Closed Captioning now included on many Art Licensing Info videos
A few weeks ago I began posting the Art Licensing Story videos that I filmed at SURTEX. As I always do, I post the links to Facebook and Twitter. One of my Twitter friends is deaf and said it would be nice if the videos had closed captioning or a transcript, as she and others would like to know the stories as well.
That intrigued me to do some research. I am very proud to say that I did not buy any software to learn to do it myself! I’m really trying to simplify my life and outsource more – so I continue to have time to create my art.
I found someone online whose business is creating closed captioning. The first video we did was Viv’s. He created the closed caption file and I added it to YouTube. It was super easy – here’s a video that will walk you through the steps.
During my research and talking to my friend Marty Fahncke whose son is also deaf, I learned that not only is adding closed captioning a great service to those who need it, but it also has the added benefit of helping with your SEO.
By adding closed captioning, Google and other search engine robots can read the content of your video and it will help you get higher rankings for keywords. Added bonus!
While I haven’t paid to have closed captioning on all of my 74 videos yet, 27 of them now have it. All of the art licensing story videos that I filmed and uploaded to the Art Licensing Info YouTube channel are closed captioned, as well as a few others. Over time, I’ll be adding it to the rest, but I want to spread the expense out over time.
Do you want to add closed captioning to your videos, to help those who can’t hear the audio and to possibly increase your SEO?
Well it’s easy and not very expensive – a small one-time cost will have multiple benefits!
Alan Kelly of VerbatimIT.com has done a great job with my closed caption projects and can help you too. He’s running a special for the summer – it costs only $5 for a 1 to 3 minute audio or video. Who can’t afford $5?
- You simply send him your audio or video file and he will create the closed caption file.
- Then you can add it to your video (it’s really easy if your video is on YouTube) or you can hire him to do that part for you as well. You two can discuss those details if that is your preference.
- Go to www.VerbatimIT.com to get started today! I’d love to see all the Art Licensing Stories with closed captioning…
Here’s to learning new technology, making your video accessible to more people and of course, your creative success!
– Tara Reed
P.S. I don’t earn anything if you use Alan but think he’s done a great job helping me so I wanted to let everyone know about his services!
P.P.S. Want to try it yourself? Go to http://captiontube.appspot.com/ and test your transcription skills!
P.P.S.S. Want to learn more ways to increase your SEO (Search Engine Optimization)? If you haven’t already, head to www.AskAboutSEOforArtists.com and get the free hour-long interview with Daniel Tardent – author of the eBook SEO for Artists.*
Who do you know?
Today my friend and colleague, Marty Fahncke, will be testing the power of networking and connections. We hope the “6 degrees to Kevin Bacon” theory works in our favor but instead of reaching Kevin Bacon, we are looking to find a television producer that is interested in a reality tv concept that we have been working on for the past few months. (However, if Kevin Bacon is in the production game, feel free to call!)
As you may have guessed from my many reality tv related blog posts and video spoofs in the past, I like to watch reality tv. One day I was sitting sketching and watching something and a light bulb went off in my head: No one is doing a show about how to make money online.
So I picked up the phone and called Marty Fahncke – we are in a mastermind together and he has experience in the infomercial world – and told him my crazy idea. He thought it wasn’t so crazy and we’ve been working on it ever since. We are calling it “The Money Tree”.
THE CONCEPT
Who hasn’t looked out their window and wished to find a money tree? While The Money Tree team doesn’t provide magic seeds, they do help people across America who need it most. The stories will tug at your heartstrings, but by the end of each episode, you will be exhilarated as Marty, Tara and their team of experts help restore hope to those who thought all was lost.
Each week The Money Tree team helps someone who desperately needs to find a way to earn income from home: the soldier who has returned from the Middle East with injuries and needs to supplement disability income or the single mother of five who hasn’t gotten a raise in 2 years and is at risk of losing her home. Each submission video is more compelling than the next: stories of regular people trying to overcome challenges and make ends meet.
Marty and Tara jet in to the rescue – armed with multiple ways to make money online. Part therapist, part investigative reporter, part problem solver, part business trainer – they learn about each family they work with and create an individualized blueprint for success. Tears will be shed, broken dreams mended and foundations laid for a brighter future the participants couldn’t have imagined just a week earlier. They are fighting for their financial life, and if they use what The Money Tree team teaches, they are sure to win.
THE DEMO VIDEO
Here is a video we produced (I’ll have to blog about this amazing experience later!) to show what they show is all about. It is meant to be a sales piece to get interest in the show and not an episode that you would see on tv.
We have a website all set up for anyone in the television biz to learn more about the concept and to contact us to discuss. www.TheMoneyTree.tv
There are also two submission pages – one for online experts who want to be a part of the show and one for people who want The Money Tree team to come help them.
SO DEAR BLOG READERS, my question to you is, WHO DO YOU KNOW?
We would so appreciate you telling anyone who might have any connections to production companies or television networks.
Send anyone and everyone to www.TheMoneyTree.tv – you just never know which connection with be the golden ticket! I think it’s appropriate to close this post with a quote from Pablo Picasso – “I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it.”
Here’s to the power of networking – thank you in advance for your help and well wishes for this project! From your friend who feels like she’s way out on a limb…
– Tara Reed
P.S. Here’s a photo from the filming of the end footage – it was an amazing experience and quite outside of my comfort zone!
Just a little something to make you smile on a Friday
My marketing genius friend Marty Fahncke posted this on his blog yesterday and I just HAD to share it with the group. If you have an Apple or a Blackberry – or know anyone who does – I guarantee it will make you smile! And isn’t that what it’s all about?
Enjoy!
– Tara
Trend spotting for Art Licensing
I’m often asked how to spot trends. Trends are all around us – the key is to learn to spot them when they are just starting and not when they are already big and about to jump the proverbial shark. There is no tried and true way to be sure that something is a trend – but you can develop habits of noticing things. If you start to see things multiple times – for example, all of the sudden you notice butterflies on clothing then butterflies on home decor – you can take an educated guess that butterfiles are trending.
Here’s a silly video about trend spotting that I was inspired to create today because a few of my friends called me from an event in New Jersey and I felt like the grounded kid missing the slumber party. We were joking on Facebook and Twitter about NJ – and I asked if I needed to wear a Bump-It to join the fun. (Not that I could since I was sitting in my studio in Oregon!) Then inspiration hit – my friend Angela and I headed to the store to pick up a Bump-It and the rest is crazy accent history. (Please forgive my slipping into a southern accent at the very end… oops!)
I hope this amuses and inspires you – I’m putting myself out there with this one! @FawnKey, @KimBeasley, @KellyRudolph, @KellieFrazier, @AlexMandossian and the rest of my teleseminar secrets friends in New Jersey – this one’s for you!
Here’s to your creative success!
– Tara Reed
Lessons from History that we can use Today…
Pre. S. (If there is a “P.S.” can I make up a “Pre. S”?) – There is a challenge at the end of this blog post and I hope you take it!
My son is taking Western Civilization this year. They’ve been learning about Plato, Socrates, Aristotle and many other thought leaders of Ancient Greece. Their views still have value today and much of who we are today is based on the foundation of what they were doing back in 420 BC – give or take.
Then today as I was doing my usual morning – check email, check the spam box in case I missed email, check in on Twitter and Facebook – something weird happened. All of the sudden people where telling me why we should pay attention to things from 50 years ago. Not 40, not 25, both of these people talked about things from 50 years ago.
Well one thing, that’s cool. But two within 2 minutes? That makes me take notice. And they were both about creative people. I felt compelled to share.
The first thing that drew my attention was a tweet from @Franciskus: Happy 50th birthday, Asterix! with a link to an article on “The History Blog”. Well that just put a HUGE SMILE on my face! Asterix is a French cartoon character from Gaul who lived in the one village that resists being divided into three parts by Julius Caesar. The antics that ensued!
When I was a junior in high school (a mere year older than my son – how can that be?) I lived in France as an exchange student. I remember reading Asterix and seeing an exhibit at some museum in Paris featuring scenes from some of the stories. Great character from across the pond if you care to check him out. I’ll be dusting off my copy (I know right where it is!) and taking a trip down memory lane.
Off Twitter and on to check in on Facebook. There I find my friend Marty Fahncke‘s news feed say this: Reading Why ‘Charlotte’s Web’ Suddenly Matters to Marketing (RT @lihsa) – which was actually posted on Twitter and then listed to Facebook so I don’t know who to give credit – except that I saw it on Facebook. Well that’s another title that brings you back so I clicked on the link to see what they had to say. I couldn’t figure out what one had to do with the other and needed to know!
It was an interesting read about not being too full of jargon in your writing, being authentic and being clear and concise… (hmm… perhaps this post is a bit chatty… oh well! I’m on a roll.) Then at the bottom… 50. I didn’t realize that EB White, author of Charlotte’s Web* and Stuart Little* was also the co-author of The Elements of Style – which has a 50th Anniversary edition*.
So what’s the point, you ask? The point is, I believe that with all the changes and advances in technology these days – where last week can become irrelevant online, we sometimes forget that that isn’t true across the board. There are things that remain valid for thousands of years (back to Plato and Co…) as well as 50.
So today I challenge you to find something else celebrating a 50th Anniversary and find it’s relevance or lesson for today. And I would love for you to share it in the comments since I’m completely intrigued as to why 50th Anniversaries have come to my attention today…
Here’s to your search & your creative success!
– Tara
* FTC DISCLOSURE: the Amazon links are affiliate links and by clicking them I would earn a commission if you make a purchase.
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