Using videos to drive new traffic to your blog or website can be very effective. However, most people think that producing quality video has to be expensive or time-consuming, or both.

This doesn’t have to be the case. The truth is that everyone can shoot a quality video using cheap or free software from the comfort of their own home (or home office).

Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to do it.

1. Research the topic

As always, you have to know what you want to talk about in the video. This phase is very similar to the phase of coming up with a topic for a new blog post.

However, you can’t go overboard with this, so make your topic as narrow as possible. Don’t try to create a video that would talk about ten different ideas. One single idea is enough. Your viewers will thank you for it.

2. Create an outline

Outlines work great for all kinds of content, not only videos. If you outline a post, for example, you’ll have a much easier time writing it. Anyway, back to the topic…

Outlines are crucial for videos. A good outline consists of all the important sub-headlines and other issues you want to talk about in the video.

The recording process can be stressful if you don’t have an outline. It’s easy to get lost in all the things you can say and overlook something important.

3. Create a PowerPoint presentation

I should have probably mention this earlier, but here’s how your video will play out. You don’t have to buy expensive camera equipment, lighting, and stuff … the only things you need are:

• A microphone – quality videos have quality sound. Recording a nice video without having a nice microphone will be tough. You can get a quality USB microphone for $100 or so.
• PowerPoint or similar software – this is where you create a presentation that will run in the background of your video. In essence, this is what will be your actual video.
• Screen recording software (for example: Camtasia) – this is the software in which you’ll shoot and then edit your video to its final form.

So, this step is about the presentation. Take your outline and create a slide for each sub-heading. Don’t write anything else on the slide other than the sub-heading itself (plus maybe one additional line of text, nothing more).

You can also use stock images or your own photos to strengthen the message. As we all know, an image is worth a thousand words, right?

4. Recording time

This is where you fire up your screen recording software and shoot the video.

The idea is to set the software to record your presentation, and at the same time to record your voice when you talk about the topic of the video. Use the outline you created earlier to help you not to get lost while the recording is on.

Your voice being recorded may seem awkward at first, but I assure you that it’s the least awkward type of a video you can make. Imagine how awkward sitting in front of a camera personally would feel…

5. Edit

Editing may sound intimidating, but it’s not actually that difficult. Tools like Camtasia provide many tutorials on how to use the software and its basic functionalities.

Editing shouldn’t take you more than an hour or 30 minutes once you get more familiar with the software.

6. Publish

This won’t a surprise … I advise you to publish your video on YouTube. It’s the biggest video site around and it can get you many views and good traffic if the video becomes popular.

Your success will depend on many factors, but the one you can control 100% is the title you choose and the description you write for the video. Make sure to include some good and popular keywords, so people can find your video when doing a standard search on YouTube or Google.

Also, don’t forget to include a link back to your site in the video’s description, this is how you get people to visit your site if they find your video valuable.

That’s it here. I know that there’s a lot more that could be said about the topic of video production, so feel free to ask me anything. Are you using video as part of your online promotion?

Karol K. is a WordPress enthusiast, blogger, and freelance writer. Tune in to ThemeFuse.com to find him – a great place to get premium WordPress themes.