What do you think of the current standard of the football referees in the English Premiership? Do you think a system of video replays should be introduced to help these referees and to stop what are some important mistakes being made? These two questions are things which myself and my friends debate on a regular basis, especially after a few beers.

I will never forget attending a football match a few years ago which was played in one of the leagues below the Premiership. It was a very important match between my favourite team Birmingham City and one of their local rivals Stoke City. It was an important match because Birmingham really needed to win the game as they were in danger of being relegated in that particular season. The three points for the win would certainly have helped them in their quest to survive.

With only around ten minutes of the match remaining Birmingham were leading a tense match by one goal to nil. Then one of the Stoke players barged the Birmingham keeper, who had the ball in his hands, over. The ball slipped from his grasp and one of the other Stoke players kicked it into an unguarded net.

I was certain that the referee would have seen what was a definite foul on our keeper, as I am sure was every other supporter in the stadium. To my and all of the other Birmingham supporters horror, he did not and he let the goal stand. I am normally quite a calm person but became so angry it was untrue. The next thing that happened was one of the Birmingham fans ran onto the pitch and fully punched this referee in the face. The players were taken off the pitch while order was restored.

I remember thinking at the time that this referee had deserved to be hit, but I later changed my mind, once I had had time to calm down. We are all capable of making a mistake of course.

I really believe in the argument that video replays should be introduced in some capacity, as in this case the goal would not have been allowed to stand.

Week in week out in the Premiership many mistakes are made which have a huge impact on the results of different matches. Football is such big business these days with the players earning such huge sums of money, surely we should have something in place to ensure that some of these errors are stopped during the match and are not merely things to debate after it.

I actually feel quite sorry for the football referees these days. With so many matches on the television they are being scrutinised more than ever. Even if they only get one decision wrong over the course of the match they still receive criticism.

I personally think that the overall standard of referees in the Premiership is very good and that we should start to get off these peoples back. I would however like each referee to be interviewed after each match in the same way as the football managers are. By doing this they could explain to the supporters why they made certain decisions during the match. They could also be shown a reply of some of the bigger incidents and asked to comment on whether they think they made the correct decision after viewing the replay.

While motion picture films have been around for more than a century, film is still a relative newcomer in the pantheon of fine arts. In the 1950s, when television became widely available, industry analysts predicted the demise of local movie theaters. Despite competition from television’s increasing technological sophistication over the 1960s and 1970s, such as the development of color television and large screens, motion picture cinemas continued. In the 1980s, when the widespread availability of inexpensive videocassette recorders enabled people to select films for home viewing, industry analysts again wrongly predicted the death of the local cinemas.

Over the years we’ve heard a lot about how to give your web site more value. At first everyone said to put lots of interesting information on your site and you would see a stampede of visitors come your way.

Then we were told to dress our sites and blogs up with logos, graphics, and photos. That helped to bring traffic, too.

Finally we were told to give your sites all the right keywords to bring in the utmost in search engine traffic. By now, that technique has been used just about everywhere it can be.

Now, the Internet is moving to a different phase. Increasingly, top sites are using video to increase their value and bring in lots of traffic. Think about the last time you logged into Amazon or CNN. You very likely were greeted with a professional-looking video that started up on the page and relayed a movie preview or news report.

In the past, you would have to hire a video production house to create, process, host, and post your video, all at a cost of thousands of dollars. But not any more.

Now you can have that same kind of professional video on your site or blog for a price that fits any budget. It’s relatively easy to create using low-cost equipment commonly sold for home use.

In the course I teach, I show students how to use Hollywood tricks to transform any space in your house into what looks like a National TV studio. You can do this for under $97, camera not inlcuded. Now that’s an advantage for your site or blog that you shouldn’t pass up.

What should your site or blog video be?

* Interview yourself or an expert, giving information that your visitors would find interesting.

* A demonstration of how to use your product or service.

* A high-tech, entertaining addition to your ebook or instructional CD.

We live in the television age, when just about everybody would rather look at a video that SHOWS them how to do something rather than have to read about it or listen to someone tell them about
it.

A video gives you much higher response and a far better informed customer base. When people really understand what you are offering and what you can do for them, making sales (often at a higher price) is far easier.