Blue Melnick's blog

List Building

Here's a short video I shot for you on my way to Toronto at Newark airport.

 

Here's the link I spoke about in the video: http://www.BlueMelnick.com/ListBuilding

Enjoy!

Blue

An Open Letter to Steve Jobs

Mr. Jobs,

My guess is this isn't actually being read by "The" Steve Jobs, but if it happens to be.... thank you for taking the time!

This weekend I took yet another step towards watching movies on my mac from "reputable" sources, such as the iTunes movie store.  My girlfriend and I decided to watch a movie on Saturday night after spending a great day walking around New York City.  To my surprise, Twilight: New Moon was available for rent in HD on the movie store.  Right away, I clicked the rent HD button, typed in my iTunes password and began to pop some popcorn for movie night.

Choice in movie aside, the night was looking up!  I didn't have to search all over to find a copy of the movie, and it was one-click easy!  I have a Mac Mini hooked up to my 42" Samsung LCD via the Mini-Display port to VGA adapter, so we great fantastic quality!!  We were all set to tuck in for the night, until I clicked play...

Upon clicking play, iTunes gave me an error message telling me that I couldn't play the movie on this computer because of the display attached not being HDCP (I think that was the acronym anyway) compliant.  I thought maybe it was because the Mac Mini wasn't authorized on my account (as I have four other Macs), but this wasn't the case.

It seems that the HD version of this movie has some form of copy protection preventing people who purchase the movie legitimately to actually view it.  I'm not concerned about the $4.99 I spent on the movie (although it is one less Starbucks latte this week), but more disappointed that I wasn't able to watch a digital copy of a movie I had purchased on the computer I had purchased it on.  To take it one step further, I looked all over the New Moon page on iTunes to see if maybe there was a notice warning about this possibility, but couldn't find one.

My next step was to try downloading the same movie again in SD.  I figured that I would have the same problem, but figured might as well try before looking elsewhere for a copy of the movie.  To my surprise, the SD version worked fine.

So in the end, it all worked out.  We watched yet another bad movie on a Saturday night (we should have downloaded UP :)), enjoyed some quiet time together, and went to bed dreaming about our pre-ordered iPads.... except for the small point that I lost $4.99 and tolerance for the movie studios (who are undoubtedly to blame for this ridiculous DRM policy).

Hoping your weekend included no roadblocks presented to you by DRM.

A loyal fan and customer.

Blue Melnick

Creating Video on Your iPhone

I gave a presentation a few weeks back at Suzanne Evans' Be The Change Event on Creating Video That Sells.  It was my first time speaking on stage for more than 15 minutes (which you can see here), and I really enjoyed it!!  I also received some great feed back from the people in the room, which was great.

One of the things I mentioned during my presentation that received a lot of questions was the idea that you can now film, edit, and publish video from your iPhone!  That being the case, I decided this weekend to put together a short video of how to do this.

Hope you like!

Blue

 

Why Does Bad Video Repel??

Since I put the following video up online, I've been getting some people asking me: Why does bad video repel?

A lot of people are under the mistaken impression that if they grab any camera, shoot a video, and put it on their website, or on the social networking sites out there, that they'll get more traffic and convert more leads.  This is only true to a point.

Here's the problem: If you're video looks bad, or sounds bad, even if your message is on point, it may actually decrease your conversion rates.

If I were talking to my friend and mentor David Neagle, he would likely tell me about the vibrations that a video that is not congruent with your message sends; how your prospect's sub-consciense receives those vibrations, causing your prospect to say no (or be repelled).  He would then finish it with something along the lines of vibration never lies.

For the uninitiated, let me give you the english version of that ;)... If you're message is a positive one; if you're teaching people about an abundant lifestyle or how to run successful business that has many clients, but you can't afford video that looks and sounds professional, people will see that as a disconnected message (even if they don't realize it).  This disconnect causes confusion, and we all know that a confused mind says no.

Let me say that again in case you didn't already know it: A Confused Mind Says No!!

The truth is, we as entrepreneurs who want to implement video in our business, have been ruined by television and movies.  People are used to watching high quality video that costs hundreds of thousands of dollars to produce, and in many cases, millions!  How can we compete with these budgets to produce video that looks and sounds good so it enhances our message instead of takes away from it?!?!

The answer is, as with many things in life, education.  You need to learn how to use some of the amazing tools we have at our disposal today to the best of their ability.  You see, you can set up your home studio for under $400 (check out this article on what to buy) !!  You can then take some simple steps to ensure that the video that you create generates the desired result (more leads, more traffic, more sales, etc...).

What to know more? Go to www.BlueMelnick.com/15minutes to download a presentation I did on exactly this topic.  I think you'll really like!!

Hope to "see" you soon!

Blue

Product Recomendations

People are always asking me what they should get to be able to create great looking video at a reasonable price.  Here's the bottom line: With video, you can spend as much or as little as you can afford, but if you don't put some money into lighting, don't even bother!

There are three categories of equipment for you to consider as you set up your home studio:

1. Video Camera & Tripod
2. Sound
3. Lighting 

If done right, you can get away with a low end (under $200) camera.  Here are my current recommendations for the budget home studio (less than $400).  Full disclosure: These links are affiliate links for Amazon.com.  There are other options to get these products, but if you use these, I'll get a few bucks ;)

Video Camera & Tripod

Kodak Zi8 HD Pocket Video Camera
This is a great camera for the price!!  It's HD, has some digital stabilization features that help with the shaky hand, and most importantly: It has a mic input!!!!

Kingston 16 GB SDHC Card
You're going to need an SD card for the camera above.. this one is inexpensive, and high capacity (about 2 hrs on the card)

Joby GP1-D1EN Gorillapod Flexible Tripod
This is a fantastic mini-tripod that can be used with the Zi8.  Using a tripod will allow you to have steady video, which is a big plus. (If you would rather have a full size tripod, any one will do)

Audio

Audio Technica ATR-3350 Lavalier Microphone
This is a small inexpensive mic is a big improvement over the built in mic on any camera (including the Zi8).  One of the nice things about this one is that it has a 20 foot cable, making your home studio setup nice and easy.

Lighting

Lighting is probably the most important part of your video setup.  With good light, you can get away with using a bad camera. Without light, even a super expensive camera won't do you any good.  What I recommend for the budget buyer is to go out to your local home depot and pick up a couple construction lights on stands.  They'll cost you less than $50 per light, and give you a good amount of light for your setup.  One thing to keep an eye on, make sure you can remove the cage that protects the light, otherwise you might wind up with some weird shadows on your face :).

Hope this helps!

Blue

A Day To Remember

Welcome to the new BlueMelnick.com.  Its currently not much to look at, but a work in progress.

For those of you that know me, you probably know that today (June 5th, 2009) is the one year anniversary of my father's passing. As you may expect, this event was the catalyst for monumental change in my life, but more on that in the weeks ahead...

As I contemplated what my first post would be about, I realized that what better way to launch my new site then to show you all the video I created in memory of my Dad.

Enjoy, and talk to you all soon!!

Blue