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Best wishes to everyone, and best wishes for the New Year. Love from Liv, Kit, and Nathan, our tech guru! ×
Best wishes to everyone, and best wishes for the New Year. Love from Liv, Kit, and Nathan, our tech guru!

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Posted
2 hours ago, Olga said:

The affiliate programme is of no interest to me - I happily share your info and links with anyone who listens - and even with those who do not. Online and offline. But thanks for asking!

Versus @AshwinT's comments, I would echo others' reactions that there is still plenty of online reach available out there if you can make ST more accessible (it does have a steep learning curve taken in total) online as you would do via an IRL course, and the ABSS will absolutely nail that.

Affiliate/referral program. Same as Olga at personal level, but I can see it might help in a scenario where you are trying to get referrers from a broader circle eg podcast/wellbeing/fitness hosts with much looser links to ST, or indeed provide an other income stream to ST teachers who are now working to actively build local following/practice.

  • Like 3
Posted
On 2017/11/12 at 6:39 AM, Kit_L said:

A question to the readers here: how important is it to you to have an affiliate program (when I use this term, I mean you would enrol, and anyone clicking on your link would get the ABS program for the standard cost, but you would get a significant percentage return to you)—would that impel you to really push our new programs out wider and harder than you all already do, or not?

Our desire for an affiliate program is to be able to give back to you all for your real time and help. If not having an affiliate program would not make any differnce to how you treat new programs, then the next step is simplified. We deeply appreciate all the help we have received so far. Anyhow, we are still working all this out, and we really appreciate all the suggestions here.

I'm not really a fan of this idea, personally. People that believe in the ST system and want to support it and help spread it will do so regardless of whether there is an affiliate program or not. That means that the additional efforts gained by implementing such a thing would be coming from those who needed some kind of financial incentive to take action. I realize that we all need a certain amount of money to go on living in this world, but surely no one will be getting rich off of ST affiliate income, and I feel like there's just too much of a difference in the impression I get from a promotional/affiliate link versus a link shared simply because someone really believes in the material. I appreciate the willingness to give back, but I feel like there are probably better ways to do so.

Then again, if the goal is purely an increase in shares, then an affiliate program might indeed help reach that goal. I just feel like one of the beautiful things about the ST system is that it's pushed by people who truly believe in it and there's a real open feeling with no scent of money anywhere to be found. That may just be my own personal bias coming through, though!

  • Like 3
Posted
22 hours ago, Nathan said:

A question to the readers here: how important is it to you to have an affiliate program (when I use this term, I mean you would enrol, and anyone clicking on your link would get the ABS program for the standard cost, but you would get a significant percentage return to you)—would that impel you to really push our new programs out wider and harder than you all already do, or not?

Our desire for an affiliate program is to be able to give back to you all for your real time and help. If not having an affiliate program would not make any differnce to how you treat new programs, then the next step is simplified. We deeply appreciate all the help we have received so far. Anyhow, we are still working all this out, and we really appreciate all the suggestions here.

I agree with @Nathan. The programs are already the cheapest in the market and of very high quality. Personally it wouldn't change how hard I would push the new programs.

22 hours ago, Nathan said:

I just feel like one of the beautiful things about the ST system is that it's pushed by people who truly believe in it and there's a real open feeling with no scent of money anywhere to be found. That may just be my own personal bias coming through, though!

Highly resonate with this. The people pushing the programs now are the ones who truly believes in it and also why I love ST! But I also do think the affiliate/referral system could be an incentive for those outside the system to push ST to their audiences.

  • Like 3
Posted

Thanks everyone; I feel humble in the face of generosity. Liv and I were only going down the affiliate road to give something back to you, so we will do something different, instead. We deeply appreciate all the suggestions made here.

Once we shoot the first programs, we will announce them here first (in this thread), and make the first two (or four/six) available to you all for a 24 hour period via a promo code, and we will then collectively take on one part of Olga's suggestions about getting something going around the world on a specific day (IG and FB, and wherever else anyone suggests) and make the programs available publicly only then (so you have a chance to see them and use them). We will release the first two, ask you all to review or comment on them in whatever way works for you when you let your followers know about them; hopefully this will help build the interest. We will continue to release two a week until they are all out there, so a ten-week period. Suggestions for release dates will be helpful too, though I think these next programs will have a "long tail" (to use a bit of marketing-speak, for only a moment!). It may be that such programs will have a long life, so perhaps release dates are less important.And Vimeo allows the formation of private playlists (SD's great idea) but (for some unrevealed bizarre reason, these are called "Albums"); these can be arranged and changed at will, and likely we will use their Subscription function too, and once this is settled, we will get going on production.

Re. Absolute Beginner's Stretching: 20 x 15' programs, each program themed and self contained, and simple playlists. Vimeo (now commenting on Thuc's comments) works well on mobile devices (although downloading seems to work more reliably if done onto laptop first, then synced with a device) and streaming to mobile works very well.

I will make audio versions of the programs available on our storage platform somewhere (I have not sorted this part out yet) so that access is pushed out to buyers and subscribers; I have not worked out how to do this yet (I am trying to reduce Liv's work, not give her more!).

Any other comments/suggestions?

  • Like 3
Posted

It all sounds fantastic. I agree that release dates are not really too important. Perhaps something like one on Monday to play with during the week, and then one of Friday to play with over the weekend. Or just both on Sunday to play with throughout the week. It's pretty arbitrary, though, so just picking something and sticking to it so that people can look forward to certain days should be fine, I think.

The albums sound like they should work just fine for the majority of people. I imagine most people will only need one list that they can set up to suit their current needs, and the actual "absolute beginners" will probably just want to stick with the default ordering, anyway.

Posted

re Release dates/times, they do seem to be important in the online world to get on the top of everyone's feed. And there are many opinions what is the best time to post important updates and feeds depending on your target audience's life schedules.

So in my area (Austria) I noticed that Saturdays and Sundays are dead in terms of internet traffic and comments - especially Sundays. But we are 20 years behind the rest of the world here  -everything is closed on Sundays and people just disconnect from the world on that day and don't feel they are missing something :)  For that reason I do not post anything of importance on Sundays and Saturday afternoons.

Different to Hong Kong where people seem to be online all the time.

  • Like 1
Posted

I'm late to the party, am I? Maybe I can still give a contribution on something.

7 hours ago, Olga said:

So in my area (Austria) I noticed that Saturdays and Sundays are dead in terms of internet traffic and comments - especially Sundays.

At the moment my job has to do with SEO, social networks and growth hacking. The best time to post updates tends to be around 6pm, while the worst time ever is in the morning and during the weekend (unless the weather is terrible). This is the trend where I live, but I suspect it counts as valid within Europe in general. Rule of thumb: look at the time office workers are coming home: that's when they are scrolling Facebook/Twitter/Instagram.

  • Like 2
Posted
34 minutes ago, jaja said:

Maybe I can still give a contribution on something.

At the moment my job has to do with SEO, social networks and growth hacking...

Absolutely - you can help us the choose the date/time for the online Stretch Therapy flashmob :-)  Your skills are invaluable for the intended communication channels.

  • Like 1
Posted
On 7/11/2017 at 7:33 AM, Jonas W said:

Aside from the obvious of sharing it on Facebok and so on... if you want to improve the reach to a non-English speaking Community as well, then translations of the stretching instructions to other languages might be an idea. I could translate it to Swedish for example. Even if it's primarily video-based, there could be transcripts of the dialogue to make it more accessible.

THIS! SO MUCH THIS!

Language barriers are a real issue, especially in countries (like Italy) where people who could benefit the most from ST can't understand English. Blog posts can be translated and, above all, videos should come with subtitles. Honestly I'm surprised Kit didn't add english subtitles to the videos he recorded: they could really help someone who isn't proficient and/or has trouble with accents.

Anyway, I can write really well (in fact it's pretty much my job), so I'm on board with the translations if you'll decide to follow this excellent suggestion.

  • Like 1
Posted
9 hours ago, jaja said:

Honestly I'm surprised Kit didn't add english subtitles to the videos he recorded: they could really help someone who isn't proficient and/or has trouble with accents.

That's an easy one to reply to: there are only two of us! Once you look at the required processes below, you will understand clearly. And at all the GB seminars I presented at (before the split) and all the buyers of the Mastery Series there were people from almost every country on the planet; here are buyers of the Mastery Series from the last year:

5a121f1a0fcc0_ScreenShot2017-11-20at11_16_25.thumb.png.2cc1879b6ad19ab51f9a1f86466a39e5.png

The size of the pin represents # of plays; so the US is the largest audience, then Australia, then UK, then everywhere else. So task 1 would be to decide which languages should we add.

For Absolute Beginner's Stretching, I do think second and other language options are worth considering—then task 2 is which method to use to do that?

Let's use Swedish as our example. I mentioned above that I intend to release a high-quality audio version of each program (the problem of how to get this version of each program to legitimate buyers of the programs I have not solved yet; Vimeo will not allow the uploading of sound-only files). This audio version could be used to make a transcription file (English; I can sub that out relatively inexpensively) that could be sent to all the students and teachers who have offered to translate these (so we can make sub-titles). But sub-titles are a massive amount of extra work for me if I have to do it: in the editing program, each phrase has to be made into a "super" and added to the video track, and not over any cuts; this would take hours of not interesting work for each program; the program would then have to be re-compressed and uploaded as a subtitled version. The reason I have set up the four-camera live-to-disk studio is to more or less eliminate the editing process; adding sub-titles, especially as a non-Swedish speaker, is not a trivial obstacle. I do not think this is an option.

An alternative that might work is that Vimeo itself allows the adding of sub-titles after a program has been uploaded to the VOD platform. The process is described in a Help file here:

https://help.vimeo.com/hc/en-us/articles/224968828-Captions-and-subtitles?flash_digest=c67742e8c4322276680a92910a2bb7b549e1d959

Note that this method requires files to be uploaded to Vimeo via my account in WebVTT format; that requires yet another piece of software and admin. access to my account. I do not think this option is practical either.

Or that same transcription file could be translated and recorded by the native speaker, and that sound track send to me to replace the English audio track. Replacing a whole audio track is a much simpler process for me than adding subtitles. If we did this, then I would re-compress and upload the (say) Swedish version of the program to Vimeo (I would do that). I can help with suggestions of the best way to record the script (even an iPhone can do a really good job on this, with a cheap lavalière microphone, free app recording software, and a quiet room).

The last idea, which I have discussed with @MarkusO, is to re-record the programs (sound and vision) using a teacher like MarkusO to both perform and voice the program—this would be the best solution, in my view, better than either sub-titles or alternate sound-track versions. But, and it's a big but, that is a huge amount of work for me (assuming I bring my cameras and recording gear to a studio near you). 

In the meantime, I feel the best process is:

Using the audio version of each ABS program > transcribe the audio program to English > translate and record in another language > send audio track back to Kit > I edit new track in > re-compress > upload new version of the program is the best of these idea. What do you think?

Posted
11 hours ago, jaja said:

The best time to post updates tends to be around 6pm, while the worst time ever is in the morning and during the weekend (unless the weather is terrible). This is the trend where I live, but I suspect it counts as valid within Europe in general. Rule of thumb: look at the time office workers are coming home: that's when they are scrolling Facebook/Twitter/Instagram

I suspect you will find that this is fairly universal.  The difficulty lies, however, in how to make this work for the 24/7 nature of a worldwide audience.

You cannot target 6pm on a Wednesday evening for everyone around the world, with a single post.  This is part of the reason for the existence of both paid advertising (FB) and social media content management tools (HootSuite, Buffer etc) - to push posts up in feeds.  But I know I can't be alone in finding that a little annoying sometimes, as a target recipient.

19 hours ago, Nathan said:

...picking something and sticking to it so that people can look forward to certain days should be fine, I think.

Very much this!  Create and build anticipation.  Ride the waves of your prospective audience's dopamine response.

  • Like 1
Posted
On 19/11/2017 at 10:23 AM, Kit_L said:

Vimeo allows any user to set up to three "albums" (playlists). Do you think this is adequate for a standard user?

Adequate?  For the most part, yes.  The main concern being that Stretch Therapy won't be the only content that some users wish to curate and collate.

It really is ridiculously limiting.

20 hours ago, Nathan said:

...the actual "absolute beginners" will probably just want to stick with the default ordering, anyway

On the other hand, this is likely true.  I see the biggest benefit to "absolute beginners" being 1) told what to do in 2) manageable chunks of time.  I would think that default ordering, one (or two) 15 min video(s) at a time, is the most likely usage scenario.

Posted
6 hours ago, pogo69 said:

You cannot target 6pm on a Wednesday evening for everyone around the world, with a single post.  This is part of the reason for the existence of both paid advertising (FB) and social media content management tools (HootSuite, Buffer etc) - to push posts up in feeds.  But I know I can't be alone in finding that a little annoying sometimes, as a target recipient.

No you cannot but you can SHARE that single post locally across the world around the same time to achieve maximum impact. Being coordinated within a 12 or 24 hour window is better than not being coordinated at all.

On a side note, I forgot how big Russia is, spanning 11 times zones - or 9 without Kaliningrad. Imagine the job of the Social Media planners there :D:D

  • Like 1
Posted
7 hours ago, Kit_L said:

The last idea, which I have discussed with @MarkusO, is to re-record the programs (sound and vision) using a teacher like MarkusO to both perform and voice the program—this would be the best solution, in my view, better than either sub-titles or alternate sound-track versions. But, and it's a big but, that is a huge amount of work for me (assuming I bring my cameras and recording gear to a studio near you).

If you decide to record videos for German-speaking market (DACH)  @MarkusO then feel free to avail of my studio space in Vienna for recording - I have a great natural light in there (every photographer who has ever entered my studio made this comment) and everyone says it is beautiful space :-). Would be only too happy to contribute to this initiative.

Also - could do some German-speaking Stretch workshops ??

  • Like 1
Posted
9 hours ago, Kit_L said:

That's an easy one to reply to: there are only two of us! Once you look at the required processes below, you will understand clearly. And at all the GB seminars I presented at (before the split) and all the buyers of the Mastery Series there were people from almost every country on the planet

I was “surprised” about the lack of English subtitles (they could be really helpful). Obviously adding them in other languages requires a coordinated effort, but I wasn't fully aware of the load of work required to insert any type of subtitles. The reason for my ignorance is that I'm used to YouTube, where content creators can allow viewers to easily add subs from within the platform.

2 hours ago, Olga said:

No you cannot but you can SHARE that single post locally across the world around the same time to achieve maximum impact. Being coordinated within a 12 or 24 hour window is better than not being coordinated at all.

Good idea! Much better than spamming the same post all over again to gain views. Sharing and liking each others' posts should make it seen by as many people as possible.

  • Like 1
Posted
1 hour ago, jaja said:

I was “surprised” about the lack of English subtitles (they could be really helpful). Obviously adding them in other languages requires a coordinated effort, but I wasn't fully aware of the load of work required to insert any type of subtitles. The reason for my ignorance is that I'm used to YouTube, where content creators can allow viewers to easily add subs from within the platform.

This is how I did English subtitles to a Youtube video where my favourite Russian ballerina talks about Pilates in her life: https://youtu.be/q69Mbf-IG2k

It took me only around 20 min from start to finish. Youtube makes it so easy!

Posted

@jaja: The sheer amount of extra work would make this impossible for me. If I were a touch typist like @Olga, I might be able to add subtitles the way she did (except I don't understand Russian), but do the maths: even for English subtitles a two-minute program took her 20 minutes; an hour program means ten hours additional work for me, and keyboard work at that.

@jaja: do you find the way I speak English (or Liv's English) to not be clear? Personally, because I am logocentric, I find subtitles very distracting because I can't not read them, and they so often block what I am trying to see.

In any case, Vimeo will not allow users to do subtitles without admin access, as far as I know, so that would not be an option for us.

No one has commented on whether replacement audio tracks are an attractive idea (remember that would mean that I can release audio-only versions of the additional languages to put on your phone, too). For me, a much better option, the idea being that you ill be able to listen to just the audio, and stretch like a pro in your gym.

Posted
3 hours ago, Kit_L said:

No one has commented on whether replacement audio tracks are an attractive idea (remember that would mean that I can release audio-only versions of the additional languages to put on your phone, too). For me, a much better option, the idea being that you ill be able to listen to just the audio, and stretch like a pro in your gym.

I personally prefer visual material (without audio) but I am a movement teacher and not an average beginner. I also live half of my life in languages that are not my native language, that may add to preference for visual and written material vs audio.

HOWEVER Pilates Avatar that I mentioned before uses exactly the same scheme (videos of exercises to learn from, audio tracks to be used in the studio): https://progressivebodyworksinc.com/pilates-avatar/audio

Their target is Pilates students wanting to work out independently in the studio on equipment without taking a private lesson by an instructor.

Posted
On 2017/11/20 at 10:15 AM, Kit_L said:

Note that this method requires files to be uploaded to Vimeo via my account in WebVTT format; that requires yet another piece of software and admin. access to my account. I do not think this option is practical either.

This is actually not too much trouble for someone relatively computer savvy. I had intended to PM Kit about this a while back, actually, as I was considering adding Japanese subtitles for some of the VOD titles. (It's still something I would like to do, but free time has been limited lately!) There are free subtitling programs that can save to the WebVTT format, so that is easy enough and required no extra cost. Here is a short video I did as an example to show Kit (the password is "kit"):

Uploading the subtitle file was easy enough, so I think people creating subtitle files and sending them to Kit (or someone he trusts enough to manage subtitles for the account) is a very realistic option. That said, Vimeo has very limited support for formatting and positioning of subtitles, which means that they are not as user-friendly as they could be. (There are times when the subtitles overlap the embedded subtitles, etc. I changed this positioning in my file, but Vimeo ignores this info.)

6 hours ago, Kit_L said:

No one has commented on whether replacement audio tracks are an attractive idea (remember that would mean that I can release audio-only versions of the additional languages to put on your phone, too). For me, a much better option, the idea being that you ill be able to listen to just the audio, and stretch like a pro in your gym.

A dub, basically. I'd say that this is a very attractive option. The biggest problem here is ensuring a certain level of quality. Most volunteers will not have access to good recording equipment, and there is an art (timing, word choice, speed, etc.) to producing a good dub as well. A certain amount of audio editing would be required even at the very minimum too, I think. Still worth considering for audiences where the demand is large enough.

  • Like 1
Posted
6 hours ago, Kit_L said:

No one has commented on whether replacement audio tracks are an attractive idea (remember that would mean that I can release audio-only versions of the additional languages to put on your phone, too). For me, a much better option, the idea being that you ill be able to listen to just the audio, and stretch like a pro in your gym.

Clearly implementing play-listing for the audio is much simpler as that is a basic function of every player, and/or these can curated online eg soundcloud.  

As @Olga  says, a  lot of the time you are probably not actually looking at the screen anyway once you know the movements.

@MarkusO is thinking of dubbing videos for other languages, rather than audio only content.

  • Like 1
Posted

I may not have been clear, and the ideas are a few posts ago, so "let me rephrase", as George Clooney says so brilliantly in "Intolerable Cruelty":

The process: Liv and I record each 15 minute 'element' of the 20 Absolute Beginner's Stretching series. These go live, two per week, for ten weeks.

Options are to buy any program, buy the whole series, or subscribe to the series, with the expectation that other programs will follow. Liv and I are still discussing the last option.

Each element will have its own sound track; these will be available as a separate download, for use as @Olga and @SwissDanny have commented on (as you say, Danny, curating a playlist of audio files is a piece of cake). We will be asking buyers and subscribers to enter their email details to receive the private link to the files; probably in two lots of ten programs, to reduce our overheads. As well, I will have the sound tracks transcribed into English, so there will be a script on paper, with approximate timings.

From here, the options are subtitles (thanks @Nathan for that demo; works perfectly) or asking a member to record a new sound track for each element. Yes, @Nathan, loading that replacement soundtrack will require some editing, but the software I use (Final Cut Pro X) allows the minor spacing and possible retiming to be done easily. As for recording (and I know we have spent a huge amount of time and money getting this right), I will research the available free software for smart phones—I know a program I use can record broadcast standard sound files, but this uses a lav (lavalière) mic to do this. I will research the best mics and report back. 

Check THIS out; it can be used with any free recording software, and you can monitor your recording using your in-ear phones. We will buy these lavs for anyone who we engage to do this recording for us, and we will (of course) credit you when we announce the (say) German version of the program is available, on FB and the other platforms. This will be a good way to publicise your site and ST business, too, assuming you are a teacher. You record the track, while watching the actual program, muted, and send those files to me. I do the rest. Could this work?

  • Like 3
Posted
On 11/20/2017 at 2:15 AM, Kit_L said:

The last idea, which I have discussed with @MarkusO, is to re-record the programs (sound and vision) using a teacher like MarkusO to both perform and voice the program—this would be the best solution, in my view, better than either sub-titles or alternate sound-track versions. But, and it's a big but, that is a huge amount of work for me (assuming I bring my cameras and recording gear to a studio near you). 

You are right Kit, this is the most work intensive solution. Speakign for myself, I can come up with a nice setup on my own but that is only me as I have some experience with these things. If you want to go this way with multiple teachers this will take big efforts.

On 11/20/2017 at 9:22 AM, Olga said:

If you decide to record videos for German-speaking market (DACH)  @MarkusO then feel free to avail of my studio space in Vienna for recording - I have a great natural light in there (every photographer who has ever entered my studio made this comment) and everyone says it is beautiful space :-). Would be only too happy to contribute to this initiative.

Also - could do some German-speaking Stretch workshops ??

Thanks for the offer Olga! I have recording options here too but let's keep it in mind anyway. Maybe we can do some kind of collaboration in the future. I do some German speaking workshops already and more are planned :) 

9 hours ago, Kit_L said:

From here, the options are subtitles (thanks @Nathan for that demo; works perfectly) or asking a member to record a new sound track for each element.

I have no experience with dubbing but this should really be tested first. It really depends on the speakers skills and the recording quality in general. If this is done badly the quality of the material would suffer immensely. On the other hand, if it is done professionally it would be a great solution and much less work than recording everything new. 

  • Like 1
Posted
On 11/21/2017 at 4:52 AM, Kit_L said:

do you find the way I speak English (or Liv's English) to not be clear? Personally, because I am logocentric, I find subtitles very distracting because I can't not read them, and they so often block what I am trying to see.

I wanted to comment on this - I am not jaja but I am a non-native English speaker too. I find that I can deal with any accent after a while as long as the speaker is consistent in his use of words, cues and expressions. I find Kit very, very consistent, and this helps a lot. The learning curve for such audio instructions is steep and the listener soon feels at home with the instructions.

Posted
2 hours ago, Olga said:

I wanted to comment on this - I am not jaja but I am a non-native English speaker too. I find that I can deal with any accent after a while as long as the speaker is consistent in his use of words, cues and expressions. I find Kit very, very consistent, and this helps a lot. The learning curve for such audio instructions is steep and the listener soon feels at home with the instructions.

Thanks for mentioning that. I wanted to touch on that too, but forgot to do so. Personally, I think Kit has a lovely voice and I could listen to it all day :wub: but I'm a native English speaker. My (Japanese) wife speaks English fairly well and has spent time living overseas, but I had her check the subtitles I did above and she mentioned it being a completely different experience. She could actually understand the content (including parts that she didn't realize she hadn't understood until she finally understood them!). Accents can be troublesome for non-native speakers, but we also use a lot of domain-specific terminology when talking about stretches. Even the more general anatomical terms (pecs or shin, for example) can be confusing to a non-native speaker. But another aspect to consider is that listening to a foreign language and reading a foreign language are two very different things. Japanese people feel very confident in their English reading skills, but that's not true for their listening skills. Some other populations may show a reverse trend, but (putting aside where they fall on list of priorities) I don't think English subtitles would be a waste of time.

12 hours ago, Kit_L said:

Check THIS out; it can be used with any free recording software, and you can monitor your recording using your in-ear phones. We will buy these lavs for anyone who we engage to do this recording for us, and we will (of course) credit you when we announce the (say) German version of the program is available, on FB and the other platforms. This will be a good way to publicise your site and ST business, too, assuming you are a teacher. You record the track, while watching the actual program, muted, and send those files to me. I do the rest. Could this work?

Technology really is amazing, isn't it?! It sounds like it could work great. I suppose the best way to find out would be to give it a try - @MarkusO:D

  • Like 2

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