I have a MacBook Pro.  I got it just before Christmas last year.  It is a powerful tool, but I’m having to find the right software for various tasks.  That includes using video to market my books.  Needless to say, the “sticker shock” for the price of many of these video creation products was more than I could stand.

Now, I have found a very flexible type of program that will do standard videos, but also do those whiteboard videos with the hand writing a message.  I’m really looking forward to finding the best ways to use these videos on various sites, including Facebook.  Since most of the promotional posts on Facebook are just plain images, these should really grab attention.  There are several different ones that I considered, including the big name: Explaindio.  Explaindio is slightly cheaper, but its license is only good for one year at a time.  The one I found is a one-time price of just $67.  Of course, they both can produce the same kind of video that I want, but mine will need me to add more images and other features.  Most of those things can be gotten for free through Google Images or at a low price through some commercial vendors.   I considered getting the VideoMakerFX software.  It works on both my MacBookPro and also on Windows machines.  However, I finally decided to go for the cheapest product out there, EasySketchPro 2.0.  I was very impressed with its abilities, including being able to sketch a line drawing that corresponds with an actual video.  You can then fade back and forth between the two formats.  That has some fantastic marketing potentials.  The personal version is just $29.  Hard to beat that!  Since I don’t have a general video editing program, I’ll probably also buy the VideoMotionPro one.  It is as powerful as most of the others that are available for the Mac, but a lot cheaper.  Let me know.  As an author, what are you using to do video for your author site, optins, etc?