Using Craigslist to Market your Lessons

As an author of MindBites lessons, I realize how important it is to reach out to the community to let people know that my lessons exist. One way that I have found to be extremely effective is Craigslist, which is a free online classified service. I have noticed that other successful authors have used Craigslist to market their MindBites, and they are definitely getting some traffic to their lessons.

Mark Peterson, a great MindBites author who is an exercise equipment repair specialist, uses Craigslist to promote his services locally as well as his MindBites lessons. Here is an example of his posting:

Do you know if you’re buying good exercise equipment ? - $90

Reply to: sale-558281354@craigslist.org
Date: 2008-01-31, 10:01AM CST
Know your machine before you buy.
Don’t get taken on over used and unmaintained exercise equipment.
Do you know how to tell if you’re buying a good treadmill?

E-mail today for a professional inspection.
23-Year veteran service tech Mark Peterson can show you the details.

Craigslist has some interesting rules that apply to posting ads. The product that you are offering has to be tangible, and sometimes ads for digital videos are flagged and removed from the community, if the wording is not phrased right.

Here are the rules that relate to posting MindBites lessons on Craigslist:

1. If you post non-local or otherwise irrelevant content, repeatedly post the same or similar content, or impose a disproportionately large load on the infrastructure, your posting will be removed.

2. If you post the same item or service in more than one classified category or forum or in more than one metropolitan area, it will be flagged for removal.

3. You can post the same or similar content in the same city every 48 hours, but you must remove the old posting before putting up a new one.

MindBites authors have figured out the best way to word their postings and I would follow these simple tips:

1. If you offer a service in your local city, post under services offered and include a description of the service that you offer and include a link to your MindBites lesson.

2. If you are an instructor, teacher, or local expert, post under services offered, lessons, and tutoring with a description of what you teach with a simple link to your lesson.

3. If you would like to post your lesson in more than one city, it is best to use different titles, slightly different descriptions and possibly a different email address as Craigslist prohibits multiple postings on the same topic and in more than one city.

To learn how to submit a posting on Craiglist, the simple instructions can be found here.

To take your Craigslist postings to the next level, I would recommend using an online service called VFlyer. Their tag line is “The Marketing Platform for Online Sellers”. This service allows people to create virtual flyers that are very slick. Here is an example of the flyer that I recently made through this service as a way to attract new MindBites authors.

VFlyer is extremely easy to use and has step-by-step instructions on how to create these virtual masterpieces. Once you have created the flyer, it is a simple copy and paste to get it on Craigslist. In fact, the basic service is free to use and allows you to have 5 flyers in their system. The part that I like best is that for a small monthly fee, you can embed videos in these flyers, which is what I plan to do next.

Tags: author tools, Craigslist, VFlyer | Posted in 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: author tools, MindBites, Promotion, search engine, youtube | Posted in MindBites News and Notes, Video Production and Publishing | No Comments »

The MindBite Insight (Episode #5 - Getting Organized)

Though we don’t often advocate Machiavellian techniques, to “Divide and Conquer” is the only way to keep yourself sane during video editing. Separating shots, labeling them, and grouping them makes them easily navigable and more intuitive to work with. Cutting up and organizing what you’ve recorded may seem intimidating, but you’ve got to just get in there. Brittanie and Keith team teach in this MindBite Insight about Getting Organized.

With them as your strategists for conquering MindBite projects, you’ll be sure to be victorious in the end. They’ll show you how to capture and begin piecing together your brilliant footage, give you helpful ideas for keeping order, show you what you need, explain some terms, and discuss how organization is the key to editing.

Tags: author tools, MindBites Insight, Organization, Webisode | Posted in MindBites News and Notes, Video Production and Publishing | No Comments »

The Many Benefits of Social Networks

Whenever I think of social networks, such as Facebook.com, Myspace.com, etc., I think of how users love checking their myspace messages, their facebook wall, or always trying to increase their friend count. What you may not realize is how you can utilize these social networks to promote yourself and your MindBites lessons.

After you have made your MindBites lesson, you will want to ensure that everyone you know watches it. You may call or e-mail your family members and closest friends to get their support and ask them to pass it on to other people they know. With that idea in mind, think about applying it to your favorite social network. For about a week and a half now, I have been applying that idea to facebook. It’s great because I can send a message to all my friends, post things on marketplace (an application that facebook has for selling things), or create a group.

Another great feature about facebook is the news feed. I remember when Facebook made the switch to utilizing their news feed. Basically, facebook publicizes your actions (joining groups, posting things on marketplace, posting links) to all your friends. You can use this to your advantage because if you were to post a link to your MindBites lesson, all of your friends would see that link posted on their news feed as well, increasing exposure. Overall, you can personalize your social networking page to promote your MindBites lesson as another way to increase exposure. They provide places where you can display your interests, activities, contact information, and even links! Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: author tools, social networks | Posted in MindBites News and Notes | No Comments »