VidCon 2010 was amazing, on a number of levels. I’ll try to hit some of the highlights here but, … wow … I’m more serious / bullish on YouTube than ever before. Let me give you some highlights:

• The excitement of YouTube’s announcing support for 4k video overshadowed the important 3 point outline that came from the presentation where it was launched. In short, YouTube wants to be 1) the best place for your content while providing 2) the best ways to make your content fun and interactive while enabling people the chance to 3) view your content wherever you are. Lofty goals, yes, but I think these guys can pull it off. Oh, yes, and did I mention, they want you as a partner. Yes, our goal here is for you to see us as your YouTube Secret Weapon but, dear friends, MAKE YOUTUBE YOUR SECRET WEAPON.
• All my writing and teaching of all the places YouTube is available was made so much more elegant in the statement that our future is “not going to be a device centric world.” Your content everywhere (#3) above is the only choice for any content provider looking to take the Internet seriously.
• YouTube is monetizing over a billion videos a week. Read that sentence again. Nuff said?
• In a bit of very strategic insight, it was also said that more than half of all YouTube views come from subscriptions. One YouTube employee went as far as saying that subscriptions are “the currency of YouTube.”
• In one more bit of hackerlike information, twas told that channel numbers are not as much of an influence on the YouTube ranking algorithm as people think it is. Take that for what it is worth.
• I met the guys from Orabrush (one of the sponsors of the event). Oh, man, does their YouTube story sum things up perfectly. I include it here, how else, but as a YouTube Embed

  
  

Expect more on the topics of both VidCon and what we learned there. I’ll be there for next year’s event and recommend you do the same.

According to YouTube’s Channel Re-Design Beta Blog, TODAY, September 30th, is the day YouTube will officially begin switching all user channels over to channel design 2.0. If you are still using the old version, be ready to accept change, because while not all channels will switch over instantly, YouTube says the full migration will be complete within the next two weeks. YouTube partners will be the last to “get the swap” (ouch! sounds like it hurts) and that occurs on October 14th.

YouTube Secret Weapon customers, clients, and blog readers may recall that this official, site-wide conversion was to have taken place back on July 15th, but it was postponed. SO, while the YouTube channel redesign team  slowly whittled away at the remaining items on their to-do list, I went off and enjoyed the rest of my summer.
(And by that I mean I took a break from the blog, and Paul and I halted development of YouTube Secret Weapon 2.0; however, it was not a YouTube-less summer for me. I continued coaching private clients one-on-one, some of whom I will showcase in future case studies. Yeah, I learned a bunch of killer new YouTube marketing tricks.)

While I’m not 100% in love with the new channel design layout, I have been figuring out ways to make the most out it. I promise to blog about some of the beneficial features in the future. In the meantime, I want to say something to those of you who have used (or hope to use) custom background images on your channel...

Customized YouTube Channel Backgrounds

With this official switch to the new design layout, any background images or custom color scheme settings you used on your previous YouTube channel will be lost or not work properly.

Actually, let me take a step back a moment and say: If you have not customized your YouTube channel, you definitely want to reconsider. It is wise to keep your branding consistent across all of your online properties. By making good use of a custom background image, you can modify your channel to look like an extension of your existing site(s) and/or profiles.

At the very least, you’ll want to choose a suitable color-scheme. But with the  wealth of branding elements you can have put into a custom channel background image, it’s the way to go.

So with the new official design switch on the horizon, I went out and found a fantastic graphic designer to customize some new channel background images for both my YouTube Secret Weapon partner, Paul Colligan, as well as for one of my current clients, Mike Fry. (I also have one being created for the official YouTube Secret Weapon channel. Coming soon.)

FIRST, check out these absolutely STELLAR YouTube channel background designs by Kurt Austin of Catalyst Digital:

1. Fancy Fortune Cookies’ YouTube Channel – For my client Mike Fry’s custom fortune cookie company by the same name. WARNING: Do not view on an empty stomach!

http://youtube.com/user/fancyfortunecookies

Note that this channel is currently being used to feature videos sent in for a contest promotion that Fancy Fortune Cookies is running. This is a great way for you to think about using YouTube to promote your company, products, or services. Think about it: Mike hasn’t created any videos, but he has dozens being created about his product! That’s a lot of content.

The parts I especially like about this background image are the call-out arrows used to gain more channel subscribers (and who doesn’t want those?).

The one on the top-left, practically the first thing the eye catches:

And here’s a close up of the area just beneath the fold, heading the new profile information section:

What a difference a custom background image made for Fancy Fortune Cookies’ YouTube Channel, huh? (And yeah, those cookies are covered in white chocolate, and one has sprinkles!)  Okay…where was I? Oh yeah, next example:

2. Paul Colligan’s New Media Training YouTube Channel Designer Kurt also designed this special custom background for my YouTube Secret Weapon partner and New Media expert, Paul Colligan. This color scheme and message are consistent with Paul’s branding:

http://youtube.com/user/colligan

Since the above image won’t let you see the lower half of Paul’s channel, check out what the actual image from the designer’s site looks like:

3. Secrets of Goal Setting YouTube Channel This design is also for my client Mike Fry. Note that this channel will not be developed until later this year. For now though, it’s got the branding in place:

http://youtube.com/user/secretsofgoalsetting

Here’s that image straight from the designer’s site:

So those are three examples that I’ve had Kurt do thus far. And the YouTube Secret Weapon channel is still in the works (mainly because Paul and I are working on a logo for the 2.0 version — on it’s way soon).

Now for some cool news…

Get Your Own Customized Channel Background Design — At a Discount

The good news is that Kurt Austin at Catalyst Digital has decided to offer a special discount to any of my YouTube Secret Weapon customers, clients, and/or blog readers. You can have a custom channel background designed by Kurt — specially catered to you and your online brand, products, or services — all by mentioning you read about him from my blog.

And for a limited time (which all depends on how quickly orders come in ) Kurt is offering a 50% off discount off of his regular $200 rate.

That means you can have your own customized YouTube
channel background designed for only $100!

Now there are plenty of free channel background layout design sites out there, but none of these are going to offer you something customized. They will all be generic, and likely also being used by other channels around YouTube.

To be unique, and to get your logo, name, product name, business name, even your website or blog domain onto your background…and to keep the color scheme and images consistent with your existing online branding, unless you are a whiz at Photoshop, you are going to have to hire a designer to do this for you.

So here again is the full deal:

• 50% off! A custom YouTube channel background for only $100 by mentioning this blog. (Normally $200.)
• Three (3) rounds of revisions, based on your feedback. Any revisions beyond that will entail a small fee.
• Contact Kurt Austin at ka.design(at)catalystdigital.com or check out his work at Catalyst Digital’s portfolio page.

And I’ll be back soon with more on the upcoming release of YouTube Secret Weapon 2.0.

Have fun with the new look of your YouTube channel!

]]> http://www.youtubesecretweapon.com/blog/customized-youtube-background-images-for-the-redesigned-channel-layout-which-is-here-to-stay-september-30th/feed/ 17 http://www.youtubesecretweapon.com/blog/youtube-is-a-disaster-waiting-to-happen-oh-really-mark-cuban/ http://www.youtubesecretweapon.com/blog/youtube-is-a-disaster-waiting-to-happen-oh-really-mark-cuban/#comments Thu, 28 May 2009 21:54:34 +0000 Julie Perry http://youtubesecretweapon.com/blog/?p=577

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

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”:

Note: sxephil reverted back to his original design after this image and blog were posted

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!

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.”

OUT WITH THE OLD NAVIGATION SYSTEM

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

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).

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.

YouTube has a deep linking feature—something they’ve offered for months now—but it’s a trick I see very few people taking advantage of. (Hey, maybe people don’t have a good reason to use it.) I encourage you to think about how it might be useful for your YouTube marketing efforts.

Meanwhile, here’s how it works:

You simply add on the end of your regular YT URL some code for the exact time point in the video where you want to send your viewers. This functions just like a bookmark on a web page which hops readers farther down the page to a specific point in the text. At the end of the video URL add this: #t=7m40s.

Like this: “http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHR9wN0Q1is#t=7m40s”

In this example, the video would begin playing at 7 minutes and 40 seconds. Just play your video until you find the point you want to skip to, note the time and add the code to the URL.

Then test it by copying the new URL and pasting it in a browser. Cool huh?

See for yourself how it works here.

In the case above, I wanted you to check out Paul Colligan’s mention of our product, YouTube Secret Weapon.

Other great uses of this feature would be:
• Sending prospects to the best part of a testimonial video (especially if it’s on the long side and you just want to people to get right to the sizzle).
• Giving customers the option of jumping to a particular point in a sales video. You might say: For those of you who have watched this video before or are familiar with the product, here’s a link that goes right to the specs for the product.
• Highlighting the segment of someone else’s video that you want your audience to see.
• As a way to set chapter or section marks in a very long tutorial video; you might create several points and URLs and put them in a list as a sort of Table of Contents.

Can you think of other ways this might be useful for you, either for your own videos or ones you’ve sent your audience to watch?

By the way, the video I sent you to is a nice chunk of a seminar Paul Colligan gave, and in it he reveals how we originally recorded YouTube Secret Weapon, which is our 2-DVD, 3.5-hour tutorial on absolutely everything you need to know to effectively market products, services (and ever yourself!) on YouTube.

We first presented our YouTube marketing training as a live webinar!

That’s right. Granted the original training was about six (6) hours of live webinar recordings, but we’ve now edited that all into a perfectly polished 3.5-hour tutorial… AND we’ve since added five (5) bonus webinars for our current customers so they can stay on top of their YouTube games!

In fact, we’ve got a LIVE YouTube Update Webinar coming up on Thursday, April 16th for all YouTube Secret Weapon owners.

Join Our April 16th Live Webinar Training

Yes, there’s still time to be able to join us on our April 16th bonus webinar, but to receive a registration link, you must be a YouTube Secret Weapon customer.

OH, and bigger news: Don’t wait until April 15th to buy, because that’s the day the price goes up from $97 to $197!

You read it right: On April 15th, YouTube Secret Weapon is going up from $97 to $197.

Grab A Copy Of YouTube Secret Weapon Before April 15th: www.YouTubeSecretWeapon.com

And the current $97 price is going to INCLUDE our live update webinar on April 16th (with replay link)! This is definitely a deal you’ll want to take advantage of before the price doubles.

Check out Zeb Olsen’s testimonial here.

(And FYI – that link to Zeb testimonial was achieved by deep linking to 3 minutes and 29 seconds in.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lK_bJtCPbYM#t=3m29s

I’m telling you, YouTube Deep Linking = “Priceless!”

YouTube keeps coming out with more and more ways we can embed and share our YouTube content with others, offering us everything from simple video embeds to powerful APIs. …And one of their newest methods requires very little technical expertise:

YouTube recently added a script that allows you to add a small widget featuring your YouTube Channel video collection to any website, blog, social network page, or pretty much anywhere else online.

The widget allows visitors to scroll through all a Channel owner’s YouTube videos, and watch them right there on the blog, website, or other online venue.

Subscribe to YouTube Channels Off-Site

Even better than THAT, and as you see here in my embedded channel widget below, the embedded channel box includes a subscribe button so that you can gain YouTube channel subscribers right there from off-YouTube sites!

To add this embed channel widget, simply copy the embed code from the bottom of the “Connect With [Your Channel Name]” box on your profile/Channel page.

(Find the box containing the embed code just beneath where it reads, “Embed This Channel”):

…and then paste that code into the appropriate position on your own blog, website, or social media page — wherever you’d like!

As you can see, I’ve posted the video collection from our YouTube Secret Weapon Channel (Username: YTSecretWeapon) in the right-hand sidebar of my blog here.

You may have to scroll to find it, but once you do, go ahead and subscribe to my YouTube Channel if you’d like. (Note: You are getting sleepy — You Will Subscribe to My Channel!)    LOL ==>>

For information on more advanced ways to embed your or OTHER people’s videos onto your Web spaces  (and ways that YouTube is allowing you to profit from such activities), please visit the YouTube On Your Site information on YouTube. (See “Advanced Embeds and Revenue” for the profit part.)

Embed YouTube Video Playlists for Specific Types of Content

Meanwhile, I’m still finding it an incredibly useful idea to embed an entire YouTube video playlist that you’ve created on your Channel — made up of yours and/or others content (and perhaps that is content others have made about you).

A great example of this is a collection of testimonials for a product or service you offer. Rather than simply embedding one video testimonial at a time, create an entire playlist where you take videos from both your channel, as well as other users’ channels, and embed the entire collection on your blog or website.

This way, the testimonials will roll one after the other and continue to play until the visitor has stopped the player. See my example of YouTube Secret Weapon testimonials below:

For more about creating playlists and benefits of doing so (including how they are currently being considered in the YouTube search results and what to do about it), you’ll want to pick up a copy of YouTube Secret Weapon. Paul and I are watching this trend closely and will be discussing it more in our upcoming bonus Q&A webinars.

In the meantime, be sure to be creating and embedding those content-specific playlists!

Update: Know that if you have a custom background design on your YouTube Channel, that will show up within this widget. Because I just use one of the template options offered by YouTube (a solid maroon color), my embedded channel widget contains the white background. As I’ve been putting more thought into a custom background for the YTSecretWeapon channel, this gives me more reason to consider it, as it would make that widget stand our more on a webpage or blog. Still thinking — and open to suggestions if anyone has them!

If you are not currently leveraging YouTube as part of your online video marketing strategy, you might want to give it another look. Quite simply, when it comes to list building, lead generation and search engine optimization (SEO), YouTube is the definitive place for getting your videos published.

(And hording your video content on your own site and on your own player — unless you have a specific reason as to why it shouldn’t ALSO be made available to the masses  — may have you missing out on an incredible opportunity to improve those aforementioned areas of your business.)

Why? Well, because when it comes to the vast sea of video content-sharing websites out there, YouTube has the VAST majority of the market.

In Fact, Let’s Take A Look At Just How Ingrained Into Our Culture YouTube Has Become

According to yesterday’s press release from comScore, a leader in measuring the digital world, in December 2008 — just in that one month alone — U.S. Internet users viewed more than 14.3 billion online videos during the month. (Which, by the way, represented a 13 percent increase over the previous month of November.)

Now, mind you, here we are just talking about the U.S. If you expand this out into the global arena, I’m sure you can imagine the numbers are astronomical.

More importantly (in our YouTube Secret Weapon opinion, anyway ), comScore points out that YouTube led this growth by accounting for 49 percent of the incremental gain in videos viewed versus November.

Furthermore, as we take a look at image of comScore’s “Videos Viewed” chart below, we learn that in December 2008, Google Sites ranked as the top U.S. video property with 5.9 billion videos viewed — a 41.2 percent share of all videos viewed online… And know that YouTube (which is a Google property, remember) accounted for more than 99 percent of all videos viewed among these Google properties!

Online Video Viewership Statistics by Videos Viewed - comScore - Dec 2008

Also note in the chart above just how far YouTube’s fellow video content-sharing sites lagged behind:

Fox Interactive Media (which includes MySpace) ranked in a very distant second with 445 million videos, which is only 3.1 percent compared to the 41.2% held by YouTube and the Google properties. Wow, and look how far behind the Yahoo! Sites are with only 2.3 percent of the share, followed by Viacom Digital at just 2 percent.

(Do note that comScore tells us Hulu.com continued its upward trajectory with a 6 percent increase in views over November, to a total of 241 million videos viewed.)

Additionally, in this next chart below we see that comScore’s Video Metrix data indicates that nearly 150 million Americans watched an average of 96 online videos per viewer in December 2008. Of those, once again, Google Sites attracted the most with 100 million viewers, who watched an average of 59 videos per person.

comScore also points out that in surpassing the 100 million online video viewers mark in December, Google video properties (again, of which YouTube accounted for 99 percent) represented two out of every three Internet users who watched video!

Looking at the lagging competition again: Fox Interactive attracted the second most viewers with only 56.9 million U.S. viewers watching an average of 7.8 videos. What a difference, huh?

Online Video Viewership Statistics by Unique Viewers - comScore - Dec 2008

Realize that what these two graphs are telling us is that in December of 2008, just on YouTube alone, there were 98.9 million U.S. Internet viewers who watched over 5.9 billion (that’s with a b, baby, BILLION) videos that month — just on YouTube.

Too, it was 59.2 videos PER VIEWER that were watched on YouTube!

Now these average videos-per-viewers numbers are important, because what they are telling us is that people coming onto YouTube.com — for whatever reason — are sticking around to CONSUME MORE CONTENT.

…And YouTube has many features enabling you to grab those eyes that are sticking around! Of course, we tell you how to take advantage of such features in our YouTube Secret Weapon 2-part DVD tutorial.

Other Notable comScore Findings From December 2008

• 78.5 percent of the total U.S. Internet audience viewed online video.
• The average online video viewer watched 309 minutes of video, or more than 5 hours.
• The duration of the average online video was 3.2 minutes.

Now that last bullet point above is something to take note of as you plan out your video content strategy: 3.2 minutes is the AVERAGE duration of content being consumed. In other words, attention spans are short these days.

TIP: Consider keeping your online videos — especially those going up on video content-sharing sites like YouTube — to between 3-5 minutes MAXIMUM (with 2-4 being an even more optimal duration).

Another TIP: If you are on YouTube and have more content than can be covered in a 3-5 minute video, consider chopping it up into several shorter clips and then linking them together via YouTube’s “PlayList” feature.

So, How Do You Get Noticed On YouTube?

How do you get your content noticed when there are so many videos for these large audiences to choose from? Well, you produce great content… That is certainly one way to go. (And there really is little substitute for that!)

Yet here’s the thing: No matter how valuable your content might be — or how hilarious, shocking, inspirational, what-have-you — in order for your videos to even stand a CHANCE to be seen by thousands upon thousands of your target audience viewers,  they have to be able to FIND your content in the first place!

Bottom line: You need to get your YouTube videos optimized and indexed FIRST so you stand a chance to grab those hundreds of millions of eyes and turn them your way.

So, how do you drive that traffic? …What are some guerilla marketing techniques to get those initial views on your YouTube videos in the first place?

For that, my friends, you’ll need to grab your own copy of YouTube Secret Weapon and find out!

Meanwhile, if you aren’t currently using YouTube as part of your online video marketing strategy, it might be time to get with the program…