6 Reasons Amateurs Don’t Use Teleprompters

Posted on November 8, 2011 by admin

Teleprompters are only for those overly happy newscasters. They’re too expensive. I don’t need one for my small production. That’s extra work! Teleprompters are hard to use. I can memorize my lines. I know them like the back of my hand. These are all excuses amateurs give when asked why they don’t use teleprompters. I can tell you why you should use one. There teleprompters designed to fit everyone’s needs, from big businesses to one-man operations. See why a teleprompter is right for you.

Amateurs think teleprompters are too expensive. Even on a tight budget, there are affordable teleprompters that can work for you. Static teleprompters reflect a single page of text to the viewer. There are no electronics, software, or cables. These are one of the cheapest solutions for filming commercials. Simply place a sheet of typed text under the teleprompter and you and deliver your lines in minutes without rehearsal.

“Why do I need a teleprompter? It’s extra work!” It’s not extra work. Teleprompters save time and money. How? They help you deliver your lines with fewer mistakes. Teleprompters eliminate the time you usually spend memorizing and rehearsing lines. If you’re shooting a video, it also saves time on editing. Good takes allow the video to be pieced together quickly.

Most think teleprompters are too hard to use. Wrong! They are in fact, very easy to use. A teleprompter can be attached to a simple camcorder and tripod. The software can be run on your laptop or tablet. You can take your presentation or video shoot to the next level just by adding a teleprompter to the resources you already have.

Teleprompters aren’t just for video professionals and newscasters. They are for the businesswoman speaking in front of the board of executives. They are for the small business putting a viral video on YouTube. Everyone has a message. Teleprompters help you share your message with ease and style. They make editing easy. Forget stepping over crumpled pieces of paper on the floor. Once you enter your text using the teleprompter’s software, you can stop, edit, and start your lines again with ease. Teleprompters help you stay focused. They help you look into directly into the camera or at your audience. They also help you stay on point, keeping your presentation clear and organized.

Yes, I know you think you don’t need help with your lines and are able to go off the vast amount of knowledge in your head. That tends to change when you’re in front of the camera and your audience is looking at you. Teleprompters can ease the stress of public speaking. As I mentioned earlier, teleprompters help you stay focused on your message. You can’t miss a key point with the words right there in front of you.

Teleprompters can turn an amateur into a polished professional. They are easy to use, saving time and money. They can fit into the smallest budget. They help you deliver your message clearly and effectively. So, what excuses do you have now?

 

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When Is the Right Time to Hire a Web Design Firm?

Posted on May 10, 2011 by admin

Although most large and successful companies are convinced of the value of hiring a web design firm for all their online promotional needs, many small businesses believe that this is unnecessary for them due to their size or budget. Even small businesses that have seen the value of taking their business to the vast online realm often believe that it will be easier or better somehow if they just design and maintain their own web presence using their limited and amateur in-house resources. Here are a few reasons why that might not be the case.

It’s true that you can make your own website from the ground up in about ten minutes even with limited skills and knowledge. There are a large variety of templates and do-it-yourself software that could at first glance make you believe that they are all you need. The truth is that while you could perhaps eke out a website using just these primitive tools, a professional web design firm will go above and beyond simply slapping together a website. They will take your business and its goals and translate them into a beautiful and user-friendly masterpiece that slips right into the mainstream of online traffic and begins to generate business for you right away.

The best time to hire a web design firm is right at the beginning of the process of bringing your company online. Even if you only have a small business struggling to stay afloat, bringing your company online with the help of a professional web design firm could be just the thing you need to expand your base of clientele, build a solid online presence, and become as successful as you want to be.

The right time for hiring a web design firm is also when your business has already been online for awhile but you are now interested in taking it a step further with a continually evolving, up-to-date online presence that is given constant attention from an expert team. Just like you are the expert on your own business and what it needs, professional web design firms are experts at maintaining the presence of a business on the web. They know how to craft and develop the online presence of a company so that it accurately reflects that company’s goals and objectives in the most positive light possible. They have experts in all the fields necessary to bring web success including design, programming, search engine optimizing, and continual development. They also have plenty of experience in creating online successes and can bring all their expertise to the table and focus it on their next success: your company.

Just like you wouldn’t want an amateur running your business for you, don’t take the risk of allowing an amateur to experiment on your company’s web presence. Get help.

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How Can Prompter Software Make Your Web Videos More Effective?

Posted on March 24, 2011 by admin

When making web videos, many people lack focus, speak timidly or with low confidence, and may even get so caught up in the moment that they appear to be jabbering morons. Teleprompter software can change all that.

Prompter software displays on screen a script that you have entered beforehand, scrolling at a user-defined speed. If the screen where the text is displayed is placed directly beside or underneath the camera, it can appear as if the presenter is looking directly at his or her audience while reciting a brilliant monologue from memory. Make sure not to sit too close to your screen and camera setup as this could have the effect of making your eyes appear crossed and your attention distracted. Sitting as far away as possible from the filming setup helps to blur the distance between the camera and the teleprompter and will make it appear more like you are actually looking directly at your audience.

A teleprompter can help you to plan out your speech ahead of time so that on camera you appear eloquent and together. Having a speech with a clearer, more well-defined direction will make your web videos more effective, but it’s still important to practice. Rehearse saying the text clearly a couple of times before filming. Even many professionals rehearse their parts before reading them off the teleprompter on camera, and this is especially important when first getting used to prompter software.

Instead of coming across like a rambling idiot, with prompter software you can design your speeches to flow, covering the ground you need to cover in a friendly, conversational manner. To get the best out of your prompter software, make sure your script sounds good before recording. You don’t want to sound like a five year old, but neither do you want to sound like a professor. Prompter software allows you to tweak your script until it is just right before filming. Make sure your script sounds like you – the best possible version of you – before rolling the camera.

When you make use of prompter software it takes a lot of the guess work and memory work out of the equation, allowing you to focus less on remembering what to say and more  on your audience and how you come across to them. You are able to concentrate on the warmth in your voice, your silken tone, and your personal presentation. It’s hard to act as if you are speaking directly to a friend when you are facing a complicated mechanical setup, but prompter software will help you to keep that personal touch. Remember to inhale deeply before recording your part to make sure you don’t run out of breath in mid-sentence. With prompter software and these time-tested tips, you will be recording effective – and maybe even viral – web videos in no time at all.

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9 Bad Habits of Web Designers

Posted on February 20, 2011 by admin

What makes powerful web design that keeps visitors around longer?

Every web designer aims to make the greatest website experience for their clients or themselves, but sometimes even the best ideas and hosting can’t keep a good site afloat. Even if you grab a reliable yet cheap web hosting service it is still not enough. One of the main reasons webizens cite for not using a website is terrible design, and in the fast paced world of blogs and web 2.0 a site needs all the hits it can get. If your website is turning your visitors off, then it’s only a matter of time before it falls into the nether like so many sites before it. Here are the top 9 horrible habits of web designers that anyone looking to make the best site they can should absolutely avoid.

1. CLASHING COLOR CHOICES

Studies show that the best readability for any site is the traditional black text on a white background. While a few additional colors here and there can brighten up a design and make it pop, using too many bright and loud colors can give even a fan of the neon-gilded 80′s a migraine.

2. LONG FLASH INTROS

When someone goes to your site, they are looking for information about your product or your web content itself. Flash intros are fluff, and unskippable fluff at that. If a user can’t get to the meat of your site and get what they need, they’ll leave.

3. TALKING ONSCREEN PEOPLE

This is a recent development in the world of web design, but this is one of the biggest annoyances of modern sites. An embedded video of a person walking and talking around the actual site will introduce you to the site, often obscuring the text onscreen and turning the viewer off as well.

4. ANIMATED GIFS

Animated Gifs have not gone the way of geocities, but live on through trashy site design. Flaming torches, bouncing kittens, and mailboxes that open and close make your site look incredibly unprofessional and can make visitors question the legitimacy of your venture itself.

5. BLINKING

For some reason, many designers believe that blinking text and images will make users pay closer attention to what their site is saying and what their site is providing. This is far from the case, and can even harm users who are prone to seizures or other medical conditions.

6. POPUPS

A single popup on a site to let your user navigate to a separate form or view large media files such as quicktime films is fine by todays standards, but some web designers still cling to the idea that every window and navigation choice must pop up underneath the browser. Considering that most browsers come with popup blockers now, this is definitely not the case.

7. EMBEDDED MUSIC

Unless you’re a musician, no one wants to hear your favorite song embedded into your site. If your site features embedded music that the user can’t turn off, they’ll immediately leave instead of taking a listen or taking a look at what you have to offer.

8. CLUTTER

It’s hard enough to find what you’re looking for when your house is a mess, so imagine how tough it is to find something when your site is a mess. Clean design can’t be stressed enough when it comes to site usability.

9. FLASH ONLY NAVIGATION

In the day and age of the iPhone, flash-only navigation makes no sense. Any visitor trying to get information from your website on their phone won’t be able to access it at all, and the amount of potential customers lost can be in the hundreds of thousands.

Choosing top web hosting may help but it’s not the end of it all. Designers must do away with all the aforementioned annoyances before they can perfect a masterpiece.

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