I’m excited, and I think this is the right place to write about it! As part of DIY Publishing Ltd we do websites primarily for authors.
My business partner, Kris, is a designer, and I’m the techie who has to make her designs a reality – well apart from the really crazy stuff which I just tell her to change! Over the years I’ve been using the same theme since it was called Catalyst – and is now Dynamik for Genesis. It’s a great theme, and incredibly flexible.
But it’s not the best if you want the super fancy graphic-heavy designs that today’s websites apparently must be. So I started investigating page builders – and discovered a plugin called Beaver Builder.
Websites for Authors and Politicians!
It’s early days – but I’m liking it a lot so far. I’ll be writing more about it more as I discover some more tricks and tips. To date here are a couple of websites we’ve done for clients: http://tinanixonformasterton.nz/ http://dianamarjoriemartin.nz/
The thing with page builders is that they are a direct challenge to websites such as Weebly and Squarespace. These sites are very “pretty” and offer beginners the opportunity to design their own website using drag and drop. That’s the promise. The downside though is that you are tied down to their technology. You can’t expand beyond a website or blog – to say include product sales or event planning – without either paying them more money per a month for their ecommerce option, or finding that you’ve outgrown their platform.
I still love WordPress – because whatever you want it to be – there will be an extension, plugin or theme which will do it. But frankly some days – when trying to get a full-width image to scroll without mucking up the right-aligned top-menu, does my head in.
So enter Beaver Builder. It’s a page builder which allows you to do drag and drop . So far I’ve had a learning curve, but I’m liking the plugin more and more. It has a very active engaged community some of home are building extensions for it. It’s very new, only 6 months or so, but so far I’m happy to keep using and watching this space.
OK – so I’m being fighting the video monster for the last few days – with some success – and quite a steep learning curve – but at least now I can create videos!
And I don’t even own a video camera.
Nor am I pretty on video!
If I can do it, anyone can.
It goes like this. I’ve been studying the travel niche. And frankly, there is some very, very good content out there, frightening good writers with awesome stories to tell, seem to abound. But the video side of things – hmmm – a bit average to be honest.
Now call me a chancer, but I see an opportunity. Lets face it, who doesn’t like watching travel videos? Isn’t there a whole Travel Channel on US cable TV? Don’t I watch trash like Vacation, Vacation, Vacation and Travel Gettaway – just because I want to see pretty beaches, tasty looking food, and, rarely, an idea about a new travel destination. Its Travel Porn basically – and travel addicts want to dream.
There is definitely an audience for travel videos.
So why do travel bloggers, in gross generalisation, suck at video?
Several reasons. Real video – the stuff you see on TV takes not just talent, it takes gear. It takes more than one person. Yes you can get a thingy to attach to your camera so you can shoot picture of yourself – how silly would that look? On a beach in Thailand? Or a street in Europe. Tripods are a bulky to carry. Oh and then there’s the problem with sound. Most cameras seem to pick up sound even if you are just breathing. Great in one niche I can think off, but heavy breathing travel vids – hmmm not so much. So you need a separate mike as well. Its starting to get heavy, and complicated.
On the other hand pointing a 1/2 decent camera and taking a photo is something many of us can do.
I’d already found a solution for the talking heads/screen shot video (screencast-o-matic.com: free up to 15minutes or $15/year)
Now I mus admit sometimes I just get confused (is that because I’m old? … don’t answer that). I noticed people talking about product videos using something called animoto.com – and I assumed that it was the funny talking cartoon thingy – wasn’t sure why that would work – but I wasn’t doing product videos anyways). Then I thought I’d just click on this animoto thing – and I was like WOW. Oh and the funny talking cartoons – they are here.
That was so easy to do – even I could do it! And the whole sound thing was got around by using music – included in the software – COOL
But then I had a problem – I got a copyright notice from Youtube and the video started displaying Adsense – weird, and annoying. It got be looking. And I found some other issues with animoto – and some alternatives
there is a desktop version as well as the online version – this was initially attractive as I was having problems online with animoto – but that version included no free licensed music
nice range of themes and great collection of transitions
creates DVD quality downloads (this wasn’t important to me)
add your own watermark (white label version only).
What’s Not To Like
can’t control slide timing except at an overall level
no text to voice or simple voice overs
no easy maps
quite slow to render the video – no “quick preview” option
some transitions and effects require extra payment
Pricing
Free – restricted to less than 15 photos, watermarked
can change duration for everything including text slides – so I can focus on the call to action at the end of the video for long enough for someone to write the website’s name down
does HD for $8/month
I found this the easiest editor to get to work consistently of the three
has a quick preview which means you can see what you have before you do a proper render
What’s Not:
still have an issue with copyright with some of the music with Youtube showing iTunes – but at least the Adsense ads seem to have gone.
most expensive of the options
Pricing:
Free very limited, from $5 month, $8/month HD ($49/year)
$299/year white label
$499 reseller
Really I like the Google maps and text to speech with Stupeflix – but I may go to ProshowWeb for the much cheaper whitelabel options.
Nothing at all to do with the post - I just though it looked cute
Thank you. The last email I sent out to the list was rather long, and had bad words in it. Frankly, I was not sure how it would go down. Given the choice I’d rather have put it on the blog, but there are some conversations I’m not prepared to have “out in the open” any more. If you want to know WTF I’m talking about – sign up for the list (under this post). Its the only truly G-monster proof place I have to chat. (No I don’t believe that Facebook pages are secure either, whatever their privacy settings).
What I got was a ton of replies – some from people I’m pretty sure have never actually commented here. Thank you. Its nice to hear that I am sometimes useful.
A few days after I wrote my last post my premier travel site got damaged by the rampaging bird aka Google’s Penguin update – maybe. Its weird – its going up and down in the SERPS like front page, not in the top 100, and repeat. Not just for one search term – for ALL of them! There used to be a sandbox when Google wouldn’t rank a site for anything for the first 6 months, maybe 12. That gradually faded over the last few years – maybe its been replaced by this ping pong effect? Making me dizzy anyways – was always crap at table tennis.
No I am not sleeping in it - I just though it looked cute
For the record I hadn’t used BMR on this site, but I’ve done some guest posts plus some good quality articles on relevant sites with key word anchored in-content text links. I’m seeing “phuket or koh samui” go between zero and 8 visitors a day. It was back to 3 yesterday. And when I check Google via proxy I’m sitting at #4 behind Frommers, Lonely Planet (legit publishing houses) and phuket.com – none of which I’d argue with. The page is better than it was yesterday where a bunch of hotel results were showing (not consolidators actual properties) which had both terms in their address, i.e. they had a hotel on each island – that’s not the answer to a query which is really the searcher asking which place has the better weather, or the better nightlife, or easier to get to.
BTW the very best information I’ve seen to date on Penguin was on a blog I’d never heard of before, Microsite Masters – who actually analysed the data they collect for clients and reported the results of Penguin here The only thing I object to is the word “easy” in their title. None are particular “easy” – but some are actionable so I will be implementing some.
Which brings me back to the point of this post – yeah this post has a point.
A New Business Direction – I’m Out of Diversifying Niche Sites
Yeah – Google all those sites you just slammed – you can have them. But I will be getting my travel site back thank you very much.
But I do think its time for a bit of a change of direction. My 2012 internet marketing business plan just went out the window. I’m not looking for new niches, and I’m not creating pure Adsense or Amazon affiliate sites anymore. I think its the high road to nothing.
Yes I have a cash flow problem – I guess some of you do to. If I hit payout with Adsense this month I’ll be surprised. I’m hurting financially. Let’s be honest here, I have partner who earns good money, and who can more than afford to support me, I won’t be in a tent any time soon. But I want him to retire. I could cash in some investments, but we’re not looking at losing our home, and I forever thankful that I live in a socialist paradise that considers cheap medical care one of the basics of a civilized society. And the frigging US$ keeps collapsing against the NZ$, thanks a lot forex markets.
I can’t afford to wait 12 months, or even 6 months to replace my income. I want to be earning $5000 month by the end of the year. This year. 2012
But the game just changed – and its adapt or die time. So I’m adapting.
I will be focussing on two niches – this one and travel.
This site just changed – its not about making hundreds of niche sites and ranking in Google and making money.
Its about what I’m going to do to rank in the travel vertical (I think that’s the marketing jargon). I’m turning around some of the stuff that I’ve been adamantly against for years. I am going to try to be “branded” and a leader in the travel niche. I am going to be chasing social media traffic. But not exclusively. I’m taking what I know about SEO and I’m applying it to this business. I figure the general approach will work in any niche that you know well, certainly doesn’t have to be travel.
This site? Well its now about building a G-monster proof authority website that makes money. Without the cult of personality bullshit which seems to accompany so much of this.
I’m going to achieve this while remaining an introvert, who doesn’t want to go on a speaking tour, become the go-to authority for daytime TV in the niche, and frankly isn’t interested in getting out of their PJs before midday.
Its about taking the stuff that the blogging crowd has been talking about for years: “write and they will come”, “social media matters”, “the money is in the list”, blah, blah, taking the good bits – yes there are some good bits, and combining those with the best of SEO.
After all how hard can it be?
You might want to stick around for the ride.
You see I figure if I can make this work anyone bloody can!
So hang around – and sign up for the sodding list – because there is definitely going to be stuff I don’t want to talk about in front of the G-monster.
The passive income dream ain’t dead – but I think we just saw the end of the beginning.
