Craft On With Your Badselves

We are in week 7 of the Spread the Craft contest, and I can tell everyone right now that this is going to be a tough decision! There are some stellar videos entered. If you still haven’t, head on over and check out some supercalifragilisticexpialidocious crafting lessons. All of the MindBites in the contest are currently free, and you can learn how to make resin jewelry, create crackle-finished pottery, make your own exercise machine, sew handy remote storage, create a rockstar pin, give old spoons a new life, make soap, reuse your #6 plastic, stencil the Ninja way, make baby sign language flashcards, and find a cool use for old records! While you are learning new skills, make sure you vote for your favorite crafting MindBite. The People’s Choice voting will decide the winner of $500. Current People’s Choice Leaders are…: 1. Make Your Own Baby Sign Language Flashcards 2. How To Craft Your Own Exercise Machine 3. DIY Shrinky Dinks Remember-you can vote for one entry everyday, so come back and vote again to ensure your favorite crafter wins! You do have to register as a user to vote, so that we can make sure you are only voting once a day. Voting continues on until August 1st. And, of course, you should enter the contest!

Tags: contest, craft, MindBites, spread the craft | Posted in MindBites News and Notes | No Comments »

Spread the Craft Contest Update

Hello crafters! We have some exciting contest news…We are extending the deadline for the Spread the Craft Contest Due to several requests/complaints about the short amount of time left to shoot a video (seems like summer vacations have taken up lots of crafting time!), we have extended the deadline to July 21st! That is four additional weeks to register, upload, and Spread the Craft! The new date to announce the winner will be August 5th.

Second major announcement of the day: People’s Choice Voting Begins TODAY! That’s right! We’ve moved up the date for voting because, well, it just made sense. If you are entering the contest, you are excited and want to tell everyone to ‘vote for me!’ And they should be able to go view your video and vote. So, now they can. Anyone registered as a user on the MindBites website can login and vote for one video, once a day, everyday, until August 1st. So….tell your friends, family, the entirety of the crafting community to login and vote for you!

And now for a little MindBites fun…because we have been busy having lots of fun with this contest. We’ve got a few craft contest videos for you.

Tags: contest, crafting, spread the craft | Posted in General, MindBites News and Notes | No Comments »

Win $1000 in the MindBites Spread the Craft Video Contest

Are you a Crafting Queen, a Naughty Knitter or a Siren of the Scrapbook? Well have we got the contest for you! Share your mad skills through a video lesson and be eligible to win from more than $1500 in prizes in the MindBites Spread the Craft Contest. Lessons must be uploaded by June 23rd, so register today to gain access to tips, resources, and help. It’s free to enter, it’s fun, you could win $1000, and most importantly, you’ll be helping to Spread the Craft. Visit the contest page here to learn more and check back to see the most recent entries as they come in. Best of all, from June 24th to July 7th, you’ll be able to help choose the People’s Choice Award winner by voting for your favorite. Enter Now!

Not a crafter? Don’t worry this is just the first of many content contests to come. Have an idea for what our next one should be? Email us at contests@mindbites.com.

So what are you waiting for? Dust off that camcorder, get that crafting project ready and help MindBites Spread the Craft!

Need a little inspiration? Here’s AnnieRoonie popular How to Make a Pillowcase Dress MindBite:

Tags: contest, craft, spread the craft | Posted in MindBites News and Notes, Press | No Comments »

I <3 the Internet

I love live music shows – the music, the energy, and the people. Usually after I watch a band live, I start to obsess over them, and I watch and listen to every video or sound clip I can find of them. I pretty much go through phases and listen to only that one band’s CD for weeks at a time, and then I find a new obsession. Ever since the SXSW music festival, I’ve been obsessing over bands, trying to figure out when they would return to Austin on tour (maybe at ACL). I’ve been listening to all my favorites over and over – Spoon, Vampire Weekend, Sara Bareilles, and Ingrid Michaelson, to name a few. After every music show I go to, it makes me realize how much I love the Internet! There aren’t many things that you can’t find online. It pretty much meets my every want, need, and desire. Okay, I’m kidding, but really, I love it, because I can go to various websites to listen to my favorite artists for free! It’s easy and convenient to use the Internet to listen or watch my favorite artist at my ease and desire.

I’m pretty sure that I’ve kept MySpace/YouTube pages open for about a week straight now. It sounds cheesy, but I like to use YouTube to watch the videos of live performances to relive the moment. Haven’t you ever been to a show that you can’t stop thinking about? Eventually, the high wears off, but when you’re still riding it, it’s nice to be able to reference the Internet for a little help. I know it’s not the same, but it’s the closest thing I can get until the next time the artist rolls back into Austin for a live show.

Usability and flexibility of the Internet just makes it that much more appealing; think of how you are able to use and view MindBites video lessons on your own and at your ease. I have realized how, through the Internet, MindBites can bring people together to one central location but at the same time, can be reached from all over the world, like MySpace and YouTube.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Internet, MySpace, youtube | Posted in Life and Learning, MindBites News and Notes | No Comments »

The MindBite Insight (Episode #7 - Spicing up your Video)

We’ve received several requests from anxious MindBiters recently, requesting an Insight that delves into adding add-ons to add additional adornments to make one’s video adequate. Yep, you heard me.

So this week’s Insight explores a range of topics: Titles, Transitions, and Sound Effects, to be specific. We gloss over some important rules you should be aware of as you go about sprucing up your video and give tips and tricks we use to make our projects look just that much more professional. We don’t suggest that you spend all of your precious time attempting to create CGI’s with artificial intelligence who will introduce your lesson, but a little decoration never hurt.

Tags: Sound Effects, Titles, Transitions, Webisode | Posted in MindBites News and Notes, Video Production and Publishing | No Comments »

Win a New Mental Beefcake Workout Tee

Ever feel inferior next to those muscle-heads at the gym? Us too, so we created this geek’s workout T-shirt. Upload a new lesson before May 15th and win one! Not ready to create a lesson yet? Add 10 Wanted Listings to the site and we’ll throw your name in a hat to get one as well. Weenies of the world unite!

Tags: Beefcake T | Posted in MindBites News and Notes | No Comments »

Once Upon a Time… (The Origin of MindBites)

It all began in the dreary everglade region of a now forgotten village, at some obscure date in the early 17th century. It may have been Guy Fawkes Day.

Guido, an Italian immigrant olive picker with an increasingly severe case of head lice, was enjoying a holiday afternoon perusing the local fish market. In this particular region, at that particular time of day, the moorage dock was especially balmy, and Guido’s infestation was festering something awful. He brooded in agitation. By chance, a Turkish date peddler had set up shop nearby, where the overwrought Westerner was clawing at his scalp. The merchant, a pompous walrus of a man, watched the foreigner with ever-growing delight, his sadistic glee for an outsider in agony for all to see.

Throwing tact to the wind, the rotund glutton let ring a bellow of a laugh that shook hard the precarious structure of the wooden jetty. All the market turned to see our poor Guido lampooned by the guffawing elephant. But sweet kindness lent her blessing upon the scene, and a usually demure milk maid, grocery shopping at the behest of her ailing grandmother, found a buried confidence and marched straight up to the villainous hedonist, and with poise and grace, those lauded gifts so absent from peasant manner, grabbed the behemoth’s bulbous nose between two fingers, and twisted sharply till the rogue screamed in agony.

By now, all market activity had ceased and, in the new light of such events, threatened never to begin again. All eyes focused sharply on the scene; the elfin peasant girl defeating the Goliath merchant. Guido’s thoughts transfixed upon the milk maid, his tender scalp gone numb in admiration.

Releasing her squealing victim, the milk maid shook a deft finger at the merchant, who by now was rolling around in fits upon the planks, and turned to look at the poor soul who’s life she’d just entered. Attraction flared up in both hearts and the two strolled off hand-in-hand through the awed audience who parted subserviently as the new lovers passed unobstructed through the crowd. As they moved toward the diving sun, Guido felt the itching in his scalp subside to be replaced by a warm, fuzzy feeling…a feeling called love.

The seasons died and were reborn as Guido and his peasant bride, Gresselda, joined together their once isolated lives. She versed him in the ancient ritual of milk gathering and he shared all his earthly knowledge regarding olives. The two spent many evenings, engulfed in the fire light from their cottage hearth, wrapped in each other’s arms, discussing knowledge and their love of their fledgling education. Gresselda would always end the evening with a simple kiss upon Guido’s crown, soothing, what she had dubbed, his “mind-bitten” head, in reverence of the lice infested day that brought the two together.

The term was attached to their evening lessons, which continued and was passed along to their children and their children’s children, until the fateful day when one of the descendants decided to share the gift of knowledge with the world. And to this day, whenever we at MindBites encounter either a petulant date merchant or a disease infested Italian, we remember the momentous day when a milk maid and an olive picker fell in love.

And that children, is the story of Guy Fawkes Day. Oh, wait….

| Posted in Life and Learning, MindBites News and Notes | No Comments »

Announcing the MindBites Author Training Program

Got something amazing to teach the world, but you don’t know where to start? Let us help! The MindBites Author Training Program can help you get going. Just email us at Authors@mindbites.com and let’s get started. Here’s how it works:

What you have:
1. Something cool and valuable to teach others
2. Desire to publish a video MindBite and earn money for yourself or charity
3. Willingness to collaborate with our team and learn

How we help:
You tell us! We are here to help however we can - maybe it’s advice on shooting and editing, maybe you shoot it and we help edit it, maybe something else. We obviously have our limitations, but heck try us and we’ll help you figure it out!

What you get:
Your first published MindBite for the world to find, buy and learn from! You own it — it’s your knowledge and its your creation. All we ask is you keep it posted on MindBites exclusively for at least 6 months, and that you designate 10% of the proceeds to go to the charity of your choice.

That’s it! Simple and ingenious, no?

Interested? Just email us at Authors@mindbites.com and let’s get going! Space is limited, so email today!

We can’t wait to see what you have to teach!

The MindBites Team

Tags: Author Training Program, Authors | Posted in MindBites News and Notes, Video Production and Publishing | No Comments »

Promoting & Marketing your Video Lessons

Now that you have finished uploading your lesson, it is time to start thinking about getting the word out and promoting your lessons so that you will see some sales.

The first place to start promoting your lesson is the title. The title should be written with Google or any search engine in mind. In other words, think about how someone would type in a search for your topic. They might type in certain keywords or they might phrase it like a question. For example, if your lesson is about teaching someone how to write a stellar resume and someone is searching for how to write a resume they might type in words like “how to write a resume” or ” resume writing tips” or “resume writing skills”. If you think about it from this perspective, the title tends to come easily. In this example, a good title would be “Learn skills and tips for writing an effective resume”.

A good title will go a long way in promoting your lesson because it not only will help bump your lessons up in the search results, but it will also help people who are already on the site to find your lesson.

The second step is your lesson description. The description also serves a few key roles. Besides the title and free preview, the description serves as direct communication to visitors about what you are going to cover in the lesson. A thorough description makes it much easier for folks to click the “buy” button. Also, the description is another opportunity to load up on keywords. Again, keep in mind all the keywords that might be typed into a search engine when looking for your subject matter. You should try to work these keywords into your description to increase your lesson searchability. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Increasing Viewing, marketing your video, Searchability | Posted in MindBites News and Notes, Video Production and Publishing | No Comments »

The MindBite Insight (Episode #6 - Getting Good Audio)

Well, we find ourselves here once again, at the advent of another momentous occasion that will surely rock the foundations of all society: the birth of another MindBite Insight. In this week’s adventure, we scale the seemingly insurmountable information mountain of audio recording. Bad sound deals a death blow to any video production, no matter the financial scale. In this cursory lesson, we traverse the epidermis of the audio recording body and discuss microphone construction and classification, professional recording technique, and common pitfalls in which videographers often find themselves stuck while in production.

So sit back kiddos and enjoy the ride; this one’s jam-packed with reverberating goodness.

Tags: Webisode | Posted in MindBites News and Notes, Video Production and Publishing | 2 Comments »