Internet Marketing Tools

Our posts have been about using videos for your small business marketing.  In this article by Dave Kaminski, he shows how you can effectively make money using your small business videos.  Enjoy and prosper.

How To Make Money With Video Podcasting

January 4th, 2010

A core component of what I teach inside Web Video University deals with video podcasting.  This is where you create episodic videos on a particular topic, containing pure content, and these videos are available to viewers through a number of ways (on-site, via RSS feeds, iTunes, etc.).

A lot of people mistakenly look at video podcasts as a way to rank easily in search engines for non-competitive keywords…and they’ll wonder “should I do a video podcast or just submit my videos to sharing sites?”.  While you certainly can rank easily for non-competitive keywords in search engines through video podcasts, that’s not the point of a video podcast.

The point of video podcasts is to build an audience that consumes the content you share in your videos.  An audience that comes back again and again…because they want to…because they enjoy your content…and an audience that will build your viewership for you by recommending your video podcast to others.

So how do you make money with this? Well, once you have an audience there are a number of ways…from using it as a platform to promote your own products…to promoting products as an affiliate…to being a compensated endorser for advertisers.

The last one is a biggie.  That’s because of the word “endorser”.  You see, by providing quality content continuously to your audience, you will build authority.  That means people will trust what you say.  And if you suggest or recommend a certain product, your audience will buy.

Leo Laporte of Twit.TV is a perfect example.  Leo has been doing tech related shows for a long time (I can remember watching him on Screen Savers, a long-ago canceled tech-TV show).  But on Twit.TV, here and there throughout his broadcast, he endorses products he really likes…and is compensated for it.  To the tune of around $1.5 million in 2009 (he claims operating expenses are around $350,000).

Not bad for just mentioning stuff you really like during a show.  But that’s the secret.  With video podcasting, you’re not selling stuff.  You’re not in people’s faces with some marketing pitch.  Instead you’re providing valuable information (for free)…which gives you authority…which gives your word a lot of weight when you do recommend or endorse a product.

And that’s how money is made with video podcasting.  By ensuring your word carries weight.  No, you will not get rich overnight…nor will you build an audience that fast either.  But keep at it religiously and you will be rewarded on an ever increasing scale.

http://webvideouniversity.com/blog/2010/01/04/how-to-make-money-with-video-podcasting/

About the Author

Dave Kaminski is a professional copywriter, videographer and 10-year veteran of direct response marketing whose work in multimedia advertising has resulted in millions of dollars worth of sales. A former U.S. Marine, Dave specializes in teaching entrepreneurs how to effectively use web video in their marketing efforts.

To be continued, your comments are always welcomed…

Al Hanzal

Here are eight lesser known tips and trick for your video distribution.  Put these to use and people will see your marketing videos everywhere.

1. Subscribe to the “Big Hitters”. Find the top videos in your industry (based on the number of views).  Subscribe to their videos.  You will learn from them and others will see your name associated with them, allowing you to share in their credibility.

2. Submit a video comment to other videos in your industry. YouTube allows you to submit a video comment on other YouTube videos right beneath the viewing box.  You can either create a new video or use one of your existing videos as this comment.  When the industry video is shown, your video will be grouped in related videos, giving your video more exposure.

3. Write comments on other videos. You can also make written comments on other YouTube videos.  Always include your URL with these comments.  This will help spread your name and reputation.  These should be comments that foster the conversation going on with the video.

4. Make friends on YouTube. In an earlier post, http://budurl.com/videosocialmediasite  I showed you how to use YouTube as a social media site.  As a social media site, it follows the rules of other social media sites for building friends and relationships.  These are important in your distribution process.  Cultivate friends on YouTube.

5. Check out Veeple, which is a cool, new video production technology that allows you to make certain spots on your video clickable. That way, people can click a video of a document to download a hard copy, or they can click on a video of a website to visit the website.

6. Non-sense code. On YouTube you can put in Tags for every one of your videos (keywords).  By putting in a non-sense code, like spelling your name backwards, “laznah” into every Tag line, YouTube will group all the videos with this non-sense code together.  What this means is that your videos will all be grouped together under the Related Videos.

7. Create a link back strategy. You are familiar with getting other businesses to link back to your website as a way of getting a higher search engine ranking.  Employ the same strategy with your videos.  Get other related businesses to link to your videos and you will get a higher search engine rating from Google and YouTube.

8. Social Book Marking. Social book marketing has become an important ingredient in today’s distribution channels.   Put your videos on your website and have them also cited on places like Delicious.com, Digg.com, Stumbleupon.com and socialmarker.com will give your video increased distribution channels for others to find it.

Conclusion

By applying many of this distribution techniques, you will get your marketing videos on the internet in many places.  They will all be point back to your website or blog.  Having these distribution efforts is how videos drive good traffic to your site.

To be continued, your comments are always welcomed…

Al Hanzal

As promised, I will share some video marketing tips.  Jamie Turner has written a wonderful article that includes 22 tips you can use to improve your video marketing.  I have taken the top 11 tips for this post.  To see the entire selection of tips, go to:  http://60secondmarketer.com/blog/2009/02/02/22-tips-on-using-online-video-to-grow-your-business/ .  I also suggest you click on the 2 minute video about Mike Turner for another version on how video marketing can be used in your business.  Enjoy and prosper.

Mike Turner, Jr., a freelance creative director based out of North Carolina (and a relative of one of the members of the 60 Second Marketer team) has successfully used online video to engage prospective clients and to position himself as an alternative to using a full-service agency.

His website is designed to promote his services, but on the last page of his site, he uses a funny, tongue-in-cheek video called “Humility” to add some personality to his personal brand. It’s a fun example of how you can use an inexpensive video to differentiate yourself from your competitors and have some fun in the process.

1. It’s mostly about the visuals. If you watch the evening news, you’ll notice that what you’re really paying attention to is the video, not the script. Sure, the script enhances the video, but at the end, you remember what you see more than what you hear. Think about the Miracle on the Hudson — you remember the video of the airplane, not what the journalist said about it.

2. Focus on one, or at most two, key points. Keep things simple. But if you do decide to focus on more than one point, be sure to include a recap at the end so the viewer gets a second chance to see your key points.

3. Keep the videos short. People don’t have the time or the patience to watch something more than two or three minutes long.

4. Write in concise sentences. Jerry Seinfeld said that the art of telling a joke was to get as much information packed into as short a sentence as possible. In similar fashion, the more content you pack into each sentence, the crisper and more fulfilling the video will be.

5. A committee will kill a good video. As with most things creative, the more people who are involved, the more likely a good concept will get watered down. Keep things simple, crisp and efficient.

6. Add variety. Use photos up front, then cut away to a short interview, then come back to a pie chart, then show more photos — the more variety and texture in your video, the more your audience will stay engaged.

7. Don’t ad lib. Plan your video out. Write a script. Record it. Drop in the visuals and graphics. Don’t wing it — if you do, it’ll show.

8. Script writing secrets. Write your script. Then write it again with 25% fewer words. Then cut that back by another 25%. The secret is to keep things short. People are used to watching 30-second commercials. Two minutes is an eternity in online video world.

9. Keep the transitions between scenes simple. There are over 100 ways to transition from one scene to the next. Do you know how many of those Hollywood uses? One. It’s called a dissolve and it’s still the simplest, easiest, cleanest way to move from one scene to the next.

10. Create your own YouTube channel. If you’re going to shoot a lot of videos, create your own YouTube channel like the one The 60 Second Marketer has. That way, people can subscribe to your videos and get updates whenever you upload a new one.

11. Follow the 2 second rule. The average 30-second TV spot has between 15 to 30 shots. If you keep the shots in your video to under 2 seconds each, you’ll keep your viewer engaged the same way a 30-second TV spot does.

Most importantly: Your video needs to be funny or amazing or remarkable or have some fascinating information or be controversial. Basically the video needs a reason for people to pass it on. If you can find pass along value connected to your organization and its products, great. I’m not a fan of stupid contests or celebrity endorsements unrelated to a company and its products.   http://www.youtube.com/60SecondMarketer

To be continued, your comments are welcomed…

Al Hanzal

Because video marketing share the same principles as other forms of internet marketing, we need to spend a few minutes focusing on the how to get your videos found by the search engines so they can contribute to your online marketing efforts and search engine rankings.  In a previous post, http://successfulmarketingtools.com/wordpressblog/wp-admin/post.php?action=edit&post=692, I showed how Google loves videos.

Google Loves Videos

Videos help expand your awareness on the internet.  Google loves videos and not just because they bought YouTube.  Google’s goal is to provide internet searchers with relevant and authoritative sources to match their searches.  Today Google include text, images, audios and videos to match search terms.

When you create a video and place it on Youtube, that same video can show up on other social media sites, like Twitter, Facebook, your blog, your website.  Now you have many places where you will be seen.  Unlike a newspaper ad where your presence goes away with the current issue, your video resides on the internet 24/7 with a variety of roads leading to it.

Key Words

Like all internet searches, your key words are the fuel that makes the search engine go. Placing a video on Youtube does very little.  When you give it an interesting Title, use your key words in the Youtube Tag and place key words and your URL in the Youtube Description, you have the supporting ingredients that will allow videos to create awareness for your business.

Here are some tips on how to maximize the SEO power of videos to support your small business.

• Put key words on your YouTube description. You have a total of 27 characters to use in your YouTube Tag or keyword placement.  This is how the search engines will find your videos.

• Include your clickable URL in the first line of the video description on YouTube. This will give your viewers and Google a reference back to your website or blog.  Be sure to add the http:// to your URL to make it clickable.

• Put a text version of your video on your website when you embed the video and include a link it to your YouTube page.

• Add comments with URLs on popular videos. You can add  your text comments or use a  video comment ( a new video or you one of your existing videos) as a way of joining forces with existing videos on YouTube.  This allows you to be connected with videos that are already getting a large number of views, increasing the opportunity for your videos to get more views.

Tracking

Tracking your videos has never been easier by using the YouTube feature call Insight.  Here are some of the statistics you can learn by clicking on the Insight Icon next to each of your videos.

• Source of views–where are the views of your video coming from?
• The age and gender of the viewers
• Who is looking at your videos over what time frames
• What sites linking to your video
• Geographic views—what states or countries are looking at your videos

Optimizing Google Searches for your YouTube videos

• User Google Website Optimizer to help you determine which video works best.   This free tool allows you to test and experiment with different forms of videos to find out which ones work the best.  By creating different variations of the same video, you can run tests on which gets the most views.

• Use Google Video Site Maps

• Video Submission and RSS

You can see from the above tips and suggestions, you  have many opportunities to get SEO efforts from your small business marketing videos.

To be continued, your comments are welcomed…

Al Hanzal

Small Business Video Marketing

You’ve learned about the techniques and tools you need to make a small business video.  Now, its time to turn our focus on ways to use videos to market your business.  The principles of good internet marketing apply to video marketing as well as to other forms of internet marketing.

First, let’s look at different places you can use videos within your marketing structure:

1. Video Sales Letters

If we could get in front of a prospect, most of us feel we could make the sale.  With a video sales letter, you are standing right there with all of your verbal and non-verbal behavior selling your product or service. Video is much more powerful at one to one sales than written copy.

2. Video Newsletters

Your online newsletters can be an important tool in building relationships with people on your list. Now image the power of fostering that relationship by creating a video newsletter where people can see and feel your helpful information.

3. The Video Opt-in Page

More and more you are now seeing video Opt-in pages or squeeze pages on website.  The object of a Opt-in page is to catch people’s attending and to get their Opt-in information so you can use this to build relationships for the future.  Having a video of a person welcoming others to your website or inviting them to give their Opt-in information is more attention grabbing and effective than text versions of Opt-in pages. This is a wonderful place to place video on your website.

4. Video Product Demonstrations

Have you ever read those long explanations about a product or installation instructions?  You get lost.  A video actually showing how to do things with the product is more effective for the customer.  Than can see with their own eyes how something should be done.  A happy customer is a better customer.   Would you rather see a benefit or read about a benefit?

5. Video Commands

A call to action is a critical part of any marketing effort.  You can use a video call to action and make it a very personal call to action.  Your facial expressions and tone will be more effective than the words you use. You can also use videos to answer frequently asked questions.

6. Using Video to Produce Information Products

It is only another step to take materials you may have been selling in e-book form and transfer the same materials to a series of videos.  More and more we are becoming a visual learning culture.  By offering people the option, you are given them another way to buy from you.

And don’t forget the screen capture option for videos.  Using screen capture to take a power point presentations from your computer, make it into a video over which you can speak your instructions.  This can produce an instant product you can sell.

7.  Viral Marketing

The objective of viral marketing is to create a video that is entertaining and others want to pass on to their friends.  The video needs to have good content, be entertaining and have qualities that make people want to pass it on.  Because videos are easily shared, when you create one of these winners, you quickly grow exposure to your business.

To be continued, your comments are welcomed…

Al Hanzal

As we start the beginning of a new decade, I share with you some thoughts I have on social media marketing.  I plan on implementing these thoughts in 2010 and invite you to consider doing the same.  Enjoy and let’s prosper together in 2010.

Al Hanzal

Here’s one of Daniel Levis’s bold predictions for 2010.  Daniel is a successful and respected internet business owner.  He predicts video will go main stream in 2010.  If you want to see his other predictions http://www.daniellevis.com/?p=406&cpage=1#comment-2803.

Online Video Will Finally Go Mainstream

$100 Flip cameras, cheap screen capture and video editing software and inexpensive high capacity server platforms like Amazon S3 are slowly bringing online video mainstream.

This trend will accelerate in 2010 as more and more marketers capitalize on the full spectrum communication available through video. It is by far the most effective medium for seizing attention and making a subliminal connection with your target audience.

Within seconds you can captivate your viewers, gain rapport, and endear trust with online video. It will become the killer app for selling low-ticket items in one sitting.

It will also become an increasingly important weapon for selling higher ticket items that require repeated exposure and graduated commitment to complete the sale. When integrated intelligently with text and audio, you can effectively target auditory, visual, and even kinesthetic learning styles with equal aplomb.

If you’re selling high-ticket items, you’ll be using video to seize attention, build trust, and demonstrate your products … text to cement commitment … and audio to ear-bud along with your prospects and reinforce your sales message while they drive, walk, exercise and so on.

As video becomes commonplace in your marketing, it will make sense to develop content creation processes that simultaneously lay down all three types of media. These multiple modes of media can then be distributed sequentially to your target audience.

To be continued, your comments are welcomed…

Al Hanzal

Here are some additional reasons I would make for using YouTube as your central video platform for small business video marketing.

1. YouTube is owned by Google.  Google has a proven tract record of making money.  In their business, they recognize that if Google users win, they win.  They continue to make it easier and easier to use YouTube as a video platform.

2. YouTube has incredible traffic.  Each day over 1 billion hits occur on YouTube.  This involves 71million unique visitors.  Where can you find that type of traffic?

3. YouTube now has its own search engine.   Check it out at the top of your YouTube channel.  Type in a word and look at all the choices it provides to you.   These are words that others already use to interactive with YouTube.

4. YouTube is no longer for teenagers.  85% of Americans have watched a YouTube video.   The new demographic groups involved people who have money to spend.

5. A recent report said “YouTube is still approximately two years away from peaking in the technological curve.  This makes the present a great time to get your business positioned on YouTube.

These are just a few of the additional reasons why YouTube can be a very powerful video platform for your small business video marketing.

To be continued, your comments are welcomed…

Al Hanzal

In the next few posts, I will focus on the marketing aspects of video.  In this short article, Keith Stauffer gives four reasons why YouTube is a good marketing tool for your small business efforts.  Enjoy and prosper.

Due to the fact it is on the news all the time YouTube is a site everyone is aware of. If you do business online than this social marketing site is certainly one you want to use to promote your business.

You will have to figure out for yourself if this is the best advertising tool to use. To help you decide you need to know some of the important reasons many people believe this is the top site to use.

Here are the most significant reasons:

1. When you use this site to promote you can use a different tool. This site is effective because it is a site where people make and post videos on every subject imaginable.

People all over the world prefer video to reading for the information they want. If you can put together a video that provides the information people are looking for in your niche then you will have a very powerful marketing method to get them to your business.

2. This site is used by millions of people all over the world. This means that you can get your business in front of millions of eyeballs.

That can help any business be successful because the more people you can get you business in front of the more success you will have. Building a successful business is a numbers game so it makes sense that the more people that see your site the more success you will have.

3. You can use your videos from this social site to market your business in other ways. You can use your video and post it to your blog with a short article to get traffic.

You can send out a tweet to you Twitter followers about your video and many other things. The more you use your video along with other marketing methods the more effective it will be.

4. You can be more creative with this site to catch your customer’s attention. You only have a short amount of time to get their attention and have them learn more.

By being creative and informative with your videos you will very easily be able to grab anyone’s attention. Videos are a very attention grabbing tool if you learn how to use it effectively first.

These are the most critical reasons why so many people will feel YouTube is the top social media site you can use for your Internet business. You decide for yourself after checking into it more and trying it out for yourself to see how effective it can be for any business.

Keith Stauffer can show you how you can have the freedom to pursue your dreams withsocial marketing and social media. If you are searching for real information about creating wealth online please click here now. http://keithstauffer.com So see the original article click here:  http://adsighted.com/blog/2009/10/11/is-youtube-the-very-best-social-media-marketing-tool/

To be continued, your comments are welcomed…

Al Hanzal

Lou Bortone, an expert in video and YouTube marketing, has created a holiday gift.  It’s a 15 minute tutorial on how to use YouTube more effective.  You can go here http://www.veeple.com/link/sO7ppTh%252BH4w%253D. To learn more about Lou you can go here to learn more about his program.  Lou Bortone & Family  www.OnlineVideoBranding.com

To be continued, your comments are welcomed…

Al Hanzal