The Web Savvy Traffic Generation of Using YouTube Channels Properly

Last week, I went into great depth on how to create videos that you can upload and use to drive traffic to your website or blog.  If you missed them, here is a list of links to those articles to help you get started:

Why You Should Use Sites Like YouTube To Post Your Videos

What You Should NOT Do When Creating Marketing Videos

The Type of Software and Hardware to Use When Making Videos

Producing Your Traffic Generating Video

Getting Your Video Finished and Formatted Online

If you are going to use this method of Web savvy traffic generation, I have a few extra tips that might help you accomplish your goals. 

Many of the marketers out on the Web that are using video to get people to go to their squeeze pages or websites usually make one fatal mistake.  They create a YouTube video channel, and then they make as many videos as they can to post to that channel. 

The problem with this strategy is that you are sacrificing QUALITY in your video content.  

The Bad Online Video Experience

You are then treated to some guy driving his car trying to look like the coolest Internet marketing guru since the Rich Jerk.  You start watching, and obviously he has not thought one wit about what he was going to say. 

Even if he is telling you something of value that you've never heard before, it takes him so long to spit it out that you become frustrated and finally go elsewhere.  

It doesn't matter that he’s got 500 marketing videos on his YouTube channel, because you just haven’t got the time to listen to his nonsense.  Also, you suddenly notice that his video counts are very low and have been online for over 2 years. 

With all of that, why would you waste your time watching his junk?

The Great Online Video Experience

You find a video with the same title ““Using Social Networks for Generating Traffic to Your Blog” and click on it.  Right from the first second, you notice that

the video quality is great, the person speaking is dressed neatly and is speaking clearly.  

Even though it is exactly the same information as the last individual gave you, it is being said much more concisely, and he is moving through his main points with much better clarity.

Instead of driving his Jaguar past the beach, he is standing in front of a plain background with text popping up next to him, highlighting the key points.  You can tell from the onset, his goal is to make sure you get some valuable information from spending your valuable time watching his video. 

Being Web savvy, you know deep down inside that he’s eventually going to lead you to his sales funnel, but you don’t care!  If the product you eventually buy from this person is as high quality as his video, then you’ll gladly plunk down a good price to get it.

When the video ends, you click on the link to his YouTube channel and notice that even though some these videos have been online for 12 months, there is a rather large viewer count.

Not only are you a little smarter from having watched the video, you are now more YouTube savvy and you make a mental note to start looking at videos with a higher viewer count in the YouTube filter.

Quality VS Quantity

The point of this is, when you make bad videos and start uploading them to your site or channel, you are creating a brand and a presence online for yourself.  It’s exactly the same principle with writing blog posts.  If you write lousy, unfocused posts, nobody will read them and you’ll develop a bad reputation for yourself.

If you'd like to see a good example of an informative, high quality video watch this:

TIP:  Don’t just think about the video itself on YouTube, look at the comment section too.  If people are commenting on your video, write a response that is high quality, even if it is a negative comment.  Thank the individuals commenting and respond with kind words.  

This is what you call PROFESSIONALISM. If the comment is real bad, you can always delete it.  But try to display a professional attitude at all times.  If it is a criticism and it’s valid, thank the person commenting for their input give a nice answer and move on.

TIP 2:  Try to make a quick advertisement at the end of your video about your other videos.  The way I would recommend this would be to remind people of your YouTube channel and that you have more high quality videos for them to watch.  You can also plug your website and what it’s about after that as well.

To Your Success!

Mark “Elmo” Ellis

"When it Comes to High-Response Copy - I've Got Your Back!"

www.MarkEllisCopy.com

(859) 797-9560

elmo033057@gmail.com

Getting Your Web Savvy Video Published Online To Generate a Flood of Traffic!

OK, now you are on your last step of creating and posting your first video on the Internet.  I am assuming that for now you are going to be posting to YouTube because it is probably the easiest way to get your video out there so you can get some traffic to your site or blog. 

(If you want to read the previous articles on this subject the links will be provided at the end of this post.)

The other reason why I suggest that you post to YouTube is because you’ll get success much quicker. You’ll be ecstatic getting your first video published online, so you’ll want to get more of them done.  Nothing will get a student more motivated to learn and do more than a successful experience. 

Getting Your New Web Savvy Video In Front Of the Right Audience

Once you have your video complete, you will want to get it in front of the right audience.  You can have the greatest video ever made and even win some sort of award for it, but if you don’t get in front of people that are hungry for the information that’s on it, your goal will be missed.

Utilize Social Media Channels

You can go to different social media sites and post a quick snippet of information about your video that you posted to your YouTube channel.  All you have to do is go to your social media page, write a brief introduction to your video and then copy and paste the web address of the video into the posting area of the social media site and hit “Enter”.    Magically you’ll see the actual video clip appear!

Screen Shot of social media channel:

You can use this technique on a whole boatload of social media sites like Facebook (in picture) Google Plus, Myspace, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.  You don’t even have to rewrite the posts and the links, you can just write the first one, copy it and paste it to the other sites.

Now, this is assuming that you've been cultivating and socializing with people that are interested in your niche and that may be interested in what you have to offer on these social networking sites.  If you aren't cultivating people that are interested in your business, then you’ll be wasting your time because if they aren't interested in your message it won’t even watch it.

Make Your Title Keyword Rich and Interesting

You need to do some keyword research to see what keywords people are interested in before you name your video and post it to the Internet.  The best way to do that is by consulting Google’s Keyword Planner.  

If you already have a Gmail account you can easily get an AdSense account and access the Keyword Planner.  This tool will allow you to check and see what keywords people are looking at and how much.  Ideally, you’ll want to get words or phrases that people are looking up but are underused. Once you have done your keyword homework you’ll want to include the words or phrase in the title of your video.

 Build Your YouTube Channel

I often forget this because it’s so obvious, but YouTube is a social media channel itself.  You can easily create your own channel on YouTube, trick it out with banners and backgrounds to make it look cool and start inviting people to it that may be interested in your videos.  

You’ll eventually find out that people that pop-over from Facebook and other sites also are into YouTube, and have been at least posting family or hobby videos on there as well.

Use Other Video Sites Too!

Once you get some experience using and posting to YouTube, you can now start to post to other video sites as well.  Almost all of them are very, very similar.  All you have to do is create accounts to them and post. 

Don’t Forget Your Blog!

Web savvy marketers should always post their videos to their blogs.  When I post a video to my blog, I always try to make it relevant to what I’m writing about.  Some people don’t even blog, they “Vlog” or create a video blog. Instead of writing, they will record a video and then post it on the Internet on a regular basis.  

The big problem with this is Google will usually rank your webpage based on the content that’s written on your site.  So a blog (or Vlog) that only has video on it will be much harder to rank than a blog that is well written.   The other problem I've seen with Vlogs are that they are usually poorly made and boring.  

When you consider the procedures we've posted in previous posts and the care you must take to make an excellent video, it would take a lot of time and effort to accomplish.

If you are interested in seeing how to post or embed a video into a blog, watch this video.  The procedure involves getting the embed code from YouTube for your video and placing it into the HTML code into Blogger.  Pretty much the same procedure with WordPress and other types of blog platforms.

I hope the series this week has helped you decide on whether or not you’ll want to use video to market your services or products with.  It’s really not that hard to learn and once you’ve made your first one the rest are pretty easy.

Here are the links to this week’s series on marketing with video. (In order of their appearance.)

1.       Web Savvy YouTube Traffic Generator

2.       How NOT to Create YouTube Videos

3.       What Type of Software Do I Need

4.       How to Make Web Savvy YouTube Videos

5.       You've Made Your Video, Now What?

To Your Success!

Mark “Elmo” Ellis

"When it Comes to High-Response Copy - I've Got Your Back!"

www.MarkEllisCopy.com

(859) 797-9560

elmo033057@gmail.com

How to Make Web Savvy YouTube Videos That Will Generate Traffic

In my last post, I told you about the nuts and bolts of creating YouTube videos.  The types of software and equipment that you’ll need to get the job done.  You can read it here:

What Type of Software and Hardware Should I Use to MakeYouTube Videos With?

Now we are going to tackle the subject of how to create videos.  In my opinion, it is better to make instructional videos related to your niche.  The reason for this is that you are doing several things at once.

1.  You are giving prospects something of value that they can use, thus earning their trust.

2.  You are proving to potential clients and customers that you know your stuff and can deliver it.  This will make you an authority in your niche.

3.  Your videos will become a traffic generator for your landing page.

Designing Your Web Savvy -- Traffic Generating Video

Step 1 -- Plan Your Video

Planning before you shoot your video is all important.  If you are going to create a series of videos, then you’ll need to take some time to write out an outline or something similar to a table of contents.  Carefully think through all of the steps of the video (or videos) and make an outline so that you will have a reference of what to write for your script.

Note: If you are making just one video make an outline of your script.  If you are making a series of videos first make an outline or table of contents for the entire series.  Then make a table of contents for each video.

Why are we doing this?  For one thing, when you are writing your scripts you will notice that you are logically following a concise and well thought out order to your videos.  The other reason is, believe it or not, you will save time in writing your script, and you won’t forget to leave information and important elements of your video. 

Step 2 --- Write a script.  Most of the videos you see on the Internet are not scripted.  In other words, they are not thought out, not focused on a specific task or subject and not made very well.  It’s like going to websites and blogs where people just throw information on them without even a theme, expecting to gather a herd (AKA tribe, ravenous prospects, hive, etc.)  to their site. 

So, in order to stand out from the crowd, you need to have a focused well thought out and well written script.  You will also need to insert notes into the script so that you’ll know when to insert certain pictures and points.  I add and highlight places in my scripts where I want to add emphasis to my voice while reading the script.

Step 3 --- Edit your script and make it clean.  Once you've written your script, you’ll want to go back and read through it aloud.  You’ll be amazed at how lousy some of your phrases sound after you've read them.  Edit and take out any extraneous (not needed) words or phrases that you think you can live without. 

Step 4 --- Read and rehearse your script.  Read through the script several times to make sure you won’t have too many hiccups or pauses during your video recording.  I hate it when I’m watching a video and there’s all of these “Uhhhh…” pauses in the video.  You can obviously tell that there was very little thought put into the video and the speaker either doesn’t mind wasting your time or just doesn't know what he’s talking about.

Step 5 --- Record the video.  Don’t get intimidated by this. In yesterday’s post I went into the type of equipment used and what kind of software you should buy.  You could easily get everything you need to get decent quality equipment, software and camera for under $1000.  Yep, that’s right, I said UNDER A THOUSAND DOLLARS. Is it going to be in the same class as CNN?  Nope. But you can record and edit easily for this much.

Here's a great resource for getting the job done cheap: Inexpensive Video Production

I've seen online videos created with basic cameras and equipment that were very good.  You don’t need high end equipment or even great production, but you can get as close to it as you can by learning a few tricks.  

There are plenty of websites that show you how to make great production level videos on a limited budget  so you’ll have to look around to find a few of them.  (I’ll give you some resources you can access at the end of this post that’ll point you in the right direction.)

When you start recording your video, you need a plain background so it won’t be distracting, a place to record at where it’s quiet, and teleprompting software that scrolls your script on your laptop or screen.  Oh, yeah and a video camera. 

Place your camera right behind the laptop facing you and read the script in a clear voice at a moderate speed.  If you've rehearsed the script the recording should go well.

If you are using screen capturing software, you won’t need teleprompting software, you can read your script right off a piece of paper.  Just place it somewhere that it can be seen. 

Here is a video I made using Camtasia and a script:

Step 6 --- Editing your video. Once you have finished your video, you can now address the part of the production that requires the most work and time.  The editing process.  This is where you’ll use your software to take any and all unneeded parts and mistakes.  You can also add words and graphics to the screen as well as music to really make your video look professional.

Once you are finished with all of that, you can save your video to up load it to YouTube which I’ll cover in my next post.

A Few More Crucial Pointers…

Before I sign out of this post I want to give you a few more thoughts on video production.

• Make sure you make a video that is valuable and relevant to your business and target market.  You must define who you are trying to benefit with your video.

• Keep the video about 5 minutes long.  Long winded videos bore the tar out of most people.

• Always keep the people you are making your video in mind.  Issues such as bandwidth and video format are important to consider.  (More on this tomorrow.)

Video References:

Editing Software 

Sony Vegas

Camtasia

Teleprompter Software

To Your Success!

Mark “Elmo” Ellis

"When it Comes to High-Response Copy - I've Got Your Back!"

www.MarkEllisCopy.com

(859) 797-9560

elmo033057@gmail.com

How NOT to Create YouTube Videos That Will Get Traffic to Your Site

In my last post, I told you it was very true that getting noticed on the Internet was relatively easy using YouTube.  That you could use YouTube and other video channels to get to the top of the Search Engine Results Pages and I even had an example of how I did it. 

If you want to go back and read that article, you can access it here: Using YouTube to GenerateTraffic to Your Site

Let’s Talk About How Not To Make YouTube Videos

The thing that will separate the men from the boys in video creation is QUALITY!

It’s just like any other information source on the Internet, 85 to 90% of what is out there is done half-way, (if you know what I mean.). Very few people put out quality information that's even coherent, and very, very few do it on a long-term, consistent basis.

So, don’t make videos that are not well thought out.

Pet Peeve Time:   I don’t know how it all started in the Internet Marketing arena, but videos of IM gurus and IM wannabe gurus driving their cars, while talking about how slick they are is rampant on the Internet.  Usually, they are leaning back talking like they have all the time in the world, while driving along the beach. 

To me, it wreaks of snake oil salesmen.

What they are saying in their videos is:  Here I am driving my Jaguar in my Hawaiian shirt, along a beach where beautiful women are walking around in bikinis and I’m making bazillions of dollars while doing it.  

---And if you listen to me and follow a few basic steps, you too can be just like me.  Click on this link and I’ll put you in my slick sales funnel.

Here's what I think ...And don't ever forget I'm never wrong! 

For one thing, THERE ARE VERY FEW NEW INTERNET MARKETING TECHNIQUES OUT THERE, AND JUST BECAUSE THEY DID IT, DOES NOT MEAN FOR A SECOND THAT YOU’LL HAVE THE SAME SUCCESS.  

By the way, you can go to just about any Internet marketing forum, ask for help, and people (victims) that have already followed these gurus will tell you the same thing for free.

Instructional Videos Are Best

Let’s define something here for a second.  I’m not talking about cat videos, viral videos that go viral just to be viral or junk like that. I’m talking about videos that add value to your business and give your prospects something that will help them.  Oh, and being genuine helps too.

The best type of videos to create are those that teach something that people can actually learn.  A well thought out, coherent and high quality video will say volumes about your business.  This fulfills at least two missions of your marketing efforts:

1.  If you post your Web address to your video, you may get some traffic to your site.

2.  It will create familiarity with your audience.  Familiarity is very important because people will buy from sources they know.  And it’s not just in the product and services arena that this works.  Have you ever noticed how much easier it is for people to get hired at a company or business because they knew the people that were hiring?  So, becoming a recognized face in your niche is very important.

3.  If you really know what you’re doing, and your video is well made, then you will gain some “authority status” and thereby be the go-to-guy in your niche.

Not only all that, but you’ll want a video that is relevant to your niche as well.  It won’t make much sense to create a real good video about gerbils when your website and business is built around bicycle parts.

One other thing.  Have you ever watched a video created by some hotshot marketing guru, and you just knew that the video was created for the sole purpose of selling you something?  It really made you doubt in your mind the sincerity of the individual promoting it.  As a matter of fact, whenever I watch free videos anymore, there are some people I know from the past that I immediately smell a major league sale coming on. 

Do you think that kind of a reputation is the one you want?  

I’m not saying that your marketing efforts aren't there to make money, but just be aware of the fact that as time goes on, the masses of people that jump onto the Internet will become more sensitive and aware of the game afoot.

Tomorrow's post, I will show you the actual nuts and bolts of creating videos.  What type of software to use, how to write your script, and other important facets of video marketing that will help you on your way to video marketing heaven.

Until then…

Mark “Elmo” Ellis

"When it Comes to High-Response Copy - I've Got Your Back!"

www.MarkEllisCopy.com

 (859) 797-9560

elmo033057@gmail.com

P.S.  Here's an interesting video on creating videos I think you'll enjoy!

Use Web Savvy YouTube Traffic Generation to Get Prospects to Your Site

This is one method of generating traffic that I know for a fact works very fast.  I actually learned all about creating videos back in 2007 while working on my Master’s Degree in Education Technology with Boise State University.

One of the classes I took was “Educating with YouTube” believe it or not.  In that class, we had to create scripted, well edited educational videos and post them to YouTube.  Actually, there was more to it than all that; we had to create a YouTube educational channel, use various types of video editing and screen capture software like Camtasia among other things to make our instructional videos.

One of the first videos I created was one called “Facebook for Beginners”.  For that video assignment I had to build a lesson plan, write a step by step script, and then execute it and post it to my YouTube channel.  Of course all of this had to be submitted to my professors.

If you want to see it, here it is: 

I had beginners luck with this video.  To date I’ve had over 26, 000 views and it seemed to gain popularity very quickly.  Now some Internet marketers out there are going to roll their eyes at that count, and they would be right.  But for a person that tried it out for the first time, it was a good start.
 

Getting to the Top of The SERPS and Not Even Knowing it!

The other thing I learned about this that hit me like a Ton ̶ O ̶ Bricks was how fast the search term “Facebook for Beginners” went to the top of Google’s Search Engine Results Pages.  I was at the top of Google for that term for quite some time.                                                                    (Update: I’m no longer at the top of the Google’s SERPS for this term, unless you search under Google’s Video link at the top of Googles main page.  It’s still there after all these years, right in the middle of the page!)

The beauty of all this is that you can add your URL Website address to your video channel or display it in your video itself.  At the time, I wasn’t thinking about making money or gaining traffic on the Internet. I was just worried about getting an “A” in my YouTube class. 

Bad Videos and How They Can Cheese You Off!

Since taking this class, I’ve seen a lot of YouTube videos, especially instructional ones.  The problem with a large percentage of them is that they are horrible, mainly because most of them are unscripted.  Let’s say you search online for a Photoshop tip and find a video you think is going to quickly and succ where the person that created the video with Camtasia, has a bad microphone, so you can barely hear his or her voice.   

Then there’s the incredible dialogue with a lot of …uh…ya know…….uhhh……stuff…like…..uhhhh…..ya know ….stuff….like this!

If you’re like me, you hate, hate, hate, to waste time with someone that beats around the bush about what they are trying to tell you.  You can obviously tell the person that’s behind the

So, over the course of the next couple of days, we are going to take a look at what makes a good instructional video, why you would want to make one and how to do it as cheap as possible. 

Hint:  It’s the same principle as when you are trying to write Web content, if you write total crap, nobody will look at your material.  They’ll go to your site, see that you’re wasting their time because the content sucks and then leave.

So, tomorrow, I’ll write the first installment on how to create a good video with well organized content. In the meantime, if you want to watch a rather entertaining video on making money, here it is:

How to Make Interesting Money Making Videos

Mark “Elmo” Ellis

"When it Comes to High-Response Copy - I've Got Your Back!"

www.MarkEllisCopy.com

 (859) 797-9560

elmo033057@gmail.com

Why Some Will Make Money with YouTube and Others Never Will

5 Easy Ways to Make Your Video Better and Stomp the Heck Out of Your Competition

Today I’m going to rant, so get back and prepare to be entertained by watching my eyes bulge, veins explode, and the rest of my carcass go into cardiac arrest.  Please, allow me this.  My doctor told me I can’t have any more pizza, my minister has me sworn off of swearing, and my wife threw my lucky socks away. 

Look, I need to rant about this pet irritation I have, I don’t have ANYTHING else to get my jollies off on, so lay off, will ya?

---ahem---

This complaint is about your YouTube videos. 

You know, some of you just don’t get it.  In marketing, it takes more than just stuffing your face into your laptop or riding around in your car acting like you really have it all together to prove to me that you truly understand how to properly make a video that sells or informs.

Not that I’m some guru or anything special, but let’s assume for a moment that I am your target audience.  (I mean, I COULD be in your target market for all you know, right?)

First of all, you need to look professional in your video or at least look like you have a brain in your head.  I can already hear some of you screaming at your laptop screens, “Wait a minute!  I just saw a Seth Godin video, and all he had on was a T-Shirt and boxer shorts!  If he’s the best and he’s dressed like that, then I should do the same, right?  RIGHT???”

Seth Godin, Yanik Silver, Dan Kennedy, John Carlton and any other marketing guru that you can throw at me have Guru-Status.  They have written tons of books, newsletters, done seminars, have at least three or four websites and when you go to Alexa to check on the traffic they are getting, they actually have a little jagged line on their websites statistics chart, so please, a little respect for those that can and do wear boxers in their videos.

Sheesh!

I mean, they are riding so high, they fall butt-backwards into money, while the rest of us have to scratch and peck to get a mere pittance.

So YOU and I will have to look decent.  Look clean and try to dress casual to appeal to the masses.  You don’t have to wear a three piece suit unless you are working for “the Donald” or “da Ahh-Nald”.  Wear a nice shirt, floss, brush, and comb. Getting rid of nose hair would help too.

Now, I've seen lesser wannabe gurus giving dissertations on how to make money on the Internet driving their cars, drinking beer out of mugs, walking their dogs in the park, etc. I’m actually surprised that one of them hasn't tried to make one in the shower or hanging upside down from a tree.

For some reason in their mind, it is not the message, but the area they filmed the video in that’s more important.  Big mistake.  You could have made the video sitting on the toilet for all I care! If you had some very valuable information that I could actually use, it would be worth watching you strain between phrases. So remember, it is the message not the area that is muy, muy importante. (Spanish)

So far there are two rules:

1.  Look good

2.  Have good information to convey

OK, ya still with me?  Good.

The next piece of advice I could give you is to actually write a script.  Sit down and type out an entire script.  I hate to see a video wherein people are fumbling words like crazy, interrupted by the words “ahhhhh” and “ummm”. It is super distracting, a waste of time, and it gets very boring after a while.  

I would much rather watch a video where I could understand everything that was said, the writing was concise, and I didn't have to sit for an hour and a half trying to get a tidbit of information that you said I could really use.

Also, in the same vein as looking professional in your video, you will want your material to look and sound like it was made by some one that has a brain that isn’t tabula rasa.

So:

3.  Write a script

Oh, by the way, you can buy and download software for your laptop that scrolls the words for you like a teleprompter.  I made this video using such software. I put my video on a tripod with its legs retracted all of the way in, right behind my laptop and read the words as they scrolled.  Kubrick would be proud of my innovation.

4.  Don’t use too many channels

My Master’s degree is in Education Technology, and one of the things that I saw a lot of research on was clarity of message and how people can only process on or two “channels” at a time.  Channels being messages or enhancements that people had to take in at one time.  For example: you can have a person speaking with music and that was OK because it was only two channels; music and a spoken word.  But, if you have a video where people are speaking, music is playing, words popping up on the screen with sound effects, etc. then that was more than two channels and therefore it was too confusing. Keep it simple by using only one or two channels at a time.

5.  Make it interesting

You can still make an interesting video on a limited budget using software that you can get for next to nothing.  I use Sony Vegas, but there are even cheaper software packages that you can get to do editing that is good enough that will make your videos shine.  Also, if you decide to make instructional videos, you can use Camtasia, which is an outstanding screen capture software.  I have made many, many videos using this software and it is worth every penny.

This video I made for an assignment I had for Boise State has had over 20,000 views.  I used Camtasia software to produce it:

Using this type of software, you can bounce between different screens while audio voices over the different scenes, you can add credits and words to the screen to emphasize a point, you can grab attention by using music.  But once again, you can make a high quality video that will easily outshine you competitors and give you an extra edge.   

So, to recap:

1.            Look good

2.            Have good information to convey

3.            Write a script

4.            Don’t use too many channels

5.            Make it interesting

Mark “Elmo” Ellis is a freelance writer, able to write compelling direct mail pieces, video scripts, brochures, and website copy that will grab the attention of your readers, reel them in, and get them to increase your bottom line.