11 Ways To Do More With Online Video
As a small business owner, using online video helps you to stand out. It allows you to attract new customers, gain additional rankings in the search engines, and to offer content in a more digestible format. You know this. But what are some ways you can get even move from video as a small business owner? Here are some online video techniques that are getting me excited right now.
1. Optimize Everything: The easiest way to get MORE from your online videos is to make sure you’re doing everything you can to make them findable by optimizing them for users and the search engines. When it comes to optimizing your video, you want to pay special attention to your Title, Description, Tags, and Captions/Annotations. The more keyword-rich and engaging you can make them, the better.
2. Test your Thumbnails: Once you upload your video, YouTube will allow you to pick from three video stills to use as that video’s thumbnail image. You may want to test what works best for you. Does a human face get more clicks than a slate of text? Does a smiling woman get more clicks than an image of your CEO (probably)? These are things you’ll want to experiment with to make sure picking the thumbnail that will lead to the most conversions.
3. Add Transcripts: A few weeks ago I offered some tips on how to add transcripts to your YouTube videos. This is a really easy way to increase the benefit you’re seeing from your videos by making them more findable and search-engine friendly.
4. End with a call to action: Make sure your video closes with some type of call to action. Someone sat there and watched your entire two minute video – now what do you want them to do? Include a call to action that encourages them to continue their interaction with your brand and gets them to DO something, whether it’s to visit your site, check out a blog post or even to share the video with their friends. If you’re not including a call to action at the end of your video, you’re missing out on a great marketing opportunity.
5. Make an offer: Want to increase views and comments on your video? Offer an incentive for customers to do so. Maybe there’s a free discount code in the video or something that will give them special access to your brand. Include an offer to incentivize the video.
6. Make it easy to share: Encourage people to share your video by including calls to action for them to do so, uploading it on Facebook and, of course, tweeting it! The new version of Twitter is designed to put media right in the forefront of the service. That means prime real estate for your video content.
7. Experiment with different platforms: While it’s the biggest, YouTube isn’t the only video game in town. Try uploading your video content to sites like Vimeo, Viddler, Blip.tv, iTunes and others to increase your audience and monopolize more room on the search engines results page. When you upload your content to both YouTube AND another platform, you can make them both rank for keyword-searches. Don’t have time to upload the same video to multiple sites? TubeMogul will do it for you at no cost.
8. Alter the content for each platform: Or, instead of uploading the same content to different platforms, tailor the content to the different audiences to increase conversion rates.
9. Put videos on high-conversion pages: Help increase sales by using online video on conversion pages. At last year’s Streaming Media West show, Zappos Content Team Senior Manager Ric Nasol talked about how Zappos was using video on product pages to help drive sales. And they seemed to have worked. Ric reported a sales impact of 6 to 30 percent.
10. Create playlists: If you’ve ever gotten stuck in an endless loop on YouTube watching one funny video after another, you know that video is addicting. Luckily, it’s also addicting for your customers. Help feel their addiction by creating playlists for them to watch and subscribe to. By going to your My Videos page and linking your videos, you help your customers kill their entire day watching content about your brand. Like potato chips, when it comes to online video, you can’t have just one.
11. Use the Insight: YouTube Insights is a free tool that allows video creators to see detailed statistics about the videos they upload to the site. You can see how often the videos are viewed, how popular they are relative to other videos, what the community engagement is like, how many subscribers you get daily, and lots of other important information. Just like with anything, knowing the numbers behind what you’re doing can help you to make smarter decisions down the road.
Those are my eleven tips for getting more out of YouTube. What’s working for you?
11 Ways To Do More With Online Video
Related posts:
- Improving View Through Rate for Product Video: 4 Hypotheses Tested
- Online video as lead generation
- Steve Garfield Explains How to Use Online Video for Marketing
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Source
Online Marketing Connect
More Free Blogs and Web 2.0 Sites
Some time ago, I compiled a list of free blogs to use either as a stand alone blogging platform, or as promotional tools. I am not a big fan of just dumping poor content on these sites, but they certainly have their uses as far as promoting your website is concerned. No matter how you make a living online; whether you are writing blog posts to make money online or some other fashion – one key to being successful is to generate traffic to your webpages, and one component of doing that is getting links to those pages.
The best links are those links that grow organically – i.e. some one else finds and likes your content and links to it. But – getting people to find your content in the first place probably means “cheating,” and creating a few links of your own. Most Internet marketers (myself included) have several blogs which they use to post links at. I keep a number for my clients to use, and there are any number of free blogs and sites that are available. I realized I had built a list of free sites and this is that list.
Do not simply dump garbled content on these sites. If you treat them with respect and add value to their site by adding decent content – they will treat you with respect by not deleting your account. I have also added a few article directories – the same applies – treat them with respect and do not dump spam links. Enjoy. 
- http://wordpress.com/
- http://twitter.com/
- http://www.weebly.com/
- http://www.typepad.com/
- http://www.blogger.com/
- http://www.livejournal.com/
- http://www.tumblr.com/
- http://www.webs.com
- http://www.squidoo.com/
- http://my.opera.com/
- http://viviti.com/
- http://multiply.com/
- http://www.xanga.com/
- http://www.yola.com/
- http://www.blogsome.com/
- http://edublogs.org/
- http://www.jimdo.com/
- http://knol.google.com/k
- http://www.blogspirit.com/
- http://www.opendiary.com/
- http://www.blogdrive.com/
- http://www.tblog.com/
- http://weblogs.us/
- http://blog.com/
- http://www.blog.co.uk/
- http://diaryland.com
- http://www.bigadda.com/
- http://www.20six.co.uk/
- http://www.terapad.com/
- http://typolis.net/
- http://zoomblog.com/
- http://home.onsugar.com/
- http://nireblog.com/
- http://business.blinkweb.com/
- http://www.insanejournal.com/
- http://blurty.com/
- http://www.free-conversant.com/
- http://freeflux.net/
- http://tabulas.com
- http://www.sosblog.com/
- http://upsaid.com/
- http://home.onsugar.com/
- http://www.soulcast.com/
- http://www.wordcountjournal.com/
- http://www.yousaytoo.com/
- http://www.netcipia.com/
- http://www.blogeasy.com/
- http://www.busythumbs.com/
- http://www.journalfen.net/
- http://www.memebot.com/
- http://www.blogabond.com/
- http://www.blog.ca/
- http://www.aeonity.com/
- http://blogstream.com
- http://blogwebsites.net/
- http://bloghi.com/
- http://blogigo.com
- http://blogstudio.com
- http://blogtext.org/
A selection of the top article directories:
- http://ezinearticles.com/
- http://www.suite101.com/
- http://www.helium.com/
- http://www.articledashboard.com/
- http://www.articlesbase.com/
- http://goarticles.com/
- http://www.webpronews.com/
- http://searchwarp.com/
- http://www.buzzle.com/
- http://www.isnare.com/
- http://americanchronicle.com/
- http://www.articlecity.com/
- http://www.ideamarketers.com/
- http://www.site-reference.com/
- http://www.articlealley.com/
- http://www.thewhir.com/article-central
- http://www.articlesfactory.com/
- http://www.selfgrowth.com/
- http://www.amazines.com/
- http://www.articlesnatch.com/
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Source
Red Wagon Designs
Free Call-To-Action Overlays, One More Reason to Promote your Videos on YouTube
YouTube’s “Promoted Videos” tool has allowed many marketers to stand out among the thousands upon thousands of videos flooding the web. Keyword-based targeting gives you control over which search terms trigger your video promotion and you only pay only when someone clicks to watch your video.
What many people may not be aware of is that when you sign up on YouTube for a Promoted Video account, agree to the Google AdWords Advertising Policies and get accepted, you’ll be able to utilize a free, extra feature called, “Call-to-Action Overlay.” This exciting feature allows you to add call-to-action overlays on all of your “promoted videos” on YouTube. This call-to-action will only remain active for the duration of your Promoted Video campaign and it will not be a permanent feature of your video.
The overlay only appears for the first ten seconds of the video and can be closed by the user. You can use this overlay to tell the user more information about your company, the content of your video or to promote your other videos, YouTube Channel or even other websites. When a user clicks the call-to-action overlay, they will be taken to your external website’s landing page of your choice – which is specified in the overlay’s destination URL (shown below). Although I believe that this is a JavaScript Link, and the link will not pass any page rank, you will still have a new opportunity to get valuable traffic to any page of your external website. I do suggest that you track these links with whatever analytics platform you are currently using so that you can see this new traffic. Before it gets posted live, there may be a short delay while YouTube reviews your overlay to make sure you are adhering to the Google AdWords Advertising Policies.
To Create a Call-To-Action overlay for your Video follow these 6 simple steps below:
- Sign into your YouTube Account at http://www.youtube.com
- Click “Account” at the top of your YouTube dashboard.
- Click “Uploaded Videos” under “My Videos”
- Click “Edit” next to the video that you want to create your call-to-action overlay on.
- Fill in all of the required fields under “Call –To-Action Overlay”
- When you have finished making all the changes to your video, click “Save Changes”
Remember, in order to have the call-to-action-overlay, you will need to apply for the Promoted Video campaign. There is nowhere that states what the magic number of views, subscribers, or posted videos are required before an account will be accepted by YouTube, but I would wait a while for your account to age and gain some trust from YouTube before applying for the program. If you do not get accepted it will take another 3 months until YouTube will let you reapply.
If you believe that your YouTube channel has been well established, apply today and start increasing video views with the help of Call-To- Action Overlays.
Happy Tubing!!!
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Related SEO Blog Post
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Source
BusinessOnLine SEO Blog – Search Engine Marketing techniques for 3rd generation SEO
More Link Spam Examples in Google
The New York Times published an article near and dear to my heart over the weekend about JCPenny manipulating Google results as a result of paid links. Apparently it’s news to many people that this kind of activity is taking place. But to those of us who optimize Web sites using “white hat” tactics it is certainly no surprise as we investigate why our competitors out rank us. I thought I would share some of the other common techniques that cheating sites are effectively using to game the system. Hopefully this article will help Google and Bing develop better algorithmic solutions to these problems and hopefully it will educate consumers about what types of activities their SEO firms should avoid.
For today’s example, I will be looking at the Hot Tub industry where one of my clients has a significant interest and ranks well for many of the most sought after terms including “hot tub”, “hot tubs”, “spa” and “spas” as well as many other related permutations. And while my client enjoys significant rankings across these terms, based on their link equity, it is dishearting to have to explain to them why a site like http://www.choosehottubsdirect.com is competing with them for listings given their backlink (posicionamiento web) profile. Unlike JC Penny, ChooseHotTubsDirect is using a number of other link spam tactics to artificially inflate their Google rankings. Let’s take a look at some of the methods they’re using including blog comment spam, blog spam (splogs), and forum spam. They may also be doing paid links but I won’t be focusing on those in this article.
*Note that some of these links may have a nofollow tag on them and therefore do not count for SEO purposes. However, the amount of link spam pointing to this site shows a clear and consistent intent to manipulate search results.
Blog Comment Spam:
This was supposed to die with the advent of the nofollow tag, but obviously it isn’t instituted on all blog platforms. Here is an example of some of the URLs where you can find links purposely created to establish keyword focused links back to ChooseHotTubsDirect even though most of these sites are completely unrelated.
- http://www.startupnorth.ca/2010/09/30/xx-tech-founders/
- http://www.mathewingram.com/work/2008/09/05/jim-clark-in-a-hot-tub-in-italy-somewhere/
- http://community.adn.com/alaska/node/114236
- http://www.adamia.com/about/world-of-adamia/the-city-in-the-sky
- http://www.rvbuyersguide.com/Articles/post/Tips-for-towing-an-RV-safely.aspx
- http://www.chinaexpat.com/2009/03/05/dont-get-married-in-hui-an.html/
- http://magblog.audubon.org/node/339
- http://www.slashfilm.com/chevy-chase-joins-hot-tub-time-machine-considering-fletch-rebootsequel/
I have no problem with getting links by adding value to a conversation happening on a blog. But when the comment exists solely for the purpose of SEO, its spam.
Blog Spam (splog):
These are blogs designed only to create links for the purposes of SEO. There is no value to the end user and most of the time the content is garbage:
- http://homengardengoods.com/hottubs-spa-hot-tub.html (borderline content at best)
- http://www.british-columbia-listings.com/
- http://www.alouc.com/2010/08/
- http://iniciativaacceso.org/
- http://www.miramesanorth.com/
- http://www.j-leaguefans.com/experience-the-best-of-hot-tub.html
- http://www.condecon.net/daily-routine/
- http://eviant.co.cc/2010/03/a-guide-to-buying-hot-tubs
- http://kklocaladmin.org/2010/07
- http://netflixkddworkshop2008.info/2010/07
- http://www.groupe-loft.com/very-good-way/
- http://www.triton-shop.com/2010/04/17/buy-spa-hot-tubs-on-internet/
- http://www.e-redes.org/?p=78
- http://www.ptvr.net/2010/07/
- http://kiksmedia.com/hot-tubs/
- http://www.ytbconsultants.com/like-hot-water-bathing-in-hot-water-baths.html
- http://www.kukonlomamokit.net/
- http://www.directtohomeappliances.com/
- http://hmgf-ugm.org/?paged=2
- http://www.ezprotocols.com/massage/
There are plenty more of these in their backlink profile but after 20 I figured I had made my point. The majority of their backlinks seem to be of this type.
Again, guest writing blog articles that provide useful information to users is a good way to get links. Writing garbage and posting it on sites filled with garbage is not.
Forum Spam:
Similar to blog commenting spam but takes place in a forum:
- http://www.aeva.asn.au/forums/forum_posts.asp?TID=892&PID=26104
- http://www.hostingsindia.com/topic153.html
- http://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/376275
- http://www.discussionsworld.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=23144
- http://www.webmasterforumsonline.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=16223
- http://forums.adobe.com/thread/594208
- http://intgovforum.org/cms/discussionspace?func=view&catid=5&id=30
- http://forums.zoho.com/topic/issue-with-zoho-mobile-on-nokia-e71
- http://forums.registeredrep.com/forums/clients/google-boys
- http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?post=564641
- http://forum.bodybuildingpro.com/member.php?u=10761
- http://www.honeymoonforums.com/showthread.php?t=6255
- http://www.mytractorforum.com/showthread.php?t=113473
- http://www.theopia.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=2295&start=0
- http://www.webdesignchat.org/link-exchange/928-good-i-heard.html
- http://www.swordfishingcentral.com/forum/showthread.php?t=13828
- http://www.becomehealthynow.com/vblite/showthread.php?p=5252
- http://www.mma-fighter.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=28969
- http://forums.joeuser.com/376275
Again, there is way more of this stuff in their profile but after 20 instances I think the point has been made.
Another interesting “black hat” tactic that I found is the use of clone sites which are essentially duplicate sites with different skins:
- http://chooseportablespas.com/
- http://chooseportablehottubs.com/
The funniest part about this whole thing is that one of the links that ChooseHotTubsDirect.com does have that is legitimate is their press release about the secret to their success. Apparently, it’s all thanks to their in-house, world class SEO Team:
- http://www.prweb.com/releases/choose-direct/seo/prweb3199884.htm
Hopefully as search technology advances these techniques will become less effective. It’s really frustrating to explain to clients why their competitors are ranking well in the engines using cheap and underhanded link spam techniques. Especially when you are recommending much more costly link development campaigns that center on providing useful content to users and then marketing that content through relevant channels. I don’t envy Matt Cutts and his team at Google as they have an extraordinarily difficult job to do in hunting all of this stuff down. Hopefully this will help.
Bookmark to:
Related SEO Blog Post
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Source
BusinessOnLine SEO Blog – Search Engine Marketing techniques for 3rd generation SEO