Lou Serrano Marketing.com

Posts Tagged ‘Marketing’

Sunday, January 15, 2012 I’ll be lecturing at the world-famous Magic Castle in Hollywood, CA. This will be held in the Parlour of Prestidigitation starting at 3:30 P.M.

This lecture will be on The REAL Secrets. how to build your business faster, easier, and more effectively without spending a fortune. If you want to make 2012 drastically better than 20111, financially speaking, than you owe it to yourself to be here.

This is for Magic Castle members only.

Los Angeles Magician, lou Serrano

I previously posted a video on the Top Three Reason For Having A Blog. If you haven’t seen that video or read the accompanying article, please check it out, as it has valuable information on the importance of having a blog and the benefits it can have on growing your business and increasing your income. I also believe that having video on your blog can greatly increase the impact your posts have on your audience.

Get Started For Less Than $200

Getting started is much easier than it looks, and you can start from scratch with less than $200. All you need is a quality, consumer level video camera, a tripod, lights, a Youtube account, and a WordPress site.

The camera I’ve been using for these videos is a Canon PowerShot SD630 pocket camera that I bought several years ago. At the time, the camera cost just under $400. Now, you can buy a Canon PowerShot SD pocket camera that takes better quality photos and video for less than $100. The only problem with these cameras is that they don’t have an external microphone input, so you have to use the onboard mic. This mic is adequate for most situations, but isn’t the best quality, and can create problems the farther you get away form the camera.

I recently watched a webinar by Peter Temple, The Media Maestro, who gave a recommendation for a consumer level camera that records 1080p HD video. This camera is the Kodak Zi8 pocket video camera. You can find it online for under $100. The wonderful thing about this camera is that it has an external mic input, which means you can get quality audio regardless of the distance you are to the camera. I’ve seen video taken with the Zi8 and the quality is excellent. It’s now on my list of things to get to increase the quality of my vlog posts.

The next essential item is a camera tripod, which you can easily find online for well under $20. The tripod will help ensure you have a properly framed shot every time. The next item you want to look into is proper lighting. Outdoor light is usually best, but if you shoot indoors as I normally do, then you want to invest in at least one main light. I use a 100 watt light bulb with a 12″ reflector to light my face and body. I then use my existing house lamps to light the background of my shot. Lighting the background will give your video more depth as opposed to just using your main light, which can produce a very flat looking video.

Hosting Video On Your Own Site vs Hosting Video On Youtube

I host all my videos on Youtube. It easy to do, and EASY is the way I like to do everything. It gives me the opportunity to focus on the things I really care about. Start out by creating your own Youtube channel. You can then upload all your videos to your channel. From there, you can copy and paste the embed code into your website. I recommend using a WordPress site as it’s easy to use without having to learn HTML.

You can also host your video on your own site. The benefit of hosting your video on your site is search engines, such as Google, love video! It improves the SEO of your site and can help you get ranked higher, because the search engines will now view your site as a video hosting site. The downside is you have to know a lot more about the technical aspects of using video, such as compressing your videos so they upload quickly. If you’re technically challenged, as I am, I recommend hosting your videos through Youtube, otherwise, host the video yourself and reap the rewards of higher SEO rankings.

Please leave a comment, and let me know about your experience in the world of vlogging.

Corporate Magician & Speaker, Lou Serrano

On Tues. March 8, I am doing a Castle Perk at The Magic Castle. I will be teaching all the attendees concrete strategies that are guaranteed to grow your business and increase your income. I will be sharing concepts and principles that may forever change the way you view your business.

Mark the date on your calendar and if you’re serious about making more money and taking your business to another level, Don’t Miss Out!

Feel free to contact me for more information.

I look forward to seeing you there!

Corporate magician, Lou Serrano

A Zen poet said, “A person who is a master in the art of living makes little distinction between their work and their play, their labor and their leisure, their mind and their body, their education and their recreation, their love and their religion. They hardly know which is which and simply pursue their vision of excellence and grace, whatever they do, leaving others to decide whether they are working or playing. To them they are always doing both.”

As a magician, I spend an average of six to ten hours a week performing magic. It’s what I love to do. It’s my passion, but I also spend an average of thirty to forty hours a week, behind the scenes, marketing my business. This work isn’t terribly exciting, and it’s easy to view it as drudgery.

It’s a sad state of mind thinking that I’m viewing a bulk of my life as drudgery. I’d rather live passionately in all areas of my life, so I realized I needed to change my mindset. A change of attitude was in order.

Over the last week I made a concerted effort to live my life with purpose, grace, and ease. Not just in the areas of my life that are easy and fun, but in all areas of my life. The result was a much happier ME.

Some of the work I kept putting off, because it seemed like a chore, is now getting completed, and I’ve been enjoying the process. All it took was a decision on my part to change my attitude. I find it fascinating how powerfully our lives can be impacted by just making a decision and then following through.

The Zen poet said it best. Now it’s just a matter of following through, not just for the meantime, but for life.

As always, I welcome your comments.

Corporate magician, Lou Serrano

If you want to create a synergy between minds to dramatically increase your business, create a MasterMind Group of like-minded individuals to inspire and propel each member of the group to new heights. Your group can consist of as little as two people or it can grow as large as you like. The key is to educate, inspire, and share information that will help all members of the group.

In one of the most influential books of all time on personal achievement, Think & Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill goes into detail about the Master Mind. If you haven’t already read this book, stop what you are doing and immediately purchase it. I also share my own ideas on the Master Mind Group in my marketing and business development course for magicians, The Real Secrets.

Magicians Joe Skilton and Lou Serrano at their weekly Master Mind Group meeting.

To your success!

Los Angeles Magician, Lou Serrano