Does the idea of video recording yourself seem too intimidating? Has this ever kept you from getting a simple sales message out on YouTube?

I thought so. I feel that way too. I did a quick search on Google, and these are some of the issues that were raised when making a video for any purpose.

The first piece of advice was to get the most expensive camcorder possible within my budget. Apparently, unless the camera is top notch, the quality of the video will suffer.

The next thing I learned is that you have to have a tripod that costs at least $100 - $200 to insure it’ll be solid and firm enough not to wobble. I also learned you need a portable microphone and a “Lavaliere Microphone” (though I didn’t even know what that was).

There was EXTENSIVE advice on zooming, panning, lighting, composition, editing, narration - and even sorting and packing your equipment.

Wait. There’s more. You also have to consider cue cards vs. memorization - voice inflection - facial expression - noise minimization - and STAGE FRIGHT (my personal favorite)

All of the above would be perfectly legitimate to consider if you were planning to re-make “Gone With The Wind”, but what if you’re just trying to sell something or explain something?

You and I both understand that video sites like YouTube have incredible power, and that video accounts for more and more internet traffic (52% so far). We know that to get our message in front of the most pairs of eyes, we need to go video - but how do we avoid all of that other nonsense?

That’s a great question. One thing you might consider is to buy some super expensive video editing software. Then, after slogging through a huge learning curve, you could create one of those artsy video “masterpieces” you sometimes see on YouTube. You know, with the clever messages fading in and out, or leaping in and out, or dancing around each other, all accompanied by synchronized music.

But if you just want to get across a simple sales message, you might conclude that all of the above is overkill. So why not look into “text to video” software?

If you haven’t heard of it, don’t worry. I hadn’t heard of it either until recently. But actually it’s been around for a while - only nowadays the speech sounds less robotic. The idea behind it is to simply paste or type the words you want spoken into your computer and it gets converted into audio speech.

This type of program makes creating a video as simple as writing an email. When you consider that more and more people prefer watching and listening to a message, rather than reading words on a screen, you can see the value in this.

The main item missing is the visual aspect. When shopping for a good text to video program, you should consider the nature of the visual presentation. My advice would be to avoid a program that simply flashes the words up on the screen as they are being spoken. Instead, focus on one that produces a computerized image, since this “feels” more comfortable for the average viewer.

Learn more about a new text to video program called VideoGoRound.com at Jennifer Gordon’s site: VIDEOGOROUND.COM. Find out how VIDEOGOROUND will address these issues.