YouTube has made video publishing a great way to earn money and also to promote your business or service globally. It has gained significant popularity as high-quality video recording becomes less expensive. All you need these days is a decent stand-alone camera or one good smart phone and you can create some footage to rival big budget videos. It’s all about creativity and a good angle on forging a response from your potential viewers.The Set-up
Before you begin fancying yourself as the next Danny Boyle, it’s best to look into what kind of video you want. Are you looking to make direct money, or are you looking to use your video to promote engagement? Sometimes it’s common to be doing this for both reasons. What and why you film and post on YouTube determines the type of content on your uploads. In view of direct or indirect income from your video it’s clear that the measure of success is the number of views and shares your video can harvest. So what goes viral? We can never really predict what will, but based on past trends we can make some reasoned guesses. Even if your video doesn’t become a global hit, you can still cash in on the camcorder income, and a bit of any extra cash for your trouble.
The Delivery
Depending on the aim of the video, you can gather interest by presenting facts in an authoritative manner to keep the viewer informed or curious, and add external clips that relate to your subject as and when it is appropriate. If you opt for the light-hearted informal approach, keeping your video both entertaining and funny whilst still relating to your area of business is key to its success. Use informative tutorials or ‘how to’s presented with a tongue-in-cheek attitude to boost your viewing figures. Humour is always a good angle. There are quite a lot of free video editing tools that would make for good graphics for your clip, text sliders and integrated audio is easier to create and add than you think. A videoed opinion works well for direct sales or promotion if it’s well put together. Short, sharp and quick is the way ahead. Remember, online viewers have a very short attention span. You have the first 8 seconds to keep the viewer in your space. Start with a bang and maintain interest by editing out any irrelevant bits.
Sell! Sell! Sell!
If you sell a product or service, it pays to get customer testimonials that can be embedded into your website. It goes miles further than text testimonials, as anyone can do a fictitious one in a matter of seconds. This will not only enhance your YouTube representation, but its also useful footage that can be edited into your other venture – a video advert!
If you’re introducing a new product or service you could film an instructional video to go with it, giving both your business and your new gadget a boost. Publishers and authors do it all the time. Offer useful information around the subject your product is related to. Tell your viewers things they don’t know and then introduce your product without too much of a hard sell.
The dollar shaving club clip is still trending as the benchmark of all YouTube trade-focused videos. A total cost of $3,000 and some jobless members of staff helped Michael Dubin gain over 5 million views and huge volume sales of $1.00 shaving sticks. It’s an example of what imagination can do to get your message viral. He gained a huge viewing fan base, but to also gain 3% global sales conversion is nothing short of genius. View the Dollar Shave Club hit.
As a good starting point, make a fun video commercial showcasing your company culture or typical customer scenario. Showing footage of your busy work environment, fulfilling orders or demonstrating the benefits of your business would need entertainment or shock to transform one viewer into 10 or 20. A good video is only great for a single viewer to respond or engage. But to get viral it has to be funny, controversial, or very informative. A video that your viewers share on social networks is what you want. That’s the true meaning of a viral attack spread by those exposed to it. We’d advise that traffic by controversy should be left to the professional marketers or those that are just seeking a multitude of viewers and nothing else. It can produce risky results.
For those new to posting on YouTube, it’s probably best to be yourself. Be sure to present your unique selling point. As tempting as it is to hire a glamorous blonde as your spokesperson, this tactic usually succeeds in putting people off, so get some real people in front of the camera and let your customers see you can be trusted. Successful videos that have worked like a dream for the originators are typically make-up artists, business coaches, quirky retailers and entertaining web ventures. Music has also enjoyed commercial exposure on YouTube, and we are not talking about a major artiste or record label. Dub FX was a dub performer plying his trade for a few pounds around Camden and other similar European streets. Footage of his performance on YouTube reached a huge viewing number and, now, let’s just say he had his baptism at Glastonbury.
Click And Buy
New media technology doesn’t sit idle, especially when it comes to finding ways to create direct sales as you engage with media. Some started the idea with product placement as you watch a clip on YouTube. Now you can actually click on a highlighted object in videos and buy the item through the click through link. The set-up is much cheaper than when the technology was in Beta a few years back. You can have the programme running in your £20 YouTube video for a monthly package. A good way to more or less set up a YouTube shop is to have a scrolling catalogue with audio comment and some interesting footage to keep the viewer interested. Your content should capture the viewer’s attention and keep them there. If it’s fashion – talk about trends, tips and styles, throw in the odd celebrity picture and then display your items. The same goes for services. You can have clickable scrolling text as you introduce your unique service. Order now, book your place, and other calls to action phrases can bring you some direct revenue.
Ranking And AdSense
YouTube is great vitamins for your Google health. Search engines and web ranking your web presence can do wonders for surfer engagement and trade. After you’ve uploaded your video, be sure to enter a title, description and tags. After you’ve managed your key words and set phrases with supporting descriptions you’re on your way to getting a bit of a traffic boost courtesy of Google. Your video should be making a few hundred hits if you harness strategic links and spread the word on your social network or from your website. You video should start appearing on Google, riding on the back of your key phrases. Click-throughs to websites enjoy a healthy percentage from video searches commonly connected to YouTube. Page ranking with the help of your video on YouTube is therefore worthy of great consideration. Do your homework with how AdSense works and revenue from here can be realistic and consistent. Payments are made by YouTube into a Google AdSense account, and once you are fully enrolled in the programme you will also be able to switch on Google ads either to the side of or on top of your videos. This can earn additional income through pay per click and affiliate profits, and all you have to do is keep your video content fresh and enjoy the proceeds. Apart from direct payment, there are other ways you can build up your YouTube reputation to develop other revenue streams. You may be selling a few products on eBay or needing to get more visitors to your revenue-generating blog; it makes sense to include a link back to your site. You can engage with other businesses in your industry and offer to endorse their products in your videos, for a 5-10% commission on top of what YouTube pays you, or simply enter into an affiliate partnership. Do this without the middle men affiliate companies and your commission is yours alone.
The Partner Programme
The Partner Programme is where your videos really start working for you. Once you are a partner, you can expect to earn about $2.50-$5 (£1.56-£3.13) per 1,000 views of your video, and whilst this doesn’t sound very much right now, if you do manage to create the next viral sensation that brings in millions of viewings, you can expect to earn quite a dotcom lot for your hard work. Consider making money by selling scrolling text integrated into your video. A certain number of viewers is all the proof needed to have a platform for a related business to be interested. Product placement and endorsements as part of the content is an effective means to promote the business of a paying advertiser, big or small.
Fan Currency
Make your uploads unique and positively different and you are sure to build up a dedicated following of fans. Video marketing is not a get-rich-quick scheme, and to a certain extent it can be unpredictable; patience and thoughtful planning should help. It can be a lot of fun making the videos, and once they do start earning for you, they are likely to continue to do so month on month. Feed your fans, introduce videos from others that have some sort of connection to yours. By the time you’ve built up a library of 15 or more videos, you should be achieving a good number of views per video. Once all your videos achieve a minimum of 1,000 views each, you are sure to be contacted by YouTube asking if you would like to apply to become a Partner.
Posting videos on YouTube is a very public thing to do. You therefore need to be clear about permission and the terms for posting a video. Play it safe and make sure you have permission where applicable so that you don’t find your good work is not a wasted exercise. Situational footage where you bear witness with your video are exempt in some cases, so it’s a good idea to know what the parameters to this are. Make sure your video does not infringe someone else’s copyright. Take a few minutes and read through YouTube’s guidelines. They are also there to protect your own good work from others; you’d need to know when your copyright interests have been subject to infringement too. See YouTube copyright tips and guidance. Making money by way of YouTube has more options than we may be used to. It’s all up to you to put some catchy material together and manipulate income once the viewing figures begin to rise. It’s an open playground – let’s get filming.
