Freelance Web Designer

Old-fashioned bookmarking can be defined as using a marker (even a piece of paper) to bookmark your place in a book that you are reading.  With the advancements in technology the term bookmarking has carried over into the realm of the world wide web and is used to help individual be able to go back to a website that they found useful or interesting.  Until recently, the best way to go back to a website that you discovered was to bookmark it and categorize it or save it to your “favorites” in your web browser.  The biggest problem with this type of bookmarking is that it is private and only available on your personal or desktop computer.

There are billions of web pages on the net, over 15 billion to get a little bit more precise, and probably several million or even billions with useful information.  It would be impossible to bookmark or add all of these sites to your favorites.  What has come out of the need for knowing more and needing a place to store it and a way to find it again is social bookmarking.  One of the most trafficked sites del.icio.us is a social bookmarking site that lets users tag any website that they desire and further they are able to share these websites with friends, family and colleagues.

There are different sites that allow for social bookmarking but one of the most popular and easy to use sites is del.icio.us.  To get started with del.icio.us you just register online at del.icio.us, save the del.icio.us button and “tags” button in your button bar and “voila” you are ready to be on your way to social bookmarking.  Once you tag a site you will be prompted to add more tag words so that you and anyone who is in your social network will be able to access and use your bookmarks.  There is so much information out there on the Internet and it has become very important to filter out the good from the bad and save time by using these social bookmarking tips.

The social media marketing explosion has made social bookmarking all the more necessary.  Your bookmarks not only help you and other people but they also play a major factor in organic optimization and online buzz marketing.

I’ve recently been asked by a lot of our clients if I can do website video marketing. The answer to that question is YES! I have partnered with some talented videographers and editors and will handle the video once it has been edited. I’d like to explain the process since most people are still uncertain what it means to do website video marketing.

Step 1. Decide on content for your video. Who’s your audience? What message are you trying to convey? Where will the video be posted?

Step 2. Work with a professional team to create your video. There are a ton of cheap camcorders out there but if you think you’ll be able to shoot and edit your video to where it looks professional you are mistaken. Both the video shoot and editing are art forms and should be left to professionals.

Step 3. The video shoot can take anywhere from 2 to 4 hours. I recently worked on a shoot in Southern California which I’ll post next week. The video shoot took around 3 hours and we ended up with about an hour and half of footage.

Step 4. Once the video is shot it has to be edited. I think there is a big misuderstanding here since my clients tend to want the video the next day after the video is shot. The editing process can sometimes take longer than the actual shoot. In the editing process additional elements can be added to the video to make it more enticing to watch such as music, still photos and graphics. This step is also important because we any noises or mistakes that were made during the shoot. In the above example I mentionded we edited the hour and half footage down to around 2 minutes. Anything longer than 2 minutes in my mind is too long for website video marketing.

Step 5. So now you have the video and it has to be compressed and optimized for the internet. Once the video is ready you can use this video for your website and a host of other video sites. Here’s a short list of sites that I use: Revver, YouTube, Viddler, MetaCafe, and Vimeo.

Step 6. Once the videos are out on these sites you should start driving traffic to these sites. Video marketing can be challenging in this regard since there are so many videos out there. If the video is funny or sexy than it will probably pick up some traction and start spreading. This can also be referred to as viral marketing.  Here’s a short list of ways to promote your video: blog about the video, bookmark the video on social bookmarking sites, email your friends and family, digg the video, post comments on other videos and hopefully you’ll get someone checking out your video when this happens.

Best of luck in your video. I hope this information was helpful. Stay tuned for some video examples.