Today, I'll be lucky if I go out for a single event and come back home with less than 30GB of video footage for my next video.

To give you an idea, My Taste of Huntington Beach footage came out to about 50GB, if I recall correctly, the video I shot for Andrei's during their July promotion was about 35GB. A lunch review, like the American Grub one, may take up 8-20GB.

It's undeniable that this is a trend that will not stop anytime soon. For the most part, when I create a new video for Youtube, I archive the raw footage and after a few months, I just delete it.

Unfortunately, video files are notoriously difficult to compress without loss of quality.

I know some people keep all the footage, indefinitely. If I did that, I'd have over 50 terabytes of data just hanging around.

Imagine those people that are shooting daily vlogs at 4K. WOW, they are probably in the hundreds of terabytes range per year. I don't envy them at all.

So I think deleting the raw stuff is fine for now.

However, there are cases where I think the raw video should be kept around for a while. For example this video I published recently: Beth Jacob Congregation of Irvine Vandalized - City of Irvine Press Conference.

I think it has more value than just publishing it for Youtube. A company may want to license it, or I may want to do a follow-up and re-use some of the footage. Who knows.

I decided to explore compressing all the files and archiving them. But unfortunately, this doesn't do much. I thought you may be in a similar situation and this will help you decide if you should even explore it.

Good ol' gz and tar.

I thought I would use a tar.gz file to get the most compression. I did a little research and came up with this command as the one that would achieve the highest level of compression:

$ env GZIP=-9 tar -cvzf /file-directory/

This makes tar, compress the files using the -9 level which is the highest available.

I also know there are some other programs that can do slightly better compression, but they aren't reliable and require special software installations.

I wanted to make my method be long-lasting and somewhat universal. It just requires that your computer can run basic tar and gz commands.

Universal and long term access.

OSX can do this easily, you can also use Windows for this by setting it up with Cygwin or some of the newer methods, and of course, Linux does this natively.

But in the end results were disappointing.

Here's what happened. I had a directory with 12.78 GB of data in it. At the end of the compression, the result was 12.33 GB hardly any space savings.

The only benefit I see to doing this now is to maintain a clean archive of the files I have used to make vlogs. I might do it just for that reason, the 3-5% space savings is almost irrelevant.

Storage is cheap so maybe that's the real way to keep files around for a while.

In Conclusion and TL;DR

The takeaway I think is that unless a new, universal, and long-lasting method to compress video comes around, the only real benefit to doing this is to wrap up everything into one single file and then archive it; there are no real space savings with this method.

The post Compressing and Archiving Video Files. Is It Worth the Trouble for Vloggers? appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

The reasons for adding subtitles to your video are many.

If your video is properly closed captioned, more people can watch it. Closed captions are used by people that can't listen to a video to be able to read or interpret the message from the video.

Youtube creates automatic closed captions, but they're not always accurate.

One more benefit for the closed captions is that you can describe sounds and activity that the automatic captions won't ever do.

You can even add an introduction text where you plug your company. I do this at the beginning of the introduction and I say something like "closed captioning by notagrouch.com".

I think it looks pro and it looks like the captions you see on movies and TV. You can see that in the video below if you have CC turned on.

I also decided to spend more time on my own captions because I noticed an increase in youtube views recently after I started following best practices recommended both by Youtube and other Youtube experts.

So I made a video on how to do it. This is when you want to do them from scratch. There are two other methods that are more suitable for making adjustments to existing transcripts.

I also have a feeling that closed captions can or may affect search engine rankings. It makes sense to me that they would, but I'm not sure yet. Here's that tutorial for now:

How To Create Subtitles or Closed Captions on Youtube

The post Youtube Tutorial. How to Create Close Captions for Your Videos appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

As I worked on that video and did some research, I found that beanie babies aren't something that you can make money from anymore. Unless you have one of the really really really rare ones then you're not likely to make any money.

Some of the ones you see in the video sell for as high as $4.99! And that's only if they're new.

Remember when the beanie babies craze was going on? People were spending hundreds of dollars looking for the "good ones" and then selling them for thousands. It reminds me of that PBS documentary The Botany of Desire. I recommend you watch it if you get a chance. It's interesting to see how things are valued depending on human desire and context.

To find the really rare beanie babies, you need to be a collector, a serious collector. Besides that, the rare ones aren't just the limited edition TY beanie babies, they are the ones that were limited edition AND have a defect.

For example, I found that one of the angel-looking ones, I think is called "Halo" can be worth a few hundred dollars, if and only if you have the one that came with a brown nose instead of the regular black nose.

Yeah, good luck finding one of those. Nonetheless, it was interesting going through the bin of stuff I found.

So it turns out, at the end of the day most of these were junk. A few worked out great as toys for Picasso and my kids wanted to keep a few of them. I guess I don't have a million dollar find in my attic this time around.

The post Found a Cash Cow! Can You Even Make Money From Beanie Babies? appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

If you don't know what the 90 day video challenge is all about, here's the scoop.

For 90 days, you will be required to create, upload and publish a video to Youtube. The goal is to get you started with video content creation or to help you get to the next level.

Today, video is really important for any business, and while Youtube has been around for a little over 10 years now, independent video creators are just starting to flourish and they're starting to become mainstream.

Whether you have a brick and mortar business, an online business, a blog, or all of the above, video can help you grow and besides your time and a small investment in equipment, it's virtually free marketing!

The focus of the challenge will be to increase brand awareness, to generate more traffic and ultimately generate more sales for your business.

If you don't have a Youtube channel, this is the best opportunity to start. If you haven't done much with your existing Youtube channel, then this is your chance to step up your game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLmNrWO0Hpw

The 90 day video challenge starts in two weeks!

The challenge begins on January 29, so you have a couple weeks to prepare! If you're interested in learning more, then join the updates here and I'll send you links to the Facebook group and all the details.

I'll be posting a few updates about the challenge here on the blog and on my Youtube channel. We're finalizing the rules, the prizes and all that sort of stuff so it will be good if you get into the Facebook group so you can see what's going on.

Unlike the previous challenge, this one will have more structure and we'll have tips, tricks, strategies and weekly guidance to help you succeed. Don't hesitate!

The post The 90 Day Video Challenge is Back. appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

I headed out to Eisenhower Park in Orange with a group of friends to do a 5K walk. It's a shame that I used to run 5K just as a warm up when I was a teenager, but I guess our priorities change as we age.

I should walk more often and maybe I'll even get back into running. For now, let this be a reminder and a motivator to get in shape and do better today than we did yesterday!

The post 5k Walk to Kick off the New Year 2018. Vlog appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

But once the blog is started and you have a couple articles posted you will certainly face the dreaded writer's block. Maybe it will happen on your fourth blog post, or maybe on your 12th blog post. But every blogger faces writer's block sometimes.

Maybe because we're lacking creativity at that moment, maybe because we are distracted, or maybe we're just not in the mood to write. But maybe you're out of ideas.

This is where I have some help for you today. Having ideas to write about is important, so how do you get new ideas flowing? I have a few tips and five sources for new ideas that should help you get unstuck from that annoying writer's block.

Conclusion

Getting new ideas for blog posts isn't too difficult, you just have to think of the stuff you already know and try to use some of the sources I suggest. Try not to overcomplicate your posts and keep them focused on one topic at a time.

Once you come up with an idea for a blog post using the tips I gave you in the video, you may get a few more ideas right away so make sure you write those down for future blog posts.

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I know I said that I'm going into this challenge by myself. I didn't announce it to my groups, as of the writing of this blog post I haven't even told my VIP group about it. I'll be emailing them about it soon.

But that doesn't mean that you just get to sit back and watch and read only. I would like you to get something out of this challenge too, a large percentage of the videos and content I'll produce over the next 99 days will be to teach you and share with you tips, tricks, methods and techniques to help you make money.

So while I'm doing this challenge by myself, you have to do something for me, well, for you really. All I ask for now, is that you subscribe to my YouTube channel and to my VIP email list. This will help you not miss anything and also make sure that you get all of the tutorials, or discounts or insights that will make you more money, save you money or help you start a business.

If you have any questions you want me to answer in an upcoming blog post or video, please send them to me. To send me your questions, join the email list and reply to one of my emails and let me know you'd like me to answer a question.

By the way, did you notice my new introduction in the video? I just made that. I'd love to get your feedback on that as well.

The post Your Turn to do Something 100 Day Challenge, Day 2 appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

Not so fast. Doing this can land you in some trouble with the person or entity that owns the photos or graphics. You may be able to get away with using a photo without permission for a while, but you could also get some nasty letters and legal action brought against you.

I know a friend that had to settle out of court for a little over $700 after she used a photo owned by Getty without permission. There are tons of similar stories out there, so why risk getting in trouble and why risk all the hassle?

In today's video, I discuss the issues surrounding using images without permission, and how you can find copyright-free images to use in your blog posts, legally.

If you're too busy to watch the video, too bad. Let's just suffice it to say that there's a little-known trick to use Google to find images that are licensed for use on your blog post.

But because you're a good blogger and are using WordPress to run your blog (right?), you can also skip the video and check out another blog post I wrote about a WordPress plugin that solves this whole issue of acquiring images.

The plugin is called Imageinject; with it, you can search for images and insert them directly into and from your blog post; you can find my write-up about it here. But the video above has the method you can use to get images from Google to use in your blog posts legally.

The post How to Find Images to Use on Your Blog Posts Legally appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

At the last minute, the kids ended up coming with me so we made the best of it and went to check out the place.

We went with the new OC Bloggers & Influencers Group, hosted by Sondra from Pretty fit foodie. If you have a social media presence or a blog in OC, you should check out the meetup. She also organized my visit to Chill at Long Beach, and the upcoming year seems like it will be fun.

The kids and I arrived earlier than we needed to, I thought it started at noon, so we had an hour to kill and we checked out other places around the small strip mall. This place, known as The Crossroads has grown up a lot in recent years, adding a lot of other great restaurants, like Stonefire Grill, Urban Plates, and Capital Noodles so I expected Cava Grill to be a good match to this new wave of awesome food.

Turns out the food at Cava is probably my new favorite out of the places I just mentioned. I loved it because it's BYO (build your own) style, in a fast casual setting, so it's really up to you to make what you like.

Unlike other BYO places I've tried, the ingredients are so fresh and well planned, that even if you don't know what you're doing, your plate will come out great.

If you're feeling like loading up on carbs, go with the grains, but if you want to stay in the lighter side then go with the greens. Or you can do a mix of both and go with the most popular choice of "grains and greens." Check out the video to see how the ordering works.

[envira-gallery id="48538"]

The food is Greek & Mediterranean inspired and there's a cool history about how the restaurant came to be on their website. So if you like things like hummus, lamb, tzatziki, then you should check it out.

But going to Cava is not just going out to eat, it's an experience. Cava Grill is not only a story of food, but of culture and friendship as well as a story of entrepreneurship and the pursuit American dream.

All food is sourced locally which is a big plus in my book, and the restaurant contributes to charitable organizations on a regular basis, isn't that nice? But at the end of the day, how does the food stack up? I thought it was amazing and I will definitely go back, with so many ingredients, the combinations you can try are literally, endless.

The full video is here, as well as photos. And tell me, doesn't it make you want to try it?

The post Healthy and Fun Lunch at Cava Grill in Irvine, Review & Experience appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

My go-to drink is a white chocolate mocha, heavily customized. But once in a while I'll try something new. The other day I tried their new Chile Mocha, but I didn't care for it.

Now that we're in October and the pumpkin craze is in full effect I thought I would try the famous Pumpkin Spice Latte.

The Pumpkin Spice Latte is an okay drink, you can watch my reaction in video below. I posted it here for my fourth video in the 90 day video challenge.

The post First Time Trying a Pumpkin Spice Latte appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

As we head out to the Dot Com Lunch event, something strange started happening with our faces. You'll have to watch to find out.

During this Dot Com Lunch, I get a chance to catch up with one of our members and see what he's been up to.

As a side note on this whole vlogging thing, I must say that it is a pretty tough challenge to make a daily vlog that is interesting. There's a few that I haven't gotten around to publish already so I feel as if it's really easy to fall behind.

Doing a daily vlog, or even a daily blog is a challenge of commitment and dedication. Hopefully I can hang onto it for the duration of the 90 day challenge. If I can do that, then I'll try to continue further and do 365.

One of the things I realized early on is that I need a lot more organization in order to produce a daily video with some sort of common thread. So I created an index to help me for now and to help you find the newest videos and those that you might have missed. You can find the vlog index here.

The post Vlog 11 – MSQRD Shenannighans at Dot Com Lunch appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

This is my nth attempt at doing a vlog series and we'll see if this one works out well. Most of the problems I've had with previous series relate to my own roadblocks. I believe I've eliminated some of those things that stopped me from doign it before and this time around it should work.

The first Vlog is just me spending some time with the kids and the family and I also invite you to learn about internet marketing, I invite you to invest in yourself.

As usual, you can watch it on Youtube on my regular channel or just below:

Without further ado, here's Vlog #1

Don't you think it's time to invest in yourself? You should take step towards achieving financial success. The training program I talk about is only available in limited numbers because it is not your regular online training course. There are coaches that will actually help you along the way so new spots may be unavailable from time to time.

Click here to learn more about the 21 Day Training program.

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I found a few things to comment on about and share with you.

Here's my WordPress report as done by Jetpack. Mind you this is missing about 6 months of data since I didn't have Jetpack installed the whole year.

Notagrouch.com in 2013 - by WordPress.com (jetpack) This is a cool active display of some intersting statistics about my website according to Jetpack, they're pretty cool and you can get your own too.

I found that personally I stopped checking in to places as much. Not so much for privacy reasons, but it just seems like nobody cares about check-ins anymore. And maybe it is just that we are over it here in the States. Look, globally, we only have one location in the top 20 checked in  locations in Facebook. Is it just because we're outnumbered?

I'll still check-in occasionally to Foursquare or Yelp, but it is very rare. 2014, I will get back into it, there are always fans that stick around and maybe it's a little bit more organized now that initial wave of excitement is over and it's more mainstream. I hear a lot of changes coming for location based "stuff".

Also finally on Highlight, it took them a while to get it for Android so I had almost forgotten about. So far though I'm only finding stale data from people that got it and used it but quit using it. Most of their data is 10 months+ old.

On Twitter, here's my "Year in Review by Vizify" -- Mostly unedited, I just added a few more pictures & tweets to the standard one they're making right now. You can find them at Vizivy.com. or you can just watch the video:

Here are the highlighted points in the video:

• The launch of Real Free Website
• Dinner for my wife's Birthday
• Image for my Evernote tutorial
• I tweet about #OrangeCounty because I feature my favorite twitter people from #OrangeCounty
• #30DBC is a tag used for my Blogging group in Facebook. But we haven't used  it much recently. I will bring it back!
• #WordPress of course, because it is awesome
• Yup, I tweet almost 24x7 I do sleep occasionally, Seems like 2am-ish is when I tweet the most when late.
• Vine of my awesome daughter @WaterClaire at about 5 months old
• Turns out I'm an introvert... and I knew that somehow because breaking out of my shell into a social outgoing person you meet at events has been a struggle for me. More here at 23 Signs You're Secretly An Introvert.
• At the Pageant of the Monsters, thanks to @TedNguyenUSA!
• 13 Stories that Made Your Day and Broke The Internet.
• With my Wife hanging out and I'm wearing my #FLFOC t-shirt
• A tweet about podcasting. Basically don't sweat it, Get WordPress, add a couple of plugins, record your podcast, done!
• Another shot with my daughter.
• My Top 3 Followers... this reflects the past few months only. @MadHungryWoman, @JohnChow & @LivinLime - Thank  you guys!
• And my top "Golden" tweet, a tweet about Video Genesis, a product I promoted and made me a whole whopping $0!

In general all my numbers (raw numbers) grew significantly. Also my business grew to new levels and continues to grow. This is the focus for 2014. Thanks for hanging out, don't forget to subscribe or follow!

The post 2013 In Review for me appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

Here's what I cover in today's video:

The new book that will teach you how to make money online. Serious money with no tech skills required. Make at least 1000 extra per month with this, I make way more than this, some of my friends are making over 10K per month, some are making over $100,000 per month. I'll get there and pass them soon.

Learn why you are better off than I was when I started my business. I also talk about Vanesa Rey’s new website. This is a cool new site you need to check out. Vanesa is selling some slick iPhone cases for women. Yes, they're for women unless you're a guy and want to wear a blinged out girly necklace iPhone case... to each its own I guess. But in anyway.

I also talk about a little bit of my own struggles with business, and I show you a little inspirational or motivational "token" I look at everyday to remind me of a not so obvious truth. Talk a little bit about a little motivational item I see everyday to remind me to stay grounded.

The post Ultimate Online Profit Model Book Vlog appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

In the other hand, if you find yourself as a punching bag for people trying to knock down information products, this is how I look at them and maybe it will give you some ideas.

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My latest vlog is about finding a way to make a living. But different than you're used to. Think you can only make money with a normal 8 - 5 job? Wrong. Watch this 3 minute video about some of my thoughts on earning a living.

The post There is a better way to earn a living. appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

I cover a few websites that have changed the world and will continue to shape the future for a long time to come.

The post Tech that’s changing your life (vlog) appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AaYO_YsDJk0

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We also cover mass email systems. If you need to send email to your customers or potential customers, how do you do it? You can't just sit there and send hundreds of emails from gmail or yahoo! That would be crazy! But you also can't just spam people because you want to get your message out. You need to use one of the systems I mention in the video.

SEO news. There's a new and exciting plugin for WordPress that is going to change how you approach local SEO. Check out the video for more info.

Also, I'm taking questions and requests now. If you'd like to have your question answered or your product reviewed, contact me to be included in an upcoming episode.

Thanks for watching. Comments & feedback is welcome and greatly appreciated.

links:

Build your own Tagger Messenger bags and other bags.

Aweber

Disclosure: The Tagger bag was given to me for review.

The post Taggerbags Video Review and other shenanigans – vlog appeared first on Digital Marketing Through Content & Influence.

We live in great times, the technology developments in the past 200, 100 and 20 years are staggering. But it comes with a price and currently I'm paying the price of information overload. How do you manage it? How do you organize yourself and handle things in a way that life continues to be joyful and exciting. Perhaps I'm experiencing a burnout, perhaps I'm "doing it wrong" even though people pay me to teach them "how I do it" I still feel it could be improved. Your thoughts?

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