YouTube is the 3rd-highest trafficed web site on the Internet, according to Alexa.com.

That is, by any stretch of the imagination, a ton of traffic. But YouTube is much more than just a place to kill a slow afternoon at work. It’s much more than a place to lose yourself watching home movies of entertaining pets or old music videos from the 80′s.

It’s also a place that offers a great opportunity to make money.

Yes, you can leverage YouTube’s massive traffic and worldwide appeal to generate revenue for YOU. From my point of view, one of the coolest things about Youtube is that it’s entirely possible to use it to build a successful, profitable business or generate some decent “bonus” income without having a web site, selling a product, or providing a service of any kind.

How?

There are two ways I can think of right off the top of my head…

• Monetize your own videos. If you’re already putting up videos of your cats, dogs, kids, or whatever, why not monetize them?  I’m sure you’ve seen the “in-video” ads that appear over top of certain videos while you’re watching? These are Google “Adwords” ads (since YouTube is owned by Google).

  Adwords is Google’s in context advertising solution, and if your account qualifies for monetization, you can agree to have relevant ads placed on your videos. Google will then split the profits of  the ads with you, and mail you a check every month. While it sounds ridiculous, the “everyday” pet videos thrown on YouTube are incredible popular. For example, the one I posted earlier of the German Shepherd puppy has received over 500,000 page views (at the time of this writing). This simple video of a Dobermann guarding a baby, has received 4.7 million views. That’s nearly a million views per year since it was uploaded in 2007.

  Now suppose Google’s ads were displayed on this video. Let’s also assume a modest 2% click through rate and earnings per click of $.50. So… 4,700,000 X 2% X $.50 = $47,000! Not enough to live on when it’s divided up over 5 years, to be sure, but not bad for just throwing a video on YouTube.

• Create a YouTube “Affiliate” Channel: Many people review products on YouTube and include an affiliate link to the merchant in question. For those of you that are not aware, affiliate links contain a special tracking code so that if the person who watches your video decides to buy the product in question, the retailer pays you a percentage of the sale.

  People like to watch video reviews, and Google likes to give YouTube listings prominence in its search results.

  That`s a WIN WIN.

  Of course, you have to perform a genuine review; you have to own and be intimately familiar with the product in question in order to effectively point out its benefits and possible shortcomings. You also have to be entirely genuine and have your viewer’s best interests at heart, or you won’t make a penny. That’s because unless you have chosen a very specific niche/product, lots of other people will be doing the same thing.

  You just have to do it better, or alternatively, do it well, but come up first in the search results.

So there you have it; 2 ways to use YouTube to make money online without having your own website.

Yes, there IS a downside to building an income solely from YouTube; you never truly own your own business. If Google decides tomorrow to stop displaying ads on your videos,  for example, your income disappears. Or, if they stop directing traffic to your videos the same thing happens. For this reason, marketing with YouTube is best thought of as one part  of a more comprehensive plan. You really need to diversify (i.e., get your own web site) if you want to have a secure, dependable income.

I talk a lot about video marketing on this web site.

One resource which I recommend consistently throughout the course of these video-related discussions is Dave Kaminski’s Web Video University (WVU).

I recommend it for a simple reason; it is a fantastic, thorough and extensive resource for anyone serious about creating high quality web videos. I know this because I’ve been a member of Dave’s program for over 6 months now – I discovered Web Video University after purchasing Dave’s Screencast Secrets, which is a program that teaches you how to use the combination of Camtasia and PowerPoint to create incredible screencasts. I was so impressed by the product that I signed up for WVU immediately.

I wasn’t disappointed.

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What’s the best Windows screencast software?

That’s a question you’re very likely asking yourself if you’re considering making the leap to delivering video / screencast based information online. There seems to be so many options… what solution are you going to choose?

Let’s take a look at some of the most popular options…

1) Camtasia: Although what constitutes the “best screencast software” will be somewhat dependent on your needs and skill set, TechSmith’s Camtasia is considered the industry standard.

This is what I use, and I can say that for the most part, I have been extremely pleased with the product. It’s fairly easy to use, there isn’t much of a learning curve, and everything is laid out pretty intuitively. There’s lots of help available too – plus loads and loads of instructional videos to get you up and running fast!

Technical support is fast and friendly, although they were not able to resolve the problem I occasionally experience on my 64 bit Windows 7 machine; instead of your screencast, you end up with a recording of a black screen. I never got too worked up about this, since rebooting the computer seems to fix this glitch. The major pain is that you lose whatever work you’ve completed in that last session.

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Once your video is completed you’ll want to market it effectively, by squeezing every last drop of promotional opportunity from it. This might, depending on your situation and the topic of your video, involve submitting it to video sharing sites other than YouTube. There are, after all, all sorts of these online.

YouTube is the king of video sharing sites. By a country mile. Nothing else even comes remotely close to delivering the number of potential eyeballs. But there are TONS of YouTube wannabe’s. Since so many video sharing sites exist, it’s important to keep this truth in the forefront of your mind…

The law of diminishing returns applies very quickly to the video submission process.

While it definitely makes sense to submit your video to the top 3, 4, or perhaps even 5 video sharing sites, after that, your time is probably better off directed to creating new videos (or new content of any sort) rather than wasting time submitting your video to web sites that may deliver a handful of viewers a month.

So what are the video sharing sites worth submitting to?

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One thing that makes learning how to screencast SO attractive to marketers is that they are easily bundled up and sold – via ClickBank and an affiliate program, for example. Video based products (and your audience doesn’t really distinguish between screencasts and video – they are one in the same to her) have a high perceived value, so they convert well and command a decent price.

Not surprisingly, this means many people have rushed onto the market with hastily-prepared, shoddy screencast-based products.

I know.

I’ve bought a few.

Now to be fair, in the cases where I have been less than pleased with the quality of the product I have purchased, it was not the content I was annoyed with. It was usually “fine”.

To me, “fine” means I learned enough from the product to justify the cost of the purchase. If I can get that much out of a product, I never ask for a refund.

So if it wasn’t the content, what was it?

It was the presentation and the delivery.

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Implementing  a YouTube marketing strategy to leverage your business – whether it be online or off – is a smart idea for numerous reasons…

1. YouTube is – at the time of this writing – the third most highly trafficed site on the Internet. That’s a lot of potential eyeballs for your marketing message.
2. YouTube is owned by Google, and Google is happy to feature relevant videos prominently in its search results. This exposes your videos to a “non” YouTube audience, and since Google is also the most trafficed site on the Internet, that’s one heck of a large audience.
3. As an “informational medium” most people prefer videos over text. It is, after all, what most of them are used to. Plus, when it’s done properly, it’s more engaging and viewers are more willing to respond to your offer.

So, given that you’re going to investigate marketing with YouTube, how can you squeeze the most out of your listing? Here are 6 tips to get the most out of YouTube…

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Lately, most of my video creation work is done using a combination of PowerPoint and Camtasia, or in Sony Vegas. So although I do maintain a “Pro” Animoto account, I haven’t actually logged in and had a look around for a while.

That changed last night after my girlfriend Marilyn pulled me aside to ask me what I thought of the video she put together for her web site, Flowers-By-Marilyn. I was blown away.

Check it out – just click on the screen image to open the video…

Not bad for a total “non-techie” video solution, huh?

Seems in my absense, Animoto has a released 28 themes upon which you can build your videos. Now you can go much further than creating “slideshow” videos that feature simple transitions between photos with a soundtrack playing in the background.

The themes vary greatly, of course. The one featured above works well for Marilyn’s subject matter, but it certainly doesn’t for mine. But there appear to be plenty of variations in the provided themes, so likely there’s something there for everyone.

Of course, I’m not suggesting Animoto is for everyone. But these new themes really do turn things up a notch, ratcheting up the level of professionalism in your videos.

The bottm line, therefore, is simple…

If you’re looking for an easy, tech-free, plug and play solution to video creation, sign up for Animoto’s free service and give it a whirl. If it works for you, you can upgrade to the Pro account later.

Very cool!

As you no doubt have figured out, if you have spent any time on this site, I’m pretty stoked about video marketing, and how to leverage it for my businesses going forward. We are, after all, in its infancy.

One great “fit” I see for video marketing is for non-internet based local offline businesses (this is in addition to just about every other online business on the planet). Utilized properly, even the most elementary videos, positioned the right way, can be used to  dramatically increase leads, sales, business and revenue.

To illustrate why, one need only to consider a few salient points from a post I made a few days ago (“7 Reasons Why Video Marketing Is Critical To Your Business“). In it, I explain that videos…

• Engage viewers.
• Build trust and credibilty.
• Establish a personal rapport with your audience.
• Increase the likelihood of a purchase.

Let’s apply this to an offline business.

For example, suppose you need to hire a plumber or an electrician.

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If you want your screencasts to be informative and engaging, you’re going to have to add your own audio, most likely in the form of a voice over. If you are doing a simple screencast, you’ll record your audio as you demonstrate “whatever it is you are demonstrating” on the screen.

If you’re combining PowerPoint and Camtasia based content in your screencasts, you’ll record the  audio for both segments seperately.

And of course,  to do this properly, you’ll need a decent quality microphone. A $20 headset from BestBuy isn’t going to cut it, I’m afraid. You need something better to deliver a quality recording. Plus, since you’ve already invested in Camtasia – maybe even PowerPoint – it doesn’t make sense to compromise quality now.

The good news is a decent quality USB microphone – one that you just plug into your computer’s USB jack – can be had for an extremely reasonable price.

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In yesterday’s post, I outlined 7 reasons why video marketing is critical to your business.

Today, I’m going to talk a little bit about why your videos really need to be compelling, too. Whether your video is designed to PRESell, educate or to entertain, you must do everything possible to ensure that once your visitor clicks the “play” button, she is going to stick around to the end.

Because statistically, odds are she is not.

Consider this pertinent data from last year’s Visible Measures report…

• 20% of viewers of online video click away from the video within 10 seconds because it doesn’t hold their attention.
• At 30 seconds, approximately 33% of your viewers have moved on.
• At 60 seconds, 44% have left for greener pastures.
• At 2 minutes 60% are gone.

To me, this data suggests a couple of things…

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