How to Turn Your Slideshow Into an Animated Video

Today, I’m going to show you a quick and easy way to create original video content for Youtube.

Youtube has the potential to rank well for your name -- you just need to nurture it and let it prosper.

One of the easiest ways to make videos? Animate your slideshows.

We’re going to use Keynote to make the magic happen. If you made your slideshow on Keynote already, then great. 

If you did it on something like Canva, just import the JPG files and drag them one by one into Keynote as slides.

Once you’ve done that, it’s time to start adding animations.

Click Animate in the top right corner.

Then click on your first slide. You need to have the slide selected so you can make a “transition animation.” Otherwise you’ll be making an “action animation” for one of the elements in the slide. 

Under Transitions, click Add an Effect, and choose one to see what it does. I like Doorway, so I chose that one.

Go through each slide and do the same thing. Feel free to keep the same transition for each slide to give a consistent effect, or go for different ones to switch it up.

If you made your slideshow in Keynote, you can animate different elements within each slide as well, but there’s no need to go overboard with this. I like to keep these simple so they don’t come across as cheesy.

Once you’ve finished adding transition effects, it’s time to add some audio.

There are a number of websites that offer copyright free tunes. My favorite is Incompetech but you can do a quick Google search and find more.

Once you’ve downloaded a royalty-free mp3 file you like, go back into Keynote and click Document at the top right corner. Then click Audio.

Drag your audio file into the Soundtrack section. 

Then it's time to export.

Hit File → Export to → Quicktime.

Hit next (or change your playback settings if you wish) and save the file.

And that’s it!

Now all that’s left to do is go into Youtube, upload the video and give it a title and description. 

Give me a shout on Twitter if you’re having trouble and I’ll be happy to help.

And the Oscar goes to...

How To Make A Great Infographic Without Any Design Skills

We’ve all seen those amazing infographics.

The ones that look professional and get the point across in a few seconds flat. The ones that tell a compelling story yet are powerful in their simplicity. The infographics that get shared over and over and over again.

There’s really not much point in making an infographic unless it falls into this category.

But the good news is that great infographic design is not as scary as you might think.

I’m going to show you how to make an infographic. No real design skills required. We’re going to use a website called Canva, which makes graphic design super easy. You can use Canva to make slideshows, blog graphics, Pinterest pins -- and infographics!

They have amazing templates, an intuitive workflow and lots of free icons, shapes, and more.

Follow me as I take you through the process step-by-step. I’m going to make an infographic along the way to show you what I mean.

Let’s go!

1. Decide Your Story

First decide the story you want to tell with your infographic.

What’s the one takeaway you want your viewers to get out of this? If you have your story and conclusion ready to go, designing will be MUCH easier. Every piece of data, every picture, every subheading will help tell that story.

For this example, I’m going to make an infographic that gets people motivated to take control of their online presence. The main takeaway will be that people should care about their search results.

2. Find the Data

Remember, infographics are a visual way to represent data or information. You first need some compelling data before you can represent it visually.

Find the data, information, or critical pieces of knowledge that you want to get across in your infographic.

I’m going to use these key pieces of data to tell my story:

1. Over 1 billion names are google every day 

2. 75% of hiring departments are required to look applicants up online

3. 70% say they have rejected applicants based on what they’ve found online

Conclusion: bad results hurt you; good results help you.

3. Find a Working Template

Go to Canva.com.

Under “Create a Design” pick Infographic.

Then scroll down on the left and find a template that gets you excited. There’s a ton of terrific free ones but feel free to use a paid one if you feel like coughing up $1.

4. Give Your Infographic a Title & Theme

First, I went ahead and deleted all the text on the template and titled my infographic.

Then I tried to mess with the size of the colored blocks. I soon realized that this template wasn’t very malleable, but that’s okay. Canva is so easy to use that I was determined to make this design work for me, template or not.

I liked the colored blocks idea (thanks Canva!) but wanted to make them myself to give me more flexibility.

So, I deleted the template. Then I went over to Search → Shapes → and chose a rectangle.

I resized it and changed the color.

Then I added my title back in.

Then I added two thin black lines on the top and bottom to give it a sharp border. All I did here was add two more rectangles, but made them black and super thin. That’s it. Already looks good though right?

I then did the same rectangle trick to make a general layout. Remember that simple designs are the most effective. That blue color is nice but I only used it in the title block so it would really pop. I’ll use the color again when I add in text and icons.

The last thing I did was add a small triangle to creatively transition from the title block to the next block. You can find that triangle in the same shapes section.

5. Show Your Data Visually

You already have your data so this step is the fun part. Take your first piece of data and decide how you can showcase that quickly to your audience.

My first piece of information is: Over 1 billion names are google every day.

There are a lot of ways to do this. I decided to just use text and a simple vector image of a globe. Remember, when it comes to infographics, less is more. Simple designs are easier to scan and concise text wins every time.

My next piece of information is: 75% of hiring departments are required to look applicants up online

Well, one of the easiest ways to represent 75% is a ¾ circle. I went over to Search → Charts and found the perfect free image. Then I changed the colors to match my blue theme.

I threw some white text over it and changed the sizes and fonts to emphasize what’s most important.

Then I did a similar thing for my third piece of data: 70% say they have rejected applicants based on what they’ve found online.

I made a judgment call and decided that I would make this piece of data more relatable by adding people to it. I used Canva’s search bar to locate a cool icon of “people” and then changed the color to match my blue theme. I threw some more white text on top and ta-da.

For my last piece of data -- Bad results hurt; Good results help -- I wanted to add that human element again.

First I just added the text. I used the same blue, but switched up the color at the end to make the point more clearly.

Then I added emoji vector images and gave examples of what I was talking about.

7. Add a Call-To-Action

Finally, make sure you add a call-to-action. You don’t want to spend all your time making this awesome infographic and not capitalize on it.

What do you want people to do? Sign a petition? Join a mailing list? Visit your website? Just share this on social media?

Whatever it is, make that ultra clear at the end of your infographic.

Closing note:

And that’s really all there is to it!

Here are 5 Infographic Best Practices to keep handy:

1. Tell a Story Visually -- First decide the story you want to tell with your infographic.

2. Captivating Design -- Colors are important. Infographics that stand out have staying power.

3. Less is More -- Too much data is confusing. Simple designs are easier to scan. Use extremely concise text.

4. Data is King -- The right data is naturally compelling. The right way to show it is in a way that’s easy to understand. Do your research ahead of time so you have your data ready to go when it’s time to start designing.

5. Call-To-Action -- What do you want people to do after they finish reading? Sign a petition? Join a mailing list? Visit your website? Share on social media?

Please give me a shout if you have any questions along the way!

Here’s a look at the final product:

How to Use Canva to Transform Your Article Into a Killer Slideshow

So you finished an awesome blog post.

You’ve shared it on social media. You got some promising engagement and good feedback but now you’re ready for the next step -- it’s time to turn that article into a killer slideshow.

What’s the point? 

The first reason is that you’ll expand your article’s reach and grow your audience.

Slideshare -- where you’ll be uploading your finished product -- is trusted by 70 million professionals as a resource to quickly learn about specific topics. People post their slideshows and visual walkthroughs and get plenty of traffic as a result. If you’re not on Slideshare, you’re missing a valuable opportunity to promote your articles and build your brand.

Second, Slideshare tends to rank incredibly well in search results and it looks professional to boot. The fact that Slideshare is owned by LinkedIn doesn’t hurt either.

As if that’s not enough, I’ll show you how you can use your slideshow to direct more traffic back to your original article and your website. Win-win-win.

Here’s how to turn your article into a slideshow:

First, head on over to Canva.com and sign up. 

Canva is an incredible platform for ANYTHING relating to online design. I use it to make slideshows, infographics, Twitter images and custom Pinterest graphics -- the list goes on. It makes me feel like I’m a real designer.

Once you’re on the main screen, click Presentation.

Now choose one of the free layouts on the side. Every “paid” element will cost you a dollar, but there are TONS of amazing free layouts and images if you don’t want to pay a dime.

Once you pick a free layout that you like, it’s time to start messing with it to make it your own. Drag and drop a new image into the upload section. (Here is a great resource for finding free awesome images.) Change the text to make it your title. Change the font or color if you want. Do whatever floats your boat.

A QUICK TIP: Click on your image and click Filter to give your image a little something extra.

ANOTHER QUICK TIP: To make your image much darker like I did -- so that your white words can really pop -- just add a black square over your image. Then change the transparency until it’s just the way you like it. Do this with a white square and black text to get the opposite effect.

While I was working, I got inspired and decided to switch some things around. I added a new square on the top and bottom to frame the image. Then I changed the color and font of the text and added two little rectangles around CHALLENGE to emphasize it. It’s amazing what you can do with those shapes.

Once you’re happy with your cover page, it’s time to move on.

Figure out how to distill your article down to a few key points. If you’re stuck, try using 2-3 slides to set up the problem, another 4-6 to make your point, and 1-2 slides to conclude.

First, add a textbox and copy the first key piece of your article. Do not be afraid of white space. It’s simpler for you and tends to look better anyway.

Brighten things up with some colors, selective bolding, and some of Canva’s icons.

Once you’ve figured out a font size and font type, stick to it. Copy one of your existing text boxes and paste it in your next page to keep things consistent. Add an image for some visual appeal.

I like to search for free vector images -- like the one above -- so I can use them against any background color. For this one, I simply Googled “fitness vector image.” Then I clicked Images → Search Tools → Usage Rights and changed it to “labeled for reuse” to avoid any copyright issues.

Try making a few points visually in one slide with the help of some vector images or Canva’s own icons. You can even use their Frames feature to auto-split your slide in various ways.

I like to alternate between slides that force my audience to focus and slides that let them breathe.

Canva has a Charts section, which makes it really easy to showcase numbers and datasets visually.

Here’s another slide to let viewers catch their breath.

If you find it useful, take advantage of Canva’s stylized, pre-designed fonts in the Text tab. And don’t forget about their free icons and images!

Once you’ve figured out a slide style, it makes sense to use it again when appropriate.

And again.

And again!

It’s worth noting here that I used a small trick on my Week 2 slide. I made one slide look like this (without the winky face at the bottom) and copied it using the copy button on the side.

After I copied it, I then added the note at the bottom.

This adds a cool effect. When someone clicks to the next slide, it looks like a little message popped up. Neat, right?

Moving on…

If you can offer your audience enough info to make your slideshow useful -- and still leave them wanting to read the rest of your article or go to your website, that’s a huge win.

I always recommend some sort of call-to-action, typically with a link to your website.

Export your slideshow as a PDF (standard) and you’re good to go.

Now go and upload it to Slideshare. Make sure to fill in the title, an engaging description, a relevant category, and plenty of keywords to increase discoverability. 

You can check out my final product here.

And that’s it -- congratulations! Leave me a comment or tweet me at @ryanerskineNY if you have any questions.