You may be contemplating creating a YouTube channel of your very own. It’s far too common to see a new channel start only to end abandoned a month later. Having a game plan, figuring out your challenges and setting goals will serve you well. This guide will provide clear and straight-forward advice that will surely lead your new channel to continued success.

What’s the big idea?

You probably have a good idea about what you’d like your channel to be about. The issue is (unless your idea is very unique) there’s likely others who have already thought of it and are far ahead of you in the game. It’s a good idea to stick to the subject you love but introduce a unique element to your videos. Anything that will set your channel apart from the rest will have a large impact later on down the road.

From a practical point-of-view, check out what options you may have for filming and editing. Test any cameras you own and use the one that provides the best picture. If the quality isn’t where you’d like it to be, a new camera might be necessary. Start to think about how many videos you’ll be uploading at any given time. Don’t take on more work than you have time or energy for.

A Catchy Name

Perhaps the most fun (initially) and most agonizing part of creating a YouTube channel, or anything for that matter, is choosing a name. Writing a list of names and then asking friends to pick which ones they like and give their own opinion can help you decide as well as spark additional ideas. Take a look at the front page of YouTube, it’s evident that many successful YouTubers possess short, smart and sometimes humorous account names. Ultimately a name that will stick with people is what you’re aiming for.

It’s impossible to predict the future but it’s naive to not to plan for it. A not so unrealistic scenario may present itself later and you don’t want to be left wondering what to do. If the direction of your videos changes, choosing a name too specific may confuse your subscribers. It could potentially make marketing your channel more difficult as well.

Curb Appeal

Books are judged by their covers, people judge others by how they dress and visitors will judge your channel by the first thing they see. If someone happens upon one of your videos, that video had better be 100%. If someone happens upon your channel, that channel background had better be professional and captivating. Think about the visual style you’d like your videos to embrace. Intro and outro clips are something to consider. A custom and unique YouTube channel background is a good idea and will help your channel stand out.

Time to Sell!

The videos you provide are the most important part of your channel but a close second is marketing it. Having amazing content is great but you’ll quickly realize that a “set and forget” approach will not work. You’ll need to get out there and get your channel known. Some common marketing techniques on YouTube are to befriend and comment on channels that are similar to yours. Not only will you be seen in the comments of videos but you may eventually earn some shout-outs. Doing collaborative videos with other more established YouTubers can be a quick way to expose your channel to a wide audience that will be interested in your content.

Marketing your YouTube channel doesn’t only involve action within the YouTube.com site. As you well know, social networking is a hot topic and more people than ever use sites like Facebook and Twitter. Setup a Facebook page as well as a Twitter page. You’ll want to inform followers of new videos but more importantly, provide them with something a bit more. Users need a reason to follow or like you, only posting that you’ve uploaded a new video isn’t reason enough. Holding giveaways on YouTube and utilizing your Facebook and Twitter pages can help gather interest very quickly. Pick a prize that closely relates to what your videos are about. This will ensure a higher probability that the extra eyes you harvest will actually stick around.

Expectations and Goals

If you love something and have great enthusiasm for it than the work is easy and fun but if that work becomes too much for you to handle than you may grow to hate what you once thought was a blast to do. Be honest with yourself; only devote time that you know you’ll have available. This doesn’t mean squeeze in 30 minutes here or there. All your videos have to be your best work. Remember, first impressions are everything.

Staying consistent is very important. If three videos a week is too much, do two videos a week. If two videos a week is too much than do one video a week. Whatever you decide, stay consistent. Continue to upload videos regularly, keep commenting on videos and interacting within the community. Set goals that challenge you but not so much so that you set yourself up for failure. As your following grows and your channel gets more activity, you’ll find yourself raising the bar and setting higher and more challenging goals to obtain. As you reach those goals, set your sights on the next. Follow this guide and it will lead to a successful YouTube channel.

About the author: Josiah S. has been helping YouTube users reach success for 5 years. He runs BackgroundTube.com – a site that offers professional (free and custom) YouTube channel backgrounds, avatars and more.

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Many want to begin making videos to drive traffic to their main websites, but few know how to do this properly. Learning how to get free traffic from YouTube is easy with the right strategies.

Target Long Tail and Ultra Long-Tail Keywords

Long tail keywords are specific and descriptive phrases, with ultra long tail keywords being even more specific, but also lower in search volume. They often have less competition, but convert visitors into leads and sales at a much greater rate.

YouTube’s domain authority is so high, that videos targeting well chosen keywords may rank highly with little to no promotion. Larger phrases can be targeted as well, but targeting the long tail phrases produces the largest return in the shortest amount of time.

Add Clickable Video Links

YouTube videos are embeddable on other websites. Adding in a link to the video itself lets viewers click to visit your site. People viewing a video on a third party site may also click the links within the video to visit your site.

Put the link in early when the video begins playing. It is also possible to use YouTube’s annotation tool to link to related videos to increase video views and the chance of getting a click through to a website.

Videos Need a Call to Action Too

Many video creators miss this point. It is important to put links in the video and the description, and to ask or tell viewers to click on them for more information. Some calls to action need to be stronger than others, but this can be tested to determine the best way to get viewers to click through.

Create a Great Channel Page

If viewers like a video and choose to subscribe to the channel, they will often visit that channel. YouTube channels can be edited to include custom background colors and images, descriptions, tags, and the option of which videos to show first to new subscribers.

Write an Article Length Description

Many make the mistake of only adding a link to a website and several tags in their video descriptions. This can be okay for established channels, but those trying to drive more users to a website, it is a bad practice to place a bare link with no other content.

Taking the time to include an article to accompany the video serves several important functions. One is that it gives users the incentive to stay on the video for its entirety and that enough interest to earn a click on one of the links in the description itself.

The other and more important point is that more content creates more opportunity for videos to rank highly for a larger quantity of long tail keywords. Content does not need to be any longer than a short blog post, and can be optimized in a similar fashion as blog content when targeting specific and secondary long tail keywords and phrases.

Link to More Than One Property

Getting traffic from YouTube can happen in a roundabout way. Some users are more interested in engaging socially than they are clicking through to a website to read more. Putting links in to social media profiles offers another chance to build trust and develop an audience. When the audience begins trusting the quality and information of videos, they may be more likely to visit a website.

Follow the Trends

YouTube is showing no signs of slowing down. Online video consumption is estimated by some to increase over 30% per year, per person. YouTube’s unique standing as a Google owned property, as well as trends concerning consumer preference make clear the need to establish a presence on YouTube. The trends speak for themselves.

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Small Business Owners Can Create Video for Marketing

Even though most individuals are familiar with home video cameras, they may not realize that they can create a useful and effective online video with even simple video equipment. Videos add important information and live action to website promotion and should definitely be included in design. In addition, putting that short and simple video up on a free social media website like YouTube, Facebook or LinkedIn can expose that advertising message to millions of potential viewers.

Why Include Online Video Marketing?

URL Submit, add URL and other efforts aimed at site promotion are a step in the right direction. A webmaster or company owner can conduct website submission to major websites like Google and Yahoo, and they can design a landing page that has search engine optimization in mind from the start quickly and easily. Automated site submission is the best way to get the business website out there for search engines to discover. Your business video can draw in visitors if you post it on social networking websites and on YouTube and link back to your website. Social websites attract about 800 to 900 million visitors each month; it is becoming increasingly more important for small businesses to think big and include social media video marketing plans as part of their overall advertising strategy.

Online Video Contributes to Website SEO Content

As website submission is accomplished, it is time to examine website content. In addition to creating interesting, relevant and important copy on all pages, the landing page should be especially geared towards search engine optimization (SEO) for best results. This means including keywords in copy, META tags and descriptions, and in online video marketing. Put the video on the front page and on all inner pages where it adds importance to the page. Use SEO copy in the video caption.

Online Video Marketing Basics

Start your video production with a few basics in mind:

• Keep it simple and short. Thirty seconds to about 3 minutes is best, concentrating on just two or three main points.
• Include keywords and be sure to overlay your web address on all videos.
• Upload your videos to social media — Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube. This keeps your costs to a minimum and exposure at a maximum potential.
• Include video topics like a company tour, interviews with personnel, product demos, how-to videos and new product announcements.
• Use an inexpensive camera with 320×400 pixels and do your own editing.
• Use analytics tools to determine how visitors are reacting to and viewing your videos.
• Check out Google AdWords for video and YouTube for Marketers options to enhance the impact of your online videos.

One precaution: Be sure material you use is not infringing on someone else’s copyright. Remember the legal aspects of public display of materials and product claims before you site submit.

The post Online Video Marketing is Big for Small Business appeared first on AddMe Blog.

While many businesses are warming up to the idea of content marketing, they are still limiting themselves. There is so much more to content marketing than starting a blog or creating social media profiles. There are so many more content marketing channels available, including video. For some reason, many businesses are hesitant to get into video marketing. That’s because they don’t realize its full potential and are “over thinking” the process.

YouTube is the second largest search engine after Google for a reason. People like to watch videos, and they aren’t just watching videos featuring funny babies or cute animals either (though that may be how it seems). People look for videos to find information on just about everything. Some people prefer to be shown how to do something rather than read a lengthy how-to guide. Any business from any industry has something to show target audience members. YouTube is the most popular video sharing site, but there are plenty of others too. In addition, a video can appear in a Google search result if it is well optimized providing potential customers or clients with one more way to learn more about you.

There are many excuses that businesses use to try and get out of developing and implementing a video marketing strategy. The first is that they don’t think that they have anything worth sharing via video, which is completely false. Take a tour of the office, interview an employee or a client, film a training session or an appearance at a trade show. It doesn’t have to be anything complex. As long as it gives a little glimpse into your business, that’s all that matters.

Some businesses are hesitant to create videos because they have the wrong priorities from the start. They think that a video is only worthwhile if it gets lots of views and goes viral. Really, for marketing purposes, the only goal should be to create a video that target audience members will find beneficial and appreciate. It doesn’t need to achieve viral status in order to be effective. In fact, viral videos may get attention, but they don’t always lead to anything more than that.

What it comes down to is the more good content that you put out on the web, the better the chances are that you will be found. People like to receive information in different formats and may prefer a video over a blog post. Even by investing just a small amount in a camera and some editing equipment and producing one or two simple videos a month you can really add a lot to your content marketing portfolio.

About the Author:
Brick Marketing is a Boston SEO firm. For more information please call 781-999-1222 or visit http://www.brickmarketing.com.

The post Incorporate Videos into Your Content Marketing Strategy appeared first on AddMe Blog.

Spending a lot of time trying to figure out how to make a video that will go viral isn’t worth it because there really is no magic formula. Trying to force a video to go viral almost guarantees that it won’t succeed. Some marketers think that something funny, quirky, or flashy is a sure bet. But what if your brand isn’t funny, quirky, or flashy? It doesn’t make sense. A marketing video should be created for the same purpose that any content is created, and that is to provide value to your target audience. You don’t want to stray away from that concept just to get attention. Not only will it alienate your current customers, but it will also attract the wrong target audience. Even if they think that your video is funny, they probably will never consider buying your products or services.

A marketing video doesn’t need to be entertaining. In many cases, it probably shouldn’t be. It can be just as valuable, and probably more so, if it is educational and informational. It all goes back to the target audience. What would they like to see that will help to persuade them to buy from you? A restaurant owner might provide a video of a tour of the restaurant. Sometimes pictures on the website aren’t enough. A tour of the dining room, the bar, and the kitchen will help a viewer get a better feeling of the size and the environment. A video interviewing staff members and customers provides a personal connection to a company and allows them to put a “face” on the brand name. Sure, it’s nothing flashy and it won’t become a YouTube sensation, but your target audience will appreciate it.

When it comes to making a marketing video, your best bet is to create something that is valuable to your target audience. If it’s worth sharing, it will be shared. Don’t worry so much about the number of views. Instead, check to see if the video has resulted in an increase in website traffic or conversions. Those are the numbers that really matter.

About the Author:

Brick Marketing is a Boston, MA based search engine marketing and SEO company. For more information please visit http://www.brickmarketing.com or call 781-999-1222.

The post Marketing Videos Don’t Need to Go Viral appeared first on AddMe Blog.

Here are 5 video marketing tips:

Provide Value
A marketing video needs to serve a purpose and provide viewers with some sort of value. Like any other form of marketing communication, content is key.    If there doesn’t seem to be any reason to watch the video, people will quickly click away from it and be annoyed that they wasted their time.  The video shouldn’t be too long.  The point is to pique the interest of the viewer and leave them wanting more.  The goal of any marketing video should be for the person watching it to take some sort of action after viewing it, such as making a call or filling out a lead form.

Optimize Each Video
Search engine optimization isn’t just for text based content.  When uploading a video online it’s important to optimize them using targeted keywords in the titles, descriptions, and links.  Videos can rank in the search engines, too.

Don’t Limit Yourself to YouTube
Sure, YouTube is the most well known video uploading and sharing site but there are numerous others such as Vimeo, Metacafe, Break, Daily Motion, and Yahoo Video.  Be sure to check those sites out as well.  Utilize social media sites like Facebook and Twitter to promote videos by posting and tweeting links to them.  It’s also a good idea to incorporate some videos into your website.  Providing an interesting video that users will want to watch will decrease website bounce rate.

Videos Shouldn’t Replace Other Important Content
Marketing videos can be great promotional tools, but it’s important to not overdo it.  Not everybody loves to watch videos and some people still prefer to browse through a website and read the text based content to find the information that they are looking for.  A video should never replace all of the other necessary elements of a website.

Have Fun With It
Producing a video provides an opportunity to make a business seem more personable and relatable.  A video can give a face and voice to the company and prove that there is more to the business than corporate “robots” that hide behind their computers all day.  It’s okay to have some fun with the process of creating and uploading a video.  However, it’s important to always keep the brand and company mission in mind when creating videos.  Never post anything too informal or inappropriate because it could hurt a company reputation.

About the Author:

Brick Marketing is a Boston MA based SEO and SEM company.  For more information please call 877-295-0620 or visit http://www.brickmarketing.com.

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Like images Google is not able to “watch/index” your video content so there is room to move on how you create your video. This is great if you are not a fan of getting in front of the camera (unlike me ) You can create the video buy screen capture or animated power point slides.

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