Youtube and affiliate links

You should use a custom url shortener if you can.

I have tried that before with 2 different videos and was not very successful but I have heard of other people who have been successful. I got like 300 views on 1 and 500 on the other and they have been there for 3 years.

If you read some interesting content and had a custom animated video created on fiverr for a few extra gigs, it might work.

This is a huge grey area and Google hasn't really given any clarification for it. I'd consider it risky to directly link to products.

I used to work around this by linking to a page on my website that said nothing more than "click here to continue to X product on XYZ.com"

No, this is illegal unless you own the copyright to the content. I used to do it a bit with my own content, but no longer feel it's worth my time. Not to mention, with Google's transcription services getting better, I often wonder if they will consider the transcriptions to be duplicate content and penalize the article and/or the video.

I bet you could get good results if you were really animated in the video, and changed the screen a few times, as long as you do not sound like a paid actor. I think your audience on Youtube can pick up actors right away, and steer clear of them when they pop up in what is supposed to be a Serious Marketing (online marketing, IM, MMO stuff). I say that because in my daily Online experience, I can pick up, for example, a Binary Option scams just by the sound of that polished actor's voice, where as I will listen to a guy who is just describing his experience with a BO product, even if he is boring to the max! Nuances are important here, and of course a keen interest in the subject matter.

yes I think so but you probably want to direct all links through a domain that you own.
you can do this with a wordpress plugin like
http://brainstormpro.com/prettylink
all the links you spend so much time working to get out there should probably be on a domain that own forever right?

You could do the classic text over power point video. People find those mesmerizing to read and hear the words at the same time. As long as it's not boring, of course. And plenty don't like them too, but whatever if it works.

Why not just get your own domain like James said? Have them click over, or do Javascript redirect links.

Marc

Well I always put my money site url contains my affiliate links. Affiliate links are not allowed on YouTube video description.

Actually Google sent me a warning saying my video was against their TOS. Funny because it wasn't. I had my own domain name and I referred it to the clickbank URL. So, I looked at the keywords and other videos on Youtube with the same subject and some of them did the same thing. So, then I decided to stick the original affiliate link into the Google Shortener and Bitly also. Guess what happened?

The clickbank link and product were banned by Google. Strange because the clickbank site in question was still working and it was supposed to be a huge seller also.

So, I tried this for a few more products and same results - Google ban on the clickbank product.

Well, that is my theory on why they sent me a warning on my account. But, then again, Google does whatever they want anyway.

If you use redirects such as Tinyurl and bitly its more likely your video will be removed. However what i've noticed if you use a proper redirects service like Clickmeter then you wont have problems. But i highly suggest just get a general domain as google is unpredictable.

There's really no benefit to linking directly to an affiliate offer, other than laziness.

IMO, you should send all your YT traffic to a page on your own domain, which has been verified by YT. When you do this, you can add clickable links to annotations and cards, which will dramatically increase click-throughs.

By doing this, you add links directly in your videos and can say "Click Here". When you add links in your descriptions you have to say "Click down there". It's much more effective to have links where your viewers are already looking instead of trying to divert their attention.

Also, when you link to your own page you can (and should) add email capture forms and retargeting pixels. Both are powerful ways to implement follow-up marketing.

You can send traffic from multiple YT videos to the same landing page. You put in time and effort creating and optimizing YT videos, so it doesn't make sense not to maximize the traffic you get as much as possible.

Again, the benefits of sending YT traffic to your own domain instead of an affiliate site:
More clicks.
Retargeting.
Email capture.

If you are planning on repurposing your content into videos, a great way to do this is to create a powerpoint/keynote presentation, which shows the text you are saying.

Simple black text on a white background seems to do just fine and doesn't take too much effort.

I have used all sorts of links in the You Tube videos I have created and have never had a problem with any of them getting shur down. I'm talking about bitly links, other tracking urls, affiliate links, optin pages and you name it.

Yes, you can use different screenshots if just reading text. No problem there also. Another tip is if your You Tube account is verified, you can choose a custome thumbnail for your You Tube videos. Comes in real handy when you want your indexed video in Google to appear unique, or just different from the pack.

Yes - you are? But, for best results try adding a domain if you can - that is forwarded to an affiliate link. I think Youtube doesn't really like shorteners anymore! Not 100% sure..

Lately I have heard YT is pulling down videos with affiliate links and links to squeeze pages in the description like crazy.

I always link to a blog post where I share some good content and have my opt-in form at the bottom of the post. Never had a problem with YT and the conversions are much better than when I used to direct link right to my squeeze pages.

Google has been doing this for years. Bitly will also throw up a warning page on a lot of affiliate links.

Set up your own redirects. Third parties are always a risk.

plugin "pretty link" is my choice to hide links affiliate