YouTube Secret Weapon

This post on YouTube Video Marketing Secrets is a continuation of my post from a few weeks ago entitled “YouTube Video Marketing Secrets and Video Search Optimization Tips - Part 2 of now 3.” That makes this the third and final installment of the series in which I publicly share my critique of YouTube user Mike Stokes’ YouTube Channel. (With Mike’s permission, of course. And to find out more of why I am doing this, see Part 1.)

Now, I interrupted the series last week in order to cover the news about the YouTube Channel re-design changes that have been announced for July 15th.  While we still have some time before that happens (tick, tick, tick), I’m going to use this post to cover some non-Channel-related topics on YouTube video marketing.

Today’s YouTube Video Marketing & Optimization Tip Topics

So without further ado, today I am going to cover:

1. Analyzing YouTube Insight Statistics — why you need to do it and how to make it easier
2. Creating Inbound Links to both your videos AND your YouTube Channel
3. Building YouTube Playlists — the importance of Playlists as a way to expand your audience and gain new fans

I’ll pick up by beginning with Tip #13…(re-visit Part 2 of this Series where I left off with Tip #12.)

Tip #13: Analyzing Your YouTube Insight Statistics

YouTube’s analytics program, Insight, not only helps you get a better understanding of the makeup of your YouTube audience by feeding you demographic data, it also allows you to find out how you are being FOUND by said audience.

Consult YouTube Insight for your video after the first 4-5 days and use the data to tweak your title and tags accordingly. (In other words, if your video is being found via keywords you aren’t using, go back and edit your video to be better optimized for those terms … or drop keywords from your title or tags that aren’t helping you be found.)

Start by first analyzing how your traffic is getting to you. Is it via YouTube Search, Google Search (SCORE!), YouTube related videos…or how?

From there, look within those YouTube and Google Search Discovery categories to find out what keywords are bringing you the most traffic:

Know that you are also able to access the data under “Related videos” (we’re back under Discovery now) to find what other videos people are watching prior to yours. This will also give you keen insight (hence the name, right) into what keywords to focus on. To do that, look to see what keywords those related videos have used as titles and tags.

Here’s another bonus tip (Tip #14): If remembering to check your YouTube Insight data is not at the forefront of you mind, put it on the forefront of your YouTube Homepage so it’s right in front of you upon login. And note: I am talking about your Homepage here, not your Channel/Profile. The Homepage (another word important enough to warrant a big ol’ capital letter, “H”) is what only you see when you first log on to YouTube.

If you didn’t know this already, you are able to set your YouTube Homepage Modules to display your YouTube Insight data:

To do that, first go here and check off the information you want to even show up on your YouTube Homepage:

You can reach that page either by going directly to “Customize Homepage” under your Account Settings, or simply by clicking on the “Add/Remove Modules” link just under the left-side horizontal menu bar on your Homepage (again, you have to be logged in):

Once you have the data displaying on your Homepage, use the up and down arrows to display the Insight data prominently at the top of that page so it’s the first thing you see when you log in to the site.

Once this is done, remember you’ll want to watch that Insight data closely (the Map is not as important as the Chart, by the way) so you can keep a close eye on how your videos are performing based on the keywords you’ve optimized for already. Again, tweak things accordingly.

My advice to Mike from before, in regards to his own video optimization (note there are more hidden tips here!):

“Mike: One thing you might consider doing is getting more of your main keywords into your video descriptions. We find that using a keyword or keyword phrase 3-4 times in a video description increases the likelihood you’ll rank high for that term. (Tip #15)

Also think about adding more tags to some of your videos. You definitely have the main ones down for each recipe, but each and every video should have “Cajun” and “recipe” in there (as an example). Mike, your YouTube Insight data will likely yield some additional keywords you can better optimize for on all or some of your videos.”

And I included this back in Part 1 (Tip #3), but I’m going to reiterate it here:

Repeat Part 1, Tip #3: As you search YouTube for related videos by entering in different keywords or keyword combinations (in order to ultimately study what keywords other videos in your niche have in their titles and tags), pay attention to what is coming up in the search bar.

This is because popular keyword search terms are now provided FOR YOU through “YouTube Suggest.” (This uses “Google Suggest” functionality.)

This is a great way to generate ideas for commonly searched keyword phrases based around your root keyword(s). It will also yield potentially related video content for you to analyze, add to Playlists (more on that in a bit), comment upon, rate, favorite, etc. (There are a number of reasons why all that is important, but it is all outside the scope of this post.)

Tip #16: Creating Inbound Links to Both Your YouTube Videos AND Your YouTube Channel

This all comes back to Search Engine Optimization (SEO) 101: The key to getting more of your great videos to come up in the Google Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) boils down to creating more inbound links to both your videos AND your YouTube Channel.

My Advice to Mike:

“Mike: While you are out there building links to your blog(s) or other online properties, try creating a few directly to your YouTube videos. Granted, the point is to ultimately get your audience to head over to your main site anyway — but there are a lot of factors that contribute to how well your videos rank on YouTube (and Google), and inbound links from outside sources with good page rank (and hopefully via keyword-rich anchor text) is one of them.

In the end, you’ll be far more likely to hit page 1 of Google with a YouTube video thumbnail than you will with your main blog, where you’re competing with so many other Cajun cooking websites. Therefore, while you are out building backlinks to your blog, throw a few in that point directly to your YouTube videos AND a few that point directly to your Channel (that’s a good thing to do in your email signature).

I say right now, go create at least one inbound link to your Channel and at least one to your most recent video.

Addendum to my original comments to Mike:

Tip #17: Here are some ideas for building those inbound links:

1. Embed Your YouTube Videos to Blogs: Your own and those on other Social Networks (hey, there’s a reason you kept that MySpace account open).
2. Use the Share Feature directly from YouTube (below each video) to post to all sites offered.
3. Social Bookmark Your Videos (and even Your Channel) out the Wazoo. Consider: Digg, Mixx, del.ic.ious, StumbleUpon, and Reddit. Visit http://SocialMediaDaily.com and grab the “Social Media Daily Blueprint” by Michelle MacPhearson for a good list of additional recommended sites.
4. Write and Post Articles with Links Back to Your Video(s) & Channel. (Works great!)
5. Something to keep in mind when building links back to your videos from websites or blogs that you control: Use Keyword-Rich Anchor Text.
6. For other ideas, Study a bit more about SEO Best Practices.
   

Tip #18a: Playlists, Playlists, Playlists…Build some.

In fact, creating and building upon Playlists is so crucial that I’m going to do the same thing I did previously when discussing the importance of your YouTube Channel and Homepage. I’m capitalizing the word: Playlists. (I know you’re thinking, “Whoa now simmer down there, Julie — that’s heavy stuff.”)

Seriously: The importance of YouTube Playlists is not so much to showcase them on your Channel, but rather to get your Playlists coming up in the YouTube search results. Lately, Playlists are hitting the top 3-4 spots for any given keyword.

Don’t let it be someone else’s Playlist collection coming up on top! Create your own.

Fact: The metadata metric of a video being added to a Playlist(s) counts in the YouTube relevancy algorithm.

So add your videos to as many Playlists as possible.

Tip #18b: Now here’s the secret to it: Create Playlists that group your own videos with other high-ranking videos (yes, even another content producer’s videos) containing your most important keywords in the title. *Don’t worry if they are your competitor’s videos or even if it’s content you don’t want to be related to: It’s the keywords that matter most!

As an example, check out this Playlist I built for the keywords “youtube video optimization” (among others):

As you advance through the above embedded Playlist (see the arrows at the side of the player), you’ll see that my own YouTube Secret Weapon videos are included, along with several of the testimonials and reviews videos from YouTube Secret Weapon students and affiliates. But, intermixed within those are some pretty hokey, Spam videos (no, not all of them) that are promoting ridiculous and shyster methods, products, and advice for how to increase YouTube video traffic via optimization (or in some cases, other Spammy means — which trust me, is not worth doing).

Note what I did in this example was create and build this Playlist to include not only my own videos that I was attempting to optimize for those keywords, but also to include related videos — and more importantly for the optimization factor, to include as many videos as I could (like ‘em or not) that included my target keywords.

(Repeat after me: “Keywords are King when it comes to Playlists.”)

If you are a current YouTube Secret Weapon owner, see Disc 3 or Bonus Webinar 6 for more on the hows and whys of creating Playlists.

So there you go: A handful of YouTube Secret Weapon tips (x 3 posts) that ought to help your videos rank better on YouTube (not to mention increase their chance of turning up in the top of the Google results) for your top keywords.

By employing even just a few of these strategies, you’ll end up with more targeted traffic coming to your videos, and therefore more qualified prospects being driven over to your main money site –- whether that be a website, a blog, or simply a landing page for an affiliate product you are promoting.

~Julie

P.S. If you didn’t catch Paul’s free webinar last night talking about YouTube’s new InVideo Click-Through Ads (CTAs), sign up now to get a link to the replay.

Seriously, if you thought YouTube Annotations equaled opportunity, THIS is Annotations on steroids. The ability to have viewers clicking your video to go right through to your off-YouTube money site is priceless.

As I said to Paul: “Instead of saying ‘here’s a map on how to get to my house from here’ (which is Annotations), YouTube’s new Invideo Click-Through Ads allow you to say, ‘Hey, I’ve come over to pick you up and bring you over. Hop in!’”

Check out Paul’s explanation and demo of YouTube CTAs by signing up for the replay link.

As always, Happy Tubing!

{ 12 comments }

YouTube announced today that its Channel Design 2.0 will come out of beta and officially take effect site-wide on July 15th. (UPDATE - See the end of this post for updated details on the now delayed site-wide release of the re-design.) Users have been able to try out the new design since April 16th, and YouTube’s Product Management team has been sharing progress and gathering feedback on their dedicated channels beta blog.

Apparently, they’ve tweaked things and worked out enough of the bugs that they’re now ready to roll it out for everyone. (And as of July 15th, you won’t even have a choice.)

But hey, while change can be uncomfortable at first, this is in many ways good news. YouTube’s purpose in doing this is to allow us to truly make our YouTube profiles/Channels our online video hubs on the Net — the defacto “video homepage” for our brands, if you will.

For a brief explanation of what additional new features (and benefits!) the re-designed YouTube Channels will offer, as well as how to go about customizing your Channel, check out the video posted by the Product Management team:

And yes, it is pretty cool that people will no longer have to click off of your profile page to enjoy more of your content — or even to interact with it…

It will finally truly be like your own Channel — not just a “yeah, here’s a listing of what all I can offer, but to consume or engage with any of it, you’ll have to click over to another page where you’ll be introduced to tons of other related, but very likely COMPETING videos, which will likely distract you and ultimately lead you over to someone else’s place where they can list all their content” page.

Did you get that? Because that’s what the old Channel design had us working with: more like a TV Schedule than the actual Television Set (if you can bend your brain to consider such an old media analogy).

Think about it. Now, once you lure that bait onto your Channel, you can keep them there as long as your video offerings allow for it — and without any distractions. Pretty nifty. And that’s just the start of it.

More next week…

Meanwhile, if you haven’t already switched over to the Beta version of YouTube Channel 2.0, it can now be done by clicking Edit Channel when logged in to your account, and then visiting the Channel Design page. Note that your custom backgrounds may require some slight tweaking to work with the new re-design.

Special Announcement: I have delayed my YouTube Marketing and Video Optimization Tips Part 3 blog post until next week, as I’m fortunate enough to be packing up and moving house this week. (So much fun — especially in 90-degree weather…not!) Even taking time to write this little newsflash has had me pulled away from my bubblewrap for far too long. Back to my boxes…

Look for Part 3 by Tuesday of next week (or whenever the cable guy finally shows up to get my Internet connected). Or simply revisit Part 2.

Until then,
~JP

Updated June 25th 10:42 a.m. - This post was written late last night right when I saw the news posted on YouTube’s blog. I got to thinking this morning about YouTube’s decision to make these changes mandatory for everyone. While I see the changes as a great benefit to users…and yes, while I feel the re-design does tend to have a cleaner look that puts more focus on the actual video content, I still can’t help but compare this to what MySpace did when they offered a 2.0 version of their profile design: They gave users an OPTION –  a choice as to whether or not they wanted to participate and make the switch to the new design.

Should YouTube maybe consider giving its users a choice? What do you think?

Updated July 14th  10:01 a.m. - YouTube has announced on it’s Channel Re-Design Beta Blog that they have changed the date on which they will move all remaining YouTube Channels over to the new design. They say on the blog that they “realized [they] still have a few bugs and things left on the to-do list.”

As for when the official site-wide roll-out will take place, they are still unsure. But they do say that they’ll announce it “no less than 2 weeks before it happens - and yes, it’s still coming this summer.” (While yes, I still think they need to give users the option. But we will make do.) For more information on the delay of the official Channel re-design release, see this post from YouTube.

{ 5 comments }

This post on YouTube Video Marketing Secrets is a continuation of last week’s post entitled “YouTube Video Marketing and Optimization Tips - Part 1 of 2” (making this Part 2 of 2, until I realized just now I’ll need to continue again next week, because, well, I talk too much –so now it’s 2 of 3), in which I publicly share my critique of YouTube user Mike Stokes’ YouTube Channel.

Today we are going to cover Adding Friends and Gaining Subscribers on YouTube, NoFollow & DoFollow links within YouTube, and posting YouTube videos as responses to other highly-viewed videos in your niche as a way to expand your audience and gain new fans.

In Part 1, most of my suggestions for Mike had to do with branding and laying down the foundation for optimizing his YouTube Channel–something one should do before even beginning to focus on how to optimize each YouTube video separately.

I’d like to begin Part 2 of my response to Mike by reiterating the four (4) main reasons businesses need to include YouTube as part of their overall online marketing plans. While everyone makes a big deal about Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, I would certainly add YouTube to that list of “MUST HAVE” social & new media marketing profiles (and therefore strategies) due to the following…

A YouTube Channel & Video Strategy Is CRUCIAL for:

1. Online Lead Generation and List-Building (Driving Traffic Back to Your Own Main Website/Blog)
   
2. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for YouTube AND Google Search
   
3. Viral Video Distribution Potential
4. Social Media Networking Benefits

…Add in that online video is one of the hottest marketing tools around right now, and that, in comparison to all the other video content-sharing sites out there, YouTube is BY FAR #1 (in terms of traffic, ability to rank in Google, and for opportunities that now exist to access YouTube from mobile devices and home entertainment systems), and you’ve got an undeniable force in online marketing today.

BUT, although many marketers have heeded this advice and are beginning to create and upload content to YouTube, where most go wrong is in assuming that the old adage, “build it and they will come” is going to work for them. Sorry folks, but not in today’s social media landscape…

Stop wasting your time, energy, and possibly even money in creating videos that you’re only going to toss up on YouTube and expect to gain an audience without any additional effort! You need to learn how to MARKET your YouTube videos so they can be found, watched, and ACTED UPON by your target audience. (Otherwise, what’s the point?)

Back in Part 1 of this post, I listed seven of my original suggestions for Mike on how he could improve upon his existing YouTube marketing efforts. Today, I pick up with Tip #8 (which, if you’ve been following along, was originally Tip #3 when I first posted my reply to Mike’s blog comment a few weeks back):

My Original Comment to Mike:

(Mike), I see you only have 288 subscribers to your Channel. [Note that since I posted this original response on May 28th, Mike’s Channel is now up to 329 subscribers, which is a huge increase in such a short period of time.] I find it shocking the number is that low given how great your content is. Get out there and add some friends, Mike!

Tip #8: Gaining more friends on YouTube will lead to more subscribers. It’s like magic. Yet you must have a strategy for whom you choose to invite. Mike, I suggest you spend a little time searching around YouTube for Channels similar to your own (if not Cajun food-related, then perhaps Southern cooking, or just some other niche specialty cooking Channels), and send friend invites to THEIR subscribers and friends lists.

New Comments to Mike Regarding Adding Friends/Gaining Subscribers on YouTube:

[I'm ditching the italics for awhile for better readability, but this all directed to Mike]:

For example, here’s a Channel with over 2,000 subscribers:
http://www.youtube.com/user/cookingfordads

Those 2,000+ subscribers are people who have expressed interest in “cooking how-to” information, and therefore they may take an interest in your Channel, (Mike).

What you then want to do is send YouTube friend requests (invites) to as many of this similar niche Channel’s subscribers as you can. (And despite what some self-appointed “YouTube police” will tell you, sending a friend request is NOT SPAM…Bulk YouTube emails, yes. YouTube friend invites, no.) Upon seeing the friend request, the likelihood that those people will come over to see who YOU are and check out YOUR CONTENT is very high (certainly higher than if you never reached out at all). This can lead to more subscribers, again, so long as you are being strategic about who you are inviting.

Tip #9: When sending friend requests, even if those people don’t end up subscribing to your content, if they at least click over to your Channel, that counts as a Channel view; and on YouTube, more Channel views raises the “profile authority” (my term, but think of this as “pagerank”) of your Channel. This is one of the socialization tactics, or “community factors,” I teach in YouTube Secret Weapon that count when optimizing your Channel.

And yes, it has been shown that how many Channel views you have is a factor to how well your videos do in the rankings. So, the more people who’ve expressed interest in your content by clicking over to your Channel (among other community engagement criteria), the better your videos will do across the board.

This takes us back to YouTube Marketing Part I, Tip #2 where I discussed the need to choose a strategic Channel name (a.k.a. username). The more intriguing or interest-piquing your Channel name sounds or appears when it turns up as a friend invite in someone’s YouTube Inbox or on a Channel or video comment, the higher the likelihood that people will click over to see what you’re all about.

You also want your Channel name to be niche-focused and made up of a major keyword or two, if possible. In other words, Mike, the username “CajunRecipes” is going to be a helluva lot bigger draw for people interested in cooking than, say, oh, “mikestokes1.” (I’m just sayin’.)

Other things you can do to attract attention from your potential audience in terms of tracking them down via similarly niche-focused Channels is to:

• Watch and Comment on Their Videos
• Leave Comments on Their Channels
• Subscribe to Other High-Traffic Channels Related to Your Niche that Really Are of Interest to You (don’t play the “Sub 4 Sub” game–it’s Spammy)

Allowing people to see your Channel name (preferably an intriguing and niche-focused one) in more places is setting the bait for more traffic, but also:

NoFollow & DoFollow Links Within YouTube

Tip #10: YouTube Channel links are NOT “NoFollow” links (nice double negative there, huh?); rather, they are “DoFollow” links. (For more on this subject of what YouTube links are or are not “NoFollow,” I encourage you to read the post “Is The YouTube SEO Guy Smoking Crack” by Andrew Shotland of Local SEO Guide. You’ll need to look up “nofollow links” if you are unfamiliar with this SEO term.)

Essentially though, the more your Channel username link appears around YouTube, say, attached to your comments on other Channels or as a recent Subscriber to other Channels (such as in the image below), the more the “DoFollow” link on your Channel username will pass link juice back to your Channel, and then on to your most recent video (also a “DoFollow” link).

As you’ll see below, Channel name links are also “DoFollow” (purple-blue highlighted links) in the Related Videos section of video watch pages, but like the actual video links are “NoFollow” (pink highlighted links) in the Comments section:

Okay, so that was a MAJOR tangent. (I will save my additional “PageRank” and “NoFollow” advice for another time…For YouTube Secret Weapon owners, this was covered in the new Disc 3 of YouTube Updates and Advanced Strategies that came out June 1st.)

• In the meantime, Mike, here’s another Channel you’ll want to scour for users you can reach out to: http://www.youtube.com/user/cookingcom
• And another: http://www.youtube.com/user/KraftCookingSchool (a YouTube Sponsored channel, so don’t be intimidated by the cool background and auto-playing videos…they paid a lot to have that!)
• And yet another: http://www.youtube.com/user/cookingrecipes (note this dude’s clever profile pic–it’s a GIF file…and an attention-grabber at that)

Tip #11: (Mike), to make it even easier to tap into the subscribers, friends, and even video commenters for these Channels I suggest above, you might think about getting a tool that we recommend to all YouTube Secet Weapon students. We use it ourselves: It’s automated friend-adding software.

I know that sounds “Spammy,” and yet it does NOT violate the YouTube Terms of Service (and many of the YouTube Secret Weapon students use it religiously around-the-clock with only positive results). The reason it is not in violation of the YouTube TOS (see 4-H) is that it works on a time-delay system so that it is not sending out friend requests faster or more frequently than a human could otherwise do manually. The time delay also insures that you don’t violate YouTube’s restrictions for how many friend invites can be sent in a given time period.

[Note: We only recommend using such automated software to send friend invites. We warn our YouTube Secret Weapon students NOT to use it for comment posting or for sending bulk emails, as to us, that is SPAM. YouTube has been cracking down on such activities recently, too. As for sending friend invites though, they are legit, they do work, and we wholeheartedly recommend doing it using friend-adding software--with a time delay, of course.]

The Friend-Adder we recommend is called Tube ToolBox. It does cost $7.95 a month and has a $19.95 activation fee, but Paul and I forfeited our commission on the activation fee in order to give YouTube Secret Weapon owners a $10 discount. Now, it’s just $9.95 to sign up, and I’m happy to pass that savings along to all of the readers of this post.

Just visit http://TubeTrafficStrategies.com.

Again, the tool is called Tube Toolbox, and that link will take you to the page featuring our discount. By ordering there, you will initially only pay $17.90, which is the $9.95 activation fee, plus $7.95 for the first month. I recommend trying it out for a month, and cancel if you don’t feel it was totally worth the $7.95/month fee.

Mike, I can almost guarantee that if you put a little strategy behind its use in terms of where you are finding targeted friends to add, you’ll gain 50-100 new subscribers in 30-days.  You will have to let it run as often as possible though to do this…Not to worry, as the software can run quietly in the background, hidden in your tray, as you go about your daily work–it doesn’t bother a thing.

And I repeat: Time-Delayed Automated YouTube Friend Invites are NOT SPAM according to YouTube’s Terms of Service.

In the end, if you still have a problem with using automated software, just do it manually (or pay a young person an allowance to add you so many friends per day). To send an invite, simply visit an individual’s Channel and look for the “Add as Friend” link in their “Connect with…” box:

When you add a friend, regardless of who has sent the invite, you are privy to the same information on one anothers’ Channels based on your privacy settings. Be sure to also check your own account Inbox for invites that have been sent TO you by others:

I’m not going to get into all the additional advantages of having targeted prospects on your YouTube Friend List, but know that there are MANY beyond just a potential Channel view and the hope that they’ll subscribe to you.

Meanwhile, On To More Tips for Mike…

Tip #12: (Mike), start posting your videos as responses to other highly-trafficked videos in your niche. Your videos don’t have to be purposely a response (in other words, videos you made solely as a response to another). Rather, the videos you target could just be cooking demonstrations for great food accompaniments to your own dishes OR something to do with the Cajun tradition/music/lifestyle. The connection between the two can be very loose (in fact, I often see people post videos as responses to other videos where there’s no connection at all…but that I don’t recommend).

The main idea here is NOT to assume that people who will enjoy your videos know to look for them. You’ve got to put yourself out there where you can be discovered. Find related videos that are already getting traffic to connect yourself to and try to borrow from their audiences. The more similar you are to that content, the more likely the viewers who click over will have an interest in what you have to say.

Below is an example of a video I posted one of my episodes of TheBoaters.TV as a response to that helped my video earn a few extra thousand views from an audience interested in water-related activities:

Here’s another example from when I was assisting Internet marketing expert Brad Fallon’s team in marketing Brad’s daily “FreeLine Report” episodes on YouTube:

Posting videos as responses to videos that are closely related in topic to your own is not only going to help you to attract an audience that is already PRE-QUALIFIED to have an interest in your content, but it’s also going to increase the likelihood that your video will come up in the “Related Videos” section alongside that chosen video. There are a number of reasons for that, just as there are a myriad of other methods for getting your videos to come up in a Related Videos section next to videos you think will have a good target audience for you…

…HOWEVER, I can’t spill all the beans here (pun intended for Mike) and besides, this post is already novella-length, so I’m going to save the remaining Tips for next week anyway.

Be sure to check back next week for Part 3 where I’ll cover YouTube Insight, creating inbound links to your videos AND your Channel, and the benefits of YouTube Playlists (along with a few hints to master those).

Until then, Happy Tubing!

~JP

P.S. I apologize for all the bright colors, but I’m an over-formatter. Sunglasses recommended when reading my posts.

UPDATE: Part 3 of this series is now posted: YouTube Video Marketing and Optimization Secrets - Part 3 of 3

{ 19 comments }

Not marketing on YouTube yet? Well, you might want to reconsider that. A YouTube marketing strategy is now CRUCIAL to include as part of any business’s overall online marketing plan…And for a number of reasons:

1. YouTube Video Marketing is an Outstanding Lead Generation and List-Building Tactic – Your YouTube videos are the bait you cast out so that your prospects can find you. Hording online video content on your own website via your own player works well for a variety of purposes, but it is never going to be able to draw even a FRACTION of the targeted prospects you can introduce yourself and your products or services to on YouTube.

   Even if it’s just small clips of longer pieces of content you are putting up, getting your YouTube videos optimized to be found either via YouTube Search or GOOGLE (Bingo!) for your top keywords will open up the floodgates of massive amounts of targeted traffic to discover you and then be driven back over to your main “money” website or blog. (That IS part of your plan, right?)
   
   

2. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – I’m sure you’ve actually experienced this yourself lately where in searching a certain keyword or keyword phrase on Google, you’re getting YouTube videos coming up on Page 1…and often times in the first 3 or 4 positions of the Google SERPs (search engine results pages). This is a result of Google Universal Search (GUS), otherwise known as “blended search”—the practice in which search engines display videos, images, news stories, maps, and other types of results alongside their standard search results.

   (And need I remind you that Google and YouTube are synonymous—it’s the SAME company. So what type of results do you think are going to get preference? That’s right: YouTube videos!)

   

   Obviously, it is now vital to make sure that any videos you are producing are ALSO distributed via YouTube. After all, it’s not going to cost you a dime extra to upload and optimize your videos on YouTube, and the fact that doing so can get you high search rankings on Google even quicker than your own SEO’d website is—well, it’s CRAZY what an opportunity we have before us!

3. Viral Video Distribution Potential – Broaden the reach of your video content. If you want to give your videos the chance to go viral, YouTube is without a doubt your best bet—mainly because when it comes to the vast sea of video sharing websites out there, YouTube has the VAST majority of the market. According to comScore, nearly 40 percent of all online videos watched in April 2009 were on YouTube.

   Furthermore, comScore tells us that 107.1 million viewers watched 6.8 billion videos on YouTube (63.5 videos per viewer) just during that one month. Those numbers equate to LOTS of potential eyeballs to view your content. Especially if you can figure out how to optimize your YouTube video content for them to actually FIND you!

4. Social Media Networking Benefits – Remember: YOUTUBE IS A SOCIAL NETWORK! Not only does it have the highest amount of consistent traffic available to discover and share your videos, it is also a trusted video destination where people can SUBSCRIBE to your content, comment publicly on your content, and socialize with others as they watch your content (and be guaranteed that the most number of people will be by to view their publicly-shared opinions about your content). 

   Social networking on YouTube presents quite an opportunity to bond with your target groups—after all, it’s video! So think about how you can use YouTube to network and create strategic partnerships with other like-minded individuals or simply interact with others interested in your content or niche.

   In fact, I can make the case that all small businesses and entrepreneurs marketing online should have a YouTube account set up EVEN IF they don’t yet have videos to upload (and notice I said “yet”). Get on there and set up a Channel, because even just interacting with and aggregating OTHER people’s content can get you traffic back to your own main site. That’s how beneficial the social networking aspect of YouTube can be to one’s overall social media marketing strategy.

That’s Great Advice, Julie, But You Promised “TIPS” In This Post!

Okay, so a couple weeks ago I wrote a post, “‘YouTube Is A Disaster Waiting to Happen.’ Oh Really, Mark Cuban?” about Mark Cuban’s recent comments criticizing YouTube for not having a monetization plan in place from the get-go. My post actually said that Paul (as in Paul Colligan, my YouTube Secret Weapon partner) and I agreed NOT with the fact that YouTube was a disaster waiting to happen, but that it’s always a good idea to have a PLAN in place when approaching any business endeavor. The same holds true for setting up a YouTube channel. (See the post for more on that…)

That post aside, what ended up being MORE INTERESTING was a comment left by one of my readers. It came from a current, active YouTube video marketer (but not a YouTube Secret Weapon product owner), Mike Stokes.

Here is what Mike had to say:

“Very good points. I’ve put up a lot of videos on YouTube just as a place to host them for a Cajun Cooking recipe site that I have, and really have not benefited from anything other than perhaps getting some extra visitors to my site. I guess I do not have a monetization plan either.”
- Mike Stokes

I proceeded to reply to Mike’s comment…And well, I definitely must have  eaten my Wheaties that morning, because what started out as a quick comment back to Mike turned into a case of “Julie Pushes the FreeLine BIG TIME” with me revealing some KEY tips and techniques for how Mike could improve upon his current YouTube video marketing results.

What inspired me, actually, was the fact that I searched and found Mike’s Channel on YouTube and saw he had some pretty decent results, though they appeared to have been achieved more “by accident” than anything else. (Never a bad thing!)

In other words, his basic knowledge was good, and since I could tell from his YouTube Channel that he was a subscriber to StomperNet’s YouTube Channel (a private Internet marketing education community), I knew that Mike was at least familiar with some online marketing and SEO strategies…and therefore was probably open to learning more.

(Oh the information we can glean just by scanning a person’s YouTube Channel…Need I mention again how YouTube is a MUST for any social media marketing plan?)

And so, with his kind permission, I am re-publishing my response to Mike’s comment (with a few additions and clarifications) so that these tips are available for more people to find. Now, whether or not Mike implements any of this advice is beyond my control, but here are the suggestions+ that I publicly shared with Mike in terms of how he could improve upon his current YouTube marketing efforts:

See Mike’s Channel here => http://www.youtube.com/user/mikestokes1

Tip #1: Right off the bat, here’s a tip not included in my original response to Mike. => Always link to your YouTube channel from off-site with the /user/ portion of the URL in place, as I’ve done above. This is the URL that will carry and display your Google PageRank. Use this when creating backlinks to your Channel from other places around the Internet, such as in your email signature. Using appropriate anchor text is also important (though not crucial) when creating links to your Channel AND to your separate YouTube videos. (If that doesn’t make much sense to you, still just do it…but look up the definition of “anchor text” if you aren’t sure what it is.)

The theme of Mike’s Channel: Cajun Cooking Recipes and Instruction & Demonstrations

[Note: Before posting my previous blog comment advice, I do want to make a quick comment about Mike’s YouTube username. Yeah, another tangent Tip...]

Tip #2: The username you select when you set up your YouTube account becomes your profile name. For those that don’t know, your profile is what YouTube calls your “Channel.” (I’m capitalizing the “C” by my own accord, to make it more official. Yeah, it’s THAT important.  )

Like a MySpace page or a Facebook profile, your YouTube Channel will serve not only as your own personal video aggregator, but also as one of your TOP social networking tools. Customize and organize your Channel in such a way that it grabs attention and serves to build your reputation as someone knowledgeable in your niche topic area.

(Because believe me, in less than 5-10 minutes a day, there’s PLENTY you can do to grab the attention of your target market and have TONS of YouTube traffic swinging through to learn more about you and your content—even if you don’t have videos up yet!)

Overall though, the point I want to make here is that choosing a username means choosing your Channel name.

Account Name <=> Username <=> Profile Name <=> Channel Name
It’s all the same thing.

My advice is to put as much thought into what username you choose when you register your account as you would your own domain name for a blog or website. If you want to grab your own name, that’s one thing…but if you have a channel dedicated to, let’s say boating, then you’re best to choose a username that hints to that and even carries some of your main niche keywords in it.

Examples: “TheBoatersTV,” (my former show from 6.18.07 to 12.31.07) “CajunCooking,” (it’s a shame that one’s taken, Mike, especially since it’s not being used!), “CajunRecipes” (I just sent Mike an email to get this), and here’s another one of my current YouTube marketing clients: “RealBahamas.”

Using keywords in your username that describe or relate to your niche is going to serve you much better as you further optimize your Channel and socialize within and around the YouTube site. (If you were into stamp collecting, which would intrigue and tempt you more to click over and check out: a comment posted by Channel name “johnsmithxyz,” “joanjones555,” or “VintageStamps”??? …My point exactly.)

So while Mike’s current Channel name is fine to work with, I still suggest he grab a more appropriate username to possibly use in the future — “cajunrecipes” being my suggestion.

[Note: Since writing this, Mike has grabbed that username and is showcasing his videos from the MikeStokes1 Channel by displaying them in his new YouTube "CajunRecipes" Channel's Favorites section. This is what I mean about how you don’t even need to have your own videos up yet to begin laying the foundation for attracting like-minded traffic to (and from!) your YouTube Channel.]

Meanwhile, anyone reading this who is starting his or her own account from scratch, know that choosing a username for your profile means BRANDING your official YouTube Channel, and it is not something to be taken lightly. Think branding and KEYWORDS.

[Julie's super long Tip #2 tangent over -- gotta love those Wheaties!]

Let’s get on with my original blog comment back to Mike:

“Mike - I’m sorry to hear that you are not benefiting as much as you could be from your YouTube videos. (Then again, ‘some extra visitors’ is better than ‘NO extra visitors.’) Yet, I guarantee it’s possible that with just a few tweaks, you can turn ’some’ into ‘a TON’ of visitors.

Hey, as a matter of fact, I just did a search on YouTube for ‘Cajun recipes,’ [some of Mike’s top keywords] and one of your videos was the top listing! And searching ‘Cajun recipes youtube’ on Google has your turnip greens video coming up #1 (even above an Expert Village video). Nice work!”

Another aside from Julie (go figure): According to comScore, YouTube surpassed Yahoo as the world’s second largest search engine when it received 2.6 billion searches during August 2008.  YouTube is now being considered the #2 Search Engine. Um…Yeah, that’s pretty huge.

What that doesn’t take into consideration though—and I know I’ve done this—is the number of people who instead of going over to consult the YouTube Search Engine DIRECTLY will often query Google for “[insert keyword of interest] youtube.”

Examples: “guitar youtube” or “baseball youtube”

Don’t believe me? Head over to Google and begin entering your keywords into the search bar. Watch as the word “youtube” is offered up as a way to complete your query.

This nifty thought-provoker is known as “Google Suggest,” an auto-complete feature that provides query suggestions as you start typing characters in the Google search box. Now tell me that doesn’t demonstrate just how powerful of a search engine YouTube has become? It is, without a doubt, where you need to have optimized video content posted!

And hey, as I’m full of tips today (Tip #3 coming on), know that YouTube has borrowed this same functionality from its parent company and now offers some pretty decent keyword suggestions based on queries obtained just from YouTube users. Definitely take advantage of the “YouTube Suggest” tool while conducting keyword research and think about using some of the suggestions for your video titles, tags, and your video description (don’t forget the video description — keyword load that puppy!).

A final thing to think about with regard to all this Search Engine talk: My partner on YouTube Secret Weapon, Paul Colligan, shared an interesting observation recently when he said:

“If YouTube results show up in Google search result pages, but Google results don’t show up in YouTube result pages, isn’t YouTube now the #1 Search Engine?”
– Paul Colligan

Things that make you go, “hmmmmm,” right? Love the way Paul thinks!

[Another LONG tangent Tip from Julie complete...]

Back to My Response to Mike:

“[Mike,] I’m not sure if it was intentional or not, but you do seem to have some pretty good tagging and titling techniques that you’ve been using on your videos. A couple things I might suggest in the way of changes though is first to step back and focus on your YouTube Channel and work on making it more of an inviting and informative hub for your content. This will allow you to be more effective both in gaining more subscribers on YouTube AND in converting your Channel traffic into traffic for your main website/blog.

My Suggestions for Your Channel:

Tip #4: (This was #1 on my original blog response comment, if you’re consulting both.) Add a bit more copy to your Channel description, discussing some of the benefits people will gain if they venture over to your main website, which I see from the information you do have up is CajunCookingTV.com.

I would also get that link in there a few more times.

To do this, go to Edit Channel => Channel Info => Channel Description

[Note: You’ll currently find a spot there to test out YouTube’s new 2.0 BETA Channel—a redesign from the original Channel layout we’ve grown accustomed to seeing. At this stage, YouTube has not yet announced when the new design will take effect site-wide. They’ve been working out glitches for over a month now, so I imagine there’s still some time yet. I would go ahead and pass on the BETA design for now while they continue to work out the kinks. Ultimately though, the re-designed Channel is going to be great for keeping people ON your Channel and engaged in your content, for they’ll be able to bring your content up to the main player without ever leaving the page, such as Paul Colligan is doing right now on his YouTube Channel: http://youtube.com/user/colligan. For the time being though, I'd hold tight.]

Tip #5: In the current YouTube Channel design (old skool), you can make your URL hyperlink if you enter it in the section offered for “Channel Description” (as opposed to the information you enter under “Performer Info”).

Typing your URL as http://YourWebsite(dot)com will hyperlink on the page if you type it in under Edit Channel => Channel Info => Description here:

But URLs won’t hyperlink under Edit Channel => Channel Info => Performer Info => About Me:

So aside from the data field YouTube provides you with to add your Website URL (this time under Account Settings => Profile Setup => Website URL (pictured below)), your domain will only hyperlink when the URL is typed into the Channel Description area mentioned above.

Whew! Tough to explain in writing.

Tip #6: Next, I tell all my YouTube Secret Weapon students to treat this Channel Description section like it’s a mini sales letter. Mike, you mentioned in your blog comment that you didn’t have a monetization strategy in mind when you set out to post videos on YouTube, and yet I see Google AdWords running on your main website over at www.CajunCookingTV.com.

Therefore, that’s where you want people to go! That’s where you send your traffic! Let the YouTube clips be the bait to hook us, but then make us swim over to your main site to get the full meal deal…

Bottom line: Tell us what we’ll get (or what MORE we’ll get) if we link over.

Some Suggestions: Lists of ingredients, written instructions, downloadable recipe cards, photos of suggested table decorations, Amazon links to Zydeco CDs for a full Cajun night celebration, etc…And then provide us the links to take us there (and to earn you some commissions on affiliate products).

For your YouTube Channel Description, Mike, start with something like:

“Visit http://CajunCookingTV.com to see more extensive information regarding the dishes featured here on our YouTube channel.

At http://CajunCookingTV.com, you can get the full recipes, including a list of ingredients and cooking instructions for each dish. Learn more about Cajun culture and Creole cooking styles there. Even better, you can register to receive an entire library of FREE Cajun Cooking Recipes!

Head to our site now, and we’ll serve you up more Cajun Recipe goodness, straight from the Bayou! => http://CajunCookingTV.com”

That’s pretty rough, but you’ll know better what to write. Then you can perhaps enter some additional information about Beryl and her cooking experience under “Performer Information” or in the “About Me” area of “Profile Setup.”

Either way, you need to build your brand up a bit more and tell people WHY they need to subscribe either to your YouTube Channel or to your mailing list over at your website (or both!). Don’t just give away all these great Cajun recipes and “how to” cooking demonstrations without asking for us to do something in return!

Next with regard to your Channel Design:

Tip #7: (#2 on the original post): Consider a custom background image to brand your Channel a bit. Or perhaps just a custom color scheme to match colors on your main website over at CajunCookingTV.com.

When logged into your account, go under Edit Channel => Channel Design and you’ll find a way you can at least pick a different color scheme to bring some life to the profile.

Or consider a custom background for your Channel. You’ll find the spot to do this by scrolling down to the bottom of the Edit Channel => Channel Design section:

Some options for giving your Channel some branding flair by having a background image or customized background layout:

1. 1. Easiest & Free: Grab one of these free and professional looking background layouts: www.YTLayouts.net. Or do a Google search to find other services offering them. This one I know is safe and is not going to dump a bunch of spyware on your harddrive.
   2. Easy & Not Free: Hire the gang at YTLayouts.net to design one for you. To inquire about pricing, see this page here on their site and then contact them via their YouTube channel => GFXSupport.
   3. Do-It-Yourself & Cheap If You Already Own Photoshop: See the video series that Ryan at YTLayouts.net put up on YouTube on how to design your own custom background using Adobe Photoshop: Watch Part 1 of 3.
   4. Pain-In-the-Arse & Expensive: Head over to 99Designs and launch a contest to find a designer who will make one for you. A minimum bid will be $100. While you do get to be more picky about your design, this is not so important that it warrants a $100 investment. Save 99Designs for your websites and logos.
      
   5. Takes Some Effort but Could Be Cheap: Put out a request via Twitter that you’re looking for someone to design you a YouTube Channel Background. I bet you’ll find a cheap offer to have one designed for you.

Having said all that, I would refrain from actually investing any money on a background design for the moment, as there’s no telling when YouTube will make its Channel Re-Design (that is currently in Beta) go live across the site. At the moment, many users who have chosen this option are complaining that their customized Channel backgrounds no longer work or are less apparent. (See the special YouTube Channel 2.0 Redesign Beta Blog to follow more of this type of progress.)

Meanwhile, I recommend just using the color scheme options that I use on YouTube Secret Weapon’s YouTube channel OR grab a free layout from YTLayouts.

And with that, I feel I’ve spilled the cajun red beans & rice enough for today.

…I’ll be back next week for Part II with a whole HOST of additional YouTube Video Marketing & Optimization Tips for Mike (and for YOU!). In fact, next week, we’ll move BEYOND just the Channel set-up and get into some actual optimization techniques. Be sure to check back, or even better, subscribe to my Blog RSS feed to catch them.

Until then, be sure to leave a comment and let me know what you think. And hey, why not pay Mike’s YouTube Channel a visit and rate and/or comment on some of his videos. You might just pick up a great meal idea for the weekend!

As they say in Cajun Country, “Laissez les Bon Temps Roulez” (Let the Good Times Roll)!

~Julie

Continue on reading YouTube Video Marketing Secrets and Video Search Optimization Tips - Part 2 (of now 3)…

{ 38 comments }

American entrepreneur, Dallas Mavericks’ owner, and HDNet CEO, Mark Cuban, has some harsh criticism for Google Inc. with regard to YouTube and its lack of a sustainable business plan.

In a speech at the D: All Things Digital conference in Carlsbad, California on Wednesday, Cuban referred to the videosharing site as “a disaster waiting to happen.”

More specifically, Cuban was referring to the fact that the company lacked a monetization strategy from the get-go. And, despite its many efforts to squeeze revenue out of the mainly user-generated content-filled site, YouTube still struggles to be profitable.

Cuban questioned Google’s logic behind its purchase of YouTube, saying that the company focused on ubiquity rather than making money. “This is a company that is literally subsidizing the bandwidth for the world,” he said.

In that respect, Paul and I agree with Cuban.

(Though we find his disdain of broadband video delivery inevitable given that he owns a cable HD delivery network  AND a chain of movie theaters.)

However, YouTube does not look to be going away anytime soon…NOR is broadband video.

In fact, comSCORE Video Metrix service recently reported that in March 2009, U.S. Internet users viewed 14.5 BILLION online videos during the month, representing an increase of 11 percent versus February.

Even more interesting is that YouTube accounted for nearly 40% of that share with 5.9 billion videos viewed by 99.7 million U.S. Internet viewers on the property in just that one month. By the way, second place went to Fox Interactive Media (which is MySpace Video) with a whopping 3% of the share. A HUGE difference!

With all due respect to Mr. Cuban though, we do get his point about needing a PLAN when we approach any business endeavor. Google/YouTube lacked that focus from the start, and now they are scrambling to make up for it. (And we’re confident they will.)

Paul and I always recommend starting out with a plan. In fact, one of the first places we start in YouTube Secret Weapon is by having you determine exactly what you’re in it for. (And yes, we know: We’re all “in it to win it.”)

Which of the many online marketing benefits do YOU–the business owner–plan to achieve from your YouTube efforts?

In the end, turning a “profit” from your YouTube videos can be measured in a variety of ways:

• Lead Generation and List Building — Attracting new leads and qualified, targeted traffic
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO) on YouTube AND Google
• Getting your videos to come up in the Google search results with a thumbnail for your top keywords (go search “YouTube Secret Weapon” now to see how this works!)
• Driving qualified, targeted traffic back to your main website/blog
• Higher conversions with the traffic you send back over to my main website/blog
• Using YouTube strategically as part of your overall Social Marketing Plan
• Gaining more exposure for yourself or your cause (music, comedy, political ideas…)
• Higher viewer numbers (which is really not what it’s about, but we understand that
  egos are involved here, too)

And then, of course, there are those who aim to make money directly from their YouTube videos by marketing affiliate products. $! (Yes, we teach that, too.)

So what’s your plan for using YouTube as a part of your online marketing efforts?

Sign up for the YouTube Secret Weapon email list off to the right of this post, because perhaps one of our free emails will help you answer that question. And once you get clear on your purpose and intention, the rest is a piece o’ cake…

As a sidenote:  One of our biggest goals in marketing via YouTube is to get more traffic to our main sites and blogs. Another source for that traffic is Pay-Per-Click advertising, or PPC.

This weekend in Las Vegas, some of the greatest minds in PPC are getting together to teach PPC, and they are giving everyone access to the live stream for FREE.

Gain 2-Day LIVE Access For Free Here ==>> http://budurl.com/vegasfree

I wonder what Mark Cuban would think of THAT use of broadband video?

Source of Cuban Story: The Wall Street Journal

{ 12 comments }

As has been rumored on sites such as ClickZ, Mashable, and even Reuters the last two weeks, YouTube’s redesign changes took effect yesterday, April 16th.

One of the first things that became apparent were the experimental design changes appearing on select YouTube Partner Channels, such as this one belonging to “sxephil”:

YouTube is soliciting user feedback on the changes. To contribute your opinion, or just to see what others are saying, cruise over to the YouTube Channel 2.0 Beta blog. There you will also find links to many of the channels YouTube is using as its laboratory for testing.

You TOO Can Test Drive YouTube Channel Design 2.0

Wanna test out how your future Channel may look before YouTube takes it live in a few weeks?

You can switch to the beta design on your own YouTube channel by following the instructions in this user-created video by YouTube Partner EdzJohnson — who states in his video that he himself is not participating in the beta testing phase, for he is “not a fan of the new [design].” (Me neither, Ed; I think those thumbnails are way too small.):

Again, feel free to tell YouTube what YOU think on their Channel 2.0 beta blog.

Unlike what we were preparing ourselves for today in the way of user-generated content (UGC) being pushed out of the way for more premium content to take center stage, YouTube’s call for input from its foundational user base to find out how WE WANT our channels to look feels somewhat like a peace offering. …It’s as though, hey, maybe they do actually care about us. (You know, “us” — the little people.)

So why not give the new channel design a whirl? As YouTube states on the Secret Beta Switching page Ed refers to above, “You can back out at any time while the beta is running. [They'll] save a copy of your current ‘old’ channel design, and you can switch back to it by clicking ‘opt-out.’”

Do note they also warn that “things may break” during this “experimental” stage. (I think I may stick with Ed and hold off before making the full switcheroo.)

More Ch…Ch…Ch…Changes — YouTube Navigational Category Tabs

The second more major change to take effect on this day — this April 16th day we were warned would be “The Day The YouTube’s Died” (to be replaced by what some were calling “HuluTube“) — did not appear until much later: And that was the new category tab changes on the main navigation bar.

The good news is, I don’t think they’re as dramatic as many were predicting they would be. Nor do I feel they affect UGC all that negatively.

Let’s take a look…

When you first come to the YouTube site — prior to logging in — the tabs you will find are similar to what they were rumored to become. But no cigar. …Unlike what ClickZ reported on March 30th,  the first three tabs are NOT “Movies, Music and Shows,” with “Videos” (what would be UGC) hanging off the end as some after-thought.

Rather, before a user logs into the site, the navigational tabs happen to put UGC in pole position to be searched and discovered (just after the “Home” homepage tab):

Home   -   Videos   -    Shows*   -   Channels   -   Community

And once logged in, things get even more interesting — not to mention more advantageous for the UGC on YouTube!

Now what moves to the head of the pack (if you’re scanning L -> R, that is) is — get this! — “SUBSCRIPTIONS” (again, after the “Home” tab).

Then it’s “Videos,” then “Shows,” then “Channels.” …And “Community” even drops off. (Good riddance!)

Home  -  Subscriptions   -   Videos   -    Shows*   -   Channels

At first run through (albeit VERY brief), I am really digging this Subscription tab, as this is going to give the user so much more control over what content they are exposed to on the site. Log in and go straight to the videos you want to watch, but have the option to access professional and premium content more easily than ever before due to the more defined segmentation between the category tabs.

In my opinion, “Subscriptions, Videos, Shows” is MUCH more ideal than the originally proposed “Movies, Music, Shows, Videos.”

(*Note that currently, the premium content will be limited to U.S. viewers only. If you take a look at the U.K. navigation tabs, for example, you’ll see this “Shows” tab change is not present.)

YouTube is also going to use such premium content — much of which it’s acquired from major studios such as CBS, MGM, the BBC, and Disney — to run in-stream advertising. Advertisers will be able to use Google TV Ads to place commercials into the ad breaks of these full-length movie and TV programs watched on the site.

Time To Test…And Time Will Tell

Looks like there’s definitely LOTS to explore. And that’s what I’m off to do, for it’s less than 12 hours until the YouTube Secret Weapon “Catchup” Webinar (our 6th Bonus Webinar since launching back in January) that Paul Colligan and I are holding for our customers. Rest assured I’ll be up the remainder of the night testing how owners of YouTube Secret Weapon can take advantage of these recent design and navigational changes so that they continue to attract the MAXIMUM targeted audience viewership for their niche-focused videos.

Now that we’ve witnessed the initial unveiling of this round of changes, I’m feeling much more optimistic that YouTube will continue to find ways to meet its two seemingly conflicting goals of monetizing the site while also remaining true to its user-generated content roots and audience. Nice job, YouTube, of striking that delicate balance on this release.

(And I hopefully won’t change my tune once I get in there and start testing.)

YouTube Secret Weapon owners join Paul and me for our “Catchup” Bonus Webinar Friday at 1PM EDT / 10 AM PDT to get our initial reactions on how you can BENEFIT and TAKE ADVANTAGE of these recent YouTube changes.

Change = good!

{ 8 comments }

There are several rumors making the rounds that YouTube has more changes on tap. According to Zachary Rodgers at Clickz, YouTube will be rolling out a new site layout this Thursday, April 16. The big difference will be that user-generated content (UGC) will now be clearly segregated from the premium content that those creators have paid to have promoted.

From the post: “According to two sources familiar with Google’s plans for YouTube, the new design will do away with the current navigation scheme which funnels users into “videos,” “channels,” and “community” categories. That layout will be replaced with a tabbed navigation with clearly defined sections for professional content.”

“The new design will offer four tabs: Movies, Music, Shows, and Videos. The first three tabs will display premium shows, clips, and movies from Google’s network and studio partners, all of which will be monetized with in-stream advertising. Meanwhile the Videos channel will house amateur and semi-pro content of the sort major brand advertisers have shied away from.”

While changes on YouTube are inevitable in order that they monetize the site and keep up with the excitement over more high-profile television content at Hulu, according to Michael Learmonth in Advertising Age, there is good news for less exalted users, which shows that You Tube isn’t going to leave user-generated content in the dust:

“But Shishir Mehrotra, YouTube’s director-product management, downplays the impact of high-profile content deals such as those signed with Disney, CBS, and, in the works, Sony Pictures. ‘We’re very proud of our agreement with Disney. But we aren’t hinging our strategy around it. If it’s great for our users, it happens to be good for monetization.’”

And as we reported in yesterday’s blog post, while we’ve already begun to see YouTube take larger steps toward monetization in recent weeks, there has been nothing yet that will rock the entire system and drastically affect the video optimization strategies taught in YouTube Secret Weapon.

Paul and I do intend to stay on top of what’s going on though.

In fact: Since the scheduled day for this change in site design is Thursday, April 16th, all YouTube Secret Weapon owners have been invited to a 2-hour webinar with Julie Perry and Paul Colligan at 1 PM EDT / 10 AM PDT on Friday, April 17th to go over how this might affect current marketing efforts on the site and how to take advantage of these changes.

Other recent updates and changes on YouTube will also be discussed on this call, and there will be a chance to ask questions live at the end of the call.

To take part in that webinar, all you need to do is pick up your copy of YouTube Secret Weapon today (and hurry, because the price doubles on Wed, April 15th at Midnight EDT).

Join us!

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Post Update - Thursday, April 16th -

An update: No apparent changes have appeared yet; however, I came across this video last night where YouTube users are rallying to petition what they’re calling a move to “HuluTube (basically, a downplay of UGC content):

While the effects of what will happen are a tad bit hyped, this is a well done video that gives a comprehensive summary of all the recent changes that have negatively affected user-generated content. (That is, the user-generated content that made YouTube what it is.) They also make some great recommendations on how to compromise on the reported changes (again, yet to be seen).

I realize that YouTube needs to monetize, but in my opinion, I’d rather pay a $20 annual subscription fee like I do on other sites to have the advertising and premium content toned down and the various UGC features restored. Let’s face it, real people are far more interesting anyway.

I’ll be interested to see what happens over the next 24-48 hours.

Meanwhile, Paul and I will be ready to discuss the implications of these proposed changes — as well as a few others updates that have already come about in recent weeks — on Friday’s YouTube Secret Weapon webinar.

We’ll talk then!

~JP

{ 1 comment }

YouTube has made changes in the terminology department by renaming some of the modules that appear on the homepage, in the search results, and on video watch pages. The updates were made at the end of March, and I’ve since received quite a bit of questions from YouTube Secret Weapon owners wondering how and if these changes affect them.

First, the three new categories born out of the change:

1. Spotlight Videos
2. Promoted Videos
3. Featured Videos

Not intuitive are they? Lots of people are freaking out needlessly over these new categories. The good news is that the name changes have very little impact on most average users’ video campaigns.

What they do show us, however, is that YouTube is taking steps toward making premium content more prominent on the site. So far, it’s not affecting things too much, but we’ll know later in the week if bigger changes are coming.

Meanwhile, read on for all the details on the first changes to come about:

1. Spotlight Videos - “We like to highlight videos we think you’ll want to watch; videos that hopefully inform, inspire, and entertain. We think ‘Spotlight Videos’ is an appropriate moniker for this section, and soon we are going to take a more thematic approach to showcasing some of the best videos our community and partners produce. When you see these videos, they will have top billing on the page — a true spotlight.” (This is YouTube’s own description.)

This is part of YouTube’s effort to highlight premium content and done to keep sponsors and brand channels happy. (In the category of If You Have To Ask You Can’t Afford It, some brand channel sponsors pay upwards of $200,000 for this privilege). In addition to coming up on users’ YouTube Homepage upon log-in, Spotlight Videos now come up in place of “Related Videos” on the main video pages for content put out by Brand Channels (though Brand Channels can decline taking part). An example of this would be videos coming from the Turbo Tax Brand Channel. Note the videos coming up as “Spotlight” next to one of Turbo Tax’s recent videos, example at left.

What this is doing is taking the place of “related videos” that could be content coming from any user and that previously were more based on titles, tags, description copy, and other metadata sorted out by YouTube’s search algorithm.

Again, the good thing is that we’re not seeing this affecting the average user, just the larger Brand and Partner Channel content.

Some Brand Channels, like The Out Islands of the Bahamas have opted not to allow Spotlight Videos to come up adjacent to their videos, because they prefer to have other videos related to their product show up alongside them, such as user generated content from people’s vacations in the Bahamas. That, of course, makes more sense for their brand.

2. Promoted Videos (Formerly “Sponsored Videos”) - “Our search advertising program is about helping anyone promote their videos to a larger audience on YouTube (right now this is only available in the U.S.). Whether you’re a start-up band trying to break out with a new single, or an advertiser showing off how to use your cool new product, this program is a great way for you to promote and drive traffic to your content. We think ‘Promoted Videos’ more accurately describes this program than ‘Sponsored Videos,’ the original name.” (Again, this is what YouTube says officially.)

This is the original “Sponsored Videos” which are now called “Promoted Videos” because they think it more adequately describes their Pay-Per-View (PPV) advertising program (just like PPC on Google). Learn more about this here.

Note: YouTube’s Promoted Videos/PPV program was covered extensively by Paul Colligan in one of our YouTube Secret Weapon bonus webinars. Paul has used it to promote several videos he made for affiliate products, and he demonstrated several of these examples as case studies for us.

3. Featured Videos - “Featured Videos will be primarily populated with videos from YouTube’s thousands of partners, but they might also include select user videos that are currently popular or that we have previously showcased in Spotlight Videos. We will automatically rotate these videos throughout the day to keep them fresh.” (Again, this is the official explanation.)

This is the one that has received the most negative feedback from users on YouTube’s blog. The gripe is that the average user no longer stands a chance to be featured, because it’s only advertiser videos that are making it into this mix. That’s not exactly the case, as I’ve seen several new video content producers make it into this pool mainly by the quality of their video (as far as I can tell), BUT the majority are definitely Partner and Brand Channel videos from which YouTube is able to score a profit via text overlays and display ads on Partner watch pages and channels.

There is also a Featured Videos section on user homepages upon log-in. Why they have to put both Featured and Spotlight Videos on the homepage is beyond me. They do let us customize our Homepage, but moving these features around is all that can be done; they can’t be deleted.

Whew! As you can tell from this post, YouTube is a work in progress, but you can rest assured that Paul and I will stay on top of all the latest revisions and updates so all you have to do is focus on creating great content.

To maximize your traffic on YouTube, be sure to get your copy of YouTube Secret Weapon today (and hurry, because the price goes up to $197 on Wed., April 15th at Midnight PDT).

{ 0 comments }

There was a provocative post yesterday on the Business Insider blog which contends that YouTube as it’s now structured is doomed. Benjamin Wayne writes that despite huge ad revenue which is certainly making a contribution to Google’s bottom line, the expenses far surpass the income—with little hope that ads alone can make YouTube profitable.

“Despite massive growth, ubiquitous global brand awareness, presidential endorsement, and the world’s greatest repository of illegally-pirated video content, Google’s massive video folly is on life-support, and the prognosis is grave.”

Do you agree that “YouTube is soaring towards the future like a pigeon towards a plate glass window.”? According to the story, “YouTube is adamant that ultimately they’ll find an advertising solution that will enable the ungainly behemoth to reach profitability.”

It’s a good thing that YouTube was bought by a benevolent landlord with the deepest of pockets, a company obviously willing to sustain losses while they figure out a viable monetization plan.

The article continues: “What are Google’s options? They seem unlikely to sustain a billion-dollar annual experiment with no path to revenue, no matter how much they paid for the original asset. In an organization feeling the sting of layoffs, is this really where Google wants to spend its money? It all depends.”

I just can’t see Google letting YouTube die. It’s the largest website on the planet and has massive brand recognition. Clearly it’s worth redesigning it, even if it means losing some goodwill and limiting what users can upload for free. They might also consider limits on how many hours you can watch for free each month.

As a marketer, I’d be happy to pay an annual fee for a Pro account, one of the options suggested in the article: “YouTube could implement a subscription structure for the site, either monetizing certain members-only content, or requiring users to create a paid account in order to contribute content. With so many marketers looking at YouTube as part of their viral strategy, this too could be a viable option.”

Despite YouTube’s current financial situation, it’s not affecting the traffic potential or the possibilities to rank well in Google universal search. In fact, with those benefits, I bet they’d find a lot of people willing to pay a subscription fee, or perhaps pay per upload. A Pro account would be a great answer, and I’d go for it—say $20 a year—that would be a great value. Sure we’d lose a lot of the kids, but they could stand to spend more time on homework anyway! 

What do you think? Let’s toss around options for making YouTube profitable.

FYI… Here are the most recent stats from comScore as of February 2009: YouTube remains the online video leader with 5.3 billion (yes, BILLION) video views in February, which is over 40% of the total videos viewed online across the Internet that month.

AND, according to comScore, while more than 145 million U.S. Internet users watched an average of 90 videos per viewer in February, YouTube maintained its lead with nearly 100 million of those viewers watching 53.8 YouTube videos during the month. More importantly, those 100 million YouTube viewers represented 69 percent of those who watched online video.

This is not a fad, people. Video marketing is only going to increase as one of the most viable means to connect and even interact with your audience.

And right now, YouTube has the lion’s share of that audience—not to mention the SEO power to help marketers achieve stellar Google Universal Search (GUS) rankings easier than relying on traditional search engine optimization strategies on websites. (You knew it was coming…the plug): Which, of course, is exactly why you need to be using YouTube Secret Weapon. We help you get there…

Don’t forget, the price doubles next week on April 15. Stimulate your YouTube traffic now.

{ 0 comments }