Many moons ago,like back in the late 90's Nestor and I got all excited about video online, putting video testimonials on our website and filming neighborhoods so the concept is not by any means new to us.
We bought an expensive video camera and all these fancy cables, you needed extra ones, and a machine to transfer the videos into the video format and then that had to go onto the computer and then into this software to edit movies which cost over $1,000 just for that software! And then, after all of that- BUST!!! It was the biggest pain in the behind and so time consuming that we gave up after hours, days and weeks of trying to learn and apply the rules and make the videos.
I like to say, it is never a waste of time and money as long as you learned something from the experience. And I learned a lot! I learned not to work with video online! I figured out the cost and time versus whatever result we could get was not a good ROI.
We watched the video movement evolve into You Tube and in many other ways over the years until we have arrived with the Flip Video Camera that is absolutely the best little gadget that has been invented in the video arena thus far. I love my little Flip Video Camera. You can buy them right on Amazon.
Then Active Bob asked me to be one of those to try it out along with this new Mixpo software online video platform. It was one of my goals for this year to learn to upload video so I accepted along with some other members.
Then Missy asked me why it was taking so long to upload from the Flip Video camera to You Tube. Well, I have never loaded anything to you tube! But I was using Mixpo and it did not seem like a long upload time with Mixpo.
SO I decided to load my very first video to You Tube. WOW. Missy was right, it took forever! It is just a You Tube thing maybe because I did not have this long load time with Mixpo.
Here is my first video that I hosted on You Tube.
When you upload a video on You Tube and someone clicks on your video, after it is over, You Tube has other videos for you to watch at a click of a button. So if someone had just finished watching a video of one of your listings they may get suggestions of other agents' listings right after they just watched yours. By the time they watch all of these videos, they have forgotten that you brought them there with your video of your listing.
Mixpo does not do that. Sure, You Tube is free and Mixpo is $29.95 a month but that is a small price to pay for your own branding. You get to fill out an entire business profile that shows up for your consumers when they click on your video.
Mixpo has all the editing built in and hosting all in one place. But the best part of Mixpo is the analytics are all built right in and you can see them at a press of a button. You don't have to go anywhere else to get this data. You can see how many views and how long each person watched the video.
This is Also a great learning tool. If you find that you are losing your audience at a certain time every time, then you can figure out what is so boring and change it to keep them viewing longer.
There is more to come so stay tuned. So far in my opinion Mixpo is the winner!
Katerina Gasset, CIPS, Realtor ®, Business and Life Coach, Speaker and Author. Reach Katerina at: 561-753-0135
Disclaimer:The information provided herein is supplied by several sources and is subject to change without notice. Wellington Homes Blog does not guarantee or is any way responsible for its accuracy, and provides said information without warranties of any kind, either express or implied. Entries on Wellington Homes Blog represent the opinions and ideas of the author(s). Wellington Homes Blog does not express the views of International Properties and Investments, Inc or those of the broker.
Great job on the video Katerina.... I like the Mixpo verion much better. It might cost $30/month but what you get for that seems to be very much worth it.
Yeah...and You Tube is wide screen and makes everyones face elongated sideways haha. I like wellcomemat.com ...professional and like the format.
I format my vids before putting it up anyway... with stills, and stuff and still learnig with my Adobe Premier Elements thingy...I think I'm going to try some other programs I have so I can play and get experienced with this stuff...
Jon- Yes, Mixpo does have traffic. But the beauty of Mixpo it is the Active Rain Video Platform which means since Google loves Active Rain, highly likely Google will like Active Rain's video platform. It will have the Active Rain branding and the AR gurus working on the algorithms. I think it is going to be by far the best thing in video thus far.
Sally- It took forever to load that video on you tube and only a few minutes to load it on Mixpo. Mixpo is the Active Rain video service. So once it is all worked out, it will no longer say Mixpo for members of Active Rain. It will be labeled Active Rain video. You can do all the stills and stuff right in Mixpo. For beginners, this is great. The great thing about Active Rain Mixpo is going to be the google juice. The voice over stuff is really cool too. I am in the middle of creating a more fancy video with Mixpo so we can see the vast choices there are on this platform. The tracking is really easy and you get to see it right when you log in. I like that. Simple like mybloglog. I think you are going to like it. It is also very fast and time saving.
Wow Katerina, what a dramatic difference and the analytics are awesome. I've learned so much about how to fine tune my website from the site statistics, I can see this being equally as powerful for video!
marti- I think this is my favorite part of Mixpo, the analytics. Also, the picture is SO much clearer. Video is here to stay and I just read about the future of video that google is going to be implementing. Hope I can get to write a post about some of the exciting stuff coming on the scene.
I read Brad's post about Mixpo earlier today and it seems like I am just going to have to give it a try. It looks like such a great program! Your post only reaffirms that I need to check it out. I love how you can imbed links and the analytics data is great!
Bradly- Brad's posts on Mixpo are great. He has several posts out on Mixpo now. He is the guru in this dept. I am just one of the experiments to see if those who are new to video can use the program. I write what happens in my quest for knowledge on video and Mixpo so that all of you can learn from my trial and error:)
WOW! What a difference in Quality!! No Kidding, there is no comparison. Thanks Katerina, great video comparison and a great post! Sure appreciate other members doing some of these tutorials too. you're the Bomb...and a REAL PRO at it already too! :-)
Oh yeah, one feature I really like about Mixpo is that when you decide to edit your video, no matter where you have embedded that video, they all get updated in real time! If you placed that video in 10 places or 100, all of them would be modified as soon as you click save in Mixpo! That's worth the price of admission alone. :-)))
You can't do that in any other application that I'm aware of.
Katerina, also those analytics are priceless! Once you collect enough info, you can really tell what works and what doesn't! Very powerful back end tools for Mixpo subscribers. I like many of the Video Hosting sites out there, but Mixpo does seem to be more and more the one people seem to be choosing because of these tools and the quality! :-)
Katerina, Mixpo has me facinated...I am going to have to look into it or I know I'll be missing the wave of the future. It seems I'm the only one who can't get into Brad's posts :(
Katerina, excellent job. I am in the infancy stages with Mixpo. But, I do like it, and am learning. I learned a big thing on Friday, we took a 19 minute video for a potential buyer to buy site unseen. Now I would NEVER do a video that long to showcase a house because the average person would not watch it. But, this circumstance was different.
I have asked Brad to start a Mixpo group so all the posts on it and tutorials can be grouped together. As more people start to use it, they will be asking, "how did you do that"? Rather than try to teach all we are learning, we can send them to the Mixpo group.
I haven't had any trouble on uploading to YouTube, but this one was just too big. Last night on Twitter someone told me there is a file for large video's so I will check it out.
Finally, ( if your still reading ) this long comment.
The interview I did with Paul Bunton, chief of Police in Saline, is and was Number 1 on Google for his name. Not only that but the YouTube is on page 1 too, as well as my other blog. So 3 positions on Page 1 from a video. Now don't you think that will make a seller happy?
One thing that I'm not crazy about is when the Mixpo videos start when the page loads. It seems to really slow the loading time for the rest of the page. Katerina, your video here does not load so it must be a setting that the poster can select. If the video is an option then the pages load quicker.
The Mixpo version of the video is much better looking than the YouTube version. I think that video will be a constantly updating platform for the next few months and I am excited to see what happens!
Scott- The Mixpo video starting when you first go to the post is because I forget to set it so the reader has to click the audio button to play. I remembered on some and forgot on others. But there is a simple box you check to change that before you embed the video.
I am concerned about all video loading times and that is something that needs to constantly be looked at. The videos need to be kept short so that it does not matter if someone is using dial up or not. Although dial up is really slow for video. But video is here to stay so people will have to deal with that eventually.
I have DSL and a fast processor so I don't see the problems others might. Also, I use firefox as my browser but in order to work in Mixpo I have to toggle to IE and of course IE is like slow molasses compared to FIREFOX!
I am so far behind on the whole video concept, but it looks like I am going to have to bite the bullet and embrace it! At least you and Brad have done my homework for me - THANKS!
This is a timely post! I went out and bought the flip camera because of your prior post and tried to upload it to you tube over the weekend and couldn't figure it out. I will have to go see what mixpo is all about now! Thanks!
Katerina: I'm sorry but, I just got carried away with your client's video and forgot what the post was about! GREAT testimonial and the man is of few words but, when he does speak, what a WONDERFUL testimonial. You need to post that to your short sale webpage for the world to see! GREAT job!
Great post. I am just doing some research on what to use for video. I just got a Flip and I have all these great ideas. I just need to get the confidence to put a video on the web.
Ian- You just do it! It is scary at first, but you get over it fast! I just closed my eyes and pressed submit on my first one! Use the Active Rain Video platform; it has all the features of Mixpo and is what we are using now.
Thank you for the great information. I am learning all that I can and my next step is Mixpo. The Flip really is fast, easy and so convenient. The camera quality has been very good but the video suffers some degradation as you well demonstrated when uploaded to a hosting site such as You Tube. It was very helpful that you showed the difference between the video quality between You Tube and Mixpo.
Mixpro seems like a good choice though I love the free factor with youtube. Another advantage of youtube is that your video seems to appear on many other sites as well after posting to youtube increasing your number of views across the web, not to mention the increased seo value, all for free. Does Mixpro have that same propogation across the web?
Does ANYONE know if Mixpo supports the AVCHD format? I've written them THREE times and received absolutely no response whatsoever. So far, I'm less than impressed.
Wellington Florida Real Estate Blog By Katerina Gasset of International Properties & Investments, Inc. is a Great Place For Real Estate Agents and Potential Buyers and Sellers to get to know more about Wellington Florida as well as other parts of Palm Beach County.
Disclaimer: ActiveRain Corp. does not necessarily endorse the real estate agents, loan officers and brokers listed on this site. These real estate profiles, blogs and blog entries are provided here as a courtesy to our visitors to help them make an informed decision when buying or selling a house. ActiveRain Corp. takes no responsibility for the content in these profiles, that are written by the members of this community.
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