Free Versus Paid Work

I am an advocate of people being paid fairly for their work. I see too many green entrepreneurs working for free or unfair pay. True enough, perhaps when you have zero experience you may have to settle for this. But it should never continue for long. You have bills and rent or mortgage to pay, just as your clients do.
  In some very limited cases, I have worked for "free". There are a few situations where a friend is asking for help, and I'm aware that economically they are disadvantaged. In these cases, I try to arrange a fair barter. In fact, I am a foodie, and payment in the form of food has always been a great option for me. However, this method has strict limits. For example, I never do it more than once for a friend.

Just this once...

   Believe me, there is a bit of guilt explaining to people that want a discount, that I must be paid fairly for my work. Because of my experience and apparent ease in accomplishing skilled tasks, they think that I can do it with my eyes closed. That is never the case. What can appear, for example, to be a simple editing job of laying down photos and video in a 3-minute presentation, quickly becomes a nightmare: last-minute changes, resizing different formats, conversions, audio problems...the list goes on. It's important that clients realize all of the effort involved in their "simple projects", and pay us fairly.

Microphones and Audio

Although most people quickly whip out the cell phone when something instantaneous happens, some of you have access to better camera equipment. The question is: how is your audio equipment? Do you own one or more microphones that allow you to capture sound properly? Or do you rely solely on the mic your camera came with? (P.S. The second one is the wrong answer.)

Even on a clear, sunny day, the slightest breeze can ruin an otherwise great interview or soundbite. Same goes for when something happens in the environment around you. Unless you're in a sound studio, it's almost inevitable that your camera's microphone will pick up a door closing, a car driving on a street one block away, or a kid screaming. Murphy's Law.

However, if you look at your camera's manual carefully, and figure out how to plug in an inexpensive microphone designed to record interviews, your videos will turn out much better in the end. This topic and more is covered in my book, Make Money with Video: Sell Footage to News Stations and Get Paid.

A cheap clip-on can get better audio than the mic

 of your camera.

When submitting video to news stations, videos with proper sound can equal a better cash return. Don't let bad audio ruin your chances of having your footage shown on-air.