Do you think the media's coverage of investing is misguided? Would you like to find an easy, inexpensive way to get your message to clients that does not involve writing? Would you like to find a way to use your Web site more effectively for marketing? If you answered "yes" to any of these questions, then you need to check out the latest generation of camcorders.

These micro cams may not be great for recording memories of your daughter's wedding or son's bar mitzvah. The picture quality of recordings cannot be compared to handheld high-definition camcorders. They'll display video on a big-screen TV but won't give you anywhere near the clarity of a conventional camcorder. But they are inexpensive ($100 to $150) and smaller than a pack of cigarettes. Most important, they record MPEGs, and that makes it a cinch to upload your recordings to your own Web site. These mini-camcorders are perfect for creating your own video blog, or, as the digerati say, "vlog."

If you think cable TV already has too many channels and still read TV listings in the newspaper, then just throw your remote control at the wall right now because just about anyone can have his own TV show by using one of these gadgets. And if you're an advisor with a friendly, engaging manner, this is the opportunity you've been waiting for to leverage the Internet smartly.

Vlogging is not new. But slow Internet connections kept video from being commonly used on the Web in the late 1990s. And even when high-speed connections became widespread by 2001, 2002 and 2003, uploading a video from conventional camcorders was still a technological challenge. So using the Web for distributing videos had largely been limited to geeks and businesses that hire professional production companies. Converting videos was a hassle and producing professional videos was expensive.

YouTube changed all that. Founded in February 2005 by three former employees of PayPal, the ubiquitous Internet payment processor, YouTube takes converted video files that can easily be downloaded, buffered and streamed over the Web. YouTube made it easy for anyone to upload content. Innumerable unforgettable moments have been etched into the nation's psyche as a result-including the androgynous Britney Spears fan screaming, "Leave Britney alone"; the sultry "Obama Girl" singing, "I Got A Crush On You"; and the 2007 Miss South Carolina Teen USA's  incoherent pageant monologue about why some Americans can't locate the U.S. on a world map (in which she concludes that they "don't have maps"). Each of these videos has been viewed tens of millions of times and their "stars" are now cultural icons.

With the advent of inexpensive, easy-to-use mini-camcorders, you can now create your own TV channel on a Web site. When the market plunges 5% in a day, you can create a 60-second or two-minute video telling your clients what you think about the day's news. If, God forbid, terrorists strike a major U.S. city, you can get online that day and put events in perspective. And even if nothing earth-shattering happens and you just want to address your clients quarterly, your vlog could be the perfect vehicle.

Advisors should be good communicators. If you can't articulately convince people of a point, then you'll probably not succeed in this business-unless you partner with a person who will be the "rainmaker" in your firm. If you have the skills to convince people to give you their money to manage, however, then you can probably master the art of vlogging without difficulty.

To create my first vlog, I purchased a Sony NSC-GC1 net-sharing camcorder at Best Buy for $149. I considered purchasing the Flip Video Ultra Series, and that probably would have been fine, too. In fact, it may actually be more convenient because the Flip has a USB connector that pops out of its side, allowing you to connect directly to any computer. However, the Sony GC1 has a 4X digital zoom, whereas the competing Flip Video Ultra has only a 2X zoom, and it has a rechargeable battery, so I won't have to worry about running out of batteries every two hours. In addition, the Sony allows you to record onto a memory stick that plugs into your computer. Since I use a Sony Vaio laptop, the Sony memory stick plugs right into my machine.     If your computer does not have a slot for a Sony stick, you'd need a USB adapter, which costs about $20.
After charging the Sony GC1's battery for two hours, I started recording my first vlog. The camera allows you to flip the 2.4-inch LCD screen around so that you can see yourself while you're recording-a nice feature for vlogging. When you're done, you can't play back your videos on the GC1. To see the video, you must remove the memory stick from the camcorder, insert it into your computer and then play it, or you can use a cable that is supplied with the GC1 and plug it into your computer's USB port. Once it is on your hard drive, you can view it using any video player on your computer. You can also edit it, adding a musical introduction, disclosures and credits advertising your credentials and showing your logo. You can also upload the video to your company's Web site.

After I uploaded my video, I navigated to the site where it was posted and played it. It took under a minute to upload a two-minute vlog, and about ten seconds to begin playing. The file created is an MPEG4, which is an industry standard and automatically compresses and streams to a video file. You are not required to download it and then play it; the video automatically plays and keeps downloading while it is playing.
The picture quality as it appears on the Internet is fantastic, as clear as you could ask for. The color quality was also fine. But I must admit that despite my loveable personality, it was difficult to watch my presentation, and I was very critical of my "uhs" and stumbling. So let me offer you some common-sense tips on creating your own vlogs.

Know your stuff. Before vlogging, write down the major points you want to cover. If you don't have a clear idea of what you want to say, chances are it will come out jumbled. (Just ask Miss South Carolina Teen 2007.) Jot down the key points you want to make.
Don't read. You don't want to read your vlog. If you've ever been to a conference and had a speaker read a presentation, then you know how boring it gets. If you need to write out your vlog word for word beforehand, that's OK. In fact, if you want to take the time to do it, it's great. But don't read it on camera.

Pay attention to lighting. No, you don't need makeup, but you do want the videos to look good. Simply placing a lamp or two nearby can make a big difference.

Pay attention to your background. You can emphasize a background by lighting it, or de-emphasize it by keeping it in the distance and focusing on your face in a close-up. The Sony GC1 has a setting for focusing on images one to three feet away from the camera. A bookshelf with personal finance books is a good background, while a window with a view of the street may be distracting.

Keep the vlog current and common. Make your vlog newsy-about events of the day or week, and post it regularly. If daily is too much, do it weekly. Letting your clients know that you'll post a vlog at least weekly will make them expect comments when major news hits. You'll need to deliver.     Explaining new strategies and products can be great content.
Delegate it. A firm's principals are not the only ones who can or should vlog on your site. Spread the responsibility around. You're likely to find that there are employees who are better on camera than you. That can be useful. When you want to announce news about your firm-an employee leaving or starting-the boss may not be the best person to deliver the news. By allowing others to make vlogs, your firm looks like it has breadth. Moreover, if you're grooming a successor, letting that person become the face of your firm may be advantageous.

Keep it short. No one has much time these days. Keep your message under five minutes. You are more likely to do it at least weekly if it only takes ten minutes of your time to record and upload your blog. Some potential clients will absolutely love a detailed written explanation about your firm's methods for researching stocks or funds, but it could be boring to other prospects. A 60-second video about your research process could help you with marketing.

Whenever possible, focus on your niches. The more special your niche, the better. If you cater to executives from the local power company who have stock options, then doing a blog about that is much more likely to get you clients than will a blog about pre-retirement executives.
Transcribe it. Your vlog won't be found in a search engine unless you get it transcribed. By creating text versions, search engine robots will be able to see and index them, providing you with important visibility-especially if you focus on niches.  

Remember that it's advertising. Whether you're a registered representative or an investment advisor representative, your vlog is regarded as advertising material and should be approved by your compliance officer. Watch what you say!

Hold a fire drill. Take the time now to record a vlog on a day in which the market has tumbled 5%. Sketch out the main points you want to make to clients. This way, if and when stocks tumble sharply, your message is prepared and you're not thinking about it in a time of emotion.
Invite guests. If you work with an estate planner or CPA who you like, ask her to make a vlog you can post. Asking a CPA to speak about the latest tax rules demonstrates that you adopt a team approach to financial planning and work closely with other professionals. In the next few years, I am sure fund managers and separate account managers will routinely make vlogs of their own for distribution by you. For now, you may want to ask key managers to offer an occasional commentary.

Smile. You don't have to be Tom Brokaw or Katie Couric to know that smiling on camera is important. So try to have some fun with it.

The Vista Fiasco

It's been over a year since Windows Vista was released, and advisors who adopted it know what a headache it's been. The lesson: When it comes to operating systems and applications core to your business, move slowly. And if you're thinking about getting a Vista machine, look long and hard before taking the plunge.

When Vista was released on January 30, 2007, it was hailed as a great leap forward. Its predecessor, Windows XP, had been launched five years earlier, and this was the longest between new versions of Windows since Microsoft launched the operating system in 1985. However, the release was immediately criticized by reviewers and vendors.

In an article entitled, "The 15 Biggest Tech Disappointments of 2007," PC World in December 2007 awarded Vista the No. 1 slot. "Despite its hefty hardware requirements," said the magazine, Vista is slower than XP." And in January, InfoWorld, a magazine for corporate IT managers, listed Vista as the No. 2 technology flop of all time, behind only computer security.

Dell Corp., one of the largest PC direct sellers, released documents in late February showing that a senior Microsoft executive knew that Vista's drivers for printers, scanners and other hardware were not working properly. The documents were released as part of a class-action lawsuit brought against Microsoft by two consumers, who claim they had purchased computers touted by Microsoft as "Vista Capable" but could not run many of the graphics features in Vista or work with common peripherals.

As a result of the lawsuit, which was granted class-action status by a U.S. District Court on February 22, there surfaced an embarrassing e-mail written by Microsoft board member Jon Shirley, former president and chief operating officer. "I upgraded one of the two machines I use a lot to Vista," Shirley wrote. "The most persistent and so far hardest-to-fix issues are both MSN products, Portfolio in MSN Money and Music (downloads I had bought in the past). There are no drivers yet for my Epson printer (top of the line and in production today, but no driver yet); Epson scanner (older but also top of the line, and they say they do not do a driver for); and a Nikon film scanner that will get a driver one day."

Added Shirley, "I cannot understand with a product this long in creation why there is such a shortage of drivers."

My business partner, Steve Gordonson, who is a systems analyst and programmer, reluctantly bought a new laptop with Vista in August 2007. He regretted it right away. "Even after turning off all Vista's new features, it was buggy, unreliable and slow," he says.

Where does that leave you? Large corporations have not jumped on the Vista bandwagon, and it appears the vast majority of advisors wisely have kept away. Web-based applications are unaffected, but many desktop advisor applications are still not yet programmed to be Vista-capable-even a year after its introduction.

Angie Lyles, the president and CEO of Cornerstone Revolutions, maker of the PowerAdvisor portfolio management software used by about 275 firms, says her company is in the final stages of testing a Vista-compatible version and expects it to be released in April. "It wasn't that programming a Vista-compatible version was insurmountable, but a myriad of glitchy things came up," she says. Lyles says her company has a couple of Vista machines in its sales department, "and they give us nothing but trouble."

Schwab PortfolioCenter, which is a desktop portfolio accounting application used by about 3,300 RIAs, became Vista-compliant in November 2007, says Dan Skiles, VP of technology at Schwab. Skiles says 1,500 firms run this latest version of PortfolioCenter and only 250 of them run Vista on at least one machine in their office. "An important point for advisors to remember is to ensure that their hardware has enough memory to efficiently operate Vista and that all of their software programs are Vista-compatible," says Skiles. "I've heard stories about advisors experiencing issues because of hardware or software compatibility issues."

Greg Friedman, president of CRM Software, which makes Junxure, says his company is now launching a major new release and it will be Vista-compatible. "But we hate Vista." Warren Mackensen, president of ProTracker, a CRM application, says his company's software has been Vista-compatible since "day one."

Money Tree Software, makers of Silver and Total Planning Suite, is also Vista-compatible, according to Mike Vitkauskas, Money Tree's CEO. Linda Strachan, vice president of product marketing at EISI, which makes NaviPlan and Profiles financial planning software, says its desktop software is also Vista-compatible. But EISI estimates that only about 10% or 15% of its users have migrated to Vista. In addition, versions of EISI's planning programs sold to institutions are not Vista-compatible because large enterprises have steered clear of Vista so far.

According to InformationWeek, in December 2006, 6% of business enterprises were expected to employ Vista within the first year. Yet, as of October 2007, only about 1% of enterprise PCs were running Vista. Many computer sellers were offering customers disks to revert Vista machines to XP, and other vendors offered high-powered machines with XP rather than Vista.

Despite all of the problems caused by Vista, hopes for improvement have remained high. In the past, Microsoft released "service packs" that could be downloaded from its Web site and installed on your computer to fix problems and provide you with new features in its operating systems and Office applications. But when preliminary versions of Service Pack 1 (SP1) for Vista were released, hopes were dashed. This would not improve many of the problems users were having. "While it's always good to install the latest code for any operating system," says a February review by http://www.CNET.com, "installing the Windows Vista SP1 update will require some casual users to spend a few hours without any visible or tangible improvements to their systems." Such reviews were pretty common, and others offered only measured praise.

I was disappointed about this news. I had been waiting to buy a new computer for months, but wanted to see if SP1 would improve Vista the way XP had been improved by its service packs. When these reviews of Vista SP1 came out in February, I bought a 2.4 GHz PC with two gigabytes of RAM-a machine powerful enough to run Vista-but with XP installed. I have no regrets.

The weakness of SP1 has fueled speculation that Microsoft has given up on Vista, and this may actually be good news. eWeek recently published an article asking, "Has Microsoft Disavowed Vista?" "Technically, Vista is pure misery," says Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols, an editor-at-large at Ziff Davis Enterprise who covers Microsoft. "It eats system resources like an elephant." Vaughan-Nichols notes that a blog by a Microsoft executive is leaking information about Windows 7, the next version of Windows. "Microsoft is hard at work, harder than one would expect, with Vista just over a year old, in getting its next desktop operating system ready for action," says Vaughan. In recent weeks, speculation in the online media about an acceleration of the originally announced launch date of Windows 7 from 2010 to late 2009 has been accompanied by reports that Microsoft has moved up important development milestones. Advisors may want to stick with powerful XP computers for now or wait a couple of years for Windows 7.