Zoom
This powerful tool is almost everywhere! In it’s simplest form, you can just get together and chat. But if you want to have some control over your meeting, or accomplish some cool things in your meeting, or maybe record your meeting and publish it on YouTube… well, you have to be something of a Zoom expert to make a lot of that happen — without looking like a hack.
I’ve taken the deep dive into Zoom. Let me show you the way…
WordPress Web Sites
WordPress is almost everywhere too. Some statistics show WordPress is on over two-thirds of all web sites on the planet! It’s another tool that has simple application to a basic web site, and can quickly get way more complicated than the average person wants to deal with.
Included as a sub-category of WordPress is the ManageWP tool. If you’re hosting on GoDaddy, you might have seen this online application they acquired a few years ago. ManageWP will do backups and restores, as well as a variety of other maintenance functions, most of which are at no charge to GoDaddy-hosted WordPress sites, and minimal monthly charges to sites hosted elsewhere.
I’ll help you manage your WordPress web site. Make it the communication hub for your audience.
MailChimp Mailing Lists
Okay, so it’s actually Mailchimp with only one capital letter. Again, easy to use for simple communication, but gets more complicated — quickly… more quickly than Zoom or WordPress. Signup forms, archive folders, automated confirmation emails, subscriber tags, and segments… oh my!
The good news about Mailchimp is that for most organizations, it’s free to use… until you start to reach 2,000 subscribers or send out more than 10,000 messages a month. In some cases you’ll want to pay for extra features even when under those limits. I’ll guide you in choosing which option is best for your organization.
I’m a Mailchimp guru for non-profits and organizations that just need to “get the word out”. If you want to use Mailchimp for product and service marketing, I’m not your guy… but I’ll help you find one!
Eventbrite Event Registration
Zoom has a registration capability… why would you use anything else? Flexibility and more features is why! Eventbrite can be used for registering free events at no cost, and a reasonable price-per-ticket-sold for not-so-free events. Eventbrite will link up to Zoom’s registration capability and send people meeting reminders with their customized login link. Eventbrite also does after-event follow-up notices and let’s you easily reach previous attendees when scheduling new events that might be of interest to the prior crowd.
Eventbrite will collect fees with a variety of customary payment options (Zoom is pretty limited), and can handle discount codes, refunds, multiple registrations from one transaction, and even do some marketing for you.
Let me help make your next event a success!
Adobe Creative Cloud — Photos, Audio, Video, and More
I’m not really a subject matter expert in any of the Adobe products… but I know a lot about many of them. I’m particularly knowledgeable about Adobe Premiere Pro, using that to edit Zoom recordings and publish on YouTube.
I’ve done some PhotoShop and Illustrator, but I’m no expert in either of them. Still, I’ve discovered a few things in each along the way, and I’ll share more about these as we go along.
I’m also an above-average/non-expert user of Audition (audio editing) and Character Animator (well, it animates characters — think Family Guy). Again, not an expert, but I know some things…
OBS Studio – Screen Capture and Recording
This free software is widely used for live streaming, but also very useful for recording your screens, cameras, audio, and more, allowing you to import the recording into Adobe Premiere Pro for editing and refinement. Great for recording tutorials and audio-visual course material.
It’s free, and like most of the other tools, it can be easy for the average person… but I think there’s a little more learning curve to get started. Let me help you hit the ground running!
Rodecaster Pro — Not Just for Podcasters
The most recent addition to my technical arsenal is the Rodecaster Pro, an audio mixer with 4 microphone inputs, a USB input (you can “play” to your Rodecaster from your PC or capture audio from a Zoom meeting), Bluetooth connectivity (record a conversation with a guest), and an 8-key sound bite/music pad.
Great for in-home/office recording of podcasts but also makes a great “pre-mixer” to feed into your PC for Zoom meetings and other audio-enabled applications. Has great sound/noise filters, volume sliders for each channel, and the ability to record directly to micro SD card.
Interested? Check with me before buying and I’ll walk you through some of the technical benefits… and pitfalls.