TurnHere, a network of video production contractors and YellowPages.com have partnered in order to bring online video advertising directly to the small business owner. This is a great idea but a bad match in my opinion. TurnHere offers a network of low cost contractors that will visit your business and film, edit and produce a very high quality video for about $500.
However, TurnHere sold their soul to the devil in my opinion and according to numerous attorneys I speak with on a daily basis, most are disappointed with the purchase. AT&T/YellowPages.com really does a disservice to many of the attorneys I speak with and most feel that they have been mislead about the service.
Here are the issues:
The video ad you purchase from Yellowpages.com comes with the water mark “YellowPages.com.” The ad clearly has the YellowPages.com logo on it. This is a major problem in my opinion because it is distracting, can potentially send your visitors back to Yellowpages.com to hire a different attorney, brands YellowPages.com if you use the video on your website or on YouTube, you never own the actual footage, etc…
Forget about obtaining a copy of the video, you never can obtain a copy of the video. Many lawyers I have discussed this with have told me they are very upset that they cannot obtain a copy of the video. All they get is the html code which they can place on their website to upload the video hosted on Yellowpages.com.
Why is this a problem you might ask. You never own the video! You have to keep paying for the video or else you get cut off from being able to use it. Also, another major problem involves having to set up an outbound link from your website to YellowPages.com. This affects the ranking of your website!
The other major issue is the fact you are limited to how you can use the video since it is hosted with YellowPages.com. This is a bad service folks!
Ok, I think I have made it very clear that the YellowPages.com online video profile ad product is significantly flawed.
What I do like about the product is the video quality. It really is quite excellent and the feedback I have received about the TurnHere video contractors is nothing but positive. Again, I understand this marriage between the two companies is a huge money maker for these companies, but the largest Yellow Page company is back to doing what it does best, taking advantage of lawyer video advertisers.
My recommendation:
Call a local video production company or independent. There are a slew of college grads or small video start ups that can produce high quality for the same price or even cheaper. Make sure they can produce the videos and covert them to Web ready. You would be surprised how many hungry and talented video production experts there are in your local neighborhood. They typically will work more closely with you to develop a fine video production.
With the advent of Apple video products like iMovie and others, a whole generation of talented web-ready video experts are popping up everywhere. You could also do the video yourself. However I don’t recommend this unless you are highly capable of creating a high quality video production. These self created videos look really bad.
If you would like more ideas about how to hire or produce a web video for lawyers, give us a call at (769) 218-6099. We also offer Lawyer Website consultation.
