RealEstate Investing :Max-Bang Series: Add Video for Free!

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I can tell you, as someone who uses video a lot, that it adds a lot to your presentations. Let’s face it: people prefer watching something to reading about it. Don’t believe me? Then look at the lines in front of your public library and your movie theaters and see if you notice a difference.

Hey, I’m an author and columnist, and I write for much of my living. But I am not under the mistaken impression that books communicate better than movies. Ask anyone if they’ve read (insert title) and they will reply, “No, but I’ve seen the movie.” Why? Because we live in a microwave culture and you can get the movie in two hours and it takes 5 times that long to read the book. Maybe longer.

That being said, I believe that as agents whose primary mission is to engage people with our messages, we should use the most engaging media possible. And if every other agent is using the “same-old” web pages with the “same-old” written content, how much would you set yourself apart and better communicate if you simply added video? Lots!

I know what you’re thinking: “It’s too expensive, and it is too hard to learn.” What if I told you it was neither. I will bet that most of you already have a digital camera that shoots video, simply by rotating your switch to video. It is push and shoot. You want real simple? Buy a Flip Ultra-HD video camera for 9 at Walmart.

Then you can push a button and shoot video. Push the same button to pause. Restart. Stop. Then when you are finished, simply push another button and a USB adapter pops out. You can upload the finished product to YouTube in a matter of minutes, adding a title and credits to the beginning and end. It doesn’t get any simpler.

“But,” you say, “it’s not professional enough.” I say it is. Look at the top shows on TV right now. They are reality TV programs. We are less interested in slick and more interested in content than ever before. But even if you want slick, good video editing software comes with almost every computer you buy these days. It’s probably on yours. And you can watch a few videos on YouTube that will show you how to use it.

Now, take the finished video from YouTube, in the form of embedded code, and paste it to your web page and save. It really couldn’t be any simpler. You are now light years ahead of your competitors, and your clients will love it. And an additional benefit of being on YouTube is that you will get a lot of unexpected traffic to your website without spending a dime.

Think of valuable topics you could include on your website. Topics like getting your home ready to sell, choosing the right agent, how to find bargain properties, how to buy foreclosures or government-owned properties, first time homebuyers, market conditions, video home tours, etc. Use your imagination and your video camera.

And like anything else, the more you do it, the better you will get. I’ve gotten it down to about 10 minutes to shoot and produce a 5-minute video for my blog. That’s because I’ve reduced it to a very simple system. I do it the same every time. For me, I have a standard intro and outro that I add to each video, so all that is new is the middle. And the middle is very simple — often only one or two splices.

So before you decide that this is one of those ideas you just won’t try, think about this. I get as many comments on my videos (which, by the way, are word-for-word the same as the written content) as I do on the written articles. It seems that about half the people would prefer to watch me tell them as opposed to read it. And that means that for the tiny investment of time I reach twice as many people. That’s Max-Bang!

Matt Jones is the founder and CEO of FavoriteAgent.com and nationally syndicated author of LCM: The Secret to Success in the New Age of Real Estate, The Ultimate Listing Presentation, Traffic: How to Sell Fast and Net More, Becoming a Mega-Producer, and 20 Questions: Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Real Estate but Were Afraid to Ask. Jones’ North Carolina-based company has been profiled by major media outlets as an innovator and a pioneer in the industry, and CNN’s Pulse on America claimed FavoriteAgent.com is “changing the way real estate is being done in America.” This content is cross-posted in the following locations: BlogMattBlog.com, RealBlogging.com, NewsGeni.us, and now Amazon Kindle.

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