Admittedly it’s not easy to create videos that resemble Hollywood blockbusters on an everyday Webcam, but you can make impressive video content that is powerful enough to market successfully on the web. Such online videos can make sure you start to generate those high levels of website traffic, improved conversion rates and increased brand awareness so many organisations crave.Businesses, brands and bloggers alike are all rapidly turning to video blogging and Internet video as a resource for marketing their content and message. In the past creating such videos has been reserved for big corporate industries and global brands, but today individuals worldwide are creating effective videos using just a simple Webcam and their computer.

To help get you started creating effective Webcam videos I’ve outlined the five essential ways to make your Webcam video content as successful as possible.

1. Pick Your Location
A good location is essential to recording a great video. Decide whether you want your video to have the feel of an inviting desk-side chat, an engaging corporate business meeting or a casual, laid back living room gossip. Your location says a lot about your video before you even get started. You never want to record a video in a messy room or in a busy area with people walking in and out of shot, as recording in such locations can make your video fall flat from the very start.

Here are some good examples of the styles of background I’m talking about being used by an everyday blogger and a typical business:Business feel. Homely feel.

2. Check Your Lighting
Lighting in any video is very important. Webcam videos in particular are famous for struggling to deal with low light situations and natural sunlight. There’s nothing worse than recording a video to find out it’s been ruined by glares and reflections from your surroundings. If you’re recording has become disrupted by unwanted light or a lack of a light, there are ways to rectify it. The majority of good Webcams come with software, which allow you to adjust the contrast of your video, and many free editing tools in the likes of iMovie and Windows Movie Maker will allow you to correct the brightness in your video too.

In low light situations you can always make use of household lamps and lights to boost the brightness of your video, prior to recording. You’ll never need to go out and buy film standard fluorescent lighting rigs for your Webcam videos, in actuality you’d be surprised just how much difference every day household lights can make to your video.

If you’re still unsure about what constitutes bad lighting and good lighting here’s a few examples: Bad lighting. Good lighting.

3. Tackle Unwanted Sounds
Recording Webcam videos are easily susceptible to all sorts of unwanted ambient noises, from noisy pets to air conditioning hums. When you’re recording your video, be vigilant about the sounds in your environment. Turn off anything that could interrupt your filming, close all the nearby windows and keep all pets out of earshot. Do your best to mute all noises in the area as even your computer could give off disruptive sounds when you record your video. Unwanted noises will divert your audience’s attention away from what’s being discussed and it could even put of viewers from checking out your future content.

4. Keep Your Content Short & Simple
If there are two trends that occur time and time again in the Internet video world, it’s that so many video bloggers hit the record button on their Webcams and unleash a whole world of spiel at their unsuspecting audiences, while others waffle on and on to extremely disinterested viewers.

Internet video is largely so powerful and engaging to online audiences because it’s short and sweet. When you’re recording your Webcam videos try and keep them under the 5 minute mark, in fact keeping them under 2 minutes is absolutely perfect. We all know how distracting the Internet can be and keeping hold of an audience’s attention is always going to be challenge in itself.

Try to ensure your videos are not only short, but simple. If you’ve got a few topics to get across, make separate episodes rather than trying to cram it all into one over the top video. You can’t afford to ‘lose’ your audience in your videos and by over complicating them you’ll be on the fast track to receiving a low viewership for your video. When you keep videos simple you can get across your message clearly and effectively, which is an opportunity you don’t want to miss.

5. Be Human
The best quality of video blogging and Webcam videos is that their one-to-one nature helps to showcase one individual communicating with another. Such videos put aside brands and corporate image and connect with one individual at a time. This is one of the fundamental reasons why video blogging and Webcam videos are so popular.

The viewers of these videos want to see a real person on screen, one human being communicating with another human being. So many video blogs are full of individuals trying to be ‘like’ someone else, or trying to come across as more important than they are. Don’t try to be anyone or anything other than yourself on camera, as audiences can tell with a staggering amount of ease when videos are genuine or not.

Present yourself as a human being, in a location that viewers can relate to, in clothes they recognise and communicate with them in a way they’ll understand. It’s hard to connect with the ‘everyman’ when you’re recording a video in a palace, talking about buying an island dressed in a £10,000 suit.

 By following these five pointers you can begin to create effective and engaging video content on your everyday Webcam that you can use successfully in your next Internet marketing strategy. Whether you’re tackling social media or advertising a product, having great pieces of personable video content in your marketing arsenal that you can host on your website, blog or YouTube Channel will be a fantastic asset to have when it comes to connecting with future, prospective clients.