Videos - Whats the best approach?

I got some great advice in this thread
http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...my-upload.html

My first videos were done with PowerPoint and Camtasia, then uploaded to youTube and finally linked on my WP blog. The only problem is that the videos have to be short if hosted at youTube.

I am interested as well in any feedback you get here.

Stop the considering and might and just do it!!!!!!

I lost tens of thousands of dollars in potential sales waiting 6 months from when I though I should do it til I did it.

Cheers,
Mukul

Video is great.

Make sure you are considerate of the goal of your videos - don't waste time trying to educate your viewers if you're trying to make sales.

Send them straight to the payment page.

Keep them simple - tell them what benefit they'll get from watching the video up front.

If you're making them to build a list - Make your videos in several sections:

Section 1 - publish to all video sharing sites
Section 2 - Publish on your site/blog
Section 3 - They have to sign up to view

Use press releases, articles and bookmarking to get links to your videos.

Check on youtube for the tags that popular videos in your niche have used and use the same ones.

Yes you can put a link with your video on Youtube etc.. but if you haven't posted videos before don't make the link the first thing in the description as many video sites will think you're spamming them for links and delete the video.

Good luck

Andy

Youtube is definitely the place to be if you are wanting to rank high on Google and get publicity. There's a FREE tool called: TubeMogul that let's you post your video to numerous places at once. Be consistent and everything will go well for you. Take care

Ya, I would definitely also recommend Tube Mogul. It saves a bunch of time.

Net,

Don't forget bandwidth. If you host a video on your webserver, you must account for additional bandwidth costs especially if you think your video will be popular and if your web account has limited bandwidth included.

An advantage to you hosting your own video is the direct traffic and subsequent ranking bump you'll get directly to your website. On the flipside, you could lose some of the advantages provided by having it hosted on a website like YouTube e.g. search, the Google boost, etc. You wouldn't be able to count on someone watching your video and them then going to your website as that would then be a 2-step vs. 1-step process.

Weigh each option's pros and cons before making a final decision, although you can try one way and then another based on their respective results.

Yes - I say go the YouTube route but also keep your videos in case they pull the plug (you just never know). Kinda tricky to get traffic direct from YouTube but there are ways around the googledomination effect if you know how to play them.

Content beats everything but good editing, production, effects and music will all play a part too.

Netboom,

To record your screen there are several options:

1) Jing project (free to download - with a 5 min screen recording limitation). Use this version to get your teeth cut, and learn all you can.

2) Paid Jing $14.95 per year and you can record in .mp4 format (latest and greatest, but still a 5 min limitation)

3) Camtasia $299 but you can also edit your video with their tools (might be good if you wanna look at doing something long term)

Editing tools
1) JayCut.com (free video online editing site)
2) Camtasia
3) Sony Vegas
4) Adobe Premier & Adobe After Effects (high end)

Mac
- Final Cut Pro
- Screenflow
- iMovie

I am sure there are some more free tools out there too..

In regard to uploading, it depends on what you wanna accomplish with the video..

1) Traffic getting videos (whole purpose is to drive traffic to your site)
2) Conversion videos (once they come to your site, they are then converted into a buyer because of the video)

I mainly upload #1 to youtube and about 20-30 other sites with a backlink within the description, then on my own website I use a WP plugin to write a video sitemap which then gets submitted to google webmaster tools, my the thumbnails show up in the search engine results.

Hosting

If you are on a shared hosting box, then you should never host your videos..it just overloads the server, and your typically sharing with 100's of other people for the shared bandwidth..

My, I never host my own videos on my own website, its best to use a service like amazon s3 and embed them on your site that way..

Youtube and other hosting sites

There are some nice little loopholes in youtube and some other video hosting sites that allow DO FOLLOW links (not just in the description), so yes it is possible to get some link juice from it, and if you know these little loopholes you can prolly cash in on them.

Youtube channel pimping

Make sure you pimp up your channel with some nice background graphics, which is pretty easy to do now..

In some of my latest videos I have added an extra few elements within them

1) Music (royalty free background, intro and outro music)
2) Short Intros and outro (short 10-15 sec clip introducing the video)

These couple of things keep the viewer engaged for longer.

My Proof:
Below are some of the results I have gotten over the last few weeks for my videos using some of the methods above:

Example #1
http://screencast.com/t/YWNiN2QxOTQt

I have 2 listings on the first page (1 my site the other youtube listing)

Example #2
http://screencast.com/t/OTcxMWI5N

Hope that helps