Animoto

Animoto is the easiest, fastest and least-expensive way I know to create a professional video for yourself, your family or your business. Here’s my story …

One day last year, this video sent by my friend Cam Williams from Salt Lake City was totally unique. It included photos and music that was professionally mixed using a system called Animoto

Intrigued about how it worked, I got on the Animoto site and signed up for the free service. You can create short videos for free … that are 30 seconds in length. All you need are photos. Animoto provides the royalty-free music, which is hard to come by.

I created a few short videos. But, they were way too short.

Wanting to create full-length videos, I signed up for Animoto’s $30 package, which allows for unlimited videos … that can be longer. You can add more photos … and even text, like inspirational quotes and statistics … to tell your story. Plus you can upload to YouTube directly, which is great.

Animoto is a easy and fun way to professionally promote your products and services. Plus it takes minutes, not hours to create. Here’s an example of a video I created entitled “Why Create a Blog?” …

Then, I got this idea. To show my students how to use social media … especially YouTube, Facebook and Twitter … I asked for photos and inspirational quotes.  Then, I put together an Animoto video (in less than 20 minutes), like this one of Janet …

Here are the 8 steps to creating and syndicating your Animoto video …

  1. Sign up for the “full length” Animoto package. It used to be $30 (1-time fee). If asked for a referral code, when you use “rouxqgvl,” I get a commission.
  2. Upload photos. Start with 12-20 photos. If you need royalty-free photos, I use a service called Fotolia.
  3. Add “text” … in the form of inspirational quotes … between photos.
  4. Add “text” at the beginning … and at the end (for an action step to take).
  5. Select the royalty-free music you would like to use.
  6. Let Animoto create your video.
  7. Upload your new video to YouTube. (Animoto does it for you.)
  8. Embed the code of your video in your website or blog.

I would love to see your videos, too. Post the URL’s to your videos in the comment section below.