iBlog magazine Mar 16

iBlog

#HASHTAGS TIPS FOR SUCCESS | VIDEO & LINKEDIN: UNSTOPPABLE | WAYFAIR’S HOMEMAKER PROGRAM

The magazine for women influencers & bloggers

Say Cheese!

Are you making video yet? Why not?

SETTING UP FOR VIDEO SUCCESS! Cameras, plugins, players, apps & more

Pinterest Checklist Refresh Your Boards

7

Social Media Tools I COULDN’T LIVE WITHOUT

March 16

The

VIDEO ISSUE Join over 120,000 influencers that read iBlog magazine monthly!

Youtube Stars

Special Feature WEELICIOUS BABY GIZMO RACHHLOVES MELANIE HAM MADE EVERYDAY THE ALISON SHOW GIDEON SHALWICK

©Disney

EXPERT P18 TIPS for

How To Leverage

your social media skills to succeed in your niche

Video Success

Video and LinkedIn

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An unstoppable combination for influencers

#Hashtag Tips For Success

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Hashtags are a great FREE way to increase your reach

Brand & Influencer Relations How Wayfair’s Homemaker Program Works with Influencers

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table of contents YouTube Stars to Watch

Are you making videos yet?

Why not?

Youtube Stars

Special Feature

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MADE EVERYDAY - DANA WILLARD

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WEELICIOUS - CATEHRINE MCCORD

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RACHHLOVES - RACHEL COOPER

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MELANIE HAM

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BABY GIZMO - HOLLIE SCHULTZ

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GIDEON SHALWICK

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THE ALISON SHOW - ALISON FAULKNER

Get Started With Video Here!

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Video Cameras

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Home Video Studio

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Video Editing Apps

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Video Player Plugins

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Video Accessories

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Video Tips

DanaMadeIt.com Weelicious.com

RachhLoves.com

MelanieKHam.com BabyGizmo.com

GideonShalwick.com TheAlisonShow.com

Top Video Products for Bloggers

Mobile phones to top DSLR camera’s, which will you choose?

Simple and affordable tools to set up a great home studio Mobile apps to help you edit video on-the-go!

Wordpress Plugins for high quality video on your website Cool tools that can make your videos shine Top YouTube and video production experts tips and tools

Setting Up For Your Video Success!

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P50 Weelicious - Catherine McCord Asian Rice Bowls With Egg

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Cross Device Tracking

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Networks Now: Midlife Boulevard

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7 Social Media Tools I Couldn’t Live Without

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Using Easy Webinar

Making mobile more attractive for affiliates

Kim Garst - Forbes Top 20 Most influential Women in Social Media To Easily Create webinars

The Video Issue

S

“

ocial media sites and video go hand-in-hand, and most sites encourage video posting and sharing. The viral video opportunities are endless when you use the right strategies to create and post your videos online.” – Amy Porterfield, Social Media Strategist and co-author of Facebook Marketing All-In-One for Dummies.

This fact has become a game-changer for bloggers and online influencers, as many began with the intent to leverage the written word. While there will always be a space for people’s words to be expressed in long-form content, video has undeniably become the most frequently consumed media in recent years. Whether through teaching webinars or shareable content on social media, video simply cannot be avoided.

Webinars are one of the most common ways to engage with people online, so it is a crucial tool. One of the key components of a webinar is the video. Kim Beasley dives into this topic using the tool EasyWebinar. When using EasyWebinar, you can use different types of video sources, which are dependent on whether your webinar is live, automated, or a hybrid.

One of the way that people can get to know us, our products and our services better, is through video. Whether sharing a name brand, or a personal brand (yourself) video can really allow your personality and expertise to shine through. Are you utilizing this on all social media platforms? Viveka von Rosen explains why you should in her article “Video and LinkedIn: An Unstoppable Combination”.

Catherine McCord Weelicious.com Whichever platform you are trying to leverage, video has a role.

Video has been influential since its inception and that influence will only continue to grow. If you haven’t already, now is the time to take the leap and turn the camera on; your audience is waiting.

Meet the Team.

Contact us today

Matt Cherry

Founder & Publisher @iBlogmag

Ashley Abele

Operations Mgr & Editor @AshleyNAbele

Christine Crowell VP Marketing

Networks Conferences Brands

iBlog magazine partners: • Social Media Conferences • Blog Conferences • Influencer Networks • Blogger Networks • Agencies, Brands & PR Firms A strategic marketing partnership with iBlog adds value to your campaigns, helping you increase your reach with women influencers.

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Printed in the USA, Copyright © 2015 by iTell Ventures, Inc. All rights reserved. iBlog

Halee Kalevitch Content Coordinator

6

Jackie Ratcliffe Graphic Designer

iBlog magazine MAR 2016

Amy Reid

Graphic Designer

Amanda Schoolfield Graphic Designer

magazine is published monthly except for combined July/August and December/January issues, by iTell Ventures, Inc. 231 N. Tennessee Ave., Lakeland, FL 33801. Subscriptions are by membership to iBlogmagazine.com website only. Address all membership correspondences to membership@iblogmagazine.com. To change address please visit your membership account at iBlogmagzine.com. Material in this publication must not be stored or reproduced in any form without permission. Requests for permissions should be directed to permissions@iBlogmagazine.com.

iBlog Advisory Committee Industry leaders committed to your success

Ana Flores Founder, We All Grow Summit, Latina Bloggers Connect, Spanglish Baby

Stacey Ferguson

Kristin Hylek

Kim Garst

Co-founder, Blogalicious Justice Fergie Lifestyle Media, Attorney

Manager, Alliances & Brands PR & Brand Engagement McDonald’s USA, LLC

Co-founder, Boom! Social, Forbes Top 20 Women Social Media Influencers

Emily McKhann

Barbara Jones

Aliza Freud

Suzanne Fanning

Ronnie Tyler

Co-Founder, The Motherhood The McKhann Media Group

Founder, one2one Network CEO, Blissful Media Group

Founder & CEO SheSpeaks & SocialSpeaks. com

President, WOMMA Word of Mouth Marketing Assoc.

Co-founder, Black and Married With Kids, Tyler New Media

Laura Mayes Co-founder, Mom 2.0 Summit, Camp Mighty, Go Mighty, Kirtsy

Angela Sustaita-Ruiz

Pat Flynn

Co-founder, Hispanicize Partner, Hispanicize Wire, CEO, Latina Mom Bloggers

Founder, Smart Passive Income, iTunes Top Podcaster, Author, Blogger

Kerry O’Shea Gorgone

Sami Cone

Instructional Design Mgr. Enterprise Training at Marketing Profs

Radio & TV Host, Savings Expert

Lynette Young Founder, Women of Google+, 1.5 million followers, speaker, corporate trainer

MJ Tam

Jeannette Kaplun

Editor, Chicagonista Co-Founder, Women Driving excellence

Founder, Hispana Global, Author-Todobebe, TV Host Journalist, Spokesperson

Nadia Jones

Joey Fortman

Cherie Whyte

CEO Niche Parent Blogger Network, Social Media Strategist

Founder, Real Mom Media, Parent Advisory Panel & Events Manager - Toy Insider

Director, Citizen Relations International

Bridgette Duplantis

Laurie Schacht

Cecilia Mecca

Katja Presnal

Co-founder of iRetreat conference & Double Duty Divas

Co-founder of iRetreat conference & Double Duty Divas

Debbie Bookstaber

Co-publisher The Toy Insider, President The Toy Book

President, Element Associates, Social Media Director, Child’s Play Communications

Founder, Editor-in-Chief Skimbaco Co-Founder, Global Mappin

Amy Atkinson

Yoly Mason

Missy Maher

Sarah Beeskow-Blay

Jyl Johnson Pattee

Founder, Amy Atkinson Communications

Founder, Cuponeando.net, Founder Las Blogueras

EVP, Zeno Group Edelman Public Relations

Director of Client Services, Share A Sale

Founder, Mom It Forward, Family Forward Conference

Do you support women influencers? iBlog magazine is seeking out new partnerships with national brand, agency and pr firm executives that would like to participate on the iBlog magazine Advisory committee. Join our industry leaders and partner with the largest business resource for women influencers online. Receive year-round exposure for your brand(s), benefit from our partnerships with leading influencer networks and conferences while discovering new opportunities to support and interact with influencers in the iBlog magazine community. For more information about iBlog’s Advisory committee please email us at: Advisors@iBlogmagazine.com

ADVISORS

April 16 conferences and events

4 Hispanicize Conference

7 Craftcation Conference

8 Indulge Conference

The largest annual event for Latino trendsetters and newsmakers in digital content creation, journalism, marketing, entertainment and tech entrepreneurship. Expected to gather more than 3,000 of the nation’s most influential Latino professionals from the industries of digital content creation, journalism, music, marketing, film and business over five days.

4 day business + makers conference featuring industry professionals leading attendees in hands-on food & craft workshops and lectures and panels on creative business. Ignites the entrepreneurial spirit, strengthens craft and business skills and builds relationships in the creative community.

Take a step away from your busy lives and join us for a weekend lled with fun, laughter, exploration, education and delicious food. You’ll walk away with a stronger sense of community, enhanced skills, con dence in your business and maybe even a few extra pounds.

13 We Festival

14 SNAP! Conference

15 BAM Conference

A unique event dedicated to supporting women entrepreneurs who are in the trenches of building their business. We create a safe place to connect and be heard. To share knowledge, to validate each other and to learn. We believe it’s this uniquely female back-and-forth that fuels creative fires and moves business forward.

A 3 day conference targeting makers and we’re joined by the best bloggers representing modern handmade, contemporary craft, mind-blowing home-based events and DIY, along with dozens of creative entrepreneurs.

Join us for lots of laughter, hugging and replenishment. Walk away with a stronger sense of community, enhanced skills and an even greater sense of self.

The BAM {Bloggers At Midlife} Conference is the first blogging and social media conference to focus specifically on women bloggers in midlife. The focus of our first event will be on education and coming together as a community, connecting with other influencers and connecting with brands interested in our demographic.

17 Social Media Mktg. World

22 Eat, Write, Retreat

23 TECHmunch LIVE!

Discover the best social media marketing techniques from the world’s top experts. Join 3,000 fellow marketers at the mega-conference designed to inspire and empower you with social media marketing ideas.

Rub shoulders with the biggest names and brands in social media, soak up countless tips and new strategies and enjoy extensive networking opportunities.

Eat, Write, Retreat is an intensive learning weekend focused on strengthening connections within the food community through shared exploration of cooking, photography, and writing. Attendees will enjoy customized dining experiences, an array of hands-on workshops, and abundant networking opportunities and professional development sessions.

The day-long event will feature many of the world’s most accomplished culinary and digital media experts.

You’ll be able to tune in live from anywhere in the world to watch… for free! Fast-paced, no-nonsense and dedicated entirely to making food blogging a deliciously rewarding experience.

23 BConnected (Canada)

27 Mom 2.0 Summit

27 Southern C Summit

Canada’s Digital Influencer Conference, is open to influencers, small business owners, charitables organizations, not for profit associations, and major brands, looking to enhance their social media and blogging skills. It’s a fun and intimate event for influencers, brands and speakers alike!

The premier professional conference for influential mom bloggers and female entrepreneurs who create online content. Every year, women leaders in media and business converge at the Summit to compare notes, discuss ideas, and forecast what’s next for women online and in the marketplace.

A niche multi-day conference filled with networking opportunities and educational sessions from the best and the brightest. Attendees, presenters and sponsor connect through carefully crafted events and unique experiences that create meaningful conversations and provide memorable takeaway.

Miami, FL

New York, NY

San Diego, CA

Ottowa, Ontario, CA

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Ventura, CA

Salt Lake City, UT

N. Hollywood, CA

Dana Point, CA

Portland, OR

Las Vegas, NV

Online

Charleston, SC

CONFERENCES

PINTEREST Susan Wenner Jackson

VP of Content Marketing at Ahalogy Co-founder of the blog Working Moms Against Guilt @SusanWJackson

Pinterest Checklist Refresh Your Boards If you’ve been using Pinterest for a while, your boards might need a bit of a tune-up. Chances are, you created your initial set of boards when you first joined Pinterest. That might have been years ago at this point, and so much has changed in the Pinterest landscape. Here’s a quick checklist to help you make sure your Pinterest boards get you the most bang for your buck as a blogger.

1. Show off your stuff first. Your first board in the top left

5. Don’t delete any of your own boards. If you

2. Highlight your four strongest boards. If you don’t already know which Pinterest boards get the most engagement, dig into your Pinterest analytics to find out. Click and drag those with the top impressions, repins and clicks up to the top row of your Pinterest profile. After all, people who are thinking about following you will judge you by their first impression—so make it a good one!

6. Apply savvy SEO techniques to your board titles and descriptions. Search matters more than ever on Pinterest.

should feature your content. The board title should include the name of your blog or publication (e.g., “Top Pins from Blog Name” or “Popular Posts on Blog Name”). That way, you’re clearly indicating to followers and browsers where they can easily find pins linking to your content.

3. The rest of your boards can be organized however makes the most sense for you. You might

prefer arranging your boards by alphabetical order, seasons, topic, your own boards vs. collaborative boards, etc.

4. Remove yourself from any collaborative boards that don’t perform well for you or seem spammy.

In either of those cases, they’re not doing you any good—and may be hurting your pins in the Pinterest Smart Feed.

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permanently remove a board, you’ll lose any followers who only followed that specific board from your overall count. And that would make you sad. Instead, feel free to rename and even recategorize that board to be more relevant to your current pinning strategy.

Let your boards help you get noticed by utilizing the right keywords.

Check your Pinterest analytics to see what your audience is most interested in. Make sure your board titles and descriptions accurately reflect those interest. For example, if you have a board currently titled “Our Favorite Recipes,” you could change that title to “Our Favorite Clean Eating Recipes.”

7. Make sure every board is assigned to a

Pinterest category. You might not have bothered to pick a

category when you first created a board, but this simple step counts. Many Pinterest searchers browse by category, and you want your pins to show up in those search results, right? Categorizing your boards will give you a leg up. In just an hour or so, you can significantly optimize your Pinterest presence with this board “makeover.” Let me know how it improves your performance!

PINTEREST

FACEBOOK Andrea Vahl AndreaVahl.com @AndreaVahl

#Hashtag

Tips for Success Wondering how you should be using hashtags for your business? Would you like to increase your reach on social media?

Hashtags are a great FREE way to increase your reach. But many people aren’t using them as much as they could be.

WHAT IS A HASHTAG? It’s basically a “keyword” with the # symbol that then identifies that tweet or post as being about that topic. How does a hashtag increase your reach? Usually when you put that hashtag in your post, all the hashtags with that post can be easily searched or broken out into their own conversation. People are watching these conversations and will find your post even if they aren’t following you or connected with you.

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When you click on the hashtag, you then see all the people who are talking about that topic.

We had a great conversation on SocialTalk LIVE with some hashtag tips.

And of course, I was in one of my fabulous wigs and Phyllis had a lovely hat that looked like a lampshade.

Here are some important highlights.

#1 RESEARCH THEM FIRST Keyword hashtags are fairly straightforward but if you are making up your own branded hashtag for an event or product, you need to be careful. If there is another conversation going on or if your made up hashtag is slang for something you aren’t aware of, it can get ugly. If you are making something up, take into consideration different spellings that can occur within the hashtag. We talked about the gaffe with #NowThatcherIsDead when Margaret Thatcher died. This hashtag was also read as #NowThatCherIsDead. So Cher was getting all kinds of press around her death – she assured everyone she was feeling just fine. (Note that capitalization doesn’t matter in hashtags – they appear in the same group no matter what). Phyllis gave 3 great tools to help you research hashtags. You want to make sure you are using a hashtag in the right way.

HASHTAGIFY.ME I love this tool because it shows you related terms, usage patterns, and top influencers for that hashtag. You may not think about other hashtags you can add into your posts.

TRENDSMAP I wasn’t personally familiar with this one but it’s really cool.

You can see what hashtags are popular in what areas.

#3 HAVE A STRATEGY Make sure you are using the same hashtags across your platforms so that you are branding yourself as an expert in that category. Also we talked about how many hashtags to use on each platform.

TAGBOARD I like this one because it brings all the hashtags across different platforms into one place.

#2 USE THEM REGULARLY This one sounds simple but it’s not. Many people (and I have to say I’m guilty of this too) forget to put hashtags into their posts, tweets, updates, etc.

There are 3 types of hashtags: 1. Keyword – these are basically the word around the topic you are talking about.

2. Branded 3. Fun – this can be anything made up or silly. Like #mycathatesme or #notgonnalie.

• •

Twitter: 1 – 2 Hashtags

•

Facebook: maybe one or two at the end of the text. The testing I’ve done didn’t show that Hashtags on Facebook increased reach.

• •

Google+: 1-3 Hashtags

•

LinkedIn: Hashtags aren’t supported at this time

Instagram: 11 Hashtags is the sweet spot according to this great hashtag research done by BufferApp

Pinterest: Hashtags are more keywords. Any search on a hashtag will also bring results from that general keyword.

You can use branded hashtags to stand out more. Use them only in the Pin description where they are clickable.

With any new endeavor, measure what is working for you. Watch your stats on these platforms and see how your reach increases over time. So hopefully this will inspire you to use more hashtags in your social posts.

FACEBOOK

LINKEDIN Viveka Von Rosen

linkedintobusiness.com @LinkedInExpert

Video and LinkedIn: An Unstoppable Combination

One of the reasons LinkedIn works so well for some people, is that they have figured out a way to create top of mind awareness (TOMA) with their target markets. Folks who use it well, convert this TOMA into a position of trust, thought leadership and subject matter expertise.

Bob Burg says, “People do business with, and refer people they know, like and trust.”

We have shortened that into the KLT Factor. Why is this important? Because more visibility plus better quality (created or curated) content equals higher KLT. And that means more business.

So, what does this have to do with video?

One of the way that people can get to know us, our products and our services better, is through video. Whether sharing a name brand, or a personal brand (yourself) video can really allow your personality and expertise to shine through.

There’s a reason why Kim Garst (@KimGarst) is killing it with Periscope or Steve Dotto (@Dottotech) has mastered YouTube. Or why Amy Schmittauer (@Schmittastic), Sue Zimmerman (@SueBZimmerman) and Vincenzo Landino (@vincenzolandino) are dominating Blab.

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These people all have wonderful online personalities that absolutely carry though the different visual mediums. You see them, you like them, you trust them, you want to be friends with them. Because they rock.

I know not everyone is a natural digital media personality. Some of us are shy (ok, not me) and uncomfortable with promoting ourselves online. But, if you have a passion for a project, or a business, or a product, let that passion come through your video, and that is what people will identify with.

So what does this have to do with LinkedIn? You’ve probably been aware that you can upload media to your LinkedIn profile for a few years. (So why haven’t you done it yet????) Adding those links and videos can really help to lend credibility to yourself, your product and your service.

But did you know you can now embed the code for just about any video product (YouTube, Periscope, Blab, Vimeo, etc) on your Published Post?

Now is the time to take a quick inventory of all the video content you have created, or that you are considering creating for your blog, your vlog, for Facebook, your YouTube channel, etc. Use LinkedIn Publisher to get your video seen and shared by more people who fall into your ideal client base.

One piece of media can be translated into a multi platform-sharing tool… and this will increase the chance of it being seen by exactly the right prospect. And because it’s on LinkedIn, your prospect can more easily reach out to you. You not only showcase your passion and talent, but grow your business.

So don’t wait! Take a look at your media inventory and create a dynamic and engaging post today!

7 Steps to Creating, Uploading and Sharing Your Media: 1. Choose a piece of media that is relevant and interesting (and allows your passion and your personality to show through.)

Keep it to one to five minutes if you can. I recommend having it transcribed (I use Rev.com) 2. Work the transcription into an article if you can (this gives LinkedIn more content to search, and is good for folks who prefer reading to watching.)

3. Upload everything to LinkedIn Publisher (add some good visual, quotes, etc) to add visual appeal

4. Embed the media using the “embed” tool

5. Add a few more Links to drive traffic to your content, product or service 6. Sign with your contact info and a call to action at the bottom of your post 7. Publish (and then share as an update and share again)

LINKEDIN

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video tips

EXPERT for TIPS for

Video Success

V

ideo is everywhere.

Every platform, every website, from brands to publishers to bloggers, everyone is trying their hand at video. Our Facebook feed is dominated by amazing looking recipes, cute babies and puppies, and heartwarming stories that we are compelled to share.

If you’re a blogger who wants to try video, it can be somewhat intimidating to say the least, figuring out where to 16

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start and what approach to take. But as with anything new you try, it just takes planning, practice and a little bit of courage.

Melissa Haggerty Vice President, Video SheKnows Media

“Planning, practice, and courage – blended with your unique personality and perspective – are key to getting started. It’s all about having fun and setting your creativity free.”

DO YOUR HOMEWORK

See what other people are doing. What videos do you like, what do you share, what personalities do you connect with and follow? What is it that you like about them? Think about the length, the style, the approach, the subject matter. Learn what’s happening in the market place and then think about what’s missing. What are you not seeing? What would you like to offer? In a very saturated medium, this is the foundation of your unique perspective and your voice.

QUALITY NOT QUANTITY

your site? On YouTube? On Facebook? Take some time to read best practices for video that YouTube and Facebook provide. Whether it’s adding eye-catching graphics or subtitles for videos on Facebook (and keeping the videos short) or adding verbal Calls to Action (CTAs) for YouTube. There’s a lot of great information already out there.

BE CONSISTENT

Build a consistent release schedule to get your audience used to when you are publishing videos and add CTAs to the end of your videos so that viewers know to come back. Pick a day to release videos and stick to it.

EXPERIMENT

Try different content and different approaches to see what works best for video. Pilot a few ideas and see what’s strongest. Keep in mind, as a user would you want to watch this? Is it funny? Informative? Would you share it? Some ideas will work well and some won’t, but you won’t know until you try. Once you have something that you think is working, try a few with regularity and see how they perform.

No one can do a million things well. Start small and get it right and then add on. Make sure you have a solid plan and outline before you start your video. Know what you want to say and how you will illustrate it. What’s the purpose of the video?

What are you trying to communicate? How will you visually illustrate your points? You don’t need a script of exactly what you want to say but you should have bullet points and a clear idea of how you want the video to flow. You want keep on track, on point, be clear and concise and keep it short – even two minutes these days seems long.

BE AUTHENTIC

While planning is key, you don’t want to sound canned or too rehearsed. Your audience wants to hear from you, they want to connect with your authentic, funny, relatable voice and personality. Be open, honest, and candid. Share your insights, anecdotes and tips. Make sure you are relating to and connecting with your audience. Being in front of the camera can be very nerve-wracking for some but remember practice makes perfect.

The more you practice, the more comfortable you’ll get.

PEOPLE LIKE TO LAUGH

Comedy works. If you can add some levity and humor to your subject matter, try it.

KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE AND YOUR PLATFORM

What is your audience coming to you for? Is it your insights and opinions, your humor, your hacks, your recipes, your DIYs? Not everything you put in a blog will translate into video.

Decide what is either the most visual or the most animated topic as a place to start.

Once you’ve decided what type of content to create, think about where it will live. Video isn’t one size fits all. Think about the best practices for where you are putting your video. Is it on

VIDEO TIPS

networks/brands

Brand and Influencer Relations How Wayfair’s Homemaker Program Works with Influencers

Wayfair is one of the world’s largest online destinations for the home and can help people find the perfect product at the right price. At Wayfair, we’ve worked with hundreds of influencers over the past several years through our blogger initiatives, including the Homemaker program.

Through ongoing engagement with influencers, we’ve been able to tell our brand story in a meaningful and authentic way. We value the importance of this community, and 18

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are constantly working to strengthen and grow our relationships with innovators in the home and DIY communities.

playing as influencers, and we saw a space where we could create a community. Beyond providing campaigns for our bloggers, we also wanted to give them advice to grow their blogs and improve their content.

What made Wayfair decide to start the Homemakers?

What surprising benefits have you discovered by managing the Homemaker program?

Wayfair has always prioritized working with bloggers, but we wanted to find a way to work with bloggers on a much larger scale each month. How could we reach the most eyes and introduce our brand to more diverse audiences each month? We needed a space where we could reach all kinds of bloggers, from parenting and food to DIY and home décor. We launched the Homemaker program about two years ago, and it’s now a network of about 250 bloggers.

We know that consumers rely very heavily on honest reviews about companies and products from people they know and trust.

It’s impossible to ignore the role bloggers are

We have a large group of people who aren’t afraid to tell us what they think! It’s easy for us to think everything we do or the ideas we have are always home runs. But our bloggers aren’t afraid to tell us what they like, what they don’t like, and, most importantly, why. Authenticity is crucial to creating a strong brand, and that’s what makes blogging and bloggers so great. We receive authentic responses to the program, and we know our brand is being represented in an authentic way from the bloggers.

From campaigns to blogger perks, we’ve learned just as much from our community as they’ve learned from us (we hope). We’ve

eCookBook Campaign created a built-in sounding board for our ideas, and what we’ve received in return is invaluable advice. We’re not suggesting all brands make every change their community requests, but we do think it’s important to hear them out. Use these suggestions as inspiration for future projects or keep a backlog of ideas inspired by your audience.

In the past 12 months, which Homemaker campaign has provided the most ROI to Wayfair?

One of the KPIs we track is how much bloggers enjoy our campaigns. It’s important to ensure bloggers want to work with us and are creating content they’re proud to include on their sites.

One campaign we ran, The Great Craft Swap, had social and engagement metrics, but what really excited us was how much the Homemakers loved it. The campaign involved 20 influencers using their expert crafting skills to turn something ordinary into something extraordinary and mailing the finished product to someone else in the campaign.

Another campaign, The Battle of the Pies, had a social element built in to it. Unlike traditional pie competitions, we couldn’t taste everyone’s pies, so we crowned a winner based on who had the most engagement on

Wayfair’s Simply Summer Recipes: A Blogger e-Cookbook Wayfair is creating its very first blogger e-cookbook, and we’re looking for great recipes from bloggers like you! Summer is our favorite time of the year; fruits and vegetables are in their prime, and the weather is perfect for hanging outside by the grill with a cocktail. We thought we would celebrate this time of year by producing a tasty cookbook made with the help of the people who know summer cooking the best – that means you!

This is a great way to help spread your blog to a wider audience! Bloggers will be able to distribute the cookbook from their own sites, and Wayfair will be emailing it out to our customers. That’s huge, and a great way to get your blog and your recipe in front of millions of people! Each recipe will be on a two-page spread, which will include your name, blog information, headshot, and biography. You’ll be well on your way to stardom!

We’ll hand pick the best of the best to be featured in our e-cookbook and reach out to those selected.

Go to Bit.ly/WayfairSimplySummer to submit your recipe!

Have a question? Reach out to homemakers@wayfair

“It’s always been important for brands to build trust with their customers, and over the past few years, the need for trusted brands has only grown stronger. Simply having the best product won’t cut it anymore; brands must build and foster a helpful community, and the first step to that is working with expert influencers within their industry.” their post over the course of five days. It was great to see how engaged our influencers were with their communities. This campaign brought a significant amount of traffic to our site and had the most social engagement within the Homemaker program for 2015.

Submissions for Wayfair’s Simply Summer Recipes: A Blogger e-Cookbook open March 1, 2016 and close March 31, 2016

What new and creative ways are you engaging with influencers in 2016?

We’re really excited about what 2016 has on the horizon! While we’ll continue to do sponsored campaigns with our Homemakers, we’re also launching a blogger e-cookbook! We wanted to come up with an innovative way to develop content, and a crowd-sourced cookbook really jumped out to us. We’re asking bloggers to submit their

Alex Byer

Blogger Relations Specialist homemakers@wayfair.com @AlexByerSays

best summer recipes for consideration, and then we’ll do the hard work of creating and designing the cookbook. More details about that are above!

Beyond that exciting news, we’ll continue to try and create exciting, innovative, and creative campaigns. From cooking to crafts, we’re always coming up with original content prompts for our Homemakers. It can be hard to come up with so many different prompts throughout the year (we run about 24 sponsored campaigns a year), but creative brainstorms are a savior. We don’t want to tell you too much and give away our ideas, but rest assured we’re always thinking outside of the box.

Courtney Cormier

Blogger Relations Specialist homemakers@wayfair.com @CourtneyCormier

NETWORKS/BRANDS

VIDEO STARS! HOW THEY STARTED, HURDLES THEY FACED & TOOLS THEY USE.

V

ideo content is the most consumed form of information on the internet these days.

As a result, more and more bloggers and influencers are expanding from the written word to creating video content. We reached out to some of the best video content producers in the space to see what they had to say, like Catherine McCord, founder of Weelicious. As she states, “video is the most impactful medium for communicating whatever it is that you’re passionate about. As more and more social media platforms put video first, we’re going to see it become the primary way that people consume content.”

The biggest issue many influencers have with video is simply finding the time. As Rachel Cooper of RachhLovesLife shares, “I can’t imagine producing consistent, regular content if doing so weren’t my full-time job (along with being a mom!) I can’t imagine finding the time to plan, produce and edit 2+ videos per week while still working full time in marketing!” Hollie Schultz of Baby Gizmo agrees: “One of my biggest hurdles when I started making videos on YouTube back in 2007 was finding the time to get the videos shot, edited, and posted on a consistent basis while still running the parenting resource site BabyGizmo. com, writing a book, and having a family. How did I get over that? I worked night and day seven days a week. I’m kidding. Kind of. To be honest, video production isn’t nearly as easy as it looks if you want to do a good job and produce quality videos.”

So how do you get to be a successful video creator? As the successful influencers have told us, sometimes it’s simply about getting started. So pick up your iPhone or camera and start shooting your video content today.

Read more about how some top influencers leverage their video skills in this feature section ahead.

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VIDEO BUILDS YOUR BRAND & ENGAGES FOLLOWERS 24 HOURS A DAY, 365 DAYS A YEAR!

Our favorite video stars and expert marketers.

Dana Willard

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Catherine McCord

24-25

Melanie Ham

26-27

Rachel Cooper

28-29

Hollie Schultz

30-31

Gideon Shalwick

32-33

Alison Faulkner

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Video stars to watch

MADE EVERYDAY WITH DANA Dana Willard authors the popular DIY sewing and design blog MADE and is the host of MADE Everyday--which in a nutshell, is a show that will make you feel happy. Just watch one episode and you’ll be reaching for bright colored fabric so you can whip up a zipper pouch, or sew skirts for every child you know. Dana makes sewing and crafting easy, by turning the everyday into something useful and cute. And if you’re simply looking for video eye candy, her colorful backgrounds will have you smiling with every episode.

Dana has also authored the book Fabrics A to Z , which is an essential resource for any sewist new and old.

Her designs and photography have been featured in multiple creative books, magazines, online communities, and in award circles. And she lives in the hot city of Austin, TX with her husband and three kids.

High Quality Video While the production quality of videos is all over the place on Youtube, it’s been really important to me to have high quality video, audio, and an overall look to my show....because my videos are a reflection of the brand I’ve built on my blog. I want them to look beautiful, fresh, and have fun elements of surprise in the intro and outro!....so that they’re exciting while still educational.

Of course, creating quality video and posting (fairly) regularly can be a challenge.

In order to get that high quality look I was going for, I knew we needed help. So we hired a production company to shoot and edit everything....which is fantastic, 22

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because not only are they expert at what they do, but it frees me up so I can focus my time on the things I’m good at (rather than editing videos) I love it when a new finished video shows up in my inbox!

Now, outsourcing means there’s a cost. That’s the downside. And the first season that we shot, we ate those costs and considered it an investment in the business. But once I had some decent views on my videos, I started contacting brands I would love to work with and found a sewing machine company to sponsor the show!

So now they pay me, then I turn around and pay the production guys.

It’s still a bit of a break even. But creating video content is something I love doing. And if it pays for itself right now, I’m happy!

Video Setup As far as our setup, we use three cameras (one for the wide shot, one for close-ups and over-the-shoulder, and one overhead camera). We use a wireless lav mic, and a boom as backup.

Never underestimate good audio! It’s the easiest thing to snap on a mic and have great sound, rather than mediocre sound from the camera . So invest in a mic! And everything is edited on

Adobe Premiere. There are two people shooting and running all the equipment. And we also hire an intern from the local university, which is a big help.

He or she act as a script supervisor keeping notes, they help me change the wall backgrounds, and can make any runs/pick-ups we might need.

Video Opportunities Since producing our first round of videos, I’ve been able to work with Baby Lock Sewing, which sponsors ongoing video content for my channel, rather than a short-term campaign.

They are fabulous and really give me a lot of freedom to pick my own projects, as long as I engage the viewer with their brand. And it works! Every 4th question seems to be “What is the exact model of your sewing machine? I need to buy it”. I’ve also been contacting by companies for single time campaigns.

I just posted a video for Graphicstock. com where I was asked to create a simple DIY project using their graphics. This was a great way to get more non-sewing content onto my channel.

Probably my favorite aspect of creating videos and blogging as well, is making connections with people all over the world, who are living similar lives, just in a different country! It’s

Video stars to watch

“Video definitely takes more effort to produce, but I think it has a lot of momentum with the younger generation. I’m always amazed when a viewer comments “my four-yearold loves to watch your videos with me!”

the modern-day pen-pal! It’s such a treat to read comments from other moms and women in Europe, Asia, the middle east, Australia, Africa.

What a cool age we live in!

Dana Willard danamadeit.com

https://www.youtube.com/madeeverydaywithdana

Video stars to watch

Fresh Content to Go Launched in 2007, Catherine, mom to Kenya and Chloe, created Weelicious.com as a platform to show parents around the world how easy and beneficial it is to expose children to wholesome, delicious homemade food. After personally struggling with how to feed Kenya, Catherine recognized a need for realistic and nutritious recipes for parents, using minimal ingredients that are fully loaded with flavor; Weelicious now houses 1,500-plus original recipes and more than 350 videos. Catherine inspires her community with ingredients that are readily available, and recipes that are fast and easy. Debuting a new recipe or tip daily, and a how-to cooking video posted each week, Weelicious is a wealth of information for families.

Finding the Time The biggest hurdle to posting regularly was finding the time to actually create a new video every single week. This process happened over time, and we’ve now developed a process where we batch shoot 8-10 videos in a day. This allows us to stockpile content to be released each week without having to constantly scramble to figure out what’s coming up next. To make this work, we needed to create a format that was repeatable and would allow us to work through that much content in a short amount of time.

I wish there was a secret shortcut to this, but a lot of it was just trying and testing different combinations.

The other key with batch shooting is putting a lot of time into the planning process. This is especially true with food, since it has to look good in the final shot!

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We test and prep as much as we can in advance to ensure everything goes smoothly on the day.

Smart Collaboration There are many strategies that we use to increase our YouTube subscribers.

The most effective is collaborating with other like-minded creators to share audience across different channels. Sometimes we’ll work with other creators around a theme like Valentine’s Day or fun desserts, where multiple creators will make recipes and then we’ll link to each other and feature the playlists on our channels.

We’ll also have creators in our videos and be featured on theirs.

We’ll always call out for our subscribers to go check out the channels that we’re working with, and they do the same. It’s a great way to get exposure to a new audience where you’re getting endorsed by someone that they trust.

The key is to find someone with a similar audience but that doesn’t totally overlap with your content. The partnership also has to stay authentic to the core brand. We won’t just work with any channel that has a large following if there isn’t a clear connection.

We’ve had the benefit of working with a number of brands, and many of them discover us because of our

videos on YouTube. One recent brand was Seventh Generation that we did a series of content with, including giveaways, an Instagram takeover, and a video about travel tips. For non-food brands, we always try to incorporate the product into a series of tips and tricks. This way the content is valuable to our audience in itself and doesn’t feel just like a commercial.

Another brand we’ve worked with was Campbell’s Soup. They reached out to us to help promote their new organic line. We tried multiple flavors and created a recipe for Butternut Squash Macaroni and Cheese using their butternut squash soup. This went up on our blog as well as in a video on our YouTube channel.

When we make these videos, we like to collaborate with brands to find a balance between featuring their product and messaging, and making sure it’ll appeal to our audience.

Looking Ahead There are a few different areas that we plan on digging into over the next 6-12 months. One major one is creating different types of video content for different platforms. We’ve already started to test this by cutting shorter versions of our YouTube videos that we can also share on Facebook and

Video stars to watch

“Video is the most impactful medium for communicating whatever it is that you’re passionate about. As more and more social media platforms put video first, we’re going to see it become the primary way that people consume content.”

Instagram. This allows us to repurpose content and share it with our audience across channels. It also drives traffic back to YouTube to watch the full video.

We’re keeping a close eye on how these platforms will evolve to compete more with YouTube in 2016 and making sure we can take advantage of it.

We’re also going to continue to test out different video formats to see what resonates most with our viewers.

This includes things like adding text overlays to videos, changing how we show the cooking process, and other elements based on what we’re seeing in our analytics.

Catherine McCord weelicious.com youtube.com/weelicious

Video stars to watch

Connecting Through Video The most social of media

My name is Rachel Cooper and I operate the YouTube channels RachhLoves and RachhLovesLife.

I’ve been making videos on YouTube since 2009, when I was fresh out of school and working at my first job in marketing. Looking for a celebrity’s makeup look, I found a blossoming community of makeup lovers and I was immediately hooked: commenting on other people’s videos, learning new tips and tricks, and eventually making my own content for fun. I was lucky enough to gather a following and I’ve been very blessed to see it grow from there. Now I share my love of beauty, fashion, and lifestyle products, tips, and tricks with almost 900,000 subscribers every month every Tuesday and Thursday, and I share some fun mom content on my RachhLovesLife channel for those interested in the more personal side of my life.

What was the biggest hurdle you had to defeat to begin video posting regularly and how did you do get over it?I can’t imagine producing consistent, regular content if doing so weren’t my full-time job (along with being a mom!)

I can’t imagine finding the time to plan, produce and edit 2+ videos per week while still working full time in marketing! Making the leap of faith to try to make my channel a full-time career was difficult at first, but just like in any career, if you’re really passionate about what you’re doing, it doesn’t feel like work. I was

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fortunate to have a support network of my family and my husband to keep me on my feet while I built the channel, and I love the content that I produce and I’m very proud of it, which has always kept me going.

Smart Equipment I use a Canon 70D with a RODE mic, along with two softboxes and a ring light, and I edit with Adobe Premiere Pro. My husband often does rough cut editing and, more recently, we have added a fantastic student editor Larissa to our team to assist for when things get busy around the house, but I love editing and I always have primary responsibility for the finished product.

Changing Direction My videos when I started out were focused entirely on makeup, and while that remains a pillar of my content I have expanded to talk about fashion and lifestyle topics.

The expansion happened naturally – as I shared my beauty-related content, I would often talk about what was going on in my life and viewers began to learn more about me. As people discovered that I’m a lazy girl at heart, it was an easy transition to producing my Lazy Girl Guide videos! I’ve also taken an interest in testing out hacks I find on Pinterest and other places, and what began with my Pinterest

Beauty Hacks Tested video has turned into a regular ongoing series of testing recipes, holiday ideas, and organization hacks.

“Video will always be the most social media. When a viewer can see your face and hear your tone of voice, there is a social connection that is more difficult to eplicate in text form.”

Creating a Community It is incredibly humbling to be able to connect with the RachhLoves community – who are in so many ways, my ‘internet family’. These people have grown with me in the space, shared in my ups and downs and, together, we’ve created this community of people sharing tips and tricks, encouragement and ideas to each other. Another incredible aspect that has come about through creating video content has been the ability to create a career that allows me to be at home with my family. I have always wanted to be a mom and I am so blessed to be able to have a career that allows me to continue working while I devote time to raising my kids and being with them while they are young.

Video stars to watch “It is incredibly humbling to be able to connect with the RachhLoves community – who are in so many ways, my ‘internet family’.”

Mobile App I Use for Video Production Snapchat Micro videos!

Hardware for Videos I Can’t Live Without 128GB flash card and two 64GB backups Can never have enough storage An extra camera battery

Rachel Cooper

@RachhLoves Youtube.com/RachhLovesLife

Video stars to watch

Going Live in 2016 How to Extend Video Success

Melanie Ham is a maker and loves to teach others how to make beautiful things on YouTube with her channel simply titled Melanie Ham. Her simple, easy-to-follow sewing, crocheting, and how-to videos, as well as her friendly and patient teaching style attract the reluctant novice and seasoned crafter alike.

With her diverse interests, she also enjoys making creative online video content on motherhood, style, and home decorating. She hopes her viewers and followers feel inspired and confident to tackle whatever their next endeavor may be.

Finding Courage The biggest hurdle I faced to begin posting regular video was the courage to be in front of the camera.

At first, I was very nervous and felt awkward about it even though it was just me in my sewing room alone.

If my husband was home, I made him go upstairs and close the door so he couldn’t hear how dumb I thought I sounded. What helped me get over that was practice. Repetition. I understood what I was teaching and talking about very well, so I tried to stick to what I knew, especially at first. Over time, I’ve gotten more comfortable, and my personality comes out more than in the beginning. Now, I can work with collaborators or a camera crew, and feel much more confident.

Consistency is Key For both the Instagram and YouTube platforms, you have to be regularly sharing good content at the core.

For YouTube, I try to post at least one video per week.

Experiment and discover what your audience likes to see and share that as often as you can. YouTube videos 28

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don’t have to be perfect, but I think people like to see improvement. At first, as long as you can see and hear everything clearly it’s a great start.

I think authenticity is key for video, as well. Instagram is much more branded and edited these days, but when you’re doing video, people can look in your eyes and decide if they like you and trust you.

Video Creates Opportunity The most amazing thing is that it has become my full time job, where I can set my own schedule and work from home. My top priority is my family, so the fact that I can earn an income to help support my family and be able to hang out with my kids all day is a dream come true. It’s important to me that I can do the school drop off and help with homework, and spend as much time with my kids as possible, especially while they’re young. I’ve also met some amazing women and gained some great friends through this process. Meeting other women who create video like I do and have online businesses, so that “connection” even though I work from home, has been amazing, too.

Growing in 2016 There are three main ways that I’ll be using video this year to grow my

business and enhance the brand. The first is continuing to do consistent YouTube videos, where I work with brands or just make the videos that

“Social media is about connecting with and building an audience in unique and meaningful ways, where you can serve them and meet a need.

There’s no better way on the social platforms of today to accomplish this than video.”

are requested and that I think will do well on the channel. Also, at the beginning of the year, I began doing a live stream covering a requested topic each Friday on my Facebook page. I’m interested to see the ways in which that’ll make an impact on my social media and my ability to connect with my audience. The third way is creating more online courses that are for sale. The first one I launched at the end of last year did really well, so I plan to add more of those this year.

Video stars to watch

My Video Tools YouTube Creator Studio App Allows me to edit video descriptions, easily reply to comments, and check stats and analytics on the go

Canon 70d Coupled with the Rode shotgun microphone

Diva Ring Light Dimmable, for nice lighting when talking to the camera

Melanie Ham

melaniekham.com youtube.com/user/iheartstitching

Video stars to watch

Behind the Scenes

How Hollie Schultz Grew BabyGizmo Company to be the No. 1 Baby Gear YouTube Channel in the World Hollie Schultz is one of the most influential women in the social media and parenting space with her video reviews generating over 67 million views on YouTube alone. This “spokesmom” has been featured on almost every major media network including ABC, NBC, CBS, and WGN. She’s the founder and president of The Baby Gizmo Company and her website, BabyGizmo.com, is one of the largest online, new parent resources on the planet that provides parents with information and education on products, travel, recipes, tips, and more all in one place. Here, she shares with us her approach to success.

Getting Started: Finding Time One of my biggest hurdles when I started making videos on YouTube back in 2007 was finding the time to get the videos shot, edited, and posted on a consistent basis while still running the parenting resource site BabyGizmo.com, writing a book, and having a family.

How did I get over that? I worked night and day seven days a week. I’m kidding. Kind of. To be honest, video production isn’t nearly as easy as it looks if you want to do a good job and produce quality videos. It takes time and dedication. You have to commit.

At the beginning, I set out to learn everything I could. I learned how to improve my lighting and sound. Tried different cameras and microphones. I also invested a lot of time in learning the editing software.

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Once I mastered all of that, I had to make sure that I was producing quality content on a consistent basis and promoting it so that I could grow my audience. I constantly worked on new video content and listened to what my audience wanted.

YouTube is an amazing platform, but it takes dedication and work. It’s not (normally) an overnight success.

At least for most people.

Setting Up Production I shoot the majority of my videos on a Canon 70d with a Rode Mic. I always use a tripod (even if I have someone filming me) because shaky video is hard for anyone to watch. I have 3-5 lighting softboxes that I use to light the video, and I always use additional natural light as much as possible. I edit videos either on basic iMovie or Final Cut Pro on an iMac. I shoot most of my product videos myself with a tripod and an eye for editing afterward, but I do have help from time to time from my husband or friends when shooting a travel video. If I’m on location and don’t have help, it’s all about the tripod and having a plan on how the video will be edited. That may mean looping dialogue over the video footage or setting up the tripod to film myself, but you’ll rarely see me take “selfie video” using a selfie stick. It’s just not my style.

Branching Out After about five years of sticking to almost exclusively baby gear videos (Baby Gizmo is currently the #1 baby gear YouTube channel in the world!), I branched out by adding travel, food, and toy videos to our YouTube video library to grow with my audience.

Since the Baby Gizmo YouTube channel is all about parents and kids, I knew I wanted to offer them more videos on other things that parents and kids do in their lives … like travel and eating. Everyone eats, right?

My audience is always growing, but I still have a substantial portion of my original audience that has been with me for years. I knew that while they may have already chosen their baby gear, they would always be up for hearing about a new family-friendly travel destination or a fun recipe or even hot, new toys that are hitting the market. So, I made a conscious effort to grow the channel and offer a wide variety of video content that would appeal to parents and kids whether they’re looking for product ideas, travel suggestions, tips, or recipe ideas.

The Baby Gizmo channel also expanded as my children grew older.

They have always been part of the videos since they were babies, but as they grew, they became interested in making their own videos. That’s one

Video stars to watch reason we expanded quite a bit in the toy space. I knew kids love to watch kids, so I not only gave them quite a bit of screen time in our Baby Gizmo videos, but I gave them their own channel that’s dedicated exclusively to toys: Junior Gizmo.

video content we provide. (You’ll never see me shaving my legs in a video just to pimp out a razor!)

Just because someone wants me to make a video about xyz product, doesn’t mean I will or I should.

I have standards and my audience knows that.

“With the ever-changing world of social media, video is EVERYTHING. If you aren’t on board with video, you’re being left behind.”

3. Listening and KNOWING My Audience. Some times my audience loves a new idea or series, and sometimes it doesn’t. I make sure to listen to the feedback. Listen to the ideas. We make adjustments. I also know that my audience is moms, dads and young kids. That means that I have to make videos geared toward them. I’m not making makeup tutorials or fashion hauls for the teens, and that’s okay. That’s not my audience.

Always Growing My top strategies in increasing my YouTube followers are hustling, staying true to my brand, listening, and knowing my audience, and providing quality video content on a consistent basis. You can’t expect to grow a channel by not putting in the work.

1. Hustling. I put myself on a schedule for uploading videos. There are videos added to the Baby Gizmo YouTube channel every single week. We stick to an average of 3-5 new videos a week to keep the audience coming back to watch.

2. Brand Truth. I also make sure to stay true to my brand with the

I’m not “selfie sticking” my videos. Instead of throwing up one long 15 minute video file, I’m editing my videos to be more concise.

Moms don’t have 20 minutes to hear me rant or praise anything. Again, it’s about knowing your audience.

4. Quality. Quality. Quality. I know in order to grow my subscribers (which isn’t easy in the parenting world!), I have to provide quality content. Moms don’t usually want to watch a train wreck on YouTube.

Plus, what works for the tween and teen viewers definitely doesn’t translate to the moms. That’s okay because moms are 85 percent of the purchasing power, so I make sure I’m appealing to the moms.

Hollie Schultz

Babygizmo.com youtube.com/user/BabyGizmoCompany

Video stars to watch

Overcome Your Fears How to Succeed at Video Creation

Gideon Shalwick is a serial entrepreneur in the online video marketing space. He’s founder of www.splasheo.com and co-founder of www.veeroll.com, and loves helping people get their message out to the masses using online video.

Overcoming Your Doubts My biggest hurdle was … MYSELF… and my fear of failing in front of a lot of people in a really public and humiliating way! I don’t know if you’re the same as I am, but if you’re anything like MOST of the human population, you’ll know exactly the fear I’m talking about. The fear of being on the camera. The fear of failing. The fear of being rejected. And all that in a very public setting!

When it comes to video marketing – especially if you’re in the videos yourself – the fear of failing or being rejected by others who see you is very real. And this fear could unfortunately prevent you from being your awesome authentic self and getting your message out there to the masses.

Good news, though. There is a cure!

Basically, the picture we have in our own minds of what we look and sound like is all screwed up. For starters, the image we have inside our minds of what we look like is a mirror image of ourselves! Not a “true” image. Cos that’s how we see ourselves most often … in the mirror. And the way we sound to ourselves sounds very different to the way it actually sounds to everyone else … mainly because of the way sound waves travel through our heads and bodies to reach our eardrums.

So, whenever we see and hear ourselves on video (especially at the beginning) our subconscious mind rejects that image and sound because the image and sound we have of ourselves are so dramatically different to what it actually is. And then that old fear thing 32

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kicks in. Because then you start telling yourself, “Oh look how ugly I am on video!” or “That totally does NOT sound like me … what the heck went wrong!?” All this does is accentuates that terrible fear of failure and humiliation in front of many people in a public setting. It’s almost worse than the fear of public speaking. So how do you fix this issue?

Easy. You just reprogram your subconscious mind. By watching and listening to yourself on video over and over and over until your mind finally realizes what you truly look like and truly sound like. Once you’ve fixed that, everything else becomes a whole lot easier, and you’ll find that old “fear thing” quickly becomes a thing of the past, and you’ll be on your way to influencing millions of people and making the world a better place!

Simple Video Production I have an extremely easy setup lately.

For quick and easy on-the-go videos, I simply use this: • My iPhone.

• An app called Live Air Solo for streaming/recording live to my YouTube channel (using this app means I hardly have to do ANY video editing afterward. At the least, I just use the trim function on

YouTube to cut out any bits I don’t want – like perhaps the beginning and the end).

• A neat little lapel microphone that works with my iPhone (Boya mic: https://www.prompt-it.com.au/en/ mics/27-lapel-microphone.html).

• And depending on where I am at the time, I might try and use some good lighting.

Anything else is really just a distraction for getting my content out there.

See, the thing is, it’s not about how fancy your content looks. It’s more about how well you can CONNECT with your audience. And to do that, all you need is a “threshold” level of “good enough” for your video production, while being REAL in your videos, especially at the beginning.

Later, once you become more of a pro, you can build up your gear or build a video production team to make you shine even more. But at no stage let this stop you from ever creating great content that connects with your audience and getting your message out there. KISS – Keep It Super Simple, yo!

Sharing Audiences At the moment I’m going crazy about YouTube Live Events and the channel growth potential it holds

Video stars to watch So anything could still happen over the next year or two.

But in terms of audience building – not just the number or subscribers or views, but more importantly in terms of the depth of relationships – I’ve found NOTHING more engaging and effective than LIVE video streaming.

Think about it: When you can ENGAGE someone, by default they’re going to be paying attention to you. And if they’re paying attention to you, that means they’re probably not paying attention to other distractions such as their phones or email or Skype or whatever.

And when you’re in THAT situation, you enter into a truly magical world where almost anything is possible.

– especially now with the ability to stream LIVE video straight from your iPhone or Android using apps such as Wirecast Go (iPhone), Live Air Solo (iPhone), or Live In Five (Android).

But to be honest, I’m still very much experimenting with YouTube Live Events and working on how to use it

“Content is not king anymore. Today, the new currency is CONNECTION! And the best way of getting connection with your audience is through video.

And more specifically, through LIVE video!” as a channel building tool. So another strategy that’s been most effective for growing my channels is through collaborations, where you do cool stuff with other channel owners and basically share your audiences.

As an example, for one of my first case studies, I teamed up with a local magician in Brisbane, Australia.

We decided to create a bunch of fun, entertaining but also educational videos on how to do magic tricks for getting a reaction from a crowd.

While we did get some traction on our own, it wasn’t until we started interviewing other channel owners in the space and getting them to link back to us with annotations.

One of the people we interviewed was EricSurf6; at the time he had around 30,000 subscribers, and we only had a handful. He then uploaded our interview to his channel and linked straight back to our channel, and, BOOM!, we immediately had access to his 30,000-people audience.

And what makes this even more impactful, is that that very same channel now has 314,986 subscribers and counting! The best part? Our little video is STILL on his channel six years later! Our “little” magic channel now has 346,016 subscribers … and counting. So it works.

Focus on Live Events I’m fully focussing on YouTube Live Events and will soon also look at running Facebook live streaming events. While there are a number of live streaming services out there at the moment – like Periscope, Meerkat, Blab, etc. – I think Facebook and YouTube have a HUGE advantage to totally OWN this space.

But we’re right at the beginning of this amazing and massive new trend.

Mobile Apps I Use for Video Production Wirecast Go For LIVE streaming straight to YouTube

Adobe Comp in iPad For quickly creating my YouTube thumbnails

YouTube Studio For quickly and easily checking my latest YouTube stats

Gideon Shalwick

GideonShalwick.com youtube.com/user/GideonShalwick

Video stars to watch

Taking Your Personality Live Alison is a professional party animal and ambassador of awesome that gave herself her own show. The “show” mostly takes place on her blog, Instagram, and YouTube, however, she has worked with Martha Stewart, Today.com, Microsoft, Western Digital, Hasbro, and other reputable tycoons. When not dancing inappropriately, you can find Alison sharing party ideas, teaching online courses, doing social media consulting, and throwing all-women’s dance parties for 600-plus babes. She’s a mom to three and still isn’t convinced it was her best idea, but has fun with her family and her music producer hubby in their small messy house in Provo, Utah everyday. She believes in love, diet soda, and encouraging people to make their life the party they just can’t miss.

Getting Started I think my biggest hurdle was thinking all of my content had to be at an insanely high production level. I decided that the only way to get better was just to start, so that’s what I did! Depending on what type of video I do, I have a different setup. For craft or party videos, or the video I do for my courses, I use a two-person videography team, and they also do the editing. They have all sorts of fancy gear, and it’s been fun to watch them grow their equipment collection and up their production value as they grow. We’ve kind of grown together. If I’m doing a vlog or something similar, I’ll use my DSLR, the in-camera mic, and natural light. I keep it simple, or I just won’t do it.

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Honing Your Focus I have a personality-based brand.

In the past, I really focused on crafts and DIY, but as my brand has grown and matured, and I’ve come to terms with that – haha, that I’m more of a personality based brand than I am strictly a how-to brand – I’ve varied my content a lot. As long as my brand is consistent, the content can change with what I find interesting and inspiring at the time.

Consistency is the top strategy when trying to increase followers.

When I want to grow on any channel or platform, I try to force my content to be consistent. I’m a very fickle diva about what projects I like to do, so this is hard, but I know firsthand how important it is!

Finding Opportunities Western Digital and Microsoft are two brands that hired me because of my video work. With Western Digital, I was able to create a series that I’d been wanting to for a long time, “How I Share It.” They just wanted me to share whatever I wanted and feature their product. So it was a dream! And I worked with Bing and Microsoft because they liked my “How to Be Awesome” series,

and we used that as the jumpingoff point for a series of parties I did for them, catered to influencers all across the country.

“I’ve varied my content a lot. As long as my brand is consistent, the content can change with what I find interesting and inspiring at the time.

Consistency is the top strategy when trying to increase followers.”

The most rewarding thing for me has been getting feedback on my “How to Be Awesome” series on YouTube. It doesn’t have the most views of all my content, but it led to a lot of great business opportunities. But more than that, the emails from people who have watched it, and been motivated by it, make it feel like some of the most important content I’ve created. I filmed most of it using the camera on my computer, without any fancy lighting or production or equipment.

Video stars to watch

It’s just a really good reminder to me that the most important thing to do is get your content out there and feel good about the message you’re conveying.

Forging Ahead I want to get back to being consistent about my videos again. So I might invest in a few lights, but again, I almost always prefer natural lighting, and chose my office and studio space because it has a lot of it.

I always feel like being genuine with your audience does more for your brand than almost anything else. I think video, especially as it’s becoming easier to share with platforms like Periscope and Snapchat, will be insanely powerful tools for further creating engaged and loyal customers, or, as I like to call them, “online friends.” The power in those platforms is not in the actual content that’s created, as it’s fleeting, but in the relationships that are created by the willingness to share it.

Alison Faulkner

thealisonshow.com youtube.com/user/AlisonisCrafty

SETTING UP FOR YOUR VIDEO SUCCESS!

Committing to getting started is the first step, but now what?

Video can be easy so don’t let your fear of tech or editing slow you down. On the following pages we’ve compiled a few of our favorite tools and expert recommended products, apps, plugins and studio accessories for you to point you in the right direction.

VIDEO CAMERAS 38

VIDEO PLAYER PLUGINS 41

HOME VIDEO STUDIO 39

VIDEO ACCESSORIES 42

MOBILE EDITING APPS 40

VIDEO PRODUCTION TIPS 43

Video Cameras

iPhone 6 - $549.00 You’ve never felt anything like it. With a single press, 3D Touch lets you do more than ever before. Live Photos bring your memories to life in a powerfully vivid way- and that’s just the beginning! And that’s just the beginning. Innovation on every level.

With so many video cameras to choose from, it easy to get confused. Remember to stick to the basics and your experience level. You can shoot great videos with anything from an iPhone to a high end DSLR Camera. Make sure it’s easy to use; otherwise, you probably won’t do it.

LG V10 - $627.00 With enhanced videography and editing features, superior audio functionality and seamless social sharing, the LG V10 gives you more ways than ever to capture and share the world around you.

Canon EOS 70D Camera - $999.00 Changing the way users capture still images and video with a DSLR camera.

EOS 70D – is a trailblazing powerhouse featuring a revolutionary autofocus technology. Capture video in Live View with smooth and precise autofocus similar to that of a camcorder, complete with the superb image quality that is a hallmark of EOS cameras.

Nexus 5x - $349.00 Epic photos made easy. Capture your world in brilliant detail with a powerful camera and larger 1.55 micrometer pixels that catch more light, day or night. Design, performance, and power — all in one just-right phone.

Nikon D3300 HDSLR Camera - $449.95 Stunning 24.2-megapixel photos and 1080p Full HD videos with tack-sharp details, vibrant colors and softly blurred backgrounds. With its included zoom lens, the new ultra-compact D3300 is a small and light HDSLR and easy to use, too.

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Rode Smart Lav for iPhone and Smartphones - $79.00 The smartLav+ is a broadcastgrade wearable microphone designed for use in a wide range of film, television and broadcast scenarios, or wherever broadcast quality audio is required in a discreet, portable format without the complication and expense of additional wireless equipment.

Home Video Studio A home video studio means different things for everyone. Your studio may be your desk, your kitchen, your bedroom or even your car so we found some inexpensive production tools to help you acheive the best quality you can while shooting video from home.

iStabilizer smartFlex Flexible Leg Tripod - $29.95 Flexible legs with wrapping capability allow you to secure your smartphone to virtually any surface.

Capture incredible images without the shakes typically associated with hand-held photography.

Samson MK5 Boom Mic Kit- $45.00 The MK5 package gives you all the accessories you need: a heavy-duty adjustable boom mic stand, an 18-foot XLR mic cable, a microphone windscreen and a mic clip. Perfect for use with your favorite microphone.

Fancier Studio Lighting Kit -$209.99 This is the video photography compact studio kit that gives you over 2400 watts of output. You can use it in the studio or out on location projects. This lighting kit is the most affordable kit on the market today and is compatible with any camera.

Mobile Video Editing Apps Video editing on the fly is more important than ever!

These apps will help you on your way to winning your first Oscar for “Best YouTube Video”. Don’t let the fear of editing stop you from shooting that first video. These apps and programs make it easy for your videos to shine! Download a few of these apps, test them out and get to making your videos.

iMovie With a streamlined design and intuitive MultiTouch gestures, iMovie lets you enjoy your videos and tell stories like never before. Browse your video library, share favorite moments, create beautiful movies, and watch them on all your devices in iMovie Theater.

Replay Video Editor 2014 App of the Year. Replay turns video editing into pure joy. Make your photos, videos, come to life in amazing movies, with spectacular transitions, synced to the music.

PowerDirector Video Editor App Use the best video editor app with the power of timeline video editing, heaps of cool free video effects and all the features you expect from a movie maker. Produce and share your best videos with friends, on YouTube or even Vine!

Pinnacle Studio Pro Take things to the next level. Pinnacle Studio provides a wealth of powerful features.Although editing is fast and intuitive, you get plenty of control over speed, transitions, picture-in-picture, pan-and-zoom, audio edits, and titles. It’s the closest thing you’ll get to a desktop-style video-editing app on your iPad.

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KineMaster – Pro Video Editor KineMaster is the only full-featured video editor for Android, now with multi-layer video. Add video layers to your project, allowing for true split-screen or picture-in-picture effects, and more.

Video Player Plugins Responsive, mobile and lightweight. Is your website ready for a mobile world? Any of these plugins will help you to be ready for mobile and reach your readers on the go. These plugins were highlighted for their responsive design and feature sets for those who want to go above and beyond placing embed code in their html.

YouTube Embed Plus Helps you easily manage the growing complexity of YouTube embedding. It provides a spectrum of basic and advanced features of the YouTube embedded player and will have you posting videos in seconds after installing it.

Vimeo Master Vimeo Master let’s you integrate the superb Vimeo Video Sharing Network into any wordpress website. The superior solution of professional video presentations for business, design, arts, etc. Looks great inside pages, posts or blogs with our shortcode framework implementation.

Huge IT Video Gallery Created and specifically designed to show your videos from Vimeo and Youtube in unusual splendid ways. It has 5 good-looking views. Each are made in different taste so that you can choose any of them, according to the style of your website.

TubePress Create beautiful video galleries in seconds with TubePress. This plugin lets you add YouTube and Vimeo video galleries to your website with just a few clicks.

Simply choose the videos you’d like to show, adjust the look of the gallery, then paste a small embed code into your website. It’s that simple.

Video Accessories Here are some great new tools to make your video production and shooting easier. Whether you’re shooting videos with a video camera, iPhone, iPad or Laptop, here are some great new tools to make your job easier. Get professional quality results with these simple tools no matter where you are shooting.

iRig Microphone - $59.99 The first handheld, quality condenser microphone for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad designed for all of your mobile sound needs. Now you can make professional audio and vocal recordings anywhere on your iOS device.

PicStick with Blue tooth - $11.99 Take the perfect selfie! Built-in Bluetooth technology.

Fits iPhone and Android models including the new iPhone 6. Extends from 9.25” (23.5cm) to 40” (101.6cm) in length!

Mount-It! MI-3352LT Laptop Notebook Desk Stand Mount - $49.49 MI-3352LT notebook stand allows you to lift the laptop up from your desk surface for a sit-stand and standing workstation set up or to raise the laptop screen to an ergonomic height for making videos in your office, kitchen or home office.

Makayama Movie Mount for iPad - $69.95

The Movie Mount is a unique piece of hardware which allows you to radically improve video capture with the iPad. It turns your iPad into a complete studio. Use tele- and wide angle lenses, attach microphones and lights. Use a tripod for super stable shots and much more.

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Video Tips GideonShalwick.com - Gideon Shalwick

https://www.youtube.com/user/GideonShalwick/videos Gideon Shalwick is a video and YouTube expert marketer that shares incredible tips on how to use videos and YouTube to grow your blogging and online mareketing business. Here’s what you’ll find on Gideon’s website and YouTube Channel: • • • •

What the latest and best video technologies to use are How to grow your business using online video Strategies for increasing traffic to your website using video How to dominate your niche using online video marketing

VideocreatorsTV - Tim Schmoyer

https://www.youtube.com/user/VideoCreatorsTV/videos Tim Schmoyer is the expert you want to learn about video marketing from.

He is the creator of the channel “Video Creators” and co-creator of ReelSEO. Tim has a laid-back and approachable style to his content. Check out Tim’s weekly video series below & tune in to learn more about everything YouTube.

• • • •

TUESDAYS: Online Video and YouTube News WEDNESDAYS: YouTube Tips, Tricks, Advice and Ideas THURSDAYS: YouTube Questions & Answers!

MONTHLY: LIVE YouTube Training in Google+ Hangouts On Air!

DarrelEves.com - Darrel Eves

https://www.youtube.com/user/derraleves/videos You can only be number one if you live, breathe, eat, dream and scheme YouTube. Derral is that guy and what’s more, he’s fun to watch. Derral is YouTube certified in Audience Growth and is a recommended source for everything involving YouTube marketing.

Derral delivers top quality in all that he does from his products, video presentations and live events. With his wealth of industry experience and knowledge, Derral has inspired other marketers across the country to implement his techniques for great success.

JamesWedmore.com- James Wedmore

https://www.youtube.com/user/jameswedmore/videos If you want more leads and sales, nothing is better than VIDEO for free, targeted traffic. James teaches his students at Video Traffic Academy how to generate massive results using simple videos on Youtube.

For individuals looking to drive traffic, promote their business, and get their message out to their prospects, video is hands-down the most effective way for doing so. James specializes in overall video marketing strategies, but he also help individuals with more technical aspects such as production and syndication.

affiliate

Cross Device Tracking Making Mobile More Effective Approximately 90% of all smartphone users have used their phone to make progress towards a long term goal, such as buying something online, according to Google.

Just because a consumer starts their purchase journey on their mobile device doesn’t mean they necessarily finish it there. In a world where tracking each transaction is critical when using affiliate marketing to monetize a blog, this could cause serious detriment to monthly commission checks. Fortunately a new technology, cross device tracking, is now helping to alleviate the issue.

A typical shopper these days may begin their product search on the way to work, using their mobile device; later that evening they complete their purchase on their laptop or desktop at home. Since the shopper changed devices, no affiliate was identified in the final purchase because affiliate tracking was only activated on one device. The fact is ecommerce is now multi-step and multi-device. Cross device tracking enables merchants to follow a transaction from the initial device to subsequent devices until the final purchase is completed.

“Adoption of cross device tracking is growing, but still involves only a portion of all affiliate transactions.”

Deterministic vs. Probablistic

There are two ways that cross device tracking can be implemented – Deterministic or Probablistic. Each affiliate network offering cross device tracking to their advertisers much select one of these two strategies.

Deterministic user identification makes no assumptive calculations.

Through the use of first party data provided by the user and a series of device logins and multiple cookies, it is possible to definitively identify a shopper and link them with a transaction placed via one of their devices, in effect creating a user profile. (Don’t worry, each person’s personally identifiable information is still protected via complicated encryption methods). The reach is lower, but the accuracy is top priority. This is the method selected by Affiliate Window.

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Probablistic user identification uses statistical algorithms to analyze a number of anonymous data points including device type, operating system and location to create likely matches between devices.

It doesn’t use any user data, and is estimated to be 60-90% accurate.

There are many more users in the probablistic user base, though they could easily be misidentified and thus commissions could be awarded incorrectly.

Cross Device Tracking Implications for Bloggers Traffic originating from mobile devices continues to soar, growing from just 2% in 2011 to nearly 50% today. However smart phone traffic converts at a much lower rate than tablets and desktops, so the growth of mobile can have a negative effect on a blogger’s conversion rates.

As data from cross device tracking continues to grow, it is quite evident that content publishers play an important role in influencing the sales process, even greater than initially credited. As a result, bloggers are being credited with the sales they properly generated.

Adoption of cross device tracking is growing, but still involves only a portion of all affiliate transactions. Some networks, such as Affiliate Window, have invested heavily in developing the necessary tracking technology to implement cross device tracking in their interfaces.

Currently hundreds of merchants are using it to not only properly reward affiliates, but also to gain new insights into the customer journey. For example, though the majority of transactions take place on the same day, cross device tracking has revealed a surprisingly large number actually occur much later than expected.

As the number of user profiles grows, so will cross device tracking, and thus for bloggers, so will commission checks!

Jeannine Crooks AffiliateWindow.com @Jeannine_Crooks

AFFILIATE

networks now

Midlife Boulevard

Network Focuses On Midlife Demographic

M

y business partner, Sharon Greenthal, and I run the Midlife Boulevard network based on our community of midlife women bloggers.

We manage projects in house, and are small enough to be very responsive to both the client and the bloggers. We are a great option for a brand with a budget too small for a more corporate network, or for any brand trying to reach the lucrative over-45 demographic.

Blazing a Trail We started Midlife Boulevard because we didn’t even blog until we were over 40. I’d go to conferences, ask sponsors what they were looking for in a blogger, and hear they wanted someone expecting their first baby, or with kids in elementary school. I’d need a time machine back to the 90s to qualify for those jobs. A few of us looking for “Life After Mommy Blogging” came together to create communities and opportunities for women like us.

Women over 45 are living in some of the highest-income households, have the the highest amount of disposable income, and really want marketers to try to reach out to them. So many of us feel like we are being overlooked for Millennials, but we have money we want to spend right now. Please, take our money! Also, 45+ women influence the purchases of both their Senior parents, and their Millennial kids, so we are like a three-for-one.

The bloggers in our network love tech that saves them time or solves a problem, skin care and cosmetics targeted to our needs, stylish apparel that is comfortable and flattering, caring for our 45

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health, and luxury travel. We are less acquisitional than we used to be, and prefer quality over quantity. Some of us are downsizing our empty nests, trading in the minivan for a more luxurious, greener car, and starting second careers or marriages. Not all of us are married or moms!

Creating an Impact Brands often want mega-bloggers with huge numbers. While we certainly have those, some of our best projects utilize bloggers with lower numbers but incredible impact. In the midlife space, readers still comment and are very responsive to bloggers they trust and feel like they have a relationship with. Our community focuses on the writing, and creates wonderful content.

Our business has three components: our website, MidlifeBoulevard. com, our community network, and our annual conference BAM, BloggersAtMidlife. Midlife Boulevard publishes fifteen to twenty pieces of content each week. We have columnists for style, food, tech, mental wellness, and women’s sexual health. Also, we curate the best content our community previously published elsewhere. Our network has managed projects for AARP, NETGEAR, the Ad Council, and Procter & Gamble, among others.

Networking in Person The Bloggers At Midlife conference is in its second year. We’ll be in Las Vegas on April 15 and 16. Last year sponsors included Stouffer’s and Nissan.

We are working with some top brands again this year. The conference brings together our community, connects them with brands looking to work with midlife women bloggers, and educates our attendees on the latest trends and tech in our industry.

To work with Midlife Boulevard or for more information about the Bloggers At Midlife conference, please contact Anne at anne@midlifeboulevard.com

Anne Paris midlifeboulevard.com @midlifeblvd

Sharon Greenthal NETWORKS NOW

social media

r u o Y l l i F x o b l o o T 7 Social Media Tools I Couldn’t Live Without There is no shortage of tools out there, but how do you know which ones will work best for your business and your particular needs? I am constantly checking out new tools and have put together a toolbox of my favorite tools that I use on a daily basis. These cover scheduling, visual content creation, blog post ideas, and more!

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Canva

BuzzSumo

This is my go-to site for creating eye-catching images for use on my blog and social media!

BuzzSumo is great for blog post ideas as it finds the most shared content for any topic!

Canva has many free images and templates to choose from, plus thousands more for just $1 each. The beautiful part about this tool is that it is fantastic for creating social media visual content. I am really loving the Canva for Work account that allows you to instantly resize any graphic with the click of a button! For example, I can turn a Facebook-sized graphic into a Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram graphic with just ONE click! Pretty nifty, right?

You can filter by competitor’s domains, keyword or even content type.

From there, you can revise the title to fit your particular niche’s need and then start writing that blog!

Schedugram This Instagram tool allows you to easily post or schedule from your desktop to Instagram. That’s right! You can actually schedule your Instagram posts from your computer!

It has built-in emojis, a first comment feature and supports both single and bulk uploads as well as video. You can either post your photo immediately or schedule it for a particular date and time…and that is it!

The great thing about this tool is, like PostPlanner, you are essentially finding which topics are most engaging and being shared the most so your post can hopefully gain some virality as well.

SocialOomph If you are a high-frequency poster on social media, you will really appreciate the benefits of using Social Oomph. While there are other great tools that allow you to schedule social media posts, Social Oomph has an added benefit of allowing you to save and re-use posts.

My favorite feature has to be the Twitter queues. You can set a posting frequency for each queue and have all of the tweets in that particular queue cycle through repeatedly. The benefit to this is that you are always posting valuable content your followers will love!

AgoraPulse Typorama I recently switched to scheduling and doing most of my engagement from a tool called AgoraPulse. It has just TONS of great features including the ability to see the entire Twitter conversation you are replying to, the ability to engage with your Instagram followers, assigning tasks to other connected users and so much more!

You can also use this tool for custom contests and promotions. They have stunning reports to boot!

PostPlanner PostPlanner is one of my favorite content curation tools. Not just any type of content but proven “viral” content, which is a total game changer! I use this tool each and every day to source content that has proven virality.

There are a ton of great graphic apps out there, but some are easier to use than others. Some require at least a little design skill, while others simply require an ability to open the app and press a few buttons. Typorama is the latter!

Simply upload an image and/or type in your desired text, and watch as the app transforms it into a beautiful design. You don’t have to mess around with different fonts, filters or frames….unless you want to! You can even add your own watermark to your images to ensure you retain credit for your graphics.

These seven tools are some of the biggest time savers in my business, but the best part about all of these tools is that while they save me a boatload of time I don’t have to sacrifice quality! And, for the most part, all of these tools are either free or a small fee that is well worth the financial investment for all of the features you get.

There are multiple ways you can use PostPlanner. One, you can share those viral posts from the originator’s Page, or, you can use those posts to fuel your own content ideas, which is what I do.

I will take the same basic message of the viral posts I see on PostPlanner that I think will resonate with my audience and then switch the wording and message around so it sounds like something I would say.

Kim Garst boomsocial.net @kimgarst

SOCIAL MEDIA

video

Using Easy Webinar To Easily Create Webinars

O

ne way to make passive income for your business is to easily create webinars using the EasyWebinar plugin. These webinars can be live, automated, or a hybrid of the two. Also, if they’re automated, you can even make them evergreen (ongoing webinars) that can help you create passive income.

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To learn more, visit: http://goo.gl/VU0QaE

One of the key components of a webinar is the video.

When using EasyWebinar, you can use different types of video sources, which are dependent on whether your webinar is live, automated, or a hybrid.

According to Casey Zeman, creator of EasyWebinar: Video and also Live Video (one of my favorites) is a direct line to building not just a relationship with your audience, but more so a ritualized relationship. When you incorporate video and webinars into not only building your community but also selling to your community and keeping in touch with your community, you can often indoctrinate them into consuming your content and your message consistently/ritually. The medium of video has been the best way that I’ve ever seen for building, growing and monetizing any business … period! (Besides meeting your audience face to face!)

With this in mind, you can easily create webinars by integrating EasyWebinar into your WordPress website.

Unique Ways to Use Webinars Since EasyWebinar gives users the ability to host three types of events – live, automated (pre-recorded broadcast), or a hybrid – let’s dig deeper to see how this is accomplished.

Live events: With this type of webinar, you’re hosting the webinar live and you engage your audience in real time.

With EasyWebinar, you can actually set up timed events that will encourage your audience to take action at specific times during your webinar.

Automated events: These allow you to pre-record your video and add it to your EasyWebinar setup. Once it’s added, you can set up your webinar to play at any time for your viewers without you having to be there to start it.

Hybrid events: This is a unique way that you can stream your webinar to attendees. Hybrid events combine prerecorded segments with live elements. For example, you can record a segment with a guest and transition directly into a live Q&A with attendees.

Integrating Videos Into EasyWebinar One of the main components of EasyWebinar is video that can be live or pre-recorded. When you integrate Google+ Hangouts on Air (HOA) into EasyWebinar, it allows you to easily create webinars using video. HOAs combine a video conferencing feature with YouTube’s live streaming and recording capabilities. EasyWebinar works flawlessly with HOAs and can create a virtual waiting room for attendees before your live stream begins. Finally, thanks to HOAs, you have access to your automatically recorded video. You’ll instantly have a recording of your webinar on YouTube once you complete your hangout.

Another feature of EasyWebinar is that you can add video embed code to your Events page that will display your prerecorded videos. So for those who use services like Wistia, Vimeo, or, yes, even Amazon S3, you can display video.

You’ll just need to be able to grab the embed code from your video hosting service and then add it to your settings for EasyWebinar.

Easily Create Webinars as Passive Income When it comes to passive income, there are several ways that you can use EasyWebinar as part of your video marketing. Some of the ways that you can do this are: Evergreen: Easily create webinars that generate passive income when you create evergreen webinars. Evergreen webinars basically allow you to set it and forget it as you drive traffic to your webinar signup page How-tos: Sometimes your audience may want to learn howtos from you so you can create a How-to webinar. Then you can even charge for access to those who want to learn from them.

FAQs: By answering frequently asked questions via video, you can then have an offer at the end of the video that would encourage people to take action to connect with you or buy products. Including EasyWebinar in this process, you can set up Timed Events during your webinar to encourage viewers to take action.

Training series: you can create a training series that your audience members pay to have access to. At the end of each webinar, EasyWebinar can allow you to automatically forward to a link so you can create a link to the next training in the series. Keep in mind that you’ll need to have this type of webinar pre-recorded and an EasyWebinar event set up for each training video.

Monitoring Audience Participation in Webinars Love that EasyWebinar has smart data features which allow you to track the actions of all of those who register for your webinars. Below are different ways that you can track your participants as they take action: • Total number of visits to your registration page • Total number of people who register • Monitor who showed up for your webinar • How many watched your webinar • How many watched the replay of your webinar • How many took action during your webinar If you use Infusionsoft, you can even incorporate tags into the process to help you build campaigns that will sync up with the actions that each participant takes. During the webinar, you have the option of using the default chat feature or integrating Twitter, Facebook, or even a third-party tool like LiveFyre or Disqus.

Kim Beasley kimbeasley.com @kimbeasley

VIDEO

Weelicious focuses on educating kids and involving them in the cooking process. We encourage parents to be honest – no sneaking veggies! – and to include kids in the cooking process by exposing them to food from the moment it comes out of the ground to giving them age-appropriate tasks in the kitchen.

This hands-on experience inspires them to ask questions and gets them excited about what they’re going to eat. You’ll notice a change in kids’ eating habits and as they grow, they’ll instinctively make healthier food choices. Check out these delicious and healthy recipes for a great start to a Healthy Spring season.

Asian Rice Bowls with Egg

Chicken Paillard w/Summer Salad

INGREDIENTS

INGREDIENTS

3 tablespoons olive oil 2 tablespoons rice vinegar 2 tablespoons low sodium soy sauce 2 teaspoons minced fresh ginger 4 cups cooked brown rice 2 cups broccoli florets, raw or lightly steamed 1/2 head napa cabbage, sliced thin (about 2 cups) 2 carrots, grated 1/2 cup bean sprouts 4 large fried eggs 1/2 cup chopped green onions sesame seeds

4 boneless and skinless chicken breasts 1 cup flour 2 large eggs, whisked 2 cups panko bread crumbs 1 teaspoon salt,

canola or vegetable oil, for the pan 1 cup halved cherry tomatoes 2 persian cucumbers, thinly sliced 1 ear of corn, cut off the cob 2 tablespoons chopped cilantro 1 teaspoon lemon juice

DIRECTIONS 1.Place one chicken breast between 2 sheets of parchment paper and pound using a tenderizer until about 1/3 inch and even thickness. Repeat with all the breasts.

2. Season each chicken breast with 1/4 teaspoon salt.

3. In 3 small dishes place flour, egg and breadcrumbs separately.

DIRECTIONS

4. Dredge both sides of chicken breast in flour, followed by egg and then bread crumbs and repeat with remaining breasts.

1. In a small bowl, whisk together the olive oil, vinegar, soy sauce, and minced ginger.

5. Heat about 2 tablespoons of oil in a skillet over medium high heat and place chicken breasts in skillet (do in batches if needed and add extra oil if needed for second batch)

2. Divide the brown rice between 4 serving bowls.

6. Fry until golden brown, about 5-6 minutes and flip to brown other side

3. Top each bowl with broccoli, cabbage, carrots, and sprouts.

Drizzle each bowl with the dressing.

7. Place tomatoes, cucumbers, corn and cilantro into a mixing bowl. Drizzle with lemon juice and toss to coat

4. Top with the eggs, green onions, and sesame seeds.

8. When chicken is golden brown and fully cooked place on a cooling rack to cool slightly

Prep time 10 minutes / Makes 4 servings

9. Spoon over salad and serve immediately.

Catherine McCord Weelicious.com Youtube: Weelicious 50

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Catherine McCord created Weelicious.com as a platform to show parents how easy and beneficial it is to expose children to wholesome, delicious homemade food. Weelicious now houses 1,500+ original recipes and more than 350 videos. Catherine inspires her community with recipes that are fast and easy.

RECIPES

McCafé® is expertly roasted for a smooth, rich flavor. Now available where you buy groceries.

© 2015 McDonald’s. McCAFÉ, the Swirl design and the Golden Arches logo are trademarks of McDonald’s Corporation and its affiliates.