Pixels or Ems? Which Works Best For You?

There’s a pretty strong debate among web designers: which is the best unit of measure for font size; is it Pixels or Ems? I think most of you will agree, there is no right or wrong, rather a matter of design preference. But lets take a look at both units and hopefully you will be able to chose the one that suits your needs.

First, a quick definition of each:

Ems: A font height or size that is relative to the parent element. In most Web pages this would be the body of the page - and so the parent element is the default font size for the browser settings. Also, this is pronounced ehms, not E-M-S.

Pixel: A font height or size that is based on screen pixels or dots.

Now, here’s what each measurement can do for you:

Using Ems as your font size measurement ensures that your pages will be accessible to most browsers and platforms. Plus, if your readers choose to change the default font size on the fly, your page will scale to that new size.

The problem with using the Ems measurement is that you lose control over the precise look of your page. Some users may have a much larger or smaller default size than you do, and with Ems, your fonts will scale relative to the size on their operating system. This can result in sporadic font sizes and a site that does not look quite the way you intended.

Pixels, on the other hand are the measure of resolution, and the resolution of a user’s monitor can affect the readability of your type. For example, the standard settings for most Mac’s are set at 72 dpi, while most Windows are set at 96 dpi. So, a font set at 72px will be 1 inch (approximately) tall on a Macintosh and three quarters of an inch tall on a Windows machine.

Most designers do their layouts in pixels - which works is fine if all your visitors have the same display size; but what about the users with large displays?

There is so much to consider when designing a web page that anyone on any machine can use. And at times it seems as if the speedy advancement of technology, which by the way, was meant to make our Internet life simpler, has actually made it a little more complex. When deciding on a dynamic page layout, keep in your end-user in mind; that in itself might make it simple again!!

Looking for more information on professional web design? Visit us on the web at MandarichMediaGroup.com!

The Latest and Greatest in Internet Marketing: Peel Away Ads

I don’t know one Internet user that isn’t highly annoyed by pop-up and scrolling banner ads. And because we’ve become so annoyed with them, we ignore them or close them without even looking at them, leaving their effectiveness on the curb. So now what do you do with your online marketing efforts?

If you have a special offer or a new advertising campaign, you might want to consider Peel Away Ads by Harris Fellman and Richard Osterude; its inexpensive and easy…and there’s nothing annoying about it!! It not only boasts higher click-through rates, but is a great addition to your affiliate marketing campaign.

Here’s how it works: the Peel Away program includes simple scripting that places an animated page peel in the upper right or left hand corner of your site. When a visitor scrolls over, the page peels a little further and your ad is revealed. When the mouse is moved back onto your actual page, the page peel rolls back up.

The program is very versatile and though it also includes pre-made peel graphics, it leaves quite a bit of room for customization. And best of all, it comes with a 60-day money back guarantee.

The Dynamics of Dynamic Microphones

Audio recording is a huge part of video production and dynamic microphones can be a great choice for recording.

Dynamic microphones are available in many styles and are versatile and ideal for multi-purpose use. They use a simple design with few moving parts and are relatively sturdy and resilient to rough handling. They are also better suited to handling high volume levels, such as from certain musical instruments or amplifiers. And the best feature of a dynamic microphone – they have no internal amplifier and do not require batteries or external power.

Dynamics are recommended for recording location narration, since they isolate voice extremely well from background sounds and have been found very useful for recording loud and sudden sound effects, such as crashes and explosions. Not only are these microphones virtually impervious to damage from high noise levels, but they also tend to compress or dampen the audio in such a way as to make these sounds easier for the recording electronics to handle.

Good dynamic microphones are relatively inexpensive and will cost anywhere from $99 to $149 and are a great addition to your video recording toolbox!!

Be sure to visit our website for more video and photography tips & tricks.

Robots & Spiders: Has SEO Gone Futuristic?

A web crawler (also known as a web spider or web robot) is a program or automated script, which browses the Internet in an automated manner. Web crawlers are mainly used by search engines to index downloaded pages and for automated maintenance tasks on a website, such as checking links or validating HTML code.

Well-behaved robots will identify themselves, often supplying web or email addresses you can contact. In any case, the pattern of pages being read and the IP addresses being used soon sorts the men from the robots. Good robots will read robots.txt to see what your site policy is, but there are other ways of spotting robots. In addition to the search engine robots, other "user agents" will visit your site, e.g. to validate links to your site from other people's pages. Often these will just access the HEAD of the file, rather than doing a GET on the whole file.

However, not all crawlers are good crawlers! Therefore, it's good to know the good from the bad. Just as the major search engines use robots for ranking purposes, some agents are generated by specific software that allows users to download mirrored image of your site onto their hard drive for sometimes unethical purposes, such as plagiarism, or harvesting e-mail addresses (usually for spam). If you have a large or image heavy site, the practice of web site stripping could also have a serious impact on your bandwidth usage each month.

Next week we’ll talk about how to protect your site from robots and crawlers. Be sure you consult your SEO professional for additional ways to keep your content safe and original.

Tips for Models: How to Have Fun, Natural & Successful Photo Shoots

Let’s face it, modeling isn’t always fun and games and at times can be pretty tough; sometimes its even harder when you get nervous or anxious. Here are a few tips on how to have a great photo shoot – even when you have the jitters!!

Meet your photographer at least an hour before you start shooting; find out how they are you planning the shoot and what their expectations are. Keep it fun and friendly - make small jokes!

You’ll want to find out what the photographer feels is your strongest point so that you can focus on it (eyes, lips, etc.).

Being natural is so important; find out the emotion of the shoot. Is it happy-go-lucky, serious, sad? If you know the concept of the shoot, you will be better prepared to act naturally – the last thing in the world you want to do is look like you are pretending.

Breathe!!! You all know that concentration enhances a good photograph, however, obvious concentration can sometimes ruin a good photograph as well. Don’t hold your breath during a pose; remember to breathe and appear at ease.

Some professional photographers appreciate a model’s own creativity; if there is a pose you are extremely comfortable with, let your photographer know, the outcome may be fascinating.

If the photo shoot is a success – go out and celebrate and feel good about your hard day’s work!!

For more modeling tips and tutorials, visit MandarichModels.com.

Why Internet Branding is Important

By this point in time I’m sure everyone has heard the term “branding” or “brand strategy”; and when you hear this, what is the first thing that comes to your mind? A fancy tricked out logo? Business cards? Brochures? Although a brand sets you apart from your competitors, it reaches much deeper in the design world. It is actually the core, the center of your business and it’s more than a visual aid.

So why is Internet branding so important?

Branding is the axis of most business strategies. Even if it isn’t, you can bet each person involved agrees that the goal of a Web project is to enhance the overall brand and mission of the business. On the Web, meeting the end-user’s goals should be top priority to any brand strategy. You've probably heard this said by other marketing professionals many times - your brand is what sets your business, your products, and your services apart from your competitors.

Developing a unique brand will make your company more memorable to your target market and will help you stand out in the crowd, which on the Web is extremely important. You'll want to develop a visual image that is consistent with your other branding strategy, but also sets your web site apart, especially since your web site is an entirely different entity than your print material or ads, you'll need to look at it differently, while keeping in mind what is already in place for a successful company brand.

You'll need to take into consideration your company’s message; the product or service you sell; and most importantly, the expectations of your target market. If you are targeting the executive who never seems to have enough time, you'll want to develop a site that gives them what they want instantly; there's a greater chance that they'll be repeat visitors and even a loyal customer.

If your company’s mission is to send a value-added message, make sure your site includes useful information, tips and tools that provide extra value to your customers. They'll remember you and your message and your brand quickly gain more recognition.

Any marketing professional will agree that establishing an Internet brand is much more than a logo or snappy catch phrase, it’s your company’s vision, mission. Your brand is how you want your audience to identify with you and remember you.

SEM Begins with Promoting Your Site

Believe it or not, the Web is growing at a rate of 7 million pages per day; and if you are one of the 7 million, how in the world will you ever get noticed?

Terms like site promotion, exposure, traffic, link building are only effective if you know how to accomplish them. Let’s look at some of the ways you can begin to promote your site.

• Submit your site to the search engines and directories. You should consider re-submitting every time you ad or update your content. This keeps your site on the search engine radar!!

• Continuously write good new content. This is the only sure way to grow traffic in the long run, but it also happens to be a lot of work.
  

• Learn more about how search engines rank sites; learn and follow the guidelines - then tweak your site accordingly. This will help maximize your search rankings.
  

• Solicit links from related sites. And only related sites!! As linking is important, relevancy is more!!
  

• You’re going to need to spend a little money; PPC and banner ads aren't just for selling products - they can also be used for exposure.
  

• Participate in discussion groups and social networks – and get noticed as an expert in your field!! Article marketing is another fantastic way to gain exposure.

This probably seems like a lot of work and can be is a little overwhelming, and but if you are eager to build your presence on the web and build your site traffic, you will soon reap the rewards of your hard work! However, if you can't seem to find the time it takes to build your ranking, you might consider hiring a SEO/SEM professional. Most pros have turn-key procedures in place and can build your exposure quickly.

The Tony Mandarich Story

Tony Mandarich has lived a life full of controversy, allegations of steroid use & adversity. Armen Keteyian, Chief Investigative Correspondent, CBS News interviewed Tony for ShowTime's "Inside The NFL" in October. If you missed the live interview, here's your second chance!







For more information on Tony Mandarich and the upcoming release of his book, "My Dirty Little Secrets: Steroids, Alcohol, & God", visit him on the web!

What are Backlinks and Why They are Important in SEO

For those of you who are new to SEO, we thought that this week would be as good as any to review backlinks; and for you veterans, a quick review!!

Just what are backlinks? Simply put, backlinks are links directed to your website; the more links to your site is a positive indication to the search engines as to how popular your site is.

Multiple inbound links to your website are great, but here’s the catch; the search engines take this process one step further, they actually look for “quality” or “relevant” links. For example, if your site is about kite flying, then the search engines look for links from similar sites – a weather condition site that monitors wind speed and direction is a good example. A bad example would be a random link from a site about insects or butterflies.

So how do you monitor your backlinks? There is a tool available called Domain Stats Tool and it displays the backlinks of a domain in Google, Yahoo and MSN. Also, the Backlink Builder Tool will search for websites with related content, which more than likely will link to your site.

When outlining your SEO plans just remember that backlinks are extremely important and should be a priority in your plan of action.

Visit us online for more information on search engine optimization.

Has That Chin Got You Seeing Double?

A double chin is often very obvious in photos. Almost anyone can have a double chin by just tilting his or her head down and in.

There are several options for correcting a double chin photographically. 1) Have the client lift their chin slightly up so that it minimizes the double chin, but be cautious not to have a female model lift her head too high… shooting an angle that’s ‘up the nostrils’ is not flattering. 2) The model can also do a type of turtleneck extension, lifting the head up first, and then out and slightly down. 3) Models can also tilt their head over their shoulder and have some pictures from the back, which elongates the neck and helps eliminate the double chin. For the more serious shots, such as corporate headshots, have the client bring their bottom jaw forward instead of their top.

It is also very important not to let the model figure out what you are trying to prevent. Telling your client that you want them to lift their chin so they minimize or eliminate their double chin is a no no!

Mandarich Models teaches Photoshop techniques, tips, tricks & a whole lot more with their Photoshop tutorials. Subscribe to their RSS feed above and stay updated with their videos & articles.

Web Design: Keepin' It Simple...

There’s a lot more to designing a website than just the way it looks – once you get people there, you want to keep them there. Here are a few tips on how you can maximize your sustainable traffic:

Rule #1: Be organized. Think about your content and make sure that it has a natural rhythm.

Rule #2: Minimize clicking. The more you make visitors click, the quicker they will leave. Just keep in mind the times you’ve gotten annoyed because you couldn’t find the info you were looking for quickly.

Rule #3: Avoid splash pages. If someone visits your site, they are there for a reason; they don’t need a special invitation to enter your site.

Rule #4: Keep your page lengths at a minimum. Again, remember how annoying endless scrolling is? If you have that much to say, divide your content into separate pages. Again, Rule #1…organize your content.

Rule #5: Always include menus on each page. Menus (or navigation bars) should be either on the top or on the left hand side of your page. If you place the menu on the bottom, chances are that visitors will leave before scrolling all the way down.

Designing a website that is both esthetically pleasing as it is easy to use shouldn’t be that hard to do. Just keep in mind what you like and don’t like (as the end-user) and you will be well on your way to designing a great site!!

Visit us on the web for more information on professional web design.

SEM: Making Sense of It All

Online marketing is undoubtedly one of the fastest growing industries and the best method of gaining unlimited exposure for your business. But if you are going to be a successful online marketer, you need to know what you are talking about. We’ve compiled a glossary of terms to help you gain momentum:

ADSENSE - Google’s pay per click advertising scheme. Google pays you when someone clicks on the ads that have been placed on your site.

ADWORDS – Google’s brand of Pay Per Click advertising that shows up on the right side of its page results when searching corresponding keywords. Adwords may also be distributed to many other web sites that relate to the keywords you have bid on.

BACK LINK - One way links from an web page or link that take people back to your website

KEYWORDS – Words or phrase that are entered into a search engine to find what people are looking for on the Internet.

META TAGS - Part of HTML code that contains various information that the site owner wants the search engine spiders to see.

ORGANIC – The “natural way” of generating links and content, as opposed to “paid for” link generation.

PAY-PER-CLICK (PPC)- An advertising method that makes use of search engines, websites and network traffic. A user clicks on an ad, which directs them to a particular site. In each instance, the advertiser pays for the “click”.

SEARCH ENGINE MARKETING (SEM) - The art and science of marketing your website to search engines. This encompasses a variety of strategies and processes, including Article Marketing, Web Video Marketing SEO, and PPC programs.

SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION (SEO) - The practice of making a website more “visible” to search engines by applying the proper keyword density to each page of the site and adjusting file, image and page names to relate to keywords.

SOCIAL NETWORKING – The marketing practice of using popular networking site to promote yourself, your company, your products or website.

VIRAL MARKETING – The marketing practice of people marketing you by sending your message, video site address etc, along to their friends via email, or my mentioning you in forums, chat rooms and blogs.

Effective Video Podcasts

Anyone can create a video podcast, but creating one that effectively portrays your mission, message or brand and attracts viewers is the real challenge. Here are a few tips to make a successful podcast:

1. High Quality Means High Traffic
Cheap equipment, poor sound and poor lighting makes you, your company, and your product look cheap. The more professional your podcast, the more viewers you have and the more they will share with their friends/colleagues.

2. Don’t Over-Do the Visuals
Internet users typically chose this media because they are doing several things at one time, so be sure that your podcast is well scripted and doesn’t have an over abundance of visual aids.

3. Short & Sweet
Let’s face it, most of us are slightly A.D.D.!! Focus on the quality of your content, not the quantity.

4. Age of Entertainment
We like to be entertained…just look at YouTube.com and other social media sites, the funniest, most entertaining videos get top ranking. Earn your viewers' attention your message in interesting, yet entertaining fashion.

5. Research The Popular Podcasts
Since there isn’t just one recipe for success, see what others in your industry are doing…what are they doing right or wrong?

SEO & Online Article Marketing - Its Time to Start Writing!!

If you have never considered “article marketing” as a way to optimize your Internet presence, you are missing out on high-traffic opportunities!! Submitting articles online is a free method to help any web page gain exposure. You can ultimately boost your search engine rankings in any SEO network and become known as a credible expert in your field, just by frequently publishing articles online.

Ezinearticles.com is the highest-ranking article-marketing site on the web today. Google Trends reports over 400,000 visitors daily, which is about the same as major newspaper websites.

We all know that it takes fresh, new content to boost your ranking, but lets take a look at other reasons article marketing should play a vital role in our SEO game plan:

Inbound Links: Each time you publish an article you should include a link back to your site.Exposure: The people reading your articles are interested parties – meaning they are looking for information in your field.

Viral Marketing: People tend to pass along good information that they find, again driving traffic back to your website. If you write a good article, it’s amazing how many webmasters will take that article and post it on their site.

Whether you hire a SEO pro or are a do-it-yourselfer, article marketing is the best way to market any business online and should be a part of your SEO efforts. But don’t stop with just one article; the more you post, the more exposure you get and the more credible you become.

Shutter Lag Making You Shudder?

Shutter lag is time between the instant you press the camera's shutter when the camera actually takes the picture. It may seem like your camera is performing slowly, but it's actually doing a lot during that time. Below are a few tips on how to get rid of the blur of shutter lag:

Be Ready For Action: If you are taking an action photo, perhaps at a sporting event, try to anticipate where the action is headed. Being prepared is the best opportunity for the perfect shot.

Lock Your Camera’s Focus: Pressing the shutter halfway can dramatically reduce shutter lag. By doing this you are telling your camera to focus and make other adjustments before it's time to take the picture. When the time is right to snap the photo, press the shutter button all the way down to instantly capture the desired photo.

Use the Right Setting: All digital cameras have setting for different types of shots. For action shots, use your camera's Action shooting mode. It uses a fast shutter speed to stop the action, so you get clear photos without blur.

Decrease resolution: Higher-resolution pictures take your camera longer to record because there's more information to process. By decreasing your camera's resolution setting to something like 3 to 4 MP, you can take lower-resolution photos in less time.

Take Lots of Shots: The best way to get your perfect shot is to take a ton of photos. This increases your odds of capturing the one you really want.

For more photo tips, visit our article library!!

Web Design Tips: A Font Face That Any Browser Will Love

Websites are judged {by search engines} by content and layout. It won’t matter much if your content is outstanding, if your layout is not appealing, easy to navigate or won’t load quickly.

One of the biggest mistakes that junior designers make is in the font type (face). The different web browsers can use only the fonts installed in the user’s computer, so what this means is that every visitor of your web page needs to have all the fonts you want to use installed in his/her computer. Of course, different people will have different fonts installed, so including a standard set of fonts is necessary.

Not only is your best bet not to use a non-traditional font, but specify several fonts in your font tag like this:




The browser will try each font in the order listed until it finds one on your machine. (The final font in this tag is a “generic” font that could be recognized by any browser.)

Now, if there is a font you don’t think you can live without, then you can use an image editor and create an image using the font and text that you prefer. That way the computers load an image with the text and the text displays.

Visit us for more information on professional web design.

SEM: Benefits of Defining Your Target Market

Defining your target market is just as important to your SEM strategy as establishing your brand and your website. Success of your business relies on marketing your product or service effectively to your target market.

So who is your target market? The process of determining your target market begins with identifying groups of people with certain shared characteristics; for instance, gender, age, geographic location, etc.

Once you have determined your audience and you truly want to connect with them, write highly targeted copy that speaks to your readers. Forming a meaningful relationship with your customers will pay off in future. When people feel that you have taken the time to research their needs and produce high quality content specifically for them, their confidence in your business increases.

If are having difficulty in defining your market, consult a professional marketing company who is experienced in Internet marketing. Targeting your audience affects all elements of your marketing strategy; once you have that foundation in place, it will help you write high quality content. It is crucial that you reach the right people with the right words, with the right product or service.

Advance Your Message by Webcasting

What is a webcast? A webcast is a media file that is delivered via the Internet using streaming media; the broadcast can be either live or recorded. It can be used for everything from regional/national meetings to distance-learning (e-learning).

Advanced technology includes interactive features, unlimited reach, and lower costs in distributing your message. Webcasting allows you to deliver a consistent, high quality video or audio presentation to thousands of participants across the globe at the same time. Webcasting is a great way to train employees in different geographical areas, which will increase your company's bottom line by driving down company travel costs. Webcasting is fast becoming standard practice in communications of all kinds. In addition to business communications, webcasting is also the standard for certification and continuing education programs, on-line high school and college courses, lectures, tutorials and more.

So why webcast?

Speed - Deliver a live or recorded message to an unlimited audience size.

Cost Effective - Webcasting is highly cost effective, especially compared to the cost of travel.

Security - Registration and passwords enable complete control over access to webcast information.

Convenience - Webcasts may be used at any time, any where!

And finally, its just good for business!!

Beware of Black Hat Marketing...

Successful SEO is pretty straight-forward; follow the guidelines that are set by the industry leaders and your site will gain in its ranking. But like anything else in life, getting to the top faster, getting rich quicker is very alluring and you need to be very careful what techniques you employ...and realize that you could innocently fall for some dirty little tricks called Black Hat Marketing. These underhanded techniques aren't illegal, but they are highly unethical and search engines recognize them really very quickly...and the penalties could kill your Internet presence altogether!

So here's a quick look at the common tricks of the trade:

Hidden content: Hidden or invisible text is basically lists of keywords on a website in the color white (or the background color) so that they cannot be seen on the page. By using invisible text, it is possible to feed through lots of rich content to search engines and users.

Keyword stuffing: This is an old-school tactics and is essentially repeating a keyword or phrase, excessively throughout your page, meta tags, alt, titles, links and more. This is easily recognized by the search engine cops!!!

Doorway (gateway) pages: Doorway or Gateway pages are pages designed for search engines and not for the end user. These pages pages that are little more than invisible pages that are only seen by search engine spiders and are used to increase SEO ranks.

Link Farming: A link farm is any group of web sites that all hyperlink to every other site in the group - whether they are relevant to your product/service or not; simply put, web site spamming. Link farms can be created by hand, but most are created through automated programs and paid services. Since search engines rank based on relevancy, this is an easily detected form of cheating.

Search Engine Optimization is not just about following guidelines, its about creating content for users, not for search engines, and then making that content easily accessible to search engine spiders. If you are ever in doubt, consult a professional search engine optimizer.

No Need to Retouch ... Let Your Camera Do The Work

It seems that popular trends in fashion photography changes more often than we change our socks!! The latest trend … 100% el-naturale!! Celebrities and fashion models are taking it off…the makeup and cover-up that is. And glamour photographers are following suit; using lighting and their camera’s settings to capture the moment. Here are a few tricks that fashion photographers use instead of spending hours retouching photos:

Trick #1. Taking years of the face: try a long exposure. Making sure that no part of the model’s face is in sharp focus, and that, in this instance, your model doesn’t have to sit or stand perfectly still. The blur of a slight movement disguises imperfections. Add a fan to blow the hair and see how natural the shot really looks.

Trick #2. Photograph in white: allowing lots of exposure will make your model’s overall appearance smooth and pretty. Clothing acts as a natural reflector that helps fill in the shadows that reveal blemishes, scars, or dark circles.

Trick #3. The use of hair as a cover-up: models with not-so-smooth skin or large pores can be concealed making the hair super sharp. This automatically makes the skin look as if you used a soft focus filter.

Trick #4. Models with uneven brown skin or age spots: Using a a giant reflector that, when placed close by the model, blows out any imperfections of the skin. That combined with an angle shows just half the model’s face, and you’ve got a fabulous shot – no retouching required.

Java Isn't a Cup o' Joe????

Its amazing how many people don't know the difference between the two...even seasoned designers may "know" but just don't know that JavaScript and Java are completely different languages. Even in most conversations, JavaScript is referred to as Java...but when defining a web page, there needs to be a clear distinction. So we wanted to make that distinction simple:

Java is a programming language designed to allow programmers to create applications that can be downloaded from a network and run safely on almost any computing platform. It runs on almost all types of computers, supplies software components as needed, and contains built-in security features.

Java Script is a much simpler language and resides inside HTML documents; Java Script can provide levels of interactivity far beyond typically flat HTML pages and thus, Java Script is much easier to learn, but it must always be imbedded in another text, usually HTML.

The main difference is that Java can stand on its own while JavaScript must be placed inside an HTML document to function. If you are designing a web site, chances are you will not ever need to use Java...but knowing the difference and the simple fact that they are not interchangeable can make your job a whole lot easier!!!

Social Media...A Profitable Element in Your SEM Strategy?

Social media marketing is another way to promote your site or business through social media channels (for instance, YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn…the list actually goes on and on). As a matter of fact, new social media channels are being created every day. This is a powerful strategy that will get you links, exposure and unlimited amounts of traffic.

The reason social media marketing has become so advantageous is simply because there is no other low-cost (sometimes free) promotional method on the Internet that will creatively give you massive amounts of visitors. The opportunity for primary and secondary traffic from social media sites is endless.

Making a profit using social media channels also depends on your ability to connect with visitors of that channel. Identifying your target audience and choosing the most relative site to market your business is extremely important. You need to develop an attractive social media page at a relative venue. Social media marketing should never be a blind effort.

Social media marketing complements other SEM efforts doesn’t interfere with any other techniques of driving traffic to your website. Most marketing specialists will tell you that social marketing is a perfect fit with any online advertising campaign you have developed…and is a ton of fun to develop.

Ready, Set Action ... Time to Add Video to Your Website!!

Adding a video element to your web site can add value through quality content and convert visitors into customers.

1. Time spent on page - adding video content will most likely increase the amount of time a visitor will spend on a web page. The longer someone stays on your web page, the better the chances that that person will actually take action.

2. Differentiation - most likely your competitors do not have good video content. Do a little research and see what your competition is offering. And don't just make a video to make a video - make a good, relevant video, you will have a leg up on your competition.

3. Branding - videos keep it real and is an expression of who you are and why your product/service is greater than any other! Instead of professional actors, consider using your own employees in the videos you make.

Adding video not only increases visibility, but adds an entertainment element...and its a proven fact that video sharing is the most popular trend on the Internet. So don't just add a video, add a professional and enticing video that people will want to share.