If you’ve looked at the recent blog posts, you know I’ve been bitten by the video bug. But I know not everyone is so rarin’ to go in front of a camera and record themselves. And that’s okay. Because with cool sites like Animoto – you can whip up an awesome little video in a manner of minutes.

You can register for an Animoto account for FREE. Yes, free. (We love free around here).

Here’s the lowdown on Animoto and the free account:

PROS: uh, did I mention it is FREE? It’s simple to use…takes only minutes of your time. Exports to YouTube.. You can share the video via email or use the code to embed it in your site. They have music and pictures available.

CONS: you will soon find out that 30 seconds is really, really short. And that it truly limits what you can pack into a single video. Also, while the music is nifty, there is little to choose from. So far, I’ve been able to find what I want/need…but I could see where I might want more selection. Big con – the pictures are less than desirable (to me, anyway) and slim pickin’s. The amount of text you can type is also quite limited. Kind of annoying for a wordy writer like me.

Seriously, though. I would give Animoto the big thumbs up for promoting an ebook, an e-report or your biz in any way. All you have to do is upload pictures, add some text, pick out some music and voila! Animoto does it all pretty much for you. And it ends up looking like a polished piece o’ work.

Here is one I made as a promo for the 28 Ebook Writing Tips For Parents (an e-report I recently released). I am embedding it using YouTube:

And here’s one I made in all of 6 minutes…using one of my own pictures, and then some royalty free pics over at stock.xchng. And this one is using the embed code from Animoto (so you can see the difference):

There are options for those of you who want to make longer videos. One is the all access pass for $30. This still brands the videos with the Animoto image, apparently. I’m going to try this out before moving onto the next option…which is the commercial use version. The plumped up biz account at Animoto will set you back $99 for 3 months, or $249 a year (thank goodness for business write-offs) but it appears there are a lot more goodies for you to work with when you go this route. As I continue to use Animoto and make various videos, I will be sure to give you feedback.