Crikey, I'm on the cover

Thanks so much to IPSE (the Association of Independent Professionals and the Self Employed) for featuring me in their magazine.

The December '17 issue has my mug on the cover and a lovely three page interview snuck away inside.

The article highlights my Being Freelance podcast and weekly vlog. We chatted about the isolation that freelancers can often feel and the importance of building a community of freelancers - to be there for each other, learn from each other, heck, maybe even have a beer with each other.

You can read the whole thing here..

STOP Embedding YouTube Videos Badly!

Okay. I've finally cracked.
This happens so often that I have to write this.

The number one mistake businesses make when embedding YouTube videos to their website.

Take a look below.

That's what I see after watching the key explainer video on a major tech brand's website.

The problem

Instead of looking at their Call To Action.
Instead of typing my details in... or buying product... or exploring the site more...
I'm being tempted to watch another YouTube video, THAT MOST LIKELY HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THEM AT ALL...

I'm about to be sucked into the YouTube rabbit hole.
Once I'm there I may never come up for air again.
They've lost me.
I'm going to get lost in 'The Office' clips, or watching kids react to old computer games or a cat who hiccups... whatever it is, it isn't learning more about their product.

THIS IS CRAZY and it HAS TO STOP NOW.

It looks unprofessional and crucially it takes people away from your site and your business.

I'm not over-reacting: you go to a lot of trouble to get people to buy from you; you've spent a lot of time, energy and money in making that video; even more in building your website, tweaking each bit of copy; perhaps you've even paid to get people to your site... and then you willingly let them be enticed away?!
 

The solution

Hey, don't feel bad if you're doing this. SO many companies do it. So many of my clients have done it which is why I then have to follow up with a message a bit like this one. Now I can just send them this link (Hi there if that's you! We should catch up for cake soon!)

How to embed properly from YouTube tutorial coming up. Watch this (silent) video.
Ironically for the company who committed this sin, it's all about paying attention to a box.

Yep. When you go to select the embed code click the sneaky 'show more' and you'll see the option to untick 'Show suggested videos when the video finishes'.

That's it!

I also like to untick 'Show video title' because it'll look nicer on your site.

And the great thing is, to their credit, YouTube remembers your preference so going forward it'll know how you like to embed.

Don't forget to make sure the thumbnail looks good too, you can choose thumbnails in the settings of the video and even create a custom one.

There are other ways to embed that don't involve YouTube at all, check out Vimeo (the paid version ditches the 'suggested' slides) and Wistia for example. But if you really want to use YouTube, do it properly.

Click 'show more' and start showing more of your business, not someone else's.