YouTube One Channel Art Guide: Video Marketing Branding

As you may have noticed here at Innerspace Marketing, I’ve been ramping up my YouTube channel marketing.

YouTube is the #2 search engine (behind it’s #1 big daddy Google)–ahead of Bing, Yahoo, Ask and AOL combined. There is unlimited potential in leveraging YouTube for your marketing efforts, and you may tap into an audience that otherwise would be missed. As much as I love the written word, our world is moving at a rapid pace. Searching through blogs and articles can be time consuming, but watching a video (especially a short one) can give you instant information access.

In my process of  giving my YouTube channel a makeover–I was prompted by YouTube to switch to the One Channel format. Okay, what’s all this about I thought? I was hoping that YouTube wasn’t going the way of Facebook and just changing things willy-nilly.

Basically, One Channel displays your channel across all different types of devices–much like responsive web design. In YouTube’s case, it takes television into consideration, so that means your channel art must be HUGE to accommodate  TV screen rations (16:9). The One Channel art specs are 2560 px by 1440 px. Unlike other social media channels who’s profile art specs are a total mystery until some user steps up and gives you that information (Facebook–I’m talkin’ to you), YouTube actually provides some art specs for you with a dandy surfer image in their help section.

YouTube channel art guide

Hooray! I don’t need an archeology degree to find what I need to design artwork–or so I thought. Here’s the thing.  The guide image they provide is really 2337px x 1273px–close to scale, but not true to size. Now this wouldn’t be a huge deal if they gave you the information on how far down the top and how far up from the bottom your “banner” of content/logo will be. Missing information. Not really a true to size guide. Not very helpful at all YouTube. Don’t make me do math. That’s just plain mean.

Never fear, dear friend, I have created a guide for you with missing information provided. It’s 508.5 pixels down from the top and 508.5 pixels up from the bottom so now you don’t have to struggle like I did to get the thing to align properly.

You’ll notice I have an extra content area in yellow. This is where I found the best place for my logo to work–you may have to play around within the confines of 423px height to make yours work best. Remember that your profile photo will show up on top of your channel art–usually around 20 pixels from the left edge, so leave a space for that.

sample of where profile picture floats on YouTube Channel Art

And so, without further delay, here is a PNG file for the channel art guide that I created. Please feel free to share it, pin it, and beat me up over it. Okay, maybe not that last one–I bruise easily. And yes, it’s a big one. Right click and Save the image, or you can click on it to open in a new browser window and right click/save image as from there.

And just for your visual pleasure, I’m including this awesome Infographic from ShortyMedia about the history of YouTube and where it stands today.

If you haven’t secured your YouTube account name for your business, I encourage you to do so right now. Take action and start thinking about ways you can be of value to your customers through short, informative videos! As always, I welcome your comments below.

YouTube One Channel Cover art by Innerspace Marketing

YouTube Today
 

Save Time with Templates in Aweber

Time is money my friend. One of the reasons I switched from Constant Contact email marketing service (which I used for many years) to Aweber is the fact that I kept losing my work in Constant Contact.

Aweber has a great autosave feature as a failsafe so that never happens. They also have an easy template system so you can custom design and save templates for later use in your marketing. Constant Contact also has a template feature, so I’m not knocking their system here. From a user standpoint, I found Aweber‘s template saves to be simple, fast and easy.

Here’s a super quick video on how to save your work as a template in Aweber.

How to Save an Aweber Template

I forgot to show you in the video that you can check the “Keep My Content” option to keep the content as editable, which I recommend for preserving fonts/styles.

keep content in template check box

 

 

I like the fact I can design different templates for different marketing needs, like a weekly newsletter, a special announcement or event, and save all my work in one place. Design it once, test it and use it over and over again making sending marketing messages easy and fast.

What features do you like/dislike as an Aweber user? What about as a Constant Contact user? Leave me a comment below!

Pimp Your FAQs Page for Cash Money

Yeah, I know–you’re reading this just for the title. Stick with me though.Pimp Your FAQs for Cash Money

Two weeks ago I landed a new client. She embodies my ideal client description–all the traits that indicate she would be a great fit for me and my services.

Getting her as a client was a bit of a challenge. First, we had a one-on-one call to talk about her project–totally normal, except for the part where she said “Excuse the background noise, I’m having to feed the chickens.” That caught me off guard!

After our call, she sent me an email with several in-depth questions. These are questions I suggest that ANYONE looking to hire a web designer (or any other type of help) should ask potential designers before they sign the paper work. I’m going to share them with you here:

1) Can you share links to 3 live projects that you’ve completed and explain what your role was on each project?

2) What were your favorite and least favorite projects to work on and why?

3) What hours/days do you work? 

4) What are you most talented at?

5) What kinds of projects or clients do you stay away from?

6) What do people most like about working with you?

7) Why do your clients choose you over the competition?

This was like a pop-quiz essay test for me, but it was a pivotal exercise. It really got me thinking about my past work, how I work with clients, and where my strengths lie.

So I promptly sat down at my desk and replied to each one with an open heart, and emailed them back to her.

And another email came from her–more questions!

8) What happens if I’m not happy with the work you provide?

9) What do you need from me to get started?

10) How do we handle revisions?

11) Who owns the creative to any graphic work done?

12) Will I get copies of image files and what file types do you provide?

So after more writing and responding, I got the green light from her. Hooray!

Now, I didn’t just toss all those answers away. Are you kidding? I spent serious soul-searching time on each answer. I’m maximizing my effort.

I created an FAQs page for my website that defines how I work with clients, what they can expect, and lets them get to know me a little better.

I even did something unconventional.

I put pricing information in my FAQs.

I’m bucking the system! I’m running with scissors! Why the heck would I do that?

I am being up front and honest about what the costs are for web design work. I’m a fair market value price–not a hacker on Fiverr. I know not everyone can afford my prices, so being clear about the costs involved helps keep those who can engaged and let the others keep searching for their right fit.

Internalize the Golden Rule of sales that says;
All things being equal, people will do business with, and refer business to,
those people they know, like and trust.
-Bob Burg

People who know, like and trust you will be more likely to hand you their hard earned money for your particular talent.

Maximizing your FAQs page for your business can help people to get to know you better and understand that you have clear guidelines around the work that you provide. Overcome common objections and sales resistance barriers by being crystal clear about what you offer.

It doesn’t matter if you are a business to business selling services or a business to consumer selling products. Take some time to really focus your energy on not only what common questions your clients ask you, but also any additional questions that they should be asking you.

Pimp it, baby. And once they get to know, like and trust you, they’ll be a buyer with cash money. Word.

Do you have an FAQs page? What are some of your pimptastic questions you answer on your page? Leave a comment below and share!

Why Your Website Should Never Be Done

I want to invite you to a mind shift–an alternative perspective on what your website is to you and your business. I’d like you to envision your site as living, make your site your bonsaibreathing entity–maybe a friendly houseplant. A plant? Why not. Just like a plant needs sunshine, water, and tender love and care–you business website needs continual TLC. Think bonsai, with meticulous pruning and nurturing. Summon your inner Mr. Miyagi.

It’s never “one and done.”

Your website should be in flux–through a timely process of  growth and adaptation to your business’ and client’s needs. One way to achieve this is through a blog. Google, Bing and Yahoo along with other search engines love you for having blog. They eat new content for breakfast. Literally. Regular blogging is not only great for your site’s SEO, it also helps to peak visitor’s interests and lend social proof credibility to your position as a leader.

I encounter so many business owners that say “Yeah, I’ve got a site. But it hasn’t been updated in [insert a crazy number of years here]. I know I need to update it, but I just don’t have the time.” Or maybe, “I can’t get web guy to call me back.” That one hurts my heart just a little. You paid good money for your site and the person you entrusted with the task has turned their back on you? We’re not all like that, I promise.

You don’t have to be a victim of stale-site-itis.

That’s why I build WordPress sites. WordPress puts the power to make changes, updates and blog, right at your fingertips. Make changes in seconds. It’s liberating and exciting at the same time. Hitting the refresh button makes me giddy sometimes!

If you don’t have time to learn WordPress or make changes to your website. It’s okay–you can hire an expert to help you put your website to work for you. It is your own special, unique place on the web. It deserves to bloom. Are you ready to grow something amazing?

Comment below and tell me your vision of you dream website.

4 Things To Do To Protect Your WordPress Site from Brute Force Attacks

If you have a WordPress site, you may have heard some buzz around “Brute Force Attacks” on WordPress sites. This means the hackers keep hammering away on the login page of your site trying to gain batramaccess. Like a battering ram at the door.

1) There are some things you can do to protect yourself. First of all, never create or keep a login with the user name “admin”. This is an auto-fill for WordPress installations–especially the One Click Install kinds. If your administrator login is “admin” don’t panic. Do the following:

  1. Log on to your WP site. On the Left navigation bar, hover on User and then click Add New User.
  2. Create a new user with a unique name–letters/numbers combo.
  3. Pick a Nickname that isn’t Admin or your new username. And select it to show publicly (author posts).
  4. Use another email address (you can change it back to the old one once the old one has been deleted).
  5. Pick a password combination that has capital/lowercase letters, numbers, and a unique character ($%&) in it.
  6. Give this new user ADMINISTRATOR rights. It’s a drop down menu choice.
  7. Save.
  8. Logout and log back in with the NEW username/password.
  9. Go to the User area again and delete the old “admin” user. Attribute posts to your new user nickname. Bam! You’re ready for a glass of wine.

2) Install the Login LockDown plugin: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/login-lockdown/. This will lock anyone out of the site for an hour after 3 failed login attempts. You can set the parameters on this plugin for more or less knocks on the door. It’s free and it does exactly what it says.

3) Buy Backup Buddy and install it. Host backups off of your server using a service like Stash Buddy or Amazon 3S. Backup Buddy is essential to restore your site if you get hacked. It is necessary protection in the world wide webosphere. Just do it. Seriously.

4) Finally, keep your WordPress software package up-to-date with the latest release, and your plugins. Don’t have plugins installed that are inactive or you’re not using. Just delete the files–don’t leave it inactive on your site.

These are the easy steps to secure your site that anyone can do themselves. There are other steps you can take, and I encourage you to search the WordPress.org Codex or search on your host’s support site for specific actions you can take with your files.