Notes.

Social Media Use:

The videos have been optimised for use on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. And their size means that sharpness is maintained even when the video is expanded (especially on Facebook).

Logos:

Your business logo (a white/transparent version) appears in the top left corner of the video, and a larger, full colour, logo appears in the centre of the final image.

Your images:

First of all, I need your permission to use your images in these videos (your consent can be easily indicated when requesting the video).

The actual images that I use must have a minimum size of 1200×685 pixels (so that the resulting video still looks sharp when expanded on social media). Normally, I’ll just select these images from your website. However, if your website images are too small for my video needs, I’ll simply give you an email address to send any larger images, of your choice, to.

Competitions:

This is where it gets really interesting.

All videos will be entered into a fortnightly draw, and the winning video will be featured in a social media competition.

These competitions are currently held on Twitter (@DIYWalks). However, future competitions will be run on Facebook too.

The current competitions are something of a big deal, and are actually run on a weekly basis. The weekly competitions attract around 500 followers, 500 RTs & 500 comments. The actual videos themselves are viewed over 7,000 times though (occasionally as often as 10,000 times).

In just that one week.

However, I still plan to also use these competitions myself (the competitions on alternate weeks will be used to promote my own step-free DIY Walking Tours – and any other projects, also aimed at helping other wheelchair users, that I may be promoting at that time).

If selected, “Following” your own Twitter account (or Facebook account too in future), will be a condition of entry. So, around 500 new followers for yourself then (this is just the current situation – it could be slightly more or less in any particular competition). Assuming it is your name that comes out of the hat that week that is.

Importantly, the same video can be featured in competitions multiple times. And this is for two reasons: It means that if your video is selected on a quiet week, then that’s not it for your video. It could also be selected again on a busier week (say, Christmas); it also encourages early creation of the video, as each video is entered into a random draw EVERY two weeks (so the longer you have a video, the greater the chances that it is featured in a competition).

Saying “Thank You”:

This is a totally free service (assuming that your premises are indeed wheelchair-accessible).

However, the order in which I create videos is determined by how many “coffees” that you feel is right (see the “ko-fi” explanation below). As I already use ko-fi.com as a means of allowing DIY Walkers to show their thanks anyway, it is a very simple way for you to do so for your video as well.

Each “coffee” costs £5, so you would simply select the number of “coffees” that reflects the video’s value to yourself (and also just to help fund my accessibility work in general).

Time taken to produce your video:

It takes 1-3 days to create one of these videos.

This doesn’t mean that your video will be produced within a few days though.

Of course, I’ll try to produce it as quickly as possible. But two factors may cause a delay:

First is my own ataxia condition. Some days are just a complete write-off. These occurrences only happen once or twice per month at present though, and never last for more than a day, so there will be little impact on the time taken to create your video.

Secondly though (and more importantly perhaps?), videos are created in the order of the number of “coffees” that have been bought via ko-fi.com (the more “coffees” bought, the higher up the pile you go). So there may be a delay in getting round to your own video if I’m producing others first.

Sending the video file to yourself:

Once created, I’ll send you the finished video file (mp4), so that you can use it as you wish.

Video files are HUGE though (the example file is over 137MB in size). And as most email systems won’t deal with anything over 25MB, simply sending the file to you as an email attachment is not an option.

There are plenty of “file sharing” services though.

In the past, I have used Google Drive to send video files to friends. And as it’s a very easy way for me to send you the video file (and is easy for yourself to receive it), then I definitely recommend it. Plus, most website owners will already have a Google account anyway (especially for Google Analytics), so you may already have Google Drive access even if you don’t actually use it yet.

We will discuss the exact delivery method once I have created the video for you.

Types of businesses eligible:

Although I have used an accommodation provider in the example, ANY accessible business is eligible for these low-cost videos. The only condition is wheelchair accessibility. So hotels, B&Bs, restaurants, cafes – even retail businesses. Plus attractions and events which are also wheelchair-accessible. All are welcome (if they are indeed accessible – and I can find images to use, whether that’s on your own website, or emailed to me by yourself).

The example property:

Glenegedale House is not actually accessible itself. However, it’s an amazing place to stay; run by the most-wonderful of hosts. And for my video creation needs, their website images are both amazing and large enough for use in videos optimised for use on the internet.

Most importantly though?

My creating videos for FREE – is a TIME-LIMITED OFFER.

I’ll be brutally honest here: as revenue from other sources increases, I know that I’ll be less and less inclined to work for free (as I may have better revenue-generating uses for my time). Plus, as my condition progresses, eventually I’ll be unable to work at all.

So it’s a case of “get them while they’re hot” perhaps?

To request your free video, simply complete the following: