I’ve just found a fascinating site which turns a collection of still images into a video - complete with music. And it’s been getting rave reviews. I broke off from writing this newsletter to make a 30-second “trailer-style” video. You can see it here:

http://www.marketing-drive.com/cheatkit-video/

I didn’t take much time over it. All I did was to upload a selection of images, pick a music track from the huge selection available on the site, hit a button, waited 5 minutes and bingo! I had a snippet of code to embed in a web page.

All the special effects were generated automatically. I didn’t have to make any selections. And, if I’d wanted, I could have uploaded my own MP3 file as the sound track. There’s a wide range of options available. But, since I only found the site this morning, I haven’t had time to play with them all.

This really is an incredibly slick service and best of all, it’s completely free for you to make as many 30-second videos as you like. For longer ones you can either pay 3 bucks per video, or get a year’s access for 30 bucks. And if you use the special code I’ll give you in a minute, you can get the year’s access for 25 dollars.

There’s a huge potential for making these sorts of videos. You can, as I’ve done, make a video of your products. Or perhaps use it to endorse an affiliate product. Maybe create a humorous video and stick it up on YouTube (you can do this from within the site) and see if it becomes viral. Heck, you could just put a collection of family images together and email it to your relatives - again, you can email your videos from within the site. Just use your imagination!

OK, here’s where to sign up:

http://www.IanSays.com/TryOut/Animoto.html

Be patient. Sometimes the site is a bit slow. Oh, and if you want your $5 reduction on your year’s access fee, use this code:

vikfguxl

Keep a note of it. You can use it any time you like - there’s a box for the code if you decide to purchase a year of making unrestricted videos.