If you're lucky enough to have Mac running OS X, then here's a wonderful tool, to help add glitz and glam to your show. (And if you have a MacBook, or MacBook Pro, it already has a webcam built into the lid, so it's like having a TV studio where ever you go.)

It's Camtwist, a Freeware app by Steve Green. It's a virtual camera driver that can be selected just like a camera, and used as your recording or streaming source. It can take your basic "talking head" streaming video on Ustream.tv and make it look like a professional TV studio.

Camtwist lets you add things like chroma keys (green screen effects), picture in picture, scrolling text, RSS feeds, bugs (logos), pictures and slide shows into your program. It even lets you show your desktop, or present entire movies into your video stream.

Notice that I said Camtwist is a virtual device driver. That means you can stream 'any' video source into sites like uStream or into recording software like QuickTime. And that's what makes it so powerful. It literally becomes a broadcast studio, allowing you to switch between multiple cameras and video sources.

Download CamTwist for Mac OS X: http://www.allocinit.com/index.php?title=CamTwist

Go there and click on the 'documentation' link. Watch the intro videos there by Benjamin Higgenbotham. They'll give you an overview and help you get started. Then you're ready to download the software and have some fun with your Ustream.tv show.

Oh, one more thing. Here's an important tip. You can record 30 second QuickTime videos, queue them up, and have them ready to play during your uStream show.

Why? For several reasons.
1) In case you need a break.
2) You need to ban a spammer in your chat.
3) To monetize the stream with your own commercials.

Get it? If you have a show about dogs, wouldn't in make sense to play a commercial (with your affiliate link displayed) at the 8, 18 and 28 minute marks? Remember, once you add Camtwist into the Ustream mix, you have a full TV studio.

Another cool tool for Mac OS X is a screen recorder from Vara Software called ScreenFlow. It allows you to capture and edit everything you see on your screen.

Windows users have enjoyed Camtasia and other good screen capture software like for years. Mac users struggled along with Snapz Pro and other tools. We didn't have anything as cool as Camtasia until ScreenFlow came along.

In a nutshell, it makes a great training tool. You simply turn it on and it records everything you do on your screen. Every mouse click, menu and dialog box. Even movies.

The real power comes in the editing stage, after the recording is done. Having the option to move windows around 'after' recording just blows me away.

But rather than listen to me ramble about it here, go to Vara Sofware and learn about ScreenFlow for Mac OS X for yourself.

It's one thing to have all the cool tools like Camtwist, ScreenFlow and UStream, but what do your commercials look like? Shaky camera, poor lighting, scrolling messages like a used car dealer? Sorry kids but this isn't 2004. That kind of video online just doesn't cut it any more.

The biggest trouble with video, is keeping the audience engaged. And how do you do that? With production values and tricks of the trade, that television producers have used for years.

You can get some books from the library and learn from photos. And yea, you'll pick it up eventually. But if you want to produce pro looking video in just 30 days, Web Video University has just what you need.

Spend only a couple of minutes on their website and you'll see what I mean. You CAN produce that level of quality, and it won't take a two year course at the broadcasting academy, or bust the bank.

Here's the real kicker… even if your show is just a talking head, or guest interviews, your commercials must rock. You must keep the audience engaged. You want your viewer to get motivated and persuaded to take action. An effective commercial - that matches your content - will do that. Learn How to Create Commercials that Rock

Video is tearing up the web right now. Everyone and their puppy has started broadcasting thanks to uStream.tv. All it takes is a web cam and a mic.

Go to uStream.tv and sign up for an account. Click the "broadcast now" button and that's it. You're on the air.

Your show will appear in the list on the Ustream home page. Viewers can select it from the hundreds of other shows that are streaming at the same time.

Then there's the interactive part. Viewers can text chat with you and each other during the show. You can assign moderators, turn censorship on or off, ban nasty people, set topics, or turn the chat off completely.

There's also funky things like inviting a cohost to take part in your show. Doing picture in picture, recording your show, one-click saving to YouTube, and lots of other fun goodies.

If you have a newsletter, you can tell your readers about your show in advance. You can blog about it the day before. And just before you go "on the air" you can Twitter to get the word out.

They give you embed codes so you can make your own custom page. But it also helps if you want to syndicate your show. Meaning that you can paste your embed code on sites (Facebook, Squidoo, etc.) where your friends normally hang out.

Video streaming raises the bar over the YouTubes of the world, because you don't have to record, transfer, edit and upload. It's happening live and gets recorded directly to uStream. (Just don't forget to click the record button.)

Some people leave their camera on all the time and document their whole lives. Bands are recording live rehearsals. Comedians are trying out new material. There are shows for every taste.

Marketers are starting to use the streaming service for group coaching sessions, lessons and chats with their readerships, because there are no long distance fees like some audio only seminars.

If you record the video, you can reposition the content for other purposes. You can extract the audio using QuickTime Pro and make a podcast out of it. You could get the podcast transcribed into text, and then have fresh content to paste into your web pages, blogs and PDF files.

You could drop links to your podcasts and shows into RSS feeds. They would get repeat exposure through syndication sites and directories like iTunes, which means more clicks and traffic to your sites.

So if you've ever wanted to be the star of your own show, UStream.tv makes it possible. And nows the time to get in, before everyone else does.

What did you say your channel was? Twitter me, and let me know when your show is on. Who knows, I may show up and chat. It'll be fun. Or just come by and watch, that's ok too.

Come watch or start your own show at Ustream.tv

(Oh… and don't forget to subscribe to the UStream.tv blog for announcements, new features and great tips on how to get more viewers to your show.)

Having been in the marketing business for 20+ years, I can tell you with honesty and certainty, people whom are in it, only for the money, will certainly end up doing something stupid and they'll get what they deserve in the end.

Whether it's promoting something at the PlayDude mansion and alienating their entire female audience, or forced continuity programs buried in the fine print, these marketers need to be stopped. And the only way to do that is by having the courage to do what Caroline Middlebrook has done, post it, talk about it, and stop them.

The best thing you readers can do, to stop marketers you don't like, is to eliminate their revenue sources by unsubscribing from their lists, tweets and feeds, and never, ever, buying anything from them, ever again, no matter how good they make it sound. (If a product is really that good, you'll hear about it from your friends.)

Many info sellers are highly trained in direct response marketing techniques, basic psychology, and prey on weak willed people through manipulating human emotions. Just say NO! Stop being their personal ATMs and giving them cash every time they ask for it.

(BTW, direct marketing doesn't work on people under the age of 30. Blasted with media since birth, their hype meters are on full alert and they can spot it in 10 words or less.)

When it comes to internet marketing, your worth is your reputation. You need to be transparent. Free of hype. Give value first (not added). And most important of all, be a good listener so you can give people what they want.

Follow these tips and you will do very well, by recommending products that genuinely help your readers save time, solve problems and earn more. And yes, you can do that with honesty, integrity and transparency.

Join me as I chat with legendary marketer Ken McCarthy. His pioneering spirit led him to host the first ever internet marketing conference in 1994. He was the first one to tell us that the internet, or the technology, is just the ride. Content is king. It's the people using the internet, that will decide its fate, and be the driving force in the future.

For the past decade and Ken's annual System Seminar has trained a literal "who's who" of the marketing world. It continues to be the pivotal thought provoker, the lightbulb moment of transformation, when most people realize that, with this knowledge, they can leave the slavery of the 9-5 cubicle, become self-employed entrepreneurs, and probably make a whole lot more than they used to, working for someone else.

Get Michael Campbell's SEO & Marketing Tips Podcast in iTunes.

OR…

Download the Ken McCarthy System Seminar Podcast from LibSyn.

I signed up for a Twitter account over a year ago. At first I didn't get it. Few people used it and the posts were pretty lame. Why on earth would I care if someone was sitting in a cafe eating a veggie sandwich?

Well, like most mediums, given enough time and critical mass, they mature. Twitter has emerged into one of the most powerful Web 2.0 social networking tools. And it's one that you can use to your advantage.

So what exactly is microblogging or "tweeting" as it's known on Twitter? Here's the deal…

You try and answer the question "What are you doing right now?" in 140 characters or less. One click of the update button and you tell all your friends. That's all there is to it.

If you make quality posts, balancing insight, provocative thoughts and self promotions, you can get a lot of followers in a hurry. With every pithy post, you're likely to spark discussions, get traffic and find that more people are subscribing to your thoughts, or "following" your Tweets.

It works the other way too. Many thought leaders post 10 times per day, and you'll be surprised what you can learn in less than a month, by following a few well-known "A List" bloggers and new media people.

- I found out about an upcoming affiliate program and was able to position myself for the launch with little competition.

- I was told about fantastic widgets and Wordpress blog plugins, that I didn't know about.

- I heard rumors of new SEO software and was able to offer my ideas at the development stage.

- I was informed of a live discussion with a controversial author and was able to participate in the show.

- I was one of the first people to post a comment on a leading marketing blog. It branded my name, positioned me as an expert, and got a lot of clicks to my website. (Which means more subscribers and revenue for me.)

- I've been involved in personal conversations with thought leaders. (Not likely they'd open an email from me, even if I knew their addy.) They chat openly, even with strangers, over Twitter.

- I've been invited to impromptu hallway and pub interviews with experts streaming live video from their cell phones.

- One prominent personality managed to get over 270 viewers to a live streaming broadcast, within five minutes of posting the invitation on Twitter.

- I witnessed a well written blog post go from 0 to 100 Diggs in less than 10 minutes, because of a single "vote for my post" request on Twitter. (Just imagine the traffic you'd get from being on the Digg home page!)

* Warning: 1960's Superman cartoon reference…

Look up in the sky… it's a bird… it's a plane… faster than speeding RSS, more powerful than a blog post, able to leap tall emails with a single post… it's Twitter!

Think of it this way… Twitter is the ultimate web 2.0 social networking or "tell-a-friend" tool.

At only 140 characters, it's a great way to keep in touch with your readers in-between newsletters and blog posts. It's also a funky way to write and build up a following, if you're not into writing lengthy ebooks, newsletters or blog posts.

For example, if you want to follow what I'm doing online, you can go to Twitter.com and sign up for an account. (It takes less than 10 seconds.) You'll - at the very least - want to register your favorite name before it gets taken.

Then - once you've joined - go to http://twitter.com/dmcorp and click on the Follow button underneath my photo. That's all there is to it. If you want my updates to appear on your computer screen in real time, install a Twitter client like the one from Twhirl.org.

Now every time I post to my blog or discover something new, you'll be kept in the loop. You'll know exactly what I'm up to during the day, what I'm working on, what's coming up next, and get inside tips as they happen.

So what's my conclusion on using Twitter for social networking?

If you offer your followers thoughtful posts, topical news, cool ideas, useful urls, and the like - instead of what kind of sandwich you're eating - who knows… you could build your own following. Then next time you have an event, or important moment of any kind, you can notify hundreds of people the instant it's happening.

Like it or not, micro blogging has grown and matured as a medium. It has found a comfortable niche in-between emails and blog posts. But the really cool part is that it's happening in real time, right before your eyes, and you get to choose which gurus, bloggers, movers and shakers, that you want to follow.

Twitter is pure Web 2.0 power in the hands of the people. It is the essence of social media, the ultimate social networking tool, where we can stay connected to each other, no matter what we're doing, or where we are in the world, 140 characters at a time.

Send me a Tweet when you get there…

Join Up: http://twitter.com

And Twitter Me Here: http://twitter.com/dmcorp
 

How a Twitter Client like Twhirl will generate more than $1,000 this year.

What would you do for a thousand dollars? Would you write 127 words? Say, maybe, three short paragraphs and post them on a blog?

That's exactly what I did, and because of it, I'll put more than 1K dollars in my pocket over the next year because of it. Here's how it happened…

Bloggers love to tell you when they've made a new post. But instead of relying on the blog, an RSS feed, or a newsletter, they turn to Twitter to get the word out.

I saw a post from one of the people I follow on Twitter. I was busy and couldn't read the full blog post right away, but new that it was going to be a popular story. I just didn't know HOW popular.

By the time I read to post 45 minutes later, it already had 50 Diggs. (That's votes on the digg.com web site, which is the 176th most popular site on the web.)

Luckily I put down what I was doing to make quick comment on the post. Anything that gets 50 Diggs in under an hour is going to go viral. And if you have a chance to comment while the post is fresh, go for it!

Within 24 hours the post had 365 Diggs and 34 comments. Last I checked it had over 800 Diggs and 53 comments.

At the time of writing, my comment has brought over 100 visitors to my site. And because my comment is one of the first on the blog, the link to my site will continue to get clicks for weeks, and even months into the future.

Now, because of my stats, I know that 57% of all unique visitors to my site, subscribe to my newsletter. I also know that the average reader will spend 4 dollars per year on products they see advertised in my newsletter.

If I do some quick math, and suppose my link gets clicked an average of twice per day, that's 730 clicks. (Remember the web is open 24/7 365, so there's none of this 200 work day per year nonsense.)

So following the stats, that's 416 new subscribers, spending an average of 4 dollars per year each. That's $1,664, based on very conservative numbers, over the next year from a single blog comment. (Just over $13 per word.

But I never would have seen the original post if it wasn't for the little tweet on Twitter. (A tweet is a micro blog post on Twitter.)

(You can get a comprehensive list of all the major Twitter Clients by visiting this ReadWriteWeb.com blog post entitiled, "How We Tweet: The Definitive List of the Top Twitter Clients."

The moral of the story? If you follow prominent "A List" bloggers and thought leaders on Twitter, you'll find out about blog posts, tech news and live video coverage of events, before anyone else.

And if you make "intelligent" comments on the blog posts they make, your words can be very profitable, so long as you're one of the first people to jump into the conversation.

So what would you do for 1,000 dollars? Would you install a Twitter client like the one from twhirl.org and follow the thought leaders in your industry? Sounds like a winning idea if you ask me.

Make Your Podcast Audio Sound Like a Pro

There have been dozens of questions about podcasting equipment. Most of you want to know how I get such good sound, and want your audio to sound as good as mine.

To upgrade your sound, I suggest getting a USB headset from Audio Technica, Altec Lansing, Plantronics or a company that has their brand name associated with audio equipment. I'd suggest staying away from brands that are associated with gaming and computer hardware periphery.

The only thing wrong with headsets, is that they sound like headsets. Usually the mic is too close to the mouth, the sound is thin, and the plosives like P B and T are quite pronounced. Then there's the "noise canceling" technology, which - in USB headsets - can be quite noticeable as it chops off the beginning bits of words.

A step above a USB headset would be a USB mic that plugs into the computer. Add in a mic stand of sorts, a set of headphones, or high quality earbuds, and you are all set. The only trouble is, the preamps in the USB mics can be quite noisy and introduce a lot of high end hiss into the audio.

Next up would be a pro or semi-pro microphone. It will have a three pin plug on it called an XLR plug, and will need an XLR cable that plugs into a preamp or mixer of sorts.

An affordable and portable mixer is the M-Audio Mobile Pre USB. It has XLR, 1/4 inch and mini plug inputs. Line level, 1/4 inch and headphone outputs. It plugs directly into the computer through USB, so it doesn't need its own power supply, but it will provide 48 volt phantom power - from the computer - should your mic require it.

Then there's the mic. There's all sorts of mics available at MusiciansFriend.com. Look for an inexpensive, yet highly rated condenser mic. Dynamic mics are great for getting bumped about on the road or on stage, but for studio vocals and human speech, get a condenser mic for best results.

If you don't want - or can't afford - the higher end gear, at least pick up a moderately priced USB headset. Get one from a brand name audio company. It's sure to be much better audio quality than a gaming headset, or the pin hole mic in a typical telephone headset.

And finally… for those who asked… here's my setup. I use a Rode NT2-A condenser mic, which plugs via XLR cable into the M-Audio MobilePre USB, which plugs into the computer via USB cable. I just click on the phantom power button on the front of the MobilePre and start recording into my favorite audio app.

For recording the podcast interviews via Skype I use Call Recorder from ecamm.com. (Sorry Windows dudes, it's Mac only.) There's plenty of software capable of recording Skype conversations, but Call Recorder is the only one I've found that records the interviewer and guest on their own audio tracks, meaning it's much easier to edit later on.

So now there's no excuse not to sound like a pro. Get some pro podcasting equipment and guess what… you'll sound like a pro. But as for the "quality" of your show… that's up to you.

Download the Internet Marketing Secrets Podcast or Subscribe to Michael Campbell's SEO and Marketing Tips with iTunes.

Michael, I was wondering about getting a homestudy course for PPC. I'm currently an AdWords consultant and manage a number of clients across the world. Are the PPC courses worth every penny? Is the stuff easy to master? I'd be grateful for any advice.

To be honest I have struggled with promoting affiliate programs via Google Adwords. I've not made a single penny and tried to make it work several times. ~ Paul

Paul, a lot of marketers are very successful with the PPC to affiliate program revenue model. Gauher Chaudhry and Dave Tropeano come to mind. Gauher and Dave's training courses are not expensive. Good training never is. Think of it as an investment in yourself. An investment that you can completely deduct as a business expense.

Gauher Chaudhry's PPC Formula

Dave Tropeano's Long Tail Cash

I wouldn't say that Gauher's Pay Per Click Formula or any other system is easy to master. No skill set is. Like anything, it takes practice. The more you practice, the better you get at it.

In addition to writing the ads, finding good affiliate programs, creating multiple offers and landing pages, PPC is largely a numbers game. So an aptitude for tracking numbers like expenses and profit margins really helps.

But once you immerse yourself in the training, what you'll discover that both Dave and Gauher are masters of mainstream products, that large segments of the population search for online, while trying to find deals. They find those deals and stage multiple offers in the path of the click. They also demonstrate the use of followup autoresponders, which any marketer would be wise to emulate.

Both Gauher and Dave do very well for themselves. And so have many others that have adopted their methodologies. So what you really need, is a fundamental shift in your thinking… training is not an expense, it's an investment in yourself and in your future. Good luck with it and remember, an investment in yourself always pays the highest dividends.