Repurposing Content

To start with, I took one of the free PLR articles here at Business Content PLR, put it into PowerPoint, and then recorded it as a video. I then uploaded the whole thing to YouTube.

The whole process was incredibly simple. I wasn't aiming for perfection or fancy effects here. The idea was to take one article and quickly put it into video format.

Here's the video I produced, followed by the process that I used:

Here are the steps I followed:

1. Pick an article that's around 500 words long

• Mine was over 700, so the video ended up being about 5 minutes, which is really too long for most people.

2. Open it in Word

• Click on “View” in the top menu, then on “Outline”

3. Prepare your outlined document for PowerPoint

• Each “bullet point” in your outline view will be a slide when you import it into PowerPoint
• Take out the bulleted lines that have no text
• Use hard returns (“enter”) to break up longer paragraphs so that there's no more than one or two sentences per bullet/slide
• Highlight all of your text and format it as Level 1. This option can be found in the formatting box under the “Outlining” tab. It will say “Body Text” at first, so just click on it to see all the Level options.
• You can also highlight some bullets to be Level 2. This will make them show up as bullet points on the Level 1 slide that is just before that text.
• Highlight all of your text and choose a font and color. You can get fancier, but don't waste time.
• Save everything. You're now ready to open the article in PowerPoint

4. Open the document in PowerPoint and format it

• When you go to open the document, make sure your dialogue box says “All files” so you can see your doc
• When you open the file, you'll see that all the bullet points from the outlined article show up as individual slides, with the text in the title area.
• Click on “View” and then on “Slide Master” (5th option from the left). By editing the slide master, you can format the whole presentation.
• You can adjust where the title will show up on the slide. I put it in the center. Body text that shows up in Level 2 can be moved slightly below.
• I also inserted my logo and put it in the lower left.
• Then just pick different colors and backgrounds to suit your needs. If you already have a favorite color scheme set up, that will be fastest. Otherwise, picking one of Word's preset themes is quick, easy, and looks professional.
• Close the Master View (red X on right) and your presentation should be all formatted.
• Go through each slide to see if anything needs adjusting.
• Add transitions by clicking on the Transitions tab at the top. I used “Wipe”. then click on “Apply to All” on the right side.
• You can add other images and animations if you want to get more creative, but don't let it slow you down.
• Don't forget to add a final slide that has a call to action and your website url.

5. Record your video.

• For purposes of this tutorial, I used Camtasia. You can record your video quickly with Camtasia by clicking on the “Add-Ins” tab at the top.
• Make sure the icon for “recording audio” is highlighted
• Make sure you have your headset or microphone on.
• Click on the “Record” button and do a quick microphone check to see if your mic is working
• Click on the record button and start talking through your presentation as Camtasia records it.
• When you're done, save the file and click on the Edit in Camtasia option

6. Edit and produce your video

• When the video opens in Camtasia you can then edit any little bits you might have messed up.
• As for settings, I used the YouTube dimensions since that's where I planned to share it.
• For mistakes, I prefer to just redo the video for something so short, rather than spend ages editing out little bits.
• You can add in some music by importing it and dragging it onto the timeline. Or pick one from Camtasia's library. I just used one of theirs.
• If you add music, be sure to lower the volume and set it to fade in and fade out. These options are in the audio tab.
• Test everything to see how it sounds. My voice was definitely too quiet, so I know I'll have to speak up next time!
• Finally,  just click on the “Produce and share” option to produce your video and share it on YouTube.
• When you share it to YouTube, be sure to include a good description that has your url at the beginning, as well as keyword tags so you can be found.

That's it. Now all you have to do is let the world know about your new video. Post it on your blog, pin it to your Pinterest board, share it on social media, etc., etc.

So, what do you think? Do you have any extra tips for creating videos from articles? Maybe a way that easier than mine?  Please share!!