I am always amazed when I run into agents who are not familiar with YouTube.com. Sure, they have heard about it but they think it is something that kids use and haven’t given it a second thought. So what is so interesting about YouTube as it relates to travel agents? YouTube.com can drive traffic to your Web site for free — lots of traffic. Here is how.
By producing short 60-second movies of a hotel, resort, cruise ship feature, port, attraction, adventure, event or any other travel oriented activity, you can immediately be found in a keyword search on YouTube.com. If a client is searching information on YouTube.com about the beaches in Santos, Brazil and you have included a short travel snippet of the beaches in Santos, potential clients will watch your video to gain information about the beaches.
Of course, your video is nothing more than an advertisement for your services and contains a title shot with your contact information on it, a footer all the way through the video saying “For More Information About Santos Visit www.—” and a trailer with a video of you pitching your services as a Brazilian expert. Your Brazil-specific Web site is featured as the “go to” place for complete information on Brazilian beaches and other travel information. Clients will respond immediately, as video is so much more compelling than print communication. Here is how to do it.

DIGITAL VIDEO CAMERA: The first thing that you need is a good digital camera. They come both in regular and HD, but all that you need is the regular format of 640 x 480 resolution. High Definition is lost on the Web and when the video is optimized for the Web the best resolution one can achieve is 72 dpi. I use a Sanyo Xacti that is also waterproof so that I can take it surfing with me and get some close up shots. This camera cost around $350, but the same exact non-waterproof camera was available for around $250. Any electronics store or camera shop will have a large selection of digital video cameras available. The major considerations are size (I want mine to fit into my pocket), storage media (in my opinion, disk storage is the best), battery life and storage capacity.
Downloading digital video is basically the same as downloading digital photos. You simply connect the camera to your computer using a USB port and transfer the files onto your hard drive. I have found that using a monopod has dramatically increased the quality of video that I can shoot, so I would also recommend a retractable monopod.

VIDEO EDITING SOFTWARE: It was difficult for me to understand how one could edit video, but my son explained how he does it. It sounded kind of intimidating so I did some research on the Web and came up with what I feel is the best solution for travel agents who want to cash in on the video revolution on the Web. I purchased Adobe Premier Elements 4 and was creating movies within 15 minutes. It was extremely easy. Here is how you do it.
Import the Video Clips into Your Movie: This one is simple. All that you do is select the “Get Media” button, surf over to your video clips and select the ones that you want to include in your movie. Badda bing: there they are with the first frame of the clip in full color so that you know which clip it is.
Arrange the Video Clips in Order: Now that the clips are in your movie project, you simply drag and drop them on the time line in the order that you want them to appear. At this point you can preview your entire movie. You can click on the beginning clip and it will start playing on the movie screen and continue playing through all of the clips. Of course, this looks more like a home video than a movie because it is missing a lot of elements. Note that you can mix single digital shots with video clips, as well. Of course, there are a bunch of ways to edit each video clip at this stage if you really want to tweak your movie.
Add a Title: Premier Elements 4 comes with a bunch of pre-designed titles that one can use. There are a good number of travel-oriented titles, as well. However, I would recommend having your graphics professional design your video title so that it looks professional and creates a theme for your videos. YouTube.com will list all of your video contributions when showing one of your videos, so if a potential client enjoys one of them, they will generally look at more of your movies. A professional movie title goes a long way in creating a wonderful first impression.
Add Transitions: One of the cool effects that makes movies so fun to watch are the transitions one can create going from clip to clip. All that you do is decide which transition that you want to use and then drag it down between your clips.
Add a Trailer: The trailer should be a video of you talking about your services. It should be done professionally and used on every one of your videos. It is a simple as including the trailer in your time line with the rest of the videos.
Add Music to Your Movie: Nothing creates ambiance faster than a quality sound track. To set music to your movie all that you do is drag a digital music file into the soundtrack box on the time line. If you want the sound to jive with your movie, a simple click on the “detect beats” button will accomplish the task.
Add Narration to Your Movie: There is a separate soundtrack for narration and adding quality narration to your movie is as simple as using an inexpensive digital microphone and clicking the “Add Narration” button and then add your comments as the movie plays. The narration will be recorded on a separate track that can be edited or completely deleted if you don’t like the way it turns out.

UPLOAD IT TO YOUTUBE.COM: While you need to open an account with YouTube.com, all that you do to upload your movie is to is click on “Share” and then “YouTube.” Premier comes with an automatic upload feature to YouTube.com.
See you at the movies!