Quick Start Challenge Week Two – My Video Struggle
Opening the traffic tap
In Dean’s Holland Quick Start Challenge the assignment was to dive as much traffic possible to the website by interacting with people online.
Dean revealed us 2 ways of getting free traffic that have nothing to do with SEO and that anyone can use, no matter how skilled he is:
- posting in forums (with a link to the website in the signature)
- commenting on other blogs
I can’t say I did that good at this task, because I didn’t had enough time to dedicate to this task, it was a busy week in Sorina the web developer’s world.
But I’m satisfied because I discovered these two ways of bringing traffic to the website really work. In total I didn’t had more then 100 visitors to the website in the required time-frame, and mostly come from QSC sources – the QSC blogroll and other blogs from the challenge where I commented.
For the future I think I can’t rely too much on the QSC blogroll or my comments on other blogs enrolled in the challenge, since activity on these will have a significant drop once the challenge ends.
Some blogs from my fellows in the challenge have great potential, I marked down a few of them that I will definitely follow. I discovered a hand of very interesting and cool people in this challenge, and if I manage to stay in contact with some of them I already consider myself a winner of this challenge.
The problem with comments
An interesting fact I noticed is that people in the challenge, when commenting on others’ blogs, still keep commenting on the same topic – “I’m in Dean Holland’s Quick Start Challenge [...] Good luck [...] Visit my blog”. Even if many posted interesting new stuff on their blogs, people don’t engage with the new content and the majority of comments (that begin to lack originality and quality) are still made on that first blog from the challenge. My website is not relevant in this observation, since I only managed to add just one new post not related to the challenge, but I noticed this on others blogs that published new stuff almost daily.
Why I think it’s important to also comment on topics non QSC related?
The selfish aspect: These are the ones that have potential to bring you traffic after the excitment with Dean Holland’s challenge ends – if you made an interesting comment and someone arriving to that blog for other reasons then driving traffic to his QSC blog will see it, chances are he will be curios about you and visit you!
The altruist aspect: Keep the conversation going, encourage the author to publish new stuff, show true interest for his blog.
But enough about that. Week two also came with a surprise, a second task – creating a video!
My Own Video
When I was little I wanted to become a movie director. But life had its way and I got into the computer stuff – which I don’t regret. The thing is I was always attracted to the cinematic art, but never as an actor. I’m not shy, and is not that I’m unconfortable in front of the camera – it is just something that doesn’t attract me – it’s not ME. Instead I wanted to use my creativity in a way that also shows my basic After Effects skills – and after almost 2 days of work here is the final result:
What do you think? I’m curious about your comments!
About the Author
Posting on forums with a link in the signature is not that easy. Unless you have a history and a good reputation on the forum, there’s a good chance that the link in your signature will get you banned.
Of course it depends on the forum but as a forum owner I don’t really like new people posting links in their comments or having them in the signature.
Hi Horatiu.
I understand what you are talking about – using forum signatures as a way of building links back to the website for better rankings. I don’t like that tactic either, even if I don’t administer any forum.
The idea was to use the king in the signature as a way of getting direct traffic from the forum posts you make, and in order to achieve that you must make quality posts on those forum, to attract others’ attention and curiosity.
And from what I saw so far it works, people do click on your signature if you post something interesting.
PS: Glad to see you stopping by my website!
Hey Sorina,
Well done on the post. I agree with you, every blog should have comments directed to that blog and not in general to the QSC. The point is you have to remember that most people are newbies like myself so they are still get used to this life style of blogging and leaving comments on other peoples blogs. It’s been very interesting and I have to admit, I am sort of getting addicted to it. Fortunately my world has not been as busy as Sorina the web developer’s world this week and I’ve had more time to spend on the QSC. Take care and hope to see you soon again…
Munir Nathoo recently posted..Not sure what to do with spare change…
Munir, I understand that people just starting online may be a little confused, I didn’t mean for my observation to be rude (I apologize if it did), but more like an advice.
Anyway, my advice for you is to have no fear, commenting on blogs is preatty much like conversation in real life, if you have an opinion on something you read post it it may be helpful for many others!
Hey Sorina,
No offense taken
I know what you mean exactly. I never ever thought I would be posting comments on other sites or blogs until I joined Dean’s course and you know what, I’m actually enjoining it to the point that I think I’m now addicted! Lol! Yes you’re absolutely right, its just like conversation. Thanks and good luck…
Hi again,
Sorry I just watched your video, well done! Wish you all the best!
Thanks Munir! Same to you!
Hi Sorina. First the video. Marvellous! It looked slick and delivered a simple, well-structured message. It cut off a little abruptly at the end, but otherwise quite perfect. Have you done a tutorial on how you did that? I’d love to know.
Secondly, I completely agree about many still commenting only about the challenge when the content has moved on from that original post. I even saw someone (who shall be nameless) commenting on another blog twice with the same message on different posts, not realising they’d already visited. However, most of the input I’ve had has been from people who obviously read and engaged with my content. Like you, I’ve bookmarked quite a few blogs I want to follow longterm. It’s great to have a read-made community of people who have the same interest, and though I do expect the traffic to fall off a fair bit once the official part of the challenge is over I think it’s provided a good foundation to build upon.
Janie recently posted..The Video Challenge
Hi Janie,
I made the video using an AfterEffects template I got from VideoHive – it’s a a library of royalty free motion graphics, footage and AE projects, from the creators of ThemeForest, Envato.
I don’t have much experience with After Effects, so I can’t provide a tutorial since I really struggled making this video and I don’t consider myself ready to teach others since I don’t master After Effects yet.
You are right about the video cutting of at the end, mainly because the music clip I used was shorter then the video, so I had to improvise there… and it didn’t turned out that good
Hi Sorina
I just finished watching your video and I was blown away by it.
Janie mentioned that it finished a little abruptly but I didn’t feel that at all.
The two things I liked most about it (apart from the actual content message) was
1. How it flowed in style throughout the whole video with the drop-down menus and spinning headlines, and
2. Your choice of music
I would love to know how you actually did it. I feel very challenged in the skill department when it comes to creating videos.
I also like you comment about feeling like a winner anyway if you manage to stay in contact with some of the other Quick Start Challengers.
I feel exactly the same way and, for one, i am glad I made contact with you!
I’ll certainly be back (as I think I said in an earlier comment) to keep in touch with what you are doing.
Dave E Wilkes recently posted..How To Boost Self Esteem Tip 1 – Better and Better
Thanks Dave, you are very kind.
As I wrote in reply to Janie’s comment above, I can’t take credit for all the cool stuff that happens in the video since I didn’t make it from scratch, I started from a template.
But I can take credit for choosing a cool template that was fit for my message and choosing the music.
I really hope you come back to this website because I have a lot of things to share that may help build very professional looking products (video, websites, etc.) with a very small budget.
Hi Sorina!
Awesome video! I’m very impressed. Your blog looks good, too!
I think you’re right in your comment about the comments!
Have a great weekend,
Kathy
Thank you Kathy!
Hi Sorina
Loved the video…very well produced !! Maybe you DID miss your calling..
Cheers
Linda
Linda recently posted..Internet Marketing College – Get a Certificate for Free
Thanks Linda, you are so kind
(dofollow)
Sorina Dascalu recently posted..What Makes Someone Leave Your Website?
Hi Sorina,
I really loved this video and I would give you the vote as the winner.
You certainly have a very creative talent which you could market as a service alone and as mentioned previously you blog design is also fantastic.
Can you clue us in on the software that you used for this is? I would expect it is a professional product as the results certainly appear that way.
Good luck to you in the QSC and online, I’m sure you’ll be a great success
Regards
Phil
Phil recently posted..How to Have Your Image Appear in a Blog Comment
Hi Phil and thank you.
I used Adobe After Effects and started from a template I bought from VideoHive.
I already make a living by building websites and providing design services to others, but I want to try something different with internet marketing – it is a challenge for me.
Hey Sorina,
I think you did a remarkable job with your video, by far the best I have seen and I’m not easy to impress.
Engaging, easy to watch, entertaining…
However… being a musician myself, I think the background music could have been a lot better.
The song is great but I don’t think it suited the video so good…
Apart from that small observation, I would definitely hire you (if you were available of course) in a heartbeat!
You keep impressing me with everything you’ve done so far and you keep raising the excellence bar every day for the rest of us.
Last but not least, thank you a lot for considering me for the video, I feel more than honored!
Sergio
Sergio Felix recently posted..Lead Generation With Opt-In Email Marketing And Aweber
Hi Sergio and thank you for the nice words.
Ok, I admit it, my taste in music is not very well developed and probably a little strange (I have Rammstein, Enrique Iglesias and Leonard Cohen in the same playlist).
If I had to do something like this, a video presentation for something I would definitely ask advice from someone who knows about music or even hire someone to do it – I believe is a great thing to know your limitation, and to delegate tasks you are not good at to others that can do it better in less time and with less resources.
Well those are good selections (not crazy about E. Iglesias though lol) but on the same list? Haha gotta love it!
Btw, it was interesting to know that the video took five hours to render… WOW. I want to start learning about AE and I actually built this computer specifically for those tasks so I’m particularly interested in seeing how well (or how bad) performs.
Thanks!
Sergio
PS. You did an amazing job with the video even if it was with a template, it takes a lot of creativity to put it together and the music selection was good, I just thought it could have been better due to the amazing job with the video, don’t be so hard on you! I liked it!
Sergio, the rendering took 5 hours using my laptop with a 1.9 GHz Dual-Core Processor and 3GB RAM.
I’m sure on a system specifically built for video editing you will be able to render movies in less time.
Thanks for the encouragement and don’t worry, I recognize and appreciate a constructive critique
Hi Sorina
I agree with you. We need to keep the conversation going. After the hype has died down it wont look good if you only have comments on the past hype!
I think the blog commenting is perhaps showing up those of use who are making the effort to really get to know each other and actually read other posts.
It was brave of you to mention it and great to see you dont mind being honest! I like honest!
Kay
Kay Franklin recently posted..Why should you build an email list?
I agree Kay. And by actually reading other posts I learned a lot of stuff in these past weeks.
First I was not so convinced that I should write about “the bad parts of QSC”, I was afraid people will stop visiting me and consider me a bitter person. But now I think I did good, since I see my observations are similar to others.
In the end for me is not about receiving many many comments, it’s about creating bonds with people that share the same interest and are honest people.
Very good post Sorina!
I am very impressed by your video… how on earth did you create that? Some kind of After Effect or? DO share!
And you are so right about the commenting on blogs. I am one of those people who post every day and you can almost hear the wind blowing right through my blog on those days that are non QSC related… But maybe I am not that interesting
Just a thought…
Anyway, I am using this challenge to get to know people and maybe find a few new friends or future JV partners. I can tell you have a lot of potential, and deliver great value.. maybe you are one those people that I am looking for?
I too am into web design, SEO, video creation and so on. Have my own company in Denmark, BUT… I am looking to shift focus an do more coaching and mentoring stuff. I like doing and learning about all the technical stuff, but I actually don’t like doing it all day long for other people… I used to, but not any more.
Anyway, I am doing a 30 day to more energy challenge on my blog, posting a video tip every day. If you are interested come on over and let me know what you think.
Hope to talk soon
love
Marlene
Marlene recently posted..Get More Energy In 30 Days Challenge – Day 10
Yes Marlene, I did the video in After Effects. I didn’t start from scratch, I used a template. I still have a lot to learn to be able to do stuff on my own in After Effects but I already enjoy it a lot! Unfortunately I will require a better computer for that, this video took me 5 hours to render on my current one!
I love what you are doing with the Get More Energy In 30 Days Challenge but I have a suggestion as a reader – can you make it somehow easier to see from the first look what the post is about?
For example you have: “Get More Energy In 30 Days Challenge – Day 12″ – you could name it “Get More Energy In 30 Days Challenge – Day 12: Dealing With Pain”
Hi Sorina!
Glad to see you did a great job with the video, definitely another contender to win the challenge. I’ve run into same problem – first post getting disproportionate amount of attention. That is because most of the traffic from blogroll is linked to it! So what I did was change the url of first post, installed a redirect plugin and put all visitors that used the original link to redirect to main page – thus they now see my newest post always, instead of my old first post.
Jarkko Helenius recently posted..Making Sacrifices
Jarkko, I didn’t have the same problem as you, because when I subscribed my blog to QSC blogroll I entered the url of the homepage, not of the first blogpost.
But thank you for sharing your advice, it can be of help to others in your situation.
Hi Sorina,
I haven’t been back to your site for a short while. Been busy busy and you well know. I think your video is great. I really liked it. I know what you mean about the time limit on the QSC blogroll as a form of traffic generation. I do think however that there are a core of people that I would like to keep track of and keep in touch with. In a similar way to yourself perhaps is that I’m not specifically looking to develop an “Internet Market” market – :-/ if you know what I mean. My longer term plans I think lie in a different market altogether. The techniques I’m learning here however are massively valuable and just what I will need to get going in the same way for a different arena. As with all techniques however, they change, evolve, develop and improve and this is one of the reasons why I plan to keep in touch with some on the QSC and remain (in some way) active on the Warrior forum. I suspect Dean is already aware of this and that (to my mind) may be in some way related to what he might have planned for week 5. We’ll just have to wait and see.
Regards
Nick
Nick recently posted..Progress is happening!
Yes Nick, the awesome thing about this challenge is discovering such cool people that I too want to keep in touch even after Dean’s challenge ends.
I also tried the blog comenting on other websites that are not part of the challenge and the method brings traffic, but these visitors don’t interact very much – but I guess that’s because my blog mostly talks about the Challenge
Hi Sorina,
Very impressed with your video. Did you do that with multiple video templates or just one? If you could record your screen, it would be very interesting to see how you put it together – is there a tutorial anywhere – like You Tube?
Loving your site – very informative, detailed and well-designed – you are definitely on a winning path with this site.
kind regards
Mark
Mark Salmon recently posted..The Traffic Attraction Model by Alex Jeffries
Mark, I used only one template from VideoHive. It came with good instructions on how to do a basic edit, but I had to search the internet for more information in order to achieve everything I wanted.
A screen recording would be too long and annoying at this time, since I still struggle using Adobe After Effects. But I promise I will get better in order to provide easy to follow instructions since many look interested in that.
Sorina,
Liked your video and hope that I’m one of those that you continue to communicate with. I’ve been working with video and will try to improve my SERPs with video curation.
I hope to continue to publish new stuff, just like in the past.
And I liked the what you wrote to Marlene about improvements in her title.
Stan recently posted..5 Tips for Novel – Story – Book Rewriting – Revision – Day 6
Hi Stan and thank you! I really hope that too!
Hi Sorina,
You really did a great job with that video. You have awesome content on the site that I will use for future reference, as I have already proven since this is my second time here. Keep up the good work and I’ll check back in periodically to see how things are going.
Good luck,
Rich
Thank you Rich and your article about the 138 QSC sites is awesome!
Hi Sorina,
What an amazing and unique video. You are a very talented lady. I imagine you could be offering video creation services as part of your business. I still have not created mine, because I have no clue how to go about it. That really bothers me, but…hopefully by the end of this week.
Best of luck in your business.
Dita
Dita recently posted..Quick Start Challenge – Free Traffic To Your Website
Thank you Dita.
I admit I loved creating the video, but really can’t offer that as a service, I don’t have the skills yet to do this in a productive way, it takes me to much time to do it.
I agree with everyone, it’s a great video…far more impressive than say a video made with animoto…seems a bit more dynamic..and the music is good too.
I prefer commenting on blogs to forum commenting as hanging out in forums can be very time consuming and distracting plus you can also develop a relationship with the blog owner. But if you become very active in a forum and then add your signature at the bottom I imagine you could get heaps of links and plenty of opportunities for people to see what you are promoting.
Ade recently posted..Should You Take A Break From Your Computer ?
Ale, I agree with you that commenting on blogs is more “human” since you are also building a relationship with the author.
Forum commenting even if it’s like talking in a crowded room, where just a few will hear what you are saying has that link in the signature advantage. When I comment in forums I don’t expect many to click on my signature, but that link is dofollow (unlike the links you get from blog commenting) and can bust your website in Google.
Hi Sorina!
Just found your blog while visiting Sergio’s. Nice to meet you!
The video came out GREAT, loved it.
I missed out on Dean’s challenge, it would have helped me for sure. But I’m challenging myself, and I really struggle when it comes to video. I get so nervous that it almost causes my voice to fail, lol. That bad!
But I’ll keep practicing.
On the comments strategy, I think it can work well. But In my opinion people should only comment if they really have something to say. Commenting just for the sake of getting traffic may work well short-term, but you’ll get burned out on the long run… I think.
Well, looking forward to learning more about you… in the mean time, have a great weekend!
PS: I love playing table tennis, used to play for long hours. Eventually stopped playing due to the lack of opponents. I wasn’t that good, is just that my opponents were often really bad. You know how boring it gets when you can’t play for “real”.
Rod
Rod Gomes recently posted..Weekly Roundup – 003
Man, believe me… you don’t want to challenge me on table tennis but if you do, I’m GAME for it!
Sergio
PS. Sorina freaking rocks by the way, I can tell you you’re going to love her!
Sergio Felix recently posted..Arnold Schwarzenegger’s 6 Rules On Life
Hahaha, thank you both Rod and Sergio.
So, what do you say about an Internet Marketers Table Tennis Championship?
Hi Sorina,
I have just watched your video, excellent effort, I’m very jealous, I think that I will have to go away and have a play.
All the best.
RoseG
RoseG recently posted..Dean Holland’s Quick Start Challenge – Week 4
Thank you Rose for the nice words!
Superb Sorina! I did not read the article but the video is just great! A question: how much did it cost the Dean Holland’s Quick Start Challenge ?
I am somehow in your situation before the Quick Start.
Paul recently posted..Audi R8 facelift in the autumn of 2012
Hi Paul. Personally I paid for joining this course $14.87. But it was a dime sell offer (a product is offered at a low beginning price, and after each sale, the price increases by a dime =10 cents). So some people paid less then I did, some paid more.
I like your video Sorina. Videohive and After Effects aren’t easy options to stumble upon, very impressive.
Angelo recently posted..How do I get traffic to my website for free
Thank you very much Angelo. After Effects is not an easy to learn program, but for those accustomed to Adobe Suite it has a familiar interface. As for VideoHive, well, I recommended buying video templates from there, they are very well documented and easy to use.
Good video, Sorina. I liked the way the video flowed and how you used the text to tell your story about your business. A strength was that you told your story that other people could really relate to. I appreciated that you didn’t give advice.
One side note – IMO, I thought the music was too loud, but I just turned down the volume which was better than some videos where the volume is too low and you can’t hear what the speaker is saying. Maybe that’s what I wanted – voiceover narration. I guess I wanted to hear it in your words with your voice.
Here’s one of my recent videos => http://youtu.be/ifHujuCHaVs
(dofollow)
Stan Tjaden recently posted..How to Follow Your Heart and Fight the Forces of Evil
Thanks for the tips Stan! Video is not really my thing, and I still don’t feel that comfortable to do narration…
Maybe I can help with your videos?
I just sent you an email…