Meet Her Here

It’s rough out there.  Until this economy improves, there will be many people watching their pennies closely.

If you have a product or a service to sell, you know that promotion is important.  One of the best ways to sell a product is to make a promotional video.  For example, if you have written a book and you want the public to read it - you have to tell them about it.  One way to do that is to make a book trailer and upload it to YouTube. 

Making a promotional video cost money if you hire someone.  The cost will range in price from affordable - to not so affordable.  But if you’re watching your pennies in this economy, why not make a promotional video for free?

With the use of Windows Movie Maker, I created a video for Meet Her Here.  Go HERE to watch it.   

If you have Windows Movie Maker on your computer, making a promotional video for free is easy if you follow these steps:

1. Go to All Programs and find Windows Movie Maker on your computer.

2. The screen you will see is Storyboard. Don’t work with it.  Instead, switch to Timeline.  Do this by clicking on View and then selecting Timeline.

3. Now it’s time to look for free photos.  Minimize Windows Movie Maker and then open your Internet browser.  There are many places to find free photos.  One great page that gives you a lot of options is HERE. The most time you will spend in making your promotional video for free is in choosing the photos.  Take your time.  Don’t rush this step.  

Choose no more than approximately 10 photos.  If you choose too many, your video will be too long.  Who wants to watch a promotional video that’s too long?  I don’t.  Meet Her Here’s video is about a minute and 12 seconds long - a good length.

As you find a photo you like, save it to a designated folder on your computer, such as your “Pictures” folder.  I have a separate folder for Meet Her Here, and therefore I save everything related to Meet Her Here into that particular folder.   Get into the habit now of saving your work as you go.  You don’t want to lose any of it with a computer that wants to act up.  

4. Now it’s time to import your chosen photos to Windows Movie Maker.  Maximize Windows Movie Maker and click Import Media. Then, when you’re done importing your photos, drag and drop your media to your Video timeline.

5. Now it’s time to go to your Tools and choose some options. 

The first option you will want is Effects.  Play around with them until you find the ones you want and then drag and drop them to your Video timeline where your photos have been placed.

Another option that you will want is Transitions.  Again, play around with them until you find what you want and then drag and drop before the appropriate photos.

Still another option that you will want is to visit the Title and Credits option. This is where you can add some written word.  You can choose the font and the background color, too.

I did not opt for the Narrate Timeline feature, but that’s available as well if you want to add your voice.

Keep in mind that you can RIGHT CLICK on a photo to remove the photo or remove the effect; you can right click on a transition to remove the transition, and you can right click onto a title page to remove it as well.  

6. The next step is to find free music.  I was in for a surprise here. It’s REALLY HARD to find royalty free music that is affordable.  Plus, I wrongly assumed that just because I bought a tune from iTunes that I could use it in my video.  WRONG!  If you do that you could be sued by the creator.  Probably won’t happen, but why take the chance?

You will find that royalty free music can cost as much as $99 for ONE SONG.  Crazy!  However, I did find a site where the creators of the music provide it for free and only ask that you donate to the cause.  That’s where I found the cool music for my Meet Her Here promotional video.  Go HERE. If you go with Purple Planet, be sure to credit them in your video.  (I credit Purple Planet at the end of the video for Meet Her Here.)  Credit whether you donate or not.

Be sure to take some time with the music step as well.  Choosing the wrong music for your video could be harmful.  Think about your listeners and think about your product or service.

Download your chosen music to your hard drive into a folder such as Music or some other folder. Click on Import Media and import your music.  Now drag and drop your music to your Audio/Music timeline.  Make sure you drag and drop to the start of your timeline. To trim the clip for the beginning and ending of your promotional video you’ll need to clip and drag.  For Meet Her Here’s promotional video I started the music from the beginning and then ended the music at the end of my credits.  You’ll need to find a good starting and stopping point so that your music sounds good and matches your theme. 

Now your video is done!  Play it back over and over to make sure it’s correct and what you want.  Pretty cool, huh?  

7. Now you’ll need to save your video to your computer.  If you don’t do this YouTube won’t recognize it.  You will save it to your Videos folder. 

Go to Publish Movie and This Computer.  Save the movie in your Videos folder.

Now go to YouTube, open a free account if you don’t already have one, and upload your video following YouTube’s instructions.  Be sure to promote your video at social networking sites like Twitter, sites like DIGG, sites that promote videos and anywhere else you can! 

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