Jeff Bullas

An excellent question that separates amateurs from pros.

Short Answer: The best way is to use a “double-ender” recording technique where both you and your guest record high-quality audio locally on your own computers.

This approach makes the internet connection’s stability irrelevant to the final audio quality.

The process has a few key parts. The first is pre-interview preparation, where you must ensure your guest has a decent microphone and wears headphones to prevent their computer speakers from bleeding into their audio track. The second and most critical part of the technique is that both you and the guest record your own audio separately and directly onto your own computers; this captures the raw, uncompressed sound at the source. A third, wise step is to also record the audio from your live call software as a backup in case one of the local files fails. After the conversation, the guest simply sends you their high-quality audio file to be synchronised with yours in post-production. Relying solely on the live call’s audio is a common mistake that guarantees a low-quality, unprofessional result.

Cheers,
Jeff

That’s a timely question, especially in the current job market.

Short Answer: Yes, for an active job seeker, it is worth it. Premium is an accelerator that provides crucial data and unlocks communication channels that are otherwise closed.

The best way to see Premium is as a toolkit that amplifies the impact of your own content and personal brand.

First, its most undervalued feature is full access to LinkedIn Learning, which is a massive library of high-quality video content designed to help you upskill for the specific roles you are targeting. Second, the InMail feature is a powerful tool. It allows you to craft a highly personalised text message and send it directly to a hiring manager, a format that is far more direct and impactful than a standard connection request. Third, features like ‘Who’s Viewed Your Profile’ provide crucial data on the audience that is consuming your content. This tells you if your profile’s text and featured media are attracting the right people, allowing you to tailor your content strategy and follow up with interested recruiters. It turns your profile from a passive document into an active lead-generation tool.

It’s a valid question, as many legacy features lose their punch over time.

Short Answer: Yes, they absolutely still matter, but not as a primary screening tool. They function as powerful social proof and are often used as a tie-breaker between final candidates.

A useful way to think of a recommendation is as the most credible text-based content format on your entire profile.

First, a recommendation serves as third-party validation for all the other content you have written about yourself; your experience section is your claim, but a detailed recommendation is the evidence. Second, the quality of that text is what matters, not the quantity. A generic ‘Jane was great to work with’ is useless, but a recommendation that describes a specific project, the challenge you overcame, and the measurable result is the format that carries real weight. Third, while they may not be read by every initial screener, they are absolutely reviewed at the final consideration stage. When a hiring manager is deciding between two strong candidates, a profile with specific, glowing recommendations has a clear advantage because it reduces the perceived risk of making the hire.

This is the right question to be asking; engagement is a vanity metric if it doesn’t lead to business.

Short Answer: You need to treat your Stories as a multi-part sales funnel, starting with a viewer’s pain point and ending with a clear, low-friction call-to-action that invites them into your DMs for a conversation.

The strategic goal of this mixed-media format isn’t to sell directly, but to transition a passive viewer into an active lead by starting a one-on-one text-based conversation.

Stop thinking in terms of single image or video stories and start thinking in sequences. A simple and effective funnel is to start your sequence with a Story that highlights a common problem your ideal customer faces, perhaps using a poll sticker to get easy engagement. Follow this up with two or three stories that offer genuine, valuable advice on that topic to establish your authority. Once you’ve provided that value, your final Story is the call-to-action, but it must be low-friction. Instead of asking for a sale, ask for a conversation by instructing interested viewers to DM you a specific keyword, like ‘READY’. This simple text-based action filters for the warmest leads, delivers them directly to your inbox, and allows you to start a sales conversation privately.

Cheers,

Jeff.

This is the skill that separates amateur creators from professional ones.

The Bottom Line: You need to ignore vanity metrics like total views and focus almost exclusively on Average Watch Time. Find your top-performing videos and analyse their hook, format, and retention data to create a hypothesis for your next video.

Data is useless without a system for turning it into actionable intelligence.

Here is a simple process you should follow. First, stop looking at every single video’s data. Go into your analytics for the last 28 days and identify only your three best-performing videos and your three worst. For your top videos, you need to analyse two numbers above all others: the Average Watch Time and the percentage of viewers who Watched The Full Video. These metrics tell you precisely how engaging your content was. Once you confirm these numbers are high, you must then analyse the video’s creative elements to understand why. Ask yourself what the hook was in the first two seconds, what the format was, and what the topic was about. By comparing the quantitative data (high watch time) with the qualitative data (the format), you can form a clear hypothesis, such as, “My audience responds best to tutorial videos that start with a question”. The final step is to test this hypothesis by creating your next videos using that exact same successful formula. This is how you stop guessing and start building a real content strategy.

Cheers,

Jeff

That’s the right question to be asking.

Top Line Answer: The most effective videos are not ads; they are authentic content formats that showcase your product as a solution. Focus on problem/solution videos, tutorials, and value-driven unboxings.

You need to stop thinking about selling a product and start thinking about demonstrating a solution.

The TikTok audience is very sceptical of anything that feels like a traditional advertisement, so your video’s first job is to provide value or entertainment. The single most effective video format for sales is the problem/solution structure, where the first few seconds of the video present a highly relatable problem that your product directly solves. Another incredibly powerful format is a straightforward tutorial or “how-to” video that demonstrates your product in action, which builds trust and proves its value to potential customers. Finally, a third effective method is an authentic unboxing that focuses less on the packaging and more on the immediate benefits and quality of the product inside. Regardless of the format you choose, your video must have a strong visual hook within the first two seconds and end with a clear, simple call-to-action that points viewers to the product link.

Cheers,

Jeff

This is a very common frustration on Marketplace, but it’s usually fixable.

The Most Likely Reason: Your listing is likely being penalised by the algorithm due to the quality of its content formats, or it has been automatically flagged for a policy review.

Marketplace’s system heavily judges the quality of your text and image content to decide whether a listing is worth showing to buyers.

First, stop deleting and relisting the item, as this behaviour can look like spam to the system and make the problem worse. Instead, critically review your content. Ensure you have at least five bright, clear photos taken from multiple angles, and never use a stock photo from the internet; you could even add a short video clip showing the chair’s features, as video content is highly prioritised. Next, analyse your text. Your title should be descriptive, like ‘Grey Ergonomic Swivel Office Chair’, and the description needs details like the brand and dimensions, as this text data is crucial for the search algorithm. Finally, check the Marketplace policies to ensure you haven’t accidentally used a word in your text that triggers a restriction.

Cheers,

Jeff

That’s an excellent goal to have, as video results can dramatically improve your click-through rate.

Short Answer: To get your videos to appear in search results, you need to embed Video Schema Markup—a specific type of text code—on your page and submit a video sitemap to Google.

You’re essentially providing a detailed, machine-readable summary of your video content directly to the search engine.

The process involves giving Google explicit information about your video content. First, the most crucial step is adding Video Schema markup to the text of your webpage; this code describes your video’s title, duration, and provides a direct URL to a compelling thumbnail image. Second, that thumbnail image itself is vital, as it’s the visual advertisement for your video in the search results and needs to be high-quality to entice clicks. Third, you should create and submit a video sitemap, which is a specific text file listing all your video URLs, to help Google discover and index your video content more efficiently. It’s important to only do this for pages where the video is a primary piece of content, not a minor element, and ensure your descriptive text in the schema is accurate and not misleading.

Cheers,
Jeff

• This reply was modified 1 month, 2 weeks ago by Neil Anthony.
• This reply was modified 1 month, 2 weeks ago by Neil Anthony.