection”. So if you have a simple video camera setup and you want to jazz it up a bit but don’t know or care about how to edit video, then this method is perfect for you.
A simple video editing trick is to have music playing in the background while you record your video. But you must heed these 3 rules before proceeding with this method.

3 Rules To Recording Video With Music Playing In The Background.

1. Lower The Volume. You should faintly hear your background music. Your voice should be loud and very audible. Otherwise, you will inadvertently create a very frustrating experience in which your viewers will strain to hear your voice. Not good. So keep the volume low and barely audible.

2. Respect YouTube Rules. If you record a video with a copyrighted song in the background you must give the artist credit when you upload your video. If you do not, Youtube will disable your audio or reject your video. So make sure to give credit where credit it due.

3. Think Ahead To The Future. If your future goal is to become a YouTube Partner, and earn extra money from Youtube ads, you not want to add copyrighted songs to your video library. YouTube does not like to partner with users who have lots of copyrighted material in their video library. So keep this in mind, if you have any future goals of become a Youtube partner.

FYI
The Youtube partner program is when ads display along side your video channel. Those ads have been know to pay handsomely in the past according to this article.

Use Groove Shark to keep yourself productive as you work from home, use it to create quick, simple, background music, or use it as your favorite small business resource.

Either way, you’ll love Groove Shark. Ok now, back to Golden Girls. That Blanche is so funny.

Blanche: When Blanche Devereaux goes after a man, she doesn’t stand on ceremony!
Sophia: Or the floor.

Love Them.
Photo by: GDS Infographics
Leave comments below it you think this is one of the coolest small business resources you’ve discovered?

You must use a chat service like Snap Engage if you want a leg up in turning your website visitors into a customers.

Call it the Twitter, Iphone, or web effect, but people want what they want now! And you are missing the opportunity to give it to them if you aren’t using live help software.

It’s funny, but I’m like one of those “people”. Sometimes when I’m on a website, I just want to ask a question. Yes, I could fill out a form and wait for them to get back to me. But these days, I’m a bit weary about giving out my website address; much less my phone number. Usually I end up leaving my “junk” email address. But then I forget to go check my junk email address account for the answer. How many of your potential customers do you think are doing the same thing?

So I stumbled upon a website that had Snap Engage installed, and I was hooked. The person immediately answered my question and I got to purchase my product perfectly satisfied that it would meet my needs. From that moment on, I was hooked on the chat support idea.

Benefits of Snap Engage.

Now, I’m trying it out on my own site. While I don’t get much traffic, I do get some traffic on a daily basis. Now if one of my visitors has a question that they want answered, but don’t feel like bothering to call or make a move, they will be nudged, to ask away.

The Snap Engage monthly fee is cheap. I pay more for client acquisition, all over the place. I’m sure this small fee will pay for itself and will barely go noticed.

The other benefit is engagement. What if one of your visitors just wants to reach out and comment on one of your blog posts. Wouldn’t that interaction be valuable. While, it may not immediately turn into a sale, it is a step in the right direction. This live help software will allow you to connect and begin the long trek needed to turn a stranger into a customer. Awesome!
Lastly, the best benefit of Snap Engage is that you will be able to interact with your visitors no matter where you are.

Here’s How It Works.

I’m using Skype to manage my account. But you can use Gmail and Google talk if you like. I’m using Skype because I like the alert feature and I’m not too well versed in Google Talk at the time of this post. Whenever I’m online, I just launch Skype and whenever a website visitor has a question, I am notified via Skype that a website visitor is in need of some attention. I can also manage Snap Engage from my Iphone using my Free Skype app. As long as I’m signed into Skype I receive alerts like they are text messages. Love that! That way I’m not nursing my computer and waiting for alerts!

The other feature that I really love is that I get to see from which page a visitor is coming from and where they are geographically located. This is especially helpful for me, because I am a local company in New York City.

How It Works For Your Visitors.

The website visitor will be presented with a “Can I help you prompt” after a certain number of seconds of being on certain pages. I enabled this feature on a couple of my pages. If a website visitor does have a question, I will receive an alert. And can then interact with the visitor. The program will allow you to engage in an instant chat and then after the chat have the chat transcripts emailed to you. Valuable!

It’s easy to set up, low cost, and has a Free 21 day trial.

I am affiliate for the Snap Engage product but I created my video, way before then. I loved the concept that much.
It’s easy to install for all sites. If you have a WordPress site you just copy and paste the script into your WordPress press theme. They provide instructions.

How To Install Snap Engage To The Thesis Theme for WordPress

If you are using the best theme on the planet! (affiliate link). Then here are the correct instructions on how to install Snap Engage to Thesis Theme.

1. Open your custom functions.php file.
2. Copy and paste the code below
3. Replace “Your Snap Engage Script Here” with the code from Snap Engage.
4. Done.

// Snapengage code
function snapengage_code() {?>
Your Snap Engage script here

<?php
}
add_action (‘thesis_hook_before_footer’,'snapengage_code’);

Photo by blakespot

Stop losing out on potentential customers and install your Snap Enage chat service today.

Starting a new small business can be so frustrating, especially in the uber competitive New York City.

I know. Sometimes you can’t even give your business away. I know, I’ve tried. And so has Sweet Revenge owner Marlo Scott, surprising right. I was shocked to learn that a now super successful business, had also struggled in its beginning. I had to laugh and say “Ok, so everyone goes through this”. Here is a small business business success story and the lessons learned.

Everyone Goes Through It!

When I saw this video below, it calmed my inner doubt girl. Like all small business owners, I struggle to get business too. It’s hard out there. Marlo revealed how hard her early days were. “I stood out on the sidewalk and handed away [cupcakes]… Trying to get people to eat something for free here in New York is damn near impossible”. But she did it.

After her first year, Marlo’s Sweet Revenge, barely broke even. But she kept at it. Good to know, right. Heck, you are probably going through this right now. Well keep at it. This is the point at which most people give up. And who knows when success will come. You don’t. But isn’t it worth it to keep trying.

Stick With Your Concept.

Marlo reveals in the video that she had a hard time getting customers to try her initial concept: Cupcakes with alcohol. “I’d beg them, please try this beer with this cupcake”. Her concept soon caught on, but she still fights to keep others from calling her wine bar a cupcake “shop” or “store”. She says those terms are too transactional, and she wants others to think of her wine bar as more than that.

I find that I struggle with the same thing in my business. I create “relationship building videos” for small business owners and not commercials. I tried going that route and those types of videos didn’t soothe my soul. I love stories. I’ll listen to anyone’s story. I’ve read more biographies than most people. I love stories and I hate commercials. But I must remember to keep my concept alive and not give in to the non believers. Maybe I’ll have to convert them one video at a time.

Have A Story.

Marlo had a story that she knew the media would clamor too. She got laid off from her job and “decided to get sweet revenge against the man”. The media really likes her “layoff to entrepreneurial dreams success story”. And she has magazine covers to prove it including Entrepreneur magazine.

I love this as most people have a story to tell. Do you really think she would be super successful if she just lead with the story of a cupcake and didn’t insert the story of Margo in there. Nope. She’d just be another cupcake shop. I have a story, I’m waiting to tell, once I go after the media in a few months. Watch out!

Take Risks.

Marlo’s big break came when she dropped off some cupcakes at the Martha Stewart show and was then asked to appear on the show. And the rest is history. But remember her beginning when you get down about your business. Who knows what’s around the corner. Maybe Sweet Revenge!

Finding time for online reputation management can be challenging for small business owners. It’s not like you don’t already have enough things on your list.

Well, here is a FREE tool, courtesy of Google, that will help you manage your small business reputation online.

It is called Google Alerts (google.com/alerts).

It’s pretty easy to setup but like anything new, it can be a little baffling in the first time you see it. Here is a quick walkthrough for online reputation management for your small business.

1. Go to Google Alerts. Register for an account. If you already have an existing google account, i.e., Youtube, Adwords, etc, you can use that same account username and password.

2. Setup Up Your Keywords. Once inside the alerts page setup, you can add keywords to your account. Set up your keywords using the following tips.

Broad Search = If you don’t include your keyword with any punctuation, you will receive more general results.

Phrase search (“”) = If you include your keyword in quotations, you will only receive results of that exact phrase.

For example New York City

Broad Results will return any website containing the word New, York, and/or City. This is very broad and general. Sometimes it’s a waste of time.

Phrase Results will return any website containing the phase “New York City” only. All 3 words must be present to be returned back to you as a result. This is a better tactic and tends to deliver more focused results.

Advanced Phrase Results will return any website containing this exact combination of words “New York City” + “Real Estate”. The website has to contain BOTH phrases in order to be returned as back as results to you.

3. Set Your Alert Frequency. After adding your keywords, you’ll need to set the number of times you want to receive alerts. I suggest the following:

For your name: as it happens
For your company name: as it happens
For your industry keyword: once a day
For your competitors: as it happens (It’s good to know what they are up to).

4. Read Your Alerts. After you receive your alerts via emails, you will now be in the loupe about what’s being said about you online. But you gotta read them.

5. Investigate And Reply. As you investigate the source of the alert, remember to remain professional in all of your replies online. Don’t say anything that you wouldn’t want displayed on a billboard signed by your name.

Photo by: Hans_van_Rijnberk

With alerts coming to your inbox daily, this free service really does make online reputation management for small business owners easy.

Ok. I’m biased I think online video advertising is the best thing a small business owner can do to market their business online. But there are 2 other reasons why you should consider video for your business.

Advertising is an expensive undertaking. There are two forms of online video advertising that a small business owner can engage in. There is one form in which you have pay for a certain time period for your ad to be displayed. This form is most commonly found within the Google and Youtube advertising system. You also tend to pay on a cost per click basis.

Then there is the other form of online video advertising. This type of video advertising allows you to upload your video once, and then have the video continue to advertise your business for the life of the video. With this form of online video advertising, your video is always around to be shown to your potential market when they are ready to see it. This is the type of online advertising you can expect when you simply upload your videos to Youtube. There is no cost per click, and no cost per view. You simply have to pick the right keywords and you can get your video advertising for free.

So in addition to video advertising being cost effective, one of the best reasons a small business should do video advertising is that it makes it easier for small businesses to dominate their market. Which leads me to the number two reason online video advertising is great for your small business; there is less competition.

Online Video advertising is effective because there is less competition in the Google result pages.

If you search your keyword on Google you will see your competition is in the hundred thousands and even in the millions. But when you put your keyword in Google and search within the video results you will see your competition in the thousands and sometimes even in the hundreds.

While the results aren’t sometimes on the first page of the regular Google results, these keywords are searched on the video sites like YouTube. Your target market is searching and viewing videos related to your keyword on video sites – why not help them find you.

photo by shalie-li

Consider online video advertising as a tool for growing your small business and you’ll be happy. I would first try free video advertising first, and then progress to paid online video advertising for the best results.

Don’t believe that Twitter can make an impact on your restaurant? Well, listen to this successful restaurant owner who proudly proclaims “Twitter built this restaurant”.
If you take a look at their Twitter page you will see they are really engaged with their followers. They aren’t just using it to constantly pitch their specials of the day like most business owners do on Twitter.

They Really Embrace Their Community

Take a look at their background image. They are proudly advertising their patrons Twitter handles and even have a catchy bio to support their Twitter philosophy. “Where everybody knows your name. Well, at least your twitter name. Milwaukee’s best cheeseburger is our ‘Milwaukee Burger’, so says Travel Channel’s Food Wars!”
And if that wasn’t enough to prove that they are about community, they even allow their patrons to write their twitter handles on their walls. Granted, that whole graffiti look, would not work for all restaurants, it does make AJ Bombers stand out.

They Actively Recruit Followers.

This restaurant don’t just leave their Twitter efforts to passively be noticed. Nope, they request on the bottom of their menus that their customers should follow them. Great Call To Actions.

Think That This Would Never Work For Your Sophisticated Restaurant – Think Again!

The Owner reveals that he does own several other restaurants, each with different marketing strategies and practices. I checked out one of his other restaurants, SwigMilwaukee, and you can totally get that this restaurant Twitter strategy is built slightly differently than this other restaurant, AJ Bombers. Swig Milwaukee seems to cater to a more upscale crowd as denoted by the Twitter background. But if you read through the tweets, they are just as engaged with their community as their other restaurant and the tweets aren’t constantly just self focused on advertising the business. Take a look at some of their past tweets.

“SwigMilwaukee
Happy Father’s Day #dad Hope your day is everything you want it to be #lovefest”
“SwigMilwaukee
@laura_mokelke can’t wait. Please say hi to Dan or Zoe while ur here ”

Overall, this is a excellent case study on how great Twitter can be for expanding your restaurant.
Are you presenting your restaurant as a engaging owner or as a non stop pitchfest owner. If you take note from the video below, you may wanna restructure your approach.

0:22 Owner Introduces himself and states his restaurant was built by using Twitter.
0:30 Owner reveals his Twitter strategy.
1:08 Owner discusses the old method of restaurant marketing, and the new and improved way of restaurant marketing.
2:08 Owner discusses how he effortlessly drives traffic to his other restaurants using Twitter.