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TheBoaters TV was how I got my entrée into the world of online video and YouTube. It’s a recreational boating news show and podcast that I wrote and hosted. We aired 3 x’s a week with each episode running approximately 5-7 minutes.
Note: Because our first priority was both as a downloadable podcast and a video show hosted on our own vlog, www.TheBoaters.TV, we did not put much initial thought into catering our content for distribution on YouTube. Therefore, the duration of TheBoaters TV episodes was much longer than the ideal length for maximizing views on YouTube. For that, 3-5 minutes is what I recommend – and really (big TIP coming) –> 2-3 minutes is going to be your best bet for getting the most traffic on YouTube.
Why We Created TheBoaters TV Online Video Series
The purpose and intention of TheBoaters TV was to promote and drive traffic over to another website (which is why many of you are even reading this blog — so you can learn how to leverage YouTube for MARKETING reasons, not to show us scenes of kids throwing bricks at one another’s heads).
Our goal was to drive traffic over to an online social network we were launching, TheBoaters.com.
I was part of the four-person team planning and developing this online community for boaters and boating enthusiasts, and our goal was to launch mid-summer of 2007. Yet, because we were building the site from absolute SCRATCH (not using Ning or Crowdvine to create our community), as you can imagine, there were glitches along the way.
By the end of May 2007, we had to push our deadline even further and were now looking at early Fall before we’d even be ready to launch in Beta. We knew we had to do something to take advantage of the summer boating season and begin attracting an audience whom we hoped would eventually become active members of TheBoaters.com social network.
So we asked: What can we do to start building a target audience of people so when we launch our social network we’ll have people on the hook (love those boating terms) to come and join?
So we said: Let’s launch an online boating news show and podcast to begin reeling those prospects in (a.k.a. building a list).
As the VP of Marketing for this start-up — and the only one willing to do it — I was by default recruited as the writer and anchor for the show. (Yes, the “anchor”…You can’t imagine how often boating references made their way into our everyday conversations during this time! 
)
Hence, TheBoaters.TV launched on June 18, 2007.
Let me state that again because I encourage you to think about that as you put thought into your own goals using online video: The entire TheBoaters.TV online video show was started during the pre-launch of a social network, TheBoaters.com. Our goal was to build an audience of people interested in boating and boating-related activities, who we could ultimately drive over to join our social network.
(Pssst: It was a strategy that worked, too. We had 5,000 members by the time we came out of beta in , and to-date, TheBoaters.com has over 60,000 registered users.)
Episodes aired on our own player on TheBoaters.TV vlog (see image above), as well as on our YouTube channel.
Now, we did also use Traffic Geyser to upload our videos to 22 other online video sites and podcast channels — and that worked incredibly well for search engine optimization and for setting our video bait out there to grab the largest number of viewers and send them back over to both our vlog and our TheBoaters.com site.
(In fact, it worked so well that I also became an expert using Traffic Geyser — be ready for Paul and I to release some killer tutorials on how to make that service work for your online video marketing efforts! When you purchase YouTube Secret Weapon, we’ll walk you through it.)
If your are unfamiliar with Traffic Geyser (and other services like it, such as Tube Mogul), these video syndication services help you automate the video submission process. You upload your video one time, and with the push of a button, they allow you to post it to dozens of video content sharing sites. This is One upload vs. Dozens.
I must say though: Despite our vast distribution across all the video content-sharing sites, it was most definitely our TheBoaters TV YouTube channel that did the most good for us in terms of list building, lead generation, and giving our videos the highest chance to go viral.
Trust me, no matter what other video content-sharing sites you are using to distribute your videos, you want to make sure you are paying specialized attention to your efforts on YouTube. This is because when it comes to the vast sea of video sharing websites out there, YouTube has the VAST majority of the market. It is the definitive place for getting your videos published. (More evidence of that in future posts. I gotta slow down on the info-giving here or I’ll have a novella by the time I post this. )
Why I Became Concerned With Video View Counts
As the Vice President of Marketing for TheBoaters.com, not only did I write and host the episodes, but eventually I had to sell advertising/sponsorships for the main site, which now with the show, would give us something else to sell to ad prospects. I wanted to make sure we were getting lots of views because I had to develop a media kit to send out to potential advertisers in an attempt to monetize both the show AND the social network.
Bottom line: We needed LOTS of views.
So after many a late nights babysitting our YouTube viewership numbers and trying to get some insight into how YouTube’s own social networking functionality could help, I figured out most of my YouTube video optimization strategies through trial and error… And we’re talking LOTS of trial and error.
But it was worth it:
I’ve since gone on to serve as a consultant for a number of online video creators including Brad Fallon, Paul Colligan, Joe Noonan, and SmallBox Web Design clients.
Now it’s time to GROW that list of video marketers employing my YouTube Secret Weapon video traffic strategies!
Become One of Our Success Stories by Grabbing Your Copy of YouTube Secret Weapon When It’s Released
This 3 1/2 hour, 2-part DVD tutorial will reveal for you all of my super stealth, and in some cases, top-secret, tricks for how to get a LOT more views on your YouTube videos.
In fact, applying my techniques will not only get you more views, it will make sure that the views you are attracting are from people interested in your niche topic or market…
That’s important, because FROM THERE, I’m going to show you some stellar techniques for ultimately driving that traffic back to your own blog, website, or other online content.
Let’s make sure that you never again waste your valuable time and money creating videos only to find that they linger in the bottomless pit of YouTube duds.
It’s time to make those videos WORK for you!