Traffic from youtube comments?

The video commenting thing is something that I've never tried, but people swear it works...

I did some research on exactly this question.
(In fact, I was thinking of releasing the info I came up with for a WSO. Instead, I decided to give the highlights here.)

I followed various Tube-commenters around YouTube - the ones who every 45 minutes to an hour of the day re-up their comments with different-but-similar promotions, over and over.

I finally contacted 21 different commenters who I had followed for 2 solid weeks (believe me, I'll never do it again:rolleyes and after 3 of them realized I wasn't Google or some other form of enemy that would get them kicked off--- they talked to me. I asked them about their process and results. I gave them some good reasons to talk to me, so I have confidence that what they told me is about 99% accurate. Turtle even gave me snaps of his Clickbank account. Since he really had little motive for deception I believe he was telling me the truth.

(names have been changed for privacy issues)
Sally B- Had been Tube-commenting for 3 months, and seemed to have her act down. Worked for "total" of about 4 hours a day, but in 15 - 30 minute streaks on her favorite Super videos, the ones that get the most views. Profit: she "said" she averaged 2 - 3 Clickbank sales a day - about $75/day. Not fantastic, but then again - better than watching reruns of Survivor. She said one day she hit the "mother-load" with 9 sales of a $32 commission product only working a couple hours on one celebrity video. She quit her regular part time job after that.... She was a little sorry later when the numbers didn't keep up like that.

Turtle A- This guy was a Russian guy, fairly good English. He said he was just part of a group of 7 students who started doing the commenting 6 months ago, getting the gig from the previous guys in his dorm. They apparently work out of one Clickbank account, have a keystroke log for each of the participants. They break the bank once a month. He says that 6 months ago they averaged about $16 an hour commenting, but since they've gotten better and have some cool tools (which he told me about and where to get them) they've been making close to $50/hour. But working hard and fast....

Greg T- An interesting guy, probably in his 40's, commenting for at least a year now-- his links go to a personal website with content and optins for an email list. I asked him why he didn't outsource if this was successful for him. He indicated that he liked the control and believed that he could spot better opportunities than outsourced workers. He estimated that his net gain from his time was over $100 an hour. Hard to believe at first. But then, I looked at the comments he placed on HOT videos and they were high quality and tended to be highly congruent compared to those of others.

I was amazed that I found out as much as I did.

I asked about the criteria these guys used for finding videos for commenting. Pretty much the obvious stuff that most of you would think of. High views, commenting enabled, subject of the video possible to suborn for your own comments and links.

1 1/2 months ago, I gave it a try myself. Spent 10 hours commenting (about 7 of them were efficient because of the inevitable learning curve) with tracking links to a couple of dedicated landing pages for a diet product where I collected 327 email addresses. I was shocked! After two weeks of emailing to the prospects every other day, I lost 59 of them to unsubs -- but made 11 sales of a $26 commission Clickbank product. ($286) I sent some decent plr material for a week and then sent the remaining emails a ($32 commission offer) for a week. So far I've received 3- $32 sales, and 1 more $26 order for the first offer out of the blue (obviously from an old email they saved).

I kept track of all my time commenting, emailing, writing emails, gathering free plr for content to deliver, etc. from my test. Yes, all of those skills take a bit of time to develop, but by no means impossible for the average person on this forum. I figure it took 13 hours (including coffee breaks) to extract the value from the emails I got from my commenting. The profits: $286+$96+$26 = $408. Approximately $31/hour. And that was with me doing the commenting. Not anymore!

Another way of looking at it: In less than one month I averaged $1.24/email I harvested with this "free" method.

I am officially calling this the "Greg Method". (And sorry, Greg, but I decided that outsourcing made more sense.) At the moment I've got 3 retired school teachers doing it for me. I'm using keystroke logs for payment protocols. Got to love those Russians. I don't have all the kinks worked out yet, but I know I'll make at least 2 - 3 times what I'm investing if I keep an eye on it.

Oh, I just checked and I still have 241 of the "Trial" names still subscribed. I have more offers to send them, and the new list I'm making with my teachers is already over 2000 and sales are coming in a little better than the initial trial. I've already got emails to send them written from the trial, so no additional time is needed except scheduling the email sends.

Best of wishes. I hope this is of use to you.

DarkOneToo