I decided to write a Content Samurai review after finally purchasing the programme a couple of weeks ago. Now that I’ve had some time to play around with it I wanted to offer my views. You can watch my in depth video review below if you prefer.
As we all know, video is “the bomb” these days. If you’re a marketer, a business owner or entrepreneur, using video to promote your wares is essential. Pretty much every platform these days is dominated by video ads.
The snag is that making effective videos can be difficult, expensive and time consuming. Bigger companies and established brands with big budgets simply outsource the process but what about the little guy? You know, the small business owners and solopreneurs who, thanks to the Internet represent a high percentage of the businesses community. Does Content Samurai offer a viable, low cost option?
What if you are simply not keen on the idea of appearing in your own videos?
If you are not technically minded and cringe at the idea of learning how to use cameras, lighting, sound equipment and video editing software – never mind the costs involved in all that. Could this be your Ninja secret weapon?
Does It Do What It says On The Tin?
Content Samurai is billed as an easy solution to all of the above. Makers Noble Samurai claim that professional videos can be created with just a few mouse clicks. They say that no previous experience is necessary and that their platform offers everything you need to create videos for pretty much any purpose on pretty much every platform. Lets find out.
This is a program, which begins with text. You write or outsource some copy which describes your product, service or message. You can use a blog post or article too. You begin by choosing where you want your video to appear.
There are various formats suitable for social media, mobile, wide screen, online courses etc. Each of those has a range of template options to choose from.
When you have made your choice you’ll see an example video with a description of its features alongside. Then you’ll be asked to paste in your script, blog post or article. There are a number of check boxes which let you decide on a range of automated options.
As soon as you do this and hit “create scenes for your video”, Content Samurai whizzes through built in image and video clip libraries, matching them to your text. N.B. It’s best to divide your text into sentences or short paragraphs for best results here. I created a short script for a video promoting a internet business training platform as an example in my video review.
The Content Samurai Process
In an impressively short time a series of “slides” – a mix of video and still images are built. These form the basis of your video. You can then review each section and use simple editing tools to customise the results. If you don’t like the selected clips or images you can search the libraries to find something that suits you better. You can also upload your own and use those. There are plenty of places online to source free or paid images and video clips see list below.
Shutterstock (paid)
Fiverr.com (paid – voiceovers and a million other things)
When you are happy with things so far, its time to think about sounds. Again Content Samurai offers some options here.
You might want to simply have a music track. A range of instrumental tracks are provided or you can upload/outsource your own. The timing of the video sections can be automated or again, you can alter this yourself.
If you are happy to you use your own voice you can simply record it from your computer’s microphone in sections. Once again you can also upload pre-recorded voices. There is also an option to choose from a selection of automated vocals.
“One Two – One Two”
Personally I find these a little robotic but they could work well in some types of video. If you don’t want to use those options you could always go to somewhere like Fiverr.com and pay a voice over artist to read your script. This is actually pretty cheap. That’s what Content Samurai did for the 5 tutorial videos that talk you through the programme.
When you have everything set up to your liking you are ready to hit the blue button that says “create preview”. Depending on the length of your video this takes anything from a few seconds to a minute or so. Its very fast.
It’s worth mentioning (and they do) that the preview generated is low resolution. If you are happy with it and hit the download button the video is rendered in full quality.
The Final Analysis
There’s no doubt that this is a very clever piece of software. It definitely can very quickly produce useable videos. If you choose to use all of the automated options and are happy with the images, clips, audio and formatting created then its incredibly fast. I my first experiments I created short videos in around 2 minutes.
I do think that most users will want to spend more time tweaking things however. That said its very easy to do that. It’s far simpler than traditional video editing with Camtasia, Screenflow, Final Cut or even Imovie.
From that point of view it does what it says on the tin. The camera shy will love it as will anyone in a hurry or without video making skills.
As a traditional video marketer I’m probably still going to do the bulk of my work with a Camera, sound recorder and video editing software. I can definitely see me using Content Samurai for creating courses and short videos for my projects. I also think it would be excellent for anyone looking to create videos for other people.
Content Samurai is a cloud based platform with a no fixed length monthly subscription. The basic cost is $47 per month. You can do a free 7-day trial and keep any videos you produce or you can use my link below to secure a 25% discount.
I can honestly say that it represents great value for money. If you are an affiliate marketer, run an e-commerce business or are producing videos for clients it will pay for itself pretty quickly.
