Sorry, but still, the quality is much better on the newer videos by Andy

Love your stuff, moved you into my top 15 feeds. Keep em coming!

I do love MINDMAPS (but not as much as Andy(hehe)) and I think they definitely have their place in the arsenal of tools used to keep things interactive and engaging. That is why I have a couple of different mindmap programs.

Sue

Thanks for the thoughts and I may ping you for some more detailed help soon.

I have a “love-hate” relationship with mind maps. Mostly hate. I make lists. I make outlines. I do PowerPoint. I do charts and diagrams. I’ve learned to use mind maps, but it still feels like work.

Andy, on the other hand, has a love affair with mind maps, that honestly, if Janeen only knew… I was there when he proposed to her (if you’ve seen the picture I’m the guy standing behind Andy with the pirate beard) and I swear, no joke, he did a mind map beforehand.

What kind of sick man makes a mind map of love?

Anyway – for a live webinar, the mind maps do seem to work very well in getting people to retain more of the information. Breaking it up into shorter videos helps later, when people aren’t quite so engaged. But we’re always looking for ways to do better.

Sharon (Hi Sharon, I liked your comment) wrote: “we need feedback from customers to create a product/solve their problems, but you need to release a product in order to create this feedback/tell us their problems”. Your answer was great and helped me to have another light-bulb moment.

People have laughed at me for years because I offered my computer-related services for years “FOR FREE” to family/friends . I already have YEARS of this kind of computer-related “feedback”. I am struggling with this very issue of what to put out first. The website or the videos. I am already doing the one-on-one training/teaching (just don’t have any marketable product to go along with it). So I am in the building and creating phase (a couple of real passions are creating/teaching).

In some of my experiences in the computer-related field, I have studied “usability studies” regarding web sites and was amazed at what you can learn just be watching a USER navigate through a web site. Getting customers feedback helps to drive a better UI (User Interface).
So I had another light bulb moment. You and Andy are not so involved in the current PRESENTATION of this subject as you are getting the necessary FEEDBACK. Get the feedback now so you can build your product from that feedback. (Why did I say this was a light-bulb moment? It helped me to bite my tongue when I wanted to FIX these two video presentations; graphic-wise, interaction-wise (you definitely need more interaction on the screen other than a mindmap. ) I do foresee the difference between what you are “testing the waters with” right now in videos and what you will produce in the future as two very different things. I could not do it this way because I am a nobody (not known to anyone) and while I do not mean anything by this, I could not present to anyone with just a MINDMAP. First time visitors to my site certainly would say “let us see what she has to offer” and if I did present a video with just a mindmap (so I can gather feedback or whatever:) a) they may get bored b) they won’t bookmark my site, or c) they may never come back.

What is going through my mind right now is seeing someone do a “usability study” on someone watching a “you-tube” 2 minute video, 5 minute video and a 15 min video. Do the same “usability study” on persons watching a “professional-well thought out” video for the same times listed above. Find out what their attention spans are, monitor what their reactions were to different items shown in the video. People will watch videos BUT when do their minds start to wander? Or when do they stop watching? At what point did you lose them? Etc… Wow, what kind of feedback would that give you.

I loved the Stompernet videos and yet, while packed to the gills with information, I had to break from watching. I did return later to watch and I watched them MULTIPLE times with MULTIPLE breaks. One I REMEMBER the best was the one where it showed a HEAT sink graphic of how/where people clicked on the page. Was that an eye opener!! I am a firm believer that the right picture can say a thousand words (in my own words). I plan to take it to the next level with video, images and hopefully something to keep the customer engaged and wanting more. Thank you.

Sorry if I was a bit long-winded . Just my .2cents. Please keep them coming.
Sue

1) Give time. I do sometimes just get on the phone with someone who has a problem or a question, and work on it with them. This is tremendously valuable for me, in understanding what the needs of the audience are.

2) Free line content & “ask” campaigns. Sample the product idea for free, get people to ask questions, find out what they’re trying to deal with, solve, attain, etc. Then build your product to actually address that – and I mean the actual product, not just the sales copy.

3) Look at other products – talk with their customers – read blogs – hang out in forums… immerse yourself in the Tweetstream for a bit. It’s amazing how much insight you can get by osmosis, and from helping people where you can.