Print, audio or video - which format should I use?

Like most of publishers and Internet marketing, I played with the use of transmission formats, such as audio or video on my site. 2007 will probably go down in history as the year of Internet video with all the emotions that YouTube has brought us.

But just because you have the equipment and can afford to use audio or video, you should use? I'll tell you a story to help you understand what I mean.

How many people on the Internet, I'm always learning. And recently, I had a great lesson on how not to use audio or video.

First, I listened to an audio interview with John Reese, by Trafficology.com. Who is John Reese? According to one of his websites, "John Reese has generated a total of several million dollars and over one billion website visitors in its online activities."

Reese is a polished speaker who has spoken at length to generate web traffic without the "UHS", "ah" and uncomfortable pauses in a speaker is not trained. Every minute is pure gold, and I learned so much in that hour of the interview, although I prefer reading in my classes, I decided that I should pay more attention to audio and video formats.

I argued this until I bought a video nasty, purchased to support an internet marketer latest. His first mistake was the use of bad graphics. His Powerpoint slides were boring, badly arranged and pedestrians. Worse for me, most of the material was too elementary. You know what it means when he felt something for the moment 100.

He made his mistakes with poor delivery. Even if I was listening alone in a room, I felt all the embarrassment you feel for him when a poor speaker struggles from a podium. He spoke slowly, punctuated his remarks with the words nervous. My thought was that he needed to join a group of TOASTMASTER.

His video shows clearly the value of bad press. Print sizes are very forgiving in that you can write a first draft only bad for your thoughts on paper, and return later to polish your piece until it shines. You must not let go until you have deleted all those false starts, and ideas that really make no sense.

But with audio or video, no amount of editing will cover a bad performance. Polished speakers like John Reese has a gift that makes their other standout interviews and speaking engagements. No graphics at all, Reese was able to grab and hold my attention for increasing web traffic, which is interesting, is not the most interesting subject.

With the speaker on the other hand, though, I stopped the tape and I was wondering if I should ask my money back. He set a bad tone in the first five minutes I was convinced that I would get very little value to hear the rest of the tape. One good thing came out of my purchase: I learned to take my time considering audio and video formats.

The real point to consider is what the experience is for the reader, listener or viewer. If you're reading material boring, but useful, you can jump and skip over the parts that you want. You can put a book down, and get back to where you left off, when you have time to continue reading.

This is not true for the audio or video. Once you commit to listening to or viewing a tape, you can only go forward or stop. You could try fast-forwarding if you knew what to look for, but in most cases is not an option. This means that whatever you present better be convincing and delivered well, if you want your listener or viewer to follow you until the end.

So before you pull out a tape recorder or video camera to create a new audio or video product information, join Toastmasters or take a course in public speaking to your local college or university .......