In 2 Months...21 Clients Each Paying $189/Month...Here's an Offline Business For You

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A good friend of mine started an offline business in the beginning of May selling online video marketing services to restaurants in his local area.

He lives in a major U.S. city, so there are thousands restaurants to choose from and saw an opportunity to easily rank YouTube videos on the first page of local searches to help attract customers.

Plus the fact that the restaurant could now post this video on their Google Maps Listing and other places it would help to further attract customers.

As of this morning he signed up his 21st restaurant, each paying $189/month. What he does is so simple and easy, I asked him if I could share it here and he was cool with it.

Just to give some specifics, he creates a simple 2 minute video, either live or a slideshow.

If the restaurant will allow, he'll shoot a quick video of the exterior, interior and some dishes the place is known for. If he really can't record a video, he'll just take some nice high-res pics of the place (exterior/interior) and of the food and create a slideshow video. Nothing complicated, just looking for a high-quality video with really nice pictures.

He then uploads the video to YouTube, enters a keyword rich Title and Tags (adds a ton of related tags) and writes out a complete Description (basically does his own review of the place) with the restaurant's link to their site, Facebook Page, etc.

Quick Tip: You can also select on a map where you uploaded the video, basically geo-tag the video, now there's no concrete proof this helps with rankings but I can't see where it would hurt and takes a second to do.

Lastly, here is a simple technique he uses on every video that helps him get new customers. At the beginning and end of every video, he includes a quick frame that includes his business' name, logo, website & phone number and because of this he has never had to make one cold call.

As I'm sure you are all aware, most businesses "spy" on each other. They know who is doing what, running ads where and even what they are doing online.

Literally a few hours after he posted his first video he got a call from one of the restaurants competitors asking about a price and when could he do you for them and his business has taken off from there.

I know there are a lot course, WSOs, etc. about selling websites or flipping sites to local businesses but there other ways and I hope that this quick post can show you that.

Good Luck.
#offline marketing #$189 or monthhere #business #clients #months21 #offline #offline marketing #paying #video marketing #youtube marketing
  • Where does the $189 come into play? What's the recurring service?
  • For $189/month, he provides video creation and supports the video (i.e. backlinks, etc.) to maintain it's rankings on the first page of the search results each month. He will also create a new video for the restaurant every 6 months.

    Why he specifically charges $189, that's his call.
    • [1] reply
    • Ideally as soon as you got a client like this you would focus on making sure you generate real sales and profits for them with your service.

      And of course $189 a month could be just the beginning.

      As you know there are many, many other services your friend could be providing to his paying clients that could be exceptionally valuable to them (on site SEO, email marketing, pay per click, other forms of online video marketing, article writing, social networking on sites like Facebook etc etc).

      Kindest regards,
      Andrew Cavanagh
      • [ 7 ] Thanks
  • Thanks this is a great post!
  • @ Andrew - you are absolutely correct and that is his goal, to build out his services even further.

    @ goalpower - thanks, I'm glad you liked it
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
    • [1] reply
    • Thanks Mike, very interesting read indeed.

      One question: What kind of video equipment does your friend have?
      • [1] reply
  • So, he charges them $189 a month to manage just the 1 video?
    • [1] reply
    • I was thinking of a similar question with a slightly different connotation: So, he custom produces and distributes a video advertisement online, and gets a page 1 Google ranking for it, for just the 1 fee of under $200!? (Some people charge four figures a month to produce and distribute one video per month, and some businesses pay upwards of $5K a month to SEO firms that never get them to page 1-in fact, never produce any measurable result, other than the bank account reduction service).

      Don't make the mistake most of us make of undervaluing your services-this may seem like nothing to you, but most people have no idea how to make and distribute a decent video advertisement, let alone get it seen by searchers on relevant keywords.

      Positioning can make you look like a million bucks, or like a day laborer, for doing the same work. That's why some people write 10 articles for $1 each, in the time it took someone else to write one for $100, while a third person wrote a sales page for $2K, or $25K.

      Instead of seeing yourself "managing a video", try on the title: "media distribution expert"-who creates strong content, gets it seen in front of a perfectly targeted audience, and ultimately produces high quality leads that turn into profits for the business owner. Good leads are worth a lot, and ultimately, that is what they pay you for.

      You could be the difference between them staying in business or bailing-you never know. One thing you do know: this is a custom service with a high perceived value, and just depends on you to revere what you do, and not communicate as if you were selling a commodity-thus devaluing your service and yourself in the eyes of your potential clients.
      • [ 10 ] Thanks
      • [3] replies
  • @ Ben Bergmann - I know he uses iMovie to produce the videos, not sure the exact video or camera equipment, I'll ask and PM you.

    @ Brian - thanks and you really nailed it, it's not that he is doing something revolutionary, but he produces high quality videos and then does the job to rank them, which would, otherwise, take a restaurant's owner a lot of time that they really don't have.

    @ mr2monster - just the 1 video that he updates every 6 months, yeah. Here's the thing, these owners (like any business owner) see the ROI and Positioning and are very happy with paying $189/month.
    • [2] replies
    • I would love a link to one of the videos to see the final quality/output.

      Any chance you can find us a link?
    • Banned
      How do they know they're getting any return on investment? How do they know they're getting even a single new customer because of these videos?
      • [4] replies
  • @ Jill - I emailed him the thread and let him know if he wanted to join in and answer any questions or post a video, so hopefully he'll do just that.
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
  • I've had much success with creating really professional looking videos with proshow gold. It is a very cool piece of software. You can do some pretty amazing effects pretty easily, and once you've got a template done for one business you can just swap the pictures in and out.

    Matt
    • [ 6 ] Thanks
    • [1] reply
    • Awesome story and so true.

      Your local businesses will pay for these things. However, few people know how to sell or close a business. It really comes down to that. Some people are good at closing these deals, and others want to sit at home and wait for money to roll in.
      • [2] replies
  • Dude,
    This is GOLD.
    Were doing something similar for roofing and construction companies following bad weather and targeted marketing.
    Ralph Smith approves this message (I always wanted to say that)
  • Really great post with a super simple idea anyone can do! Thank you very much!
  • Quick question. What kind of keywords is he targeting? Is it like - "restaurant miami" or is it more in the line of "logans miami"?

    Just curious if he actually targets keywords that will generate some traffic or if he targets keywords the businesses think will help.

    I work with local restaurants with some promotion deals and things so I'm very curious. I am going to pitch this idea to my clients Monday. There are only so many keywords that will actually bring traffic though.

    Thanks for sharing the wealth.

    Travis
  • I'm not even interested in offline marketing, but just wanted to say I found this to be a great post. Simple and effective.

    Solomon
  • Thanks Mike for this inspiring post but $189 just for one video?

    I would charge $250 and give them more:
    • Creating a twitter account and get targeted followers
    • Creating a Facebook fanpage and get targeted fans
    • Creating YouTube videos
    • Give them some marketing tips (offer discount to get more followers/fans)
    I assume that people will leave feedback on the video.
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
    • [1] reply
    • I admit - I thought that might be steep as it is a monthly payment. But they do get a second video mid year. And he is doing more:

      His price is his price and is based on what the market can bare I'm sure. These prices will vary based on geographic location.

      Keep in mind too this is all just mom and pop restaurants. Major chains won't get into this as most of those need approval from higher up. While some may be able to bare the budget, there will be others that the monthly fee will be a serious consideration. Not to mention, people in restaurants are usually too busy running their restaurants and don't have time to learn how to make their own video - let alone edit one and upload it for any SEO benefit.

      Personally I like to see detailed pictures in places before I go and if there is a live video it really can make me want to go (or not )
      • [ 2 ] Thanks
  • @peteltap - the keywords he is targeting is generally their style of cuisine and also the restaurant's name, for example, "sushi restaurant miami" and "Sushi Samba Restaurant Miami." Also, yes, he'll look to target keywords receiving traffic whatever that amount might be.

    @Black Hat Cat - how do they know? Simple, the restaurants and himself use several techniques to track response.

    (1) Analytics to track website referrals from the videos.
    (2) Several restaurants are using call tracking systems to monitor which advertisements are driving calls, so he'll include a tracking number in the video and the description.
    (3) Several restaurants simply ask when someone calls to place an order or reservation, how they found the restaurant.

    And I'm sure there are other methods being used that I'm not aware of.

    Let me give a little more detail about my friend, we met while both selling online advertising packages to offline businesses 6 years ago for a major newspaper in the U.S. We also worked at another large online advertising company in the rental/apartment real estate market as well.

    If anyone has had professional experience selling advertising (especially online advertising) you know right away tracking response, ROI and providing customer service is vital to sustain and grow your business.
    • [4] replies
    • As a former Offline Retailer.... I'd like to say that it is very hard to track what works and what doesn't work with Advertising.

      Especially "Traditional" offline advertising ... ie. - newspaper, radio, T.V. ....

      I hated paying those advertising bills every month because I never really knew how effective they were...

      I wish someone had approached me with online advertising back then... Google analytics alone would have been a real treat.

      I would ask around and find out what the retail business you approach was paying for "Traditional" advertising and make my online advertising service comparable... some of the companies have lot's of money set aside for Advertising...

      When I say "ask around" I mean call the newspaper, radio station and local T.V. station and tell them your thinking about doing some advertising in the local area and want to get some idea of what the rates they charge are....

      You could probably charge a lot more than 189.00 ... I use to spend a least $1000.00 a month on advertising and my retail store was small....
    • I don't have that experience, but a friend of mine has lots of experience being sold advertising from people like value-pack, and none of the salespeople had the slightest interest in his ROI, nor said a word about how he might track results-they just wanted to get paid and get out.

      He suspects they avoided the ROI topic because they knew it would most likely be $0.00, which is why he wants to go into business with me-to give other biz owners a real, guaranteed service that is tracked and measured, and produces real results-making the client richer, instead of poorer. He's fed up with expensive advertising that does nothing and sees a big unfulfilled need among biz owners like himself, for advertising that can be measured, and is guaranteed to produce results.
      • [ 2 ] Thanks
    • How does his call tracking work? Do they have an option to answer live? I ask because I'm hoping to find a solution for someone I'm doing a snail mail campaign for. I need something inexpensive, but not as restrictive as what I have (a $10 a month phone line that takes messages for later call backs-cool, but not perfect). I don't want to lose the potential clients that will call to speak to someone live, but won't leave a message.
      • [1] reply

    • Happy New Year Mike!

      Thanks for starting this great thread and for your many contributions to it. Also, thanks to the many posters here that have shared their valuable insights and ideas.

      I wanted to follow up to a post that you made on analytics and tracking the videos. Would you find out from your friend what data he is providing to his clients and how is he sourcing that data?

      As has been mentioned several times, most other forms of advertising provide little to no feedback when it comes to actual results. Therefore I'd bet it won't take much analysis to blow away other media channels that business owners have worked with previously.

      Thanks,

      Randy
  • @mario3 - hey, go for it, sounds like something that a lot of businesses would benefit from.

    And let me give some more about the restaurants he is targeting, mostly trendy, high-end cuisine, so they already have someone handling their social media (i.e. Twitter, Facebook, etc.) but seem to ignore videos, which was something he noticed.
    • [2] replies
    • Video really is a good medium for this. In addition to just shooting dishes and the exterior/interior of the restaurant your friend could shoot a heart felt welcome from the owner/manager, a short explanation from the chef explaining how only the freshest ingredients are used etc. and what might be the most important--- video testimonials from satisfied customers.

      Kevin
      • [ 2 ] Thanks
    • This is funny because a simple picture, let alone a video can create 5 times the needed buzz on social sites.
  • @ Kevin - thanks and those are good suggestions
  • With a bit more detail, this sounds like a WSO I would be interested in purchasing.
  • I was thinking of doing something similar while juggling school, but $189/month? sounds absurd, but i guess if the businesses don't know how much the service is worth, and you're very persuasive then sure why not
    • [3] replies
    • I don't get how you come to the conclusion that the price is absurd. This is a reasonable price for the services rendered and he is providing. I used to take in $1,000 profit a month for a high end restaurant in California in the 90's for outputting, printing, managing their list and mailing your menus once a month. If the restaurant is selling $100 a plate specials to its regular clientele it can surely afford $189 for driving in new traffic to pay those prices and expand their list. That is just $6 a day. Drive in one new customer a day and you are already into profit. Do the things to keep them coming back for more and you are really into profit.

      Don't forget lifetime value. If you drive them in for a cost of $6 once and you develop a customer appreciation program that keeps them coming back month after month for say just a year that $6 easily generates a minimum of $300 and I would call that great ROI

      Martin
      • [ 1 ] Thanks
      • [1] reply
    • Ever heard the story of the giant ship engine that failed? The ship's owners tried one expert after another, but none of them could figure but how to fix the engine. Then they brought in an old man who had been fixing ships since he was a youngster. He carried a large bag of tools with him, and when he arrived, he immediately went to work. He nspected the engine very carefully, top to bottom.

      Two of the ship's owners were there, watching this man, hoping he would know what to do. After looking things over, the old man reached into his bag and pulled out a small hammer. He gently tapped something. Instantly, the engine lurched into life. He carefully put his hammer away. The engine was fixed! A week later, the owners received a bill from the old man for ten thousand dollars.

      "What?!" the owners exclaimed. "He hardly did anything!"

      So they wrote the old man a note saying, "Please send us an itemized bill."

      The man sent a bill that read:

      Tapping with a hammer ......................... $ 2.00
      Knowing where to tap ............................ $ 9,998.00

      Effort is important, but knowing where to make an effort in your life makes all the difference.

      Knowing Where to tap.
      • [ 5 ] Thanks
    • Actually I think the price is absurdly low! Considering the average for creating a 60 second video for the web is $3000... This guy is basically just offering it on a payment plan with ongoing consulting and SEO in the package.
      • [1] reply
  • Banned
    What city is he located?

    • [1] reply
    • Indeed you can only rank so many businesses.
      They are better off making that an exclusive service for a premium fee.
  • Thanks for posting this. It's rare to see detailed and informative posts when any sort of success is mentioned inn the thread title.


    I think he charges too low. He should make it more exclusive & raise the prices at this point since it's a proven business model. He can also add social media marketing to the basket and charge 1000/mo. Some folks out ther charge pretty penny for custom designed facebook landing pages.
  • I had a similar idea but it does have nothing to do with restaurants. I want to create a website promoting pizza shops in the area and have already a couple of "pizza bosses" which are interested, but I should correct my business plan as well. We´ll see what comes out :-))
  • I love this idea. Very Simple!
  • Internet is the way to go. Before I try a new restaurant, I check Yelp or I check the restaurants website to see an interior view. If they dont have it, I usually dont go.
  • OLD thread folks.
    • [2] replies
    • Buy one dinner and get the second dinner free coupon that they can print out.
      Why give away one dinner when you can just give them a 20% discount?
      Because you get more than one person in to visit you establishment and
      chances are if your business provides and delivers what it says it does
      you'll get return visitors/customers bringing their friends. Just one example.
      And the thread is still as good and revelant as it was when it was orginally posted!

      Thanks for the Old Thread Reminder Steve.
      Have a Great Day!
      Michael
      • [2] replies
    • Banned
      I noticed that too but I took a look at the OPs last post and he was here on the 3rd so I figure he maybe back to see this. Last actvity on the 28th so he is here, but, not posting.

      By the way, this method is not really new. midasman??? posted this exact method as far as the resturaunt part of it. Anywho, I just am curious of the location this is taking place with OP friend.
  • I'm a bit confused here, but didn't read the whole thread. I'd sale a major play in this would be selling in real life, and be able to talk the talk.
    • [1] reply
    • This is the second post I've read today that made absolutely no sense.

      I think I need some sleep or a shot of (To keep Taylor and Riley out of this) W.

      Have a Great Day!
      Michael
  • This is a great idea and what I would do to make it an even easier close is to make a basic video that can be reproduced, tag it with the business name and geo targeted keywords. Rank the video first then call on the business.

    If you go this route one thing you can do is put something in the video that says, "Make sure you mention this video to us when you come in for dinner!" or, "Did you find this video helpful when deciding to visit us? "Make sure to let "Owner or Manager Name" know.

    This is very easy information to find out, you just call in advance and find out who this person is. The owner is the best.

    Now the owner is wondering who the hell has done this for them and if you have put your contact information in the video they might even find you and call you. When that happens you better be closing them and if you can't, go and flip burgers at Wendy's. hehe

    Doing it this way avoids the part where you have to convince the business owner that what you do works.

    Of course you risk spending a little time and not getting the client but I think if you get results "BEFORE" they become a client you can charge more to make up for those owners who passed.

    For those who pass you just delete their video and move on, they loose the marketing and online presence.
    • [ 9 ] Thanks
    • [1] reply
    • Ahh, so the chicken DID come BEFORE the egg!

      Nice idea. Once you have a template, changing the content of the video and optimising for each area/name of business would make it easily scalable.

      Also makes you less of a commodity as you already have authority if they do approach you.
      • [2] replies
  • Relax Steve, I wasn't jumping on your comment or you. I was just stating my opinion.
    I Thanked you for the reminder.
    The meaning of words sometimes get lost in the text when posted.

    Have a Great Day!
    Michael
  • Russ, That method also works.

    Another point...lol
    My son is the General Manager of a Wendys so....lol Just saying!

    Have a Great Day!
    Michael
    • [2] replies
    • Kool post!

      Thanx for sharing
      • [1] reply
    • Hey awesome thread. Video is hot now and a great marketing tool.

      I also teach and do video marketing for local businesses and creating the videos can be just simple powerpoint with some pictures.

      Here's a youtube video I did for a local car dealer here in Denver. All I did was go to his site and download the pics he already had. Or we would just ask them to take the pictures they want in the videos and send them over to us.

      I used my own voice for this voice over and we also partner with others.

      I wrote the script and then created the slides around the script. Got a royalty free background clip and edited it all in camtasia.

      They paid $500.

      YouTube - Car Dealer Denver

      Thanks,

      Preston Rahn
      • [ 4 ] Thanks
      • [1] reply
  • Airports! Internet cafes. Place the videos on the computers to autorun. Wallpaper works too.
    Anyplace that has "commuters" and internet cafes works well.
    Get a contract with the cafes, so competitors do not squeeze you out.
    The trick is to pay the cafes to advertise on the computers. Add the cost to your overhead.

    Jeffery 100% :-)
    • [1] reply
    • This is a great one !
  • Hey, sorry I hadn't noticed that this thread was moved to the new sub for Offline Marketing and given some new life.

    Here's a quick update on where my friend is at...in the last 3 months, he has doubled his client base to 44 restaurants and has stopped taking new orders. He is working on providing existing clients with additional video products and things have really been working out (he also raised his price to new clients after he landed his 25 customer and received no negative reaction).

    If anyone has any questions on what he is doing or how, just post them and I'll try to get you answers.

    I noticed a few checking out this thread again along with some great suggestions, so please add more if anyone wants to share.
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
    • [2] replies
    • I know this has been answered by both direct answer and implication in various threads, but, again - what is the exact benefit to the restaurant owner?

      Say, for example, I type in "miami sushi," will the video taken of a particular Miami Sushi restaurant come into the first spot on Google? (I know that some keywords bring up videos in Google search.)

      I have friends that each own a restaurant - one owns a restaurant, one owns a cake bakery. I could go and "start off" there and plug my business there - if that simply could get the word out so I wouldn't have to cold call - that'd be heavenly!
      • [2] replies

    • Mike, just wondering about your friend's business model - does he create the video first, show it to the restaurant owner and then ask for payment? Or does he get them to prepay before he does any work?
  • mikemac1, thanks for sharing this story about your friends offline video success. I,m sure this method can work in other offline business categories too.
  • @Jeremy James - the exact benefit to the restaurant is that they have a video representation of their establishment that is further marketing the restaurant to interested patrons, similar to their website, social media profiles (i.e. FB page, Twitter account, etc.), local directory listings (i.e. Yelp, Foursquare, etc.) and other platforms they are using.

    Do all his clients' videos appear in the #1 spot for a search...no, but the goal is to reach the first page. From there when a person reviews the search and sees the video, there's a really good chance they are going to view it.

    As for the target keyword in the video, yes, he would use (for example) "Miami Sushi" in the title (along with the description and tags) but the focus is placed on the restaurant's name first, for example, "Restaurant's Name - Miami's Hottest Sushi Restaurant"

    To the restaurant's owners or marketing director, they do get the importance of search and keyword targeting but when it comes down to it, they are more interested in branding their restaurant, so you just need to find a creative way to put them all together.


    @zoro - you are absolutely correct that other industries outside of restaurants would greatly benefit from this, in actuality, another friend of mine is starting to do the exact same thing and target salons.


    @paulie888 - at first he created a mock video and marketed the video to show the results, then once he got his first client (and because the restaurant industry where is targets is a close knit group) his service really started to spread from word or mouth. Each video is custom to the restaurant and the restaurant prepays before any work is done.


    I hope those answers are OK, if not or if anyone has others, please post 'em. Thanks.
  • Is there any cost for your friend doing this?
  • @Jeremy James - of course...current price is $225/month.

    Also, let me restate again for some that posted recently on how much he charges and why...he targets high-end or hot/fashionable restaurants. His market is a large East Coast U.S. city so there are many restaurants that open each month with investors spending millions of dollars to get the place up and running. They have marketing and creative directors and spend many thousands each month placing ads in local fashion & city mags so the amount he charges for them to get a high-quality HD video is very worth it.
  • Hm. I am looking at a $6-$8 per person Chicken place across the street from me. Their website is not good - not optimized - so..I think I may look at bundling this service in with some SEO. I may charge $99-$149 a month.

    Thanks, Mike.

    Jeremy
  • Great thread!

    Just heard about it from a friend in Nashville. This idea rocks.

    Like the idea of doing a video first and getting placement... hard for an owner to say no to that!
  • Mike - just seeing this in the new forum tonight and wanted to say thanks for posting!

    Also, I've researched this quite a bit in the past and just FYI - those considering doing this should be aware of their competition like TurnHere Internet Video who recently started working with Yelp to provide video production services to their clients.

    Turnhere does a nice, 60 sec interview/showcase style video and it's worth watching a few to see how they're done, but you certainly don't have to be a filmmaker to sell a video to a restaurant.

    Cheers,

    Steve

    P.S. Mike - if your friend ever wanted to run his own restaurant video WSO, I think he'd have a winner on his hands here!
    • [1] reply
    • Steve,

      Checked out Turn Here. Interesting stuff. I checked out the prices and basically you're paying $420 (69.99/mth for 6 mths)for the video. They submit it to a few vid sharing sites and Facebook but don't do much else with it.

      Like Steve says go check out the Turn Here galleries. You'll see the types of videos being created. I'd say that most here can put a video like those together.

  • So let me get this straight: your friend ranks these videos on google? with backlinks etc....?
  • Here is a site we completed in five hours:

    http:Ozarks Best Chinese Food

    It took 2 minutes to sell the owner!

    Cheers,

    Millard
    • [ 9 ] Thanks
    • [5] replies
    • Very good, Millard! What kind of price did you get for this one?
    • Simple site, wonder what you got paid. Probably most of us here could make something like that! Good job!
    • Millard, well done!. Appreciate your sharing of this. Can I ask you what price you charged them?
    • Nice job Millard and thanks for sharing that with the group!

      I'm curious though - while I like the shots of an empty restaurant with all the items laid out so neatly - I wonder if some shots of a packed house with the tables filled and people standing in line to get their food might encourage more people to want to eat there? Of course you don't want it to look like people have to wait forever for a table, but the social proof that comes from seeing others enjoying their food could really work in their favor.

      Just some food for thought!

      All the best and again, a very nice job on that!

      Steve
      • [1] reply

    • Makes my mouth water, well done, Millard!

      chemo38
  • Its great man. He is doing a good job. Its a fun too and earnings as well.
    I am also looking forward for something like this.
  • Hi, just thought I'd chime in here. I read another thread about this several months ago (by the Midasman), and decided to try it out. My approach, like the Midasman, was to offer my service at no obligation to the restaurant/business, then ask their permission to photograph inside and outside the building, plates of food, etc. Otherwise, if you go into these places trying to shoot photos or video to "surprise" the owner later, you are risking getting shown the exit door by the owner. However, the "no obligation" route, while it is great for getting your foot in the door, can also lead to disappointment when an owner changes his/her mind and decides to pull out of the deal right before payment time. That happened to me, after spending many hours shooting, photo shopping, and editing ads for two restaurants and a golf course, all owned by the same guy. Actually, the deal could still eventually go through, because the owner said he wanted to wait a few months. But you should never count on being paid by any business owner at any given time, and always expect to go back and forth with them on artistic differences and not receive email responses from them, basically you better have time to wait for them to make a final decision. Otherwise, you can just charge beforehand, but that might be hard for somebody just starting out with no reputation.
  • Thanks for all the comments. The site was an EASY 97 bucks a month. I like to do bigger jobs, but for 5 hours work... that's about 200 clams an hour.

    As to getting an owner to buy... How many times do you go out to eat in a month? How many different restaurants (Not fast food joints) do you go to? How many of the owners do you know and talk to?

    The principle with the owners is the same as I've mentioned in a lot of other posts... Get into rapport with the owner... TALK about their problems and offer a solution...

    Here's a tip... If you want to SELL the restaurant owner.... GO IN AND BUY SOMETHING TO EAT!

    I learned the HARD way in my early days when I went into an eatery with a friend to pitch a restaurant owner. We sat down. (I had already eaten breakfast elsewhere) My friend KEPT nagging me to get something to eat... I said no, I wasn't hungry...

    I didn't even get to first base.

    I also learned from an entertainer who worked in restaurants doing close-up magic, that if you want to talk to the owner... buy a meal... THEN YOU HAVE A "RIGHT" to talk to the owner.

    Try it it works.

    Cheers,

    Millard
    • [ 2 ] Thanks
  • Does anyone know of a Warrior Forum service that will create these types of videos?
    • [3] replies
    • Been looking into this recent WSO that looks great and seems to have some great reviews going for it.
      • [ 1 ] Thanks
    • Normally I do professional videos for Warriors, but I made this one in about 2 minutes in iMovie to see if I could get it to rank. Still working on the ranking part.

      YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.
      • [ 1 ] Thanks
    • Yep, I do these all the time.
      Here's one I did for selling my own house in New Zealand.

      My house in NZ(I hope you like Beethoven!)

      All I need are 9-12 jpg's of the business
      I also need a couple of jpg's of the owner's face and logo, which I photoshop into the intro and outro slides

      PM me and I'll work out a price which will give you a good profit margin
      • [1] reply
  • How many other businesses have used video locally? Not very many from where I live!

    This is one of the best of the best nuggets you can get around here.
  • @ fvandy - check out the Warriors For Hire section and also the WSO section, I saw an interesting video creation product on there recently that had some videos for local businesses as examples.

    @ MWGrubb58 - First, thanks for contributing to this thread and sharing your site.

    Also, your right about that, everyday I see multiple local niches where no one is using videos and if they are, they are not using simple video SEO techniques that would help their video rank much better.

    @ marshallbaily - first, your right that $189 is cheap, my friend actually raised his prices and could even go higher. As for tracking, as you copied in your post, there are a lot of ways for offline businesses to track results nowadays, but it comes down to being dedicated to using what is out there.

    In my market, traditional ad products (i.e. newspapers, yellowpages, etc.) have ways to track leads for you.
  • @ Steve Solem - thanks, that's the WSO I was checking out.

    The reviews look pretty good, if anyone has used this and pitched a local client, please post and let us know.

    It looks like with this WSO that you could easily offer more videos or videos done more frequently to offline clients and it wouldn't be a problem handling the volume.
  • This is the most refreshing post I have read in weeks. Thanks. Nice fresh info, out of the box, easily doable. Excellent.

    Now, if just "doing" period, in and of itself, could be made easily doable , alot of people could succeed.

    Lots of good ideas, action is key.
  • I looked at the Turnhere video gallery and was less than impressed with their videos. They were flat and boring, too many droning talking heads (it's great to feature the owner or manager but they shouldn't be more than half the video) and in many cases I did not catch the name of the firm nor have a clear idea of what their business was offering, brand placement was very poor.

    Speaking from a 20 year background in traditional offline marketing ... Turnhere may make video, but they don't get "marketing".

    Judging from the creativity I see in this forum every day any Warrior should be able to outshine them fairly easily.
    • [1] reply
    • What kind of video equipment would one need? Lighting? I'm just thinking about what would be the fastest and simplest, with minimal equipment to do the job right.

      What would be the least expensive video camera & lighting to start out with? You could always upgrade the equipment once you started getting clients.

      I really like this idea, it seems very doable...and fun!

      Thanks for sharing.
      • [3] replies
  • Simple question, how do you build backlinks to youtube videos if you are following this plan (charging a retainer fee to do a video, keep it in a good position in youtube for the keyword).

    Do you write articles about the video and put the video url in the resource box? Just want an idea on what you do for backlinking for videos.
  • Yup, providing video is another great method for the offline consultant.

    You can easily mail out postcards and nail 'em:

  • That's excellent. Most of us on WF are internet marketers but the truth is, the internet is just another medium, we can take the same principles to the physical world, and of course we can take old offline marketing techniques and bring them online.
    I love advertising in local newspapers to send people to my websites. No one does it.
  • @fvandy - Not trying to shoot anyone down here, but what could a warrior in New York do for your client in San Francisco?

    If I'm selling this service (which I'm not,) I would think my client would want THEIR business featured, not a bunch of stock footage.

    Just my 2¢

    Pete
    • [1] reply
    • There's a lot that can be done with photos, which the service provider could take at the restaurant and mail to the video creator.

      It's not as exciting as live video, but a good video creator can do wonders with just a few pictures and some animated text. That's how the service can stay remote.
      • [1] reply
  • Yes, this is a good strategy. I can imagine many niches where you could do this like home remodeling, home builders, bars, etc.

    I think I might try it. I especially like how there is little cold calling involved after you get the initial exposure.
  • @paragone - to answer your question...both, just be creative and enter them in the video's title, for example, "Sushi Samba - Miami's Hottest Sushi Restaurant" or "Miami's Hottest Sushi Restaurant - Sushi Samba Restaurant"

    Then continue in your video's description and tags to target the restaurant's name and target keyword variations.

    Hope that helps.
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
    • [1] reply
    • Hi mikemac, great thread. I have a question related to the keyword targeting which you have so greatly explained in this thread so far. Now from my understanding, your friend is uploading these videos on youtube with example of keywords that you used before, correct? Also, is he making simple sites such as the one grubb posted earlier on page 2? I don't remember you mentioning this as I was scanning over some of your posts. Also, if he is making these websites, what is the SEO like for the individual websites?

      One more thing, could you provide more insight on the initial mock up of videos that he used for when starting this business? Did he make a simple wordpress site and put the video on there and then just call random businesses until he got a lead? Thanks
  • Have you thought about making a CORE video that is the same for each restaurant and just adding an intro and extro? This could save loads of time and make everything look even better.
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
    • [2] replies
    • any examples of something like this mwgrubb58? Thanks for showing that example of the Ozark restaurant you did, too! Gives me lots of ideas and inspiration? Did you use some kind of site builder to make that site?
    • MWG, this is one of our strategy which saves loads of time :-)
  • @CPA_Ray - Hey and to answer your questions...

    - Yes, he would upload the videos to YT with those type of keywords.

    - No, he doesn't create any websites and other products for his customers besides videos and video/multimedia products (for example, he has created several promo videos for his clients based on events they are having at their restaurants).

    - As for how he got his first client...he actually just selected a restaurant that was opening near where he lived...the restaurant was getting a lot of hype about their cuisine and they were using a lot of social media to keep people interested on when they were opening and what the food was going to be like (they were primarily using Facebook and Twitter).

    So he basically thought/wondered why weren't they doing anything "visually" to promote their restaurant, especially using videos to show what the place would like look and how good the food would be. If people were getting excited over tweets and posts, how much more "hungry" could they become if they actually saw how cool the interior was going to look and how good the food would be.

    He then just took some shots of the front of the restaurant, took some stock food pics and put together a quick "spec" video. From there he just uploaded the video to YouTube and then went over to the restaurant and talked to the manager, found out who was in charge of the marketing, showed them the video, they thought it was great and a natural fit for what they wanted to do/how they wanted to market the place.

    From there he took some pics of the restaurant's exterior/interior and some pics of prepared dishes and started to create a video.

    Now, in the beginning of the video and at the end, he includes a quick "video by" slide that list his business name, logo, phone # and website.

    After he completes the video for the restaurant, uploads it to YouTube, begins to market the video (also the restaurant naturally tweets the video and the response it gets was really good) and within a couple of hours, my friend receives a request from basically a rival restaurant asking about his services and could he create a video for them.

    From there, his business has really grown from word-of-mouth.
    • [ 6 ] Thanks
  • Hey Mike, I can attest that this service is in high demand - this technique is one of our services we offer to help local biz owners rank on Google page 1 and also YouTube page 1 n other video sites like Viddler, MetaCafe, etc. Let's remember that YouTube is the #2 Search Engine and more n more people would rather see a video than READ a website!!

    We charge $300 / month and do 1 new video per month or spin the previous video.

    Mike, this tactic works :-)
    • [ 3 ] Thanks
    • [1] reply
    • Hello Zkhan144,

      I came across your post and was curious to know if you are still doing these videos for your clients? I'm also in the Toronto area.

      Always good to know another contact in the field.

      regards,

      Kamran
  • Hi mikemac, thanks for the feedback. Would you be able to share what tools your friend uses to promote the videos? I'm guessing something such as SENuke correct?
  • Zkhan144... It's great to know that you are out there doing what is mentioned here.

    How many reps do you have on the street or are you the one talking to the owners?

    Cheers,

    Millard
  • Hi to Everyone

    If you are getting into the video marketing for the restraunts business (or any niche business) then here is a spin (which I have not read on here)

    If you are making 2, 3 or 4 different videos per year for the one restraunts ( New York Italian ) then you need to be contacting Italian Restraunts in Dallas, Florida, Virginia, Washington.

    If you are taking photos of traditional Italian dishes and creating a 51 second video and then branding the videos with the restraunts name at the end of each video (8 seconds) then you can be contacting other Italian restraunts in other cities and branding similar 51 second footage for them. (Keep your video length under 1 minute - it is psychological trigger)

    At the end of the year, if you have 10 Italian restraunts across the country paying you $189 per month (each) then you could have cut your video production costs up to 85% and increased your revenue up to 900%

    (As I am in Australia - I am off to bed...Night Warriors)
    • [ 2 ] Thanks
  • @ CPA_RaY - actually you don't need to do anything that "strong" to market/rank videos, the goal is to become influential locally.

    First, make sure to follow simple video SEO guidelines and correctly keyword tag the video's file name, create a good/compelling/keyword tagged Title, a complete and descriptive video description and fill out as many tags as you can enter.

    Second, simple and steady backlinks from high-quality sources. What he has found is that quality counts more for his video then quantity.

    Third, use social media to expand the reach, here's where you can be creative and find the best way to reach "foodies" locally.

    Here's a couple ideas on how to effectively use social media locally with restaurants...

    - Find and list all the local food blogs in your area, now just simply comment on their posts...BUT...don't leave spam comments or "hey you should check out this" type comments, leave quality comments related to the posts or ask a question. The key here it to make sure your commenter-name is related to your videos and linked to your YouTube Channel (especially simple if they are using Disqus).

    - Do the same as above with local "foodie" blogs but with local influential sites such as your local newspaper's site, local TV network site, etc. Comment on stories and make sure your commenter name is related to your niche and linked to your site...again don't spam...if you take the time to comment everyday you'll be amazed how much traffic you will get.

    - Create a twitter account that is geared towards people interested in local restaurants/foodies. Use WeConnect, etc to find influential locals and start to tweet when you release videos and RT when local "foodie" blogs post something and when local related stories are released. You could even post a recipe of the day or use your contacts in the restaurant biz to post local restaurant news/rumors, i.e. specials, events, so-and-so is opening a new restaurant, etc.

    - Same as above with Twitter but you can create a Facebook Fan Page related to local restaurants, i.e "New York Restaurants," just make sure you are cool with the local restaurant association if your area has one.

    That's about it...it's simple (no magic, no secrets) and just takes something called work. Just set a goal to make 5 comments a day across related sites/blogs, same with tweets/FB posts. Next thing you know you'll have posts/comments, etc all across local, influential sites and you'll be amazed how strong that it.

    Hope that helps I just quickly typed that out.
    • [ 2 ] Thanks
  • I did similar to this a long time ago....but if you think about it: $189/month is really nothing.

    You offer: backlinking, article writing, video creation, and all other seo services, maybe social bookmarking, social networking, etc..

    $189 is probably the cost you need to outsource the whole thing. Or very little profit.
  • You can add Pixelpipe - Liberate your media! post, upload and share almost anywhere to your marketing efforts ... for more 'BANG'!
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
    • [1] reply
    • Be sure to read their terms of service. From what I can see, it is for non-commercial use.
  • Just found this post and read though it. I actually just started a marketing company so this is a great service to offer to my clients. I've been doing video for my own use over the years and so this should be fun.

    I'm good friends and long time client with a local restaurant owner and my daughter works at a hair salon. I plan to pitch this video idea to them in the next few days and see if they will bite. Of course I'll sweeten the deal by offering them up to be test cases for me in exchange for 1 or 2 months free. If the same thing happens, other people notice my service from these 2 videos, then I should have no problem picking up new clients.

    Can't wait to get things rolling. I'll post my results here on this post.

    Thanks for posting this Mikemac1

    JR
    • [1] reply
    • I've been around the block with great ideas that don't work. So, first TEST it.

      That is not a criticism of this concept and application of a terrific idea. Great ideas do work but often, just the process of testing will open your eyes to an even better and simpler way to do, and achieve your desired result.

      About restaurants: nearly 75% fail before their 5th year. restaurants are a cash flow brick and mortar business. and, I mean, heavily dependent on cash flow. squid fish and chicken spoil quickly, so they are dealing with a huge forecasting challenge each day.

      What's my point? restaurants are very complicated to run, even if it is a Wendy's or the local popular bar-b-cue ribs joint. SO, keep it simple and be effective. I would advise against experimenting with additional services to perk up their visibility.

      So why test? Ex. I entered the term, restaurant, into google, and got restaurants 30-40 miles away. Then I switched to another computer with a different ISP. I did the same thing and got restaurants 20 miles in the exact opposite direction. None were in my neighborhood or even nearby.

      Dynamic IP addresses are what Google looks at, in part, for "the where you are" data to put on the page. So, if that is the case for your area (multiple ISP's) then you'll want to consider that element in SEO'ing for your videos and any websites.

      you want to see a great website for a restaurant? google a Carraba's. it's the elements of information, that is, 'the content' that is so impressive and helpful to a visitor... not the artsy stuff. You get the location, hours of oper., and the whole dang menu.

      Last thing, suggest videos be 90 seconds or less. if you post it on a WP blog page with a write up, then make sure the link will be convenient and easy to remember, if the owner uses it in his Yellow Page ad.

      This whole idea is a great way to become indispensible to people who will make you richer. Just Test it out first in your area.

      TB

      P.S. don't video the menu. put it in readable form in a power point slide.

      If you are successful at helping your first few restaurants, then my strong suggestion is to not expeand your services. Just "wash, rinse, repeat" for a good long while. THEN, try approaching their suppliers. That's right, dominate the market.

      Do it all yourself. That keeps it reliable. You can't do video? then Job-it-out to some college kid... they're hungry too.

      My perspective is this: I'd do a few restaurants but each in its own niche for that area. Like 1 Italian in "north town", "south town", etc. then 1 Philly cheese steak place, or 1 bar-b-cue, or 1 pizza place.

      What's the easiest way to get to talk to a busy owner? Go eat there, compliment the food, give them a 'hot sheet' which you leave in the car.... if it's any good, go get the hot sheet. If it's bad food .... well, it's your reputation that is also at stake when you do work for somebody.
      • [1] reply
  • Much more to do for these offline clients now, I charge between $1,500 to $2,500 per month. You can see a list of my services on Internet Marketing | Social Media Marketing | Business Marketing - My Business Marketing
    It's sometimes an educational process explaining what I can doe for them. Just think, all you need is 10 clients, paying you $1,500.00 per month to earn $15,000 per month.
  • Does anyone have an example of good ad copy when posting to craigslist when trying to display our video making service?
  • I just want to say thanks to everyone here in this thread. This is the first offline/IM campaign/thought/idea that I have ever put into action. Usually it's just reading other similar forums to this one about making money online. But anyway, now I have a fully functional website and I just posted my first ads on craigslist tonight. I'm not sure if the copy was good, but this is something I'm sure I can refine over time. I'd figure I could start cold calling now, but I'm outlaying my business plan in mindjet tonight and I want to have all the facts together before I call local businesses out of the blue. I'm looking into local business commerces and I'm thinking about getting business cards printed out soon. I haven't landed any clients yet, but hopefully that will change soon! If anyone is hesitant to start something, don't be. Once you put it into action, then it's one of best personal self-satisfactions that one can have.

    Again, thanks everyone!
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  • this is an interesting service
    given though the recent change to google places
    and how it impacts results on first page
    how will this change this type of service?
  • Great idea.
    can be transformed into various offline fields

    Thanks
    • [1] reply
    • So - what needs to happen when I type in "Cakes City" for my video to actually make it into Google search?

      Jeremy
  • Just a quick follow-up on this process. I put a video up and did the description and keywords and title for local search. In 24 hours the video was on page 1 of google, position #5, 700,000+ competing websites for the search term.

    I was pretty impressed.

    Another video was in position #1 for 8000 competing sites.

    Very good stuff
  • that's GREAT! If only I could figure out how to make a search bring up the video on the regular search page.
    • [1] reply
    • I'm more of a lurker most of the time... but read through this and I saw some people asking about music for video that is legal to use....

      There's two sources I can recommend:

      1 - is of course istockphoto - yes, they have music too. Stock Photography: Search Royalty Free Images & Photos | iStockphoto.com

      2 - and I love this one - Buy MixCraft - Mixcraft 5 - Affordable multi-track audio and MIDI recording software. - it's $74.95 (or you can pay $10/mo for their payment plan).

      It includes several thousand music clips, and the software lets you mix and play with them.

      I've played with it several times and am using that to power some videos I'm working on... just waiting to get my voice better from my cold before I do the speaking parts that I intended LOL. (Don't want to scare people off with a raspy voice that's half there).

      And no, those are not affiliate links, I just really like them.

      We tried other audio software and they were difficult to figure out. Mixcraft is pretty easy.

      Back to the other part of this topic.....

      Is anyone else having success with this strategy too?

      Amber
  • @ all looking for music - if you are looking for music or background music, here's a cheap solution...check out Fiverr.com, I just got 2 songs done for $5.

    Here's a couple tips...
    - tell the person upfront what you want to use the music for, i.e. background music for YouTube videos.

    - describe the type of music or flow of the music you want, i.e. a pop-type beat that starts off slow at first, then gets faster, then slows down at the end.

    - tell them upfront that you want to get a doc from them that states the music is original and you have copyright for the music.

    - also I would recommend getting a song that is 2 to 3 minutes in length.

    Hope that helps.
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
    • [1] reply
    • @MikeMac,

      What needs to happen for a video to come to natural Google search results when "city cakes" is searched? I have a bakery and "city cakes" is my keyword.
      • [1] reply
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  • I've got one question....

    What is everyone doing to get their videos on the first page of Google?
    • [1] reply
    • Many people seem to be using You Tube to host videos but I'm going to suggest that you host the videos on the clients site or use S3 (or a similar service).

      Doing this along with using a video site map will bring traffic that would have went to YT to your clients site.

      After all, that's what we want right? More targeted traffic at client sites.
  • I also think that a lot of people miss the fact that they need to target suburbs. That is where people search. For instance Kansas City Carpet Cleaning is searched, but people want to do business from their local area. Overland Park, Olathe, Leawood here in my area is more geo friendly and more effective.

    You will be on the first page with that strategy in a few hours
    • [ 2 ] Thanks
  • It's funny, I cannot find any video on Google Page 1. I've tried a ton of different keywords and locations to see if any Videos show up. I know that Google used to list three or four vids across the first page, now with the recent redesign, I'm not see them anymore.

    If someone can point me to a specific search that shows Videos on Page one, I'd be thrilled to see it.
    • [1] reply
    • Just search any major new outlets on google and maybe a recent story that was covered .
  • Hello All,

    How are the videos managed on Youtube? Do you create Youtube.com account for each client and upload their videos there? I'd like to have a single Youtube.com account (for simplicity) to upload these videos to, then embed on the client site and in their places listing, etc.

    But I'm also kinda interested in keeping the videos separate. I'm thinking that I don't want someone to come to the end of a Youtube video, then look to see what other videos are on the account and come across potentially competitive videos or unrealted niches.

    Same issue in thinking about a client coming to the end of a video and coming across their competition's video - Or even having a competing SEO/Local Business firm locate my client list from the Youtube account.

    I think that I'm leaning towards individaul accounts but that add to the overhead of managing these clients.
  • I am not even interested in marketing online, but I just wanted to say I found this to be a great post. Simple and effective.
  • This was discussed on another forum over a year ago. The exact same method.
  • Hey, sorry I've been neglecting this thread for a little bit but wanted to answer any recent questions...


    @ Jeremy James - hey, I sent you a PM about ranking for your kw, let me know, I'd like to help.

    @ krankxl - i think he has 45 clients, but has stopped taking new clients.

    @ SCC - ranking on the first page of a search result for a video takes doing proper video SEO and "building a community around your video," sorry if that is vague but my explanation will take forever, I'll PM you something soon.

    Also about finding videos on the first page of Google, totally depends upon if anyone is actually using videos to rank locally (and doing it right) which basically isn't happening.

    @hamerz - totally depends on what you want to do, my friend has grouped his videos on several channels. There's pros and cons with doing separate channels for each client or putting them all on one channel. You really need to weigh the choices and see which one you want to go with.


    One more thought...

    I have had many PMs about this thread and specifically the restaurant market...

    Just wanted to explain again why my friend choose restaurants...really it comes down to his market and the opportunity.

    He lives in a major U.S. city that has a great restaurant reputation and where opening a restaurant will cost you several million dollars. Without going into long detail, I'm sure many of you know the success of Food Network, etc. and just the overall increase of food being more visual, especially with videos.

    So, my friend just noticed how many high-end restaurants continued to advertise in local fashion magazines or other high-end offline products (spending tens of thousands each month), he also noticed they are using Twitter, Facebook, etc. yet ignored using online videos, which seemed a natural fit for their business.

    So that opportunity combined with the market potential, made for a good business to start.

    In so many words, I'm just saying to take a look at your market and find the opportunity...it might be restaurants, it might not...but something is there.
    • [ 3 ] Thanks
    • [2] replies
    • would you mind sending that to me also?

      • [1] reply
    • Mike , just wanted to say thank u. u have given u so much. I really appreciate it. I guess have to get the nerve to walk into a restaurant and show them the video. thanks!
  • A great place to go for royalty free (and free) music is Free Royalty Free Music | Creative Commons Music | Download Free Background Music

    He has a huge selection of great music and all it costs is a link or credit.
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  • Thanks this is a great post!
  • Yes, I have been remiss in not thanking Mike for all his information that he has freely passed on to us!

  • Thanks this is a great post!
  • Interesting.

    Realistically - I wonder how much work is required monthly after the initial set up.
    • [1] reply
    • Hey everyone!
      I'm sure glad I found this post! I recently made my first video with the Video Spinner WSO and I've gotten great comments. The restaurant owner I made it for (already a client) loved it. His was free as I was just practicing, but I plan on following what I've learned in this thread to create a residual income.
      I live in a small town, so I can only do so many restaurants, but there's lots of motels and hotels here that may be interested, along with salons, massage and spas, etc. I plan on also marketing to a larger city that is inland about 2 1/2 hours from here, along with some other towns here in Oregon! I'm excited about this and think it will be a good way to get my foot in the door and be able to offer some of my other services later on!
      Kathy
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  • @ mike mac1 i would be interested in gettin a pm or some information on how to rank on the first page of google as well

    And for anyone interested in getting music customized (as background music at a very affordable price) for there videos just let me know, because me and my business partner are music producers and can make tracks in most musical genres
  • I think I'll charge my clients $370 - $550/mth.

    Thanks for sharing.
    • [1] reply
    • $550 a month? what services do you plan on offering with that pricing point?

      Mike:

      I'm intrigued as to what exactly goes into SEO'ing a video to show up on top of google/videos...

      Thanks a bunch for this good tip
  • Video marketing. 1st off, hand the client a DVD on the Power of Youtube.

    1) In it, make a Powerpoint presentation about Youtube trends and the feaseability
    of eyeballs getting onto the Vid as compared to Print Media Outoor Media.

    2) If possible, in the DVD, show how you can make Vids that are unique for your clients.

    3) Show them what makes clients' Vid on youtube attract views. But don't show them how. (I personally know the Guy who Video captured Mariah Carey who slipped on stage performing at the Singapore Grand Prix Night Race.) Interesting incident or event helps to get many views. The Mariah Carey incident had 35,000 views within 24hrs. The relevance here is : It would help if you get creative and create an incident in your clients' vid. But meet the clients' requirements and needs.

    4) Include Typography, interesting Royalty Free music to clients' vids. Add motion graphics. Add Virtual Spokeperson/s

    5) Be their Social Media Manager for Youtube Channel.

    Be different and be creative.

    Use relevant keywords in the Title of Vids. Tags & description of the video. Add clients' URL in the description area of the Vid. Link the Vid to their other vids on Youtube & vise versa.
    • [ 3 ] Thanks
    • [1] reply
    • Great tips there. Are you saying though that you're creating these videos upfront for clients to demonstrate what you can do for them? If so, what content do they have and how long are they - how much effort do you put into creating these preliminary videos?
  • This is a very good post, and a great idea. Give you mate a pat on the back for this.
  • @ shawn peter send me your email address because i haven't made enough post to reply to your pm
    • [1] reply
  • To All - sorry I haven't been on the thread in a while but saw some people asking about ranking videos...well I just replied to some advise on another thread where someone is trying to rank his video for a local search term, here's the link:

    http://www.warriorforum.com/offline-...-business.html

    And I'll tell you what, I'm going to gather all my thoughts on ranking...all the tips/advice/suggestions this weekend and I'll post it to this thread...it's about time I put it all down for everyone.
    • [ 5 ] Thanks
  • Thanks, Mike.
  • This has been a great thread...

    I like the ease of this model. Lends itself to a man or woman on the street!
  • MWGrubb58

    Please contact me at my email. You sent me a post, but cant reply.



    retireonme at gmail dot com
  • Hey Mike , We are all waiting for that big list on how to rank our videos. l excited to see what you come up with.

    Tommy
  • Mike, we are still waiting. .. .

    Tommy
  • I haven't finished reading this whole thread yet...

    There is sooooo much info here.... it is unreal....
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  • This is an awesome thread. I have read the posts from top to bottom. I am putting together my package getting my website up get my services in a row so I have the contractors I need to tackle the projects then its off to the races.
  • This is a great idea and i plan to use it myself but maybe with the generic video build authority first then approach the business owner. It doesn't have to be only restraunts an someone else mentioned as you could do this for any type business. It might even help to win over some of those potential clients who are hard sells.
  • Looking for a bit of advice from anyone with experience in this market.

    I have been considering getting into the business of offering my skills to offline businesses
    and the ideas mentioned in this thread are interesting.

    My concern is that I live in a small town of about 40K people and almost all businesses
    have very little competition. Most restaurants, for example, do very well without a lot
    of advertising. Same goes with real estate agents, car dealerships, hotels/motels, etc.

    I know I could try to get started in a larger market via email, phone etc. but I am more
    interested in getting started in my area.

    Any advice in dealing with the unique circumstances of attempting to market to
    business owners in a smaller, less competitive market?

    Thanks!

    Brett
    • [1] reply
    • Bshelite what town are you in.....


      I understand your thinking there and we do need to put ourselves into our target demographics head. I went to high school in Guthrie Oklahoma and lived in Edmond Oklahoma as well as Tulsa and OKC. So you and I know and understand the thinking of the Oklahoma Native.

      It really is a different train of thought... Especially in a small town.

      With video marketing as advertising might not be the way to pitch it.

      Maybe play on their ego a little. If I knew the town I might be able to be more specific.
  • Hi,

    Thanks for a great post. Full of great and useful information. To make it work all that is needed is some work and action.

    Thanks
  • I would just like to say that this is an awesome idea and I just got my test video on the first page of google for a keyword that has 580,000 results!!

    Now all i need is to draw up a contract, anyone have any generic templates?
    • [1] reply
    • Interesting story.

      As with all approaches,action makes the difference.

      Bayo
  • Thanks for the post! Gets the sales juices flowing again.
  • [DELETED]
    • [1] reply
    • Ok, I plunked in some searches and got some idea of how much editing is going into some of these videos.

      I wasn't sure if your friend was doing live or photo or a combination - but that doesn't really matter much from what I've seen. Each circumstance is going to be different based on the business and I don't think there is a straight out cookie cutter method for each.

      Perhaps there can be several styles that are created up front to give the client something to choose from - and I think this would be the most streamlined way to go about it.
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  • What software is recommended to create the vids?
    • [2] replies
    • Depends on the level of sophistication and production value you're going after. For free you can use Windows Movie Maker or iMovie, and on the professional end you can get into Final Cut and After Effects.
    • I like Proshow Producer with a couple of the extras they have available
  • you've inspired us reaching the goal...very nice post indeed! two thumbs up!
  • My question relates to the documentation/paper work and how you go about automating the monthly billing cycle. Surely we are not going to chase them from month to month!
  • Bump! Need to continue!
  • Anyone tried Animoto for their vids? I bought a plan, and it seems okay - but should it be more professional?
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
  • Animoto looks OK if you're fine with the "slideshow" feel... But animation or live video can be much more enticing to the eye.

    A side note, though, is that their TOS doesn't allow you to sell videos to other businesses using their service. You can see a ton of threads about that here if you need more info.
    • [2] replies
    • Hey Mike,

      Haven't been on WF for awhile now, came across this thread and wanted to thank you for it. It is informative and you took the time to answer questions. Thanks.

      I know what software's to use were mentioned how about Photo Story, I have used in the past it looks fine. Any input will be appreciated. Thanks
      • [1] reply
    • How would you go about getting an animation video? I know I can take a nice HD camera in store and do it myself, but in terms of animation, do you just mean to our source?

      I have read a thread here about Animoto's TOS - but from what I can tell, I am not actually selling the video to any company, and it is not being transferred ownership to anyone. I am still the owner and it is hosted under my own accounts on YouTube etc, but I am just displaying someone elses information on the video - I really don't think I am not allowed to put someone elses info. on the video?

      Not sure, but from my understanding, it's fine to rent them?
      • [2] replies
  • Well I am on the pro plan, no logos or anything - so they would need to prove the video originated from them (that could be easy, I guess).

    Also, there is an option to download the video, so that you can upload it yourself manually - this might also help!
    • [1] reply
    • Looks like you've looked into it already. I just didn't want you getting caught out by their rules.

      All the best David
  • What a great thread and a great idea...so simple and easy.

    Got another idea to add.....unless its already been stated concerning gaining leads.

    Make the simple (almost generic) video to help advertise your service.....like the one above by Success Blogs UK, put it on your own website and then simply mailshot the restaurants in your local area using the Yellow pages or google addresses, telling them to go look at it. This might just be sending a one page letter.....or even just a business card in the post and then letting them contact you to come down and take the pics and videos.

    If you can find their email address on any of their business literature.....then why not email them the link to the video (that would even save on costs)

    This can obviously be done for ANY NICHE (near enough)

    Hope that helps (and isn't duolication of anything above)

    Tonio79
  • OHMYGOOOOODDDNESSSSS

    This MAY work very well. I just started the build websites for businesses for our local area. Got 2 "potential hits" already in 1 hour. Lined up for after Christmas action
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    • [1] reply
    • Hey, this is really some very usable stuff here. 2011 will be offline all the way for yours truly.

      As a few have mentioned, it's having an idea and then rolling with it that makes the difference. In my limited experience once you actually start the ball rolling, then you gain momentum, and hopefully learn as you go too

      Good advice for me.

      Ready, shoot, aim! is a saying I like.

      keep smilin'

      Mike
  • This is a really great idea and some wonderful information, thank you. I have an unemployed friend, who has experience in marketing and ad sales this would be great for. She's been looking for work over a year, and is really low on money.
    • [1] reply
    • excellent - I have two of those - no three - will pass this on to them and I'm adding it to my offline business as well. I can even send one of my reps out to do that.
  • Mike,

    Your post certainly got the info machine kicked into high gear. I learned a lot. Thank you.

    sandalwood
  • sounds awesome- good for him!
  • Yeah I agree, start with the video service and then once they see success with that...add on other services like SEO, autorepsonder, website, etc...

    Animoto is another service that is good to make these videos with as well.
  • I will be implementing that, thanks
  • What equipment does he use to produce and edit the video? Do you have a sample of one of his videos?
    • [1] reply
    • This is a good idea;can see why it works. What I am doing with restaurants is selling them text message services also. They are the best biz category for getting great results with text messaging. They have slow nights and need to fill the seats; so they can text coupons to all their clients that signup by texting to their keyword and shortcode.(90% of texts get opened) Such as Joesplace@29464. They are put into a database automatically by sms providor. One that charges 2 cents/text is optit.com; I am developing a site for texting training;will advise when done.
      • [1] reply
  • Marketing is repackaging the things that exist to create an impression of newness and you get a rip off!
    • [1] reply
    • And what does that have to do with this thread?
  • I have to say a big time thank you to Mike and all that contributed to this thread! It truly shows the power of a mastermind group created by a simple idea!
  • Any progress update on this?

    Thanks,

    -G
  • i see that yellowpages.com does this for their clients...though not sure what cities its limited to, nor how optimized their videos are
  • How 'bout the ENTIRE website as a video...

    Post 390 / Urban Tavern / Boston
    • [2] replies
    • Jim,
      I love the video website with the restaurant. Did you do it? The only problem I have is that it buffers like crazy which is really annoying. Outside of that it is outstanding.
      • [1] reply
    • Really enjoyed that site Jimien, did you create it yourself?

  • How is this going? How many clients does your friend have now?
  • One way to speak to business owners is by reminding them of TV commercials, they are used to that advertising model.

    So mention when a commercial "airs" on TV, it's gone the second it's finished. With online video, you can mention that it's up there for good.

    When I speak to an offline client I remind them of the benefits of being on You Tube:

    * You Tube is a search engine in it's self
    * You tube thumbnails appear on Google's search results
    * The business can embed the video on their website, give more authority to the business
    * If they are the 1st in the city to make informative videos, they will be seen as an expert, and people will naturally be drawn to them.
    * They do not have to pay for air time
    * They can share their videos on Facebook, twitter, blogs, a good selling point.

    Also another thing to try:

    Watch for LOCAL ads on TV, offer a service to place their commercial on the internet. You can even offer to backlink the video and optimise it.

    Listen for local radio ads, approach the owner and ask them if they would like a video to be made from it. You can easily place slideshow over voice over.

    With both the TV & Radio, the business owners are already paying for advertising. Now you can sell them Advertising that stays.

    -- Oh yeah was a TV newscameraman for 18 years before going online 5 years ago, so if you have any questions, let me know.
    • [ 3 ] Thanks
  • When interviewing the Restaurant owner / manager, make sure you have a good external microphone on their lapel. carry spare batteries and use head phone to monitor the quality of the sound when filming.

    Nothing worse then a nicely shot video with a "tinny sound"

    Another spin on this is to make some pretty slide show of your or a friends wedding. Need to use the same couple for the entire montage.

    From there, approach local wedding photographers and of this as a wholesale price. They put it in their list of services. You should charge the photographer anywhere between $97 - $197 for a 2 min video. You do not have to rank for this service, no SEO required, and the wedding photographer can charge what they like on top of the service.
  • Don't forget to offer to post videos on people's Google Places page (up to 5 are allowed) or on other local pages. For example, my local newspaper allows anyone to post video to their website. The portal software that the paper uses is utilized by other newspapers around the country so this is a common feature on community portals. Yelp allows photos (stills from a video) to be posted as does Urban Spoon. Local food bloggers may allow a restaurant's video to be posted on their site. Think big and you can charge clients more for additional services.
  • Pixel Pipe is a good way to list your video SEVERAL places... FAST.

    just sayin...
  • Haven't been on Warrior forum for a loooong time....took a looksee and found this thread. Wonderful stuff! Thanks to everyone for sharing....I'm in process of setting up a marketing service offering proofing/editing/writing of website content and general corporate communications, digital web book publishing (and conversion from pdf etc) and a local search service.

    I found lots of valuable info, ideas and food for thought here!

    Thanks again to all contributors.

    Piero
    • [1] reply
    • And some people say you can't make money with the internet!
  • Cheers for sharing these ideas.Its good to study some post about this these days.

    Its meaningful and somehow sharing this to readers like me, would make me wish to surf the internet to have the ability to get a whole lot more marvelous suggestions.
  • mikemac1 - great post! Makes a ton of sense esp. the referrals! Great stuff, thanks!
  • So, anyone can seo the video link the same way as any other URL?
  • This post is GOLD. I just got so many ideas from it, it's not funny. Thanks guys!
  • Amazing. I could never think if someone can also earn money like this. But this is only helpful for those living in places where restaurants are in high quantity. But i think this is incredible. I could not even think of that..
    • [1] reply
    • THanks for the great info
      • [ 1 ] Thanks
  • wow cant belive you gave this away.

    The biggest thing is that most people do not think they can get 100 people paying them $9 a month. But have done this over and over again.

    I have a membership site that brings in 4k a month from 1000 members at $9 a month.

    It was easy work, and who is gunna say no to $9 a month. That is childs play. I see how others think and hone in on that and offer quality. I only update this site once a week to keep members happy. 4k a month recurring. Easy as pie.
  • [DELETED]
  • This post is a gold mine. I work with a local video production company, and I have my own company creating videos for internet marketers. It seems like a great marriage between the two. Also I just bought a nikon d3100 that does photographs as well as video. I'm going to give this a try.

    Also I think with my background in motion graphics and commercial production I can charge a premium price, a price they would usually spend on air time. You don't want to beat the competitions price, you want to shift it from their services to yours. Commercial production + air time becomes commercial production + ranking/seo. Don't race to the bottom on price. You' don't want to steal you're competitions cookie and throw away the rest, you want to steal their whole lunch, while providing a better quality service for your customers.
  • What an awesome thread! I am amazed at the amount of information that is available on this site.
  • I've made a few videos like this and include them as a value add in my web design services. Perhaps it's time to rethink the pricing points...
  • Yeah same here. i haven't seen a youtube video on the 1st page of google for a while, especially with a search on local business. can someone also confirm this?
    • [1] reply
    • I did a video for a client very recently and as it was the start of his SEO campaign it was the only thing I had on teh first page for his local keyphrases so I can confirm they do rank...dailymotion ranks fairly well too.

      USE TUBEMOGULE!!!
      • [ 1 ] Thanks
  • I have a video that has been ranked for about 6 months now for one keyword and it is still there with thumbnail included.
    • [1] reply
    • They are still showing thumbnails for some results but not as much. I have heard others that were selling videos to local businesses that they have had their videos drop in the rankings as well.

      For some reason right now videos are not as easy to rank as they once were (though still easier than a regular site I think) and the big difference is they are not showing the thumbnails as much especially for new videos.

      I would love to know if anyone knows how to get the thumbnails to still show. Anyone?
      • [1] reply
  • This has been a great post! I was thinking about doing the same thing. So I guess I will go ahead and push forward with it. Thanks for the post!
  • Does he do additional tracking such as sending people to domain for a redirect?

    I could see a lot of potential for this if you work out a deal for lead generation for businesses. It gives businesses additional incentive to hire you and keeps you pushing harder for them. win/win.
  • I also have a videos that has been ranked for well over 2 years now in #1, #4 and lower 1st page on goog.
    lol, old school still working.

    Joe
  • I just started doing almost the very samething your friend is doing! My site is on the first page of google and this week I'll start calling some local spots so I can rent out this bad boy to them. I'm going to charge $197 a month and it will be a recurring fee threw paypal to make life easier..
  • ok as a one off great but how do you justify the $189 per month fee afterwards?
    • [1] reply

    • Just as the few posts above yours say - you have to keep building back links to ensure that the video keeps its rankings. This is the case with all SEO - so if you're ranking ANYTHING, a website, GP listing, video etc. Make sure you're getting a monthly payment!!
  • Great idea. You could always make the first awesome video free for some restaurant, remembering to put your contact details at the end of the video, then mail a link to the video to all the other local restaurants telling them 'hey, look what your competitor is doing' and explain how it is coming up in google searches and how having it on their qype profile will benefit them.. wait a sec, your not on qype? are you serious?... what a can of marketing worms this opens :-)
    • [1] reply
    • Seabro brings up a good point. Google can't be the one and only reason to do video for local biz. (In fact, history tells us that Google is a bad basket to put all your eggs.)

      Video could be a good reason to approach prospects with a package of, say, video + custom Facebook page + photos + ???

      For what else can this [video idea] be used?
  • Thanks this is a great post!
  • Cool idea. Thanks!
  • I have keenly been reading through this thread after I found it a few days ago as am planning on ranking videos for clients myself.

    Just wanted to check that if hosting the Youtube video on your own account, and then charging a monthly fee for maintaining the ranking...that does not violate any YouTube terms that anyone is aware of by any chance?

    As once it is ranked for a local keyword, you might be able to get away with not doing anything to keep it there.

    So you are effectively renting the video on your account to your client. And the monthly subscription is to prevent you from ranking another clients video instead using that keyword.

    So can you still legally rent a youtube video on your account to a client in the same way you would do with an offline site that you actually own and host yourself?

    I would rather host the client videos on my own account as opposed to ranking their own videos. As if the client then cancels the subscription, I can take the video down and rank a new video for another client in the same industry/city for that keyword.

    Otherwise if I was to rank the clients own Youtube video, they could just cancel once it is up there and would make it harder to top that ranking for another client in the same city if they were to cancel.

    Any thoughts/knowledge on this would be great!

    EDIT: Found this from 4D in the Youtube Terms of Service as not being allowed:

    "the sale of advertising, sponsorships, or promotions placed on or within the Service or Content"

    Don't know if that means it is against their service to charge a monthly fee to an offline client to rank and maintain a video for them (hosted on your account) on Google?
    • [2] replies
    • Ha, this is interesting! Does that mean they'd take videos down as soon as find out? And ban my account?
    • You are not renting them anything. You are providing a video service combined with SEO effort. You could place the videos on your account, their account, anybody's account.


  • I bought a couple of WSOs here that promised to teach me how to rank YouTube videos to the 1st page in no time flat - BS to say the least, has anyone tried and succeeded?
    • [1] reply
    • I have a few on the first page of google it can be done. One has 14,400,000 competing sites and I am either 4, 5, or 6 on any given day.
      • [1] reply
  • There is a guy I use on Fiverr, and I know I can see some eyeballs rolling now.

    But you should see the quality of the video work he does... INSANE. You could basically take photos or get someone to take photos and upload them to this guy on fiverr. Even pay him a little extra if it has to go longer than a few mintues.

    Then he produces it.... and all you spent is a fiverr and did a little bit of technical work in the background.

    This is a great thread. Love it.
  • Well, prahna1's car dealer video that earned him $500 has cost his client about $1/view after about 2 years with maybe 1/3 of those views coming from Warrior Forum. Then peter_act's house video has been seen 97 times with about half of those since it was posted here.

    While a video maker/marketer might easily deserve a substantial payment for his/her effort, from the client's perspective I'm not seeing this plan as worth $200/month or so.

    I surveyed a couple of dozen videos using a Google site search of YT, using such keyphrases as "best Mexican restaurant". I rarely found a video that had averages over 25 views/month since being posted, and these where from the first pages of search. I think $10/view might seem a bit on the steep side if I were a business looking to gain customers. Of those views, I wonder how many customers they're actually getting?

    Still it seems to have paid off for mikemac1's friend. I can't help but think it won't for long, after customers start watching view numbers. I'd really like to hear a good rebuttal to this reasoning, if you've got something. As it stands, I can't really see selling this service to a customer in good conscious. Perhaps some variation of the plan would be a better way to go.
    • [2] replies
    • Just to clarify, Wade - that video was a one-off to give to my real estate agent for her personal use.
      It doesn't appear on any website, and has no links.
      I'm actually surprised it got 97 views!
      Of course I would expect a lot more than that if I were to do a backlinked video for a client.
      But I take your point - a lot of local long tail keywords get very little searches.

      Cheers
    • So...the car dealer paid for his video with 1 sale and got the next few hundred free. If he sold only 1 vehicle from then until now, his video is still paid for from this point forward. Ask the dealer if selling a few cars a year is worth a one-time $500 investment.

      I have not done this for a restaurant but I did 2 videos for a friend showcasing his art. With very little promotion they have around 5,300 views so far. They are 2 years old. I have not touched them since I put them up.

      I just saw a few restaurants on YouTube with over 20,000 views.

      If the video submitter does no SEO work to help get the video onto the search results page there will most likely be very few views. You can see this with videos provided to companies by YellowPages, yes the company has a video but it is never seen by anyone unless by a total fluke.

      Ask any restaurant owner how many times he has placed a coupon ad in a newspaper for around $400 and gotten less than 10 customers from it.

      Most aggressive restaurant owners want massive exposure. That is why they take out large ads in the phone book, have nice websites created, buy ads, sponsor teams and events and so on.

      This looks like a great business model to me and I can see where it can provide positive results to the client. If you continue to place your emphasis on providing value to the customer you can make money.

      DTaylor
  • Would be nice to see this in action and one of his 2-minute videos. Are they available somewhere on Youtube or something?
    • [1] reply
    • zkhan144 (or anyone), what does 'spin the video' mean?
      • [1] reply
  • What equipment does he use to record the videos? Are these really expensive HD ready camcorders, or are clients okay with <$200 camcorder quality? Do you have samples/examples? I am very interested in what the quality is like. Thanks.
  • The original post is more than a year old. I think that today this service is even more popular. I do not have as many clients as the marketer in the OP but a few I have are gold for offline marketing. $189 a month - how much you charge and much they are willing to spend is a different story. I guess it, in part, depends on how well their business is doing. But the main thing is to get a client. For me it does not come easy...
    • [1] reply
    • Using video is good as long as you make it part of a big picture approach. I charge $1,000 a month as part of a three month plan, I do:

      1. 2 videos per month w/ YT page - keyword targeted
      2. 1 PR per month - keyword again
      3. 1 Article per week on their website
      4. 5 back links per week.
      5. On page SEO
      6. Facebook page with email capture and like gen / mail chimp
      7. Small / local / Adwords

      The results are usually so good the customers continues to on site article and adwords themselves and I move on.
  • I have videos that are absolute #1 on Youtube but it was months ago that most of them stopped ranking as well on Google. But do not forget that YT is the 2nd largest search engine and can drive traffic.

    I get regular referals from YT to my site which I pass on to a realtor.

    Here is an example of my videos:

    Our Daily Bread Cafe | Ruidoso New Mexico - YouTube
  • Great story! very encouraging! I did something similar with local biz owner, except we bartered services, so no cash changed hands. But he loved the camtasia video I made---my first! simple slides done with powerpoint, fading slowly in and out, added some downloaded images, all set to one of my teenage son's original songs.....it was a great start!

    Your post has encouraged me to get out there and pursue this even further. Thanks,

    Jerry K
    Northern Ireland (former Pittsburgher....)
    • [1] reply
    • Thanks for sharing this story. I am thinking to do something like this with Pro Show Producer. Can anybody suggest a service on Fiverr to rank video fast.
  • Great thread! Here is my 2 cents. First, I agree with those that think this service is worth more than $189 and the $225 that was the price increase would be the bare minimum just to start out. Remember, if you are going after the better restaurants that have moderate to higher prices and are popular, they can afford it.

    Second, if you are new and want to give this a go and are worried about not having any work samples here are a couple options: Be honest, let them know this is a new service you are starting and barter a couple meals for the service (at least you will get something). You could always do a freebie for your first one and then tell all the other restaurants about your results for the vid. This is my fav for a noob starting out, pick your fav niche restaurant, make a generic "sushi restaurant miami" vid (or what ever), get it ranked, include your pitch and contact info, call all the sushi restaurants in town, tell them you are going to email them a link to a vid on youtube that shows how they could be pulling in more customers, give them your stats/pitch/link in the email (don't forget to mention in your email you will be exclusive to the business that takes you up on your offer). Follow up with a phone call if need be.

    One other post mentioned about the conflict of interest marketing this service to multiple restaurants in the same city, here are a couple options. First, Greek doesn't compete with Sushi. Second, this is "local" marketing and every city has multiple neighborhoods.

    Best of luck.

    If you found this helpful, be kind and hit the thanks button.
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
  • We've had similar results with retail businesses that do a large amount of transactions. We make videos on their most popular products and are able to rank them. We are able to charge a lot more as well. Awesome post.
    • [1] reply
  • A few of you mention sites lie the above ones. What do these sites do? do you submit your youtube videos to them and they distribute the videos?
  • great one from you guy thanks for not keeping this to your self ...ill start this in my localty
  • Interesting ideas guys.
  • good solid offline idea and one that works!
  • Regarding Youtube - are you making a new youtube page for this restaurant? or do you already have a youtube page and are adding thier video to your youtube account?
  • Hi guys,

    thank you very much for this post, i enjoy it!

    Here is a link to my work, can you please comment, it s the first one...

    http://youtu.be/_tlGBoo0CI8

    Chhers,
    O.
    • [1] reply
    • Thats a great looking video.

      What tool did you use to create it?
      • [1] reply
  • MikeMac1...an super post and very helpful...others that participated in the thread had some very good input as well.

    Thanks again for being so informative...cheers, Uncle Chucke
  • I am also looking forward for something like this.
    I came across this thread yesterday.
    I've read it twice from start to finish.
    Lots of great ideas.
    Thank you all for contributing to it!
  • It's great to see so many warriors using video.....I used it for a client recently, and the YT video is ranking higher than the site that I imbedded in on....

    Jerry K
    JerryKuzma.com
  • This video just goes on YouTube.com????? You don't put it on their web site as well?

    Unless I am missing something, this is not a whole lot of work for $189 a month.
    • [1] reply
    • So what is the consensus, do properly tagged and optimize Youtube videos still rank well?

      Seb
      • [1] reply
  • THANK......FOR USEFUL INFO.
    I LIKE TO MAKE SOME OFFLINE BUSSINESS IN SOON.......
  • oh my god people! i made my first video 4 hours ago and uploaded it. NO offpage seo and page 3 within 4 f*ckin hours!
  • Banned
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  • We landed our first client, and we shot the video yesterday. We are editing today and then putting it online.

    This is how we landed the gig. We do some video work for a new local marketing group that is hungry to get in the door, we created a eflyer and sales letter for video marketing services. $500 the first month (video +marketing) $150 for internet marketing monthly with a new video at the 6 month mark. The marketing company blasted this out on their weekly email, we saw our traffic to both our website, the flyer, and our videos increase by approximately 30%. Then this client contacted the marketing company for the job. We are paying them a percentage for the lead. We are tagging all of our videos with our contact info. I am stoked! I'll keep you guys posted on the seo and ranking side of things as it develops.
  • this is an amazing idea! i love it! I have a similar idea with articles, but this might be just as good. living in the netherlands though so calling business owners might be difficult and face to face can't be done. So, i would go with the approach of uploading the video, get it ranked asap and then email my propects..... would that work?
  • First, let me say WOW, I can't believe this thread is still alive and kickin'

    Also, thank you to all the people who continue to read and hopefully become inspired by what my friend and others have posted here.

    Now, I want to apologize, I should have been more active on this thread and kept up with what was going on and I'll will try to do it.

    So to start I want to post something about collecting payments as I've gotten this question twice in the past week or so.

    Some have asked how he collects recurring payments.

    Now there are many ways to do this but I'll just give you the way my friend does it.

    He emails and mails invoices each month...why?

    Simply put, this is how things are done, he requires an upfront payment to get started and from there he sends their accounts payable department/person a bill, they authorize it and send in a payment.

    Sure, he has a late payer or two...sure he has had to make some collection calls or two but that's the price of doing business.

    If you can call someone to buy your services, then you can easily call someone and say they need to pay their bill.
  • swilliams09 and others doing this. Are you uPloading thier videos to YouTube? If not where?

    If you are putting the videos on YouTube, what are you doing for background music? I ask because doesnt YouTube mute all songs that are not on thier royalty free list?
    • [1] reply
  • Sorry if this has already been discussed in this thread, but how many months will the client pay at $189? 6 months? 1 year? I'd imagine the prospective client would ask that and not expect to pay forever!

    Is anyone giving the client any extras beside a video on YT for that price?

    Thanks...
  • I came to this thread from one initially posted by John Durham and someone else, on a similar topic.

    As a busker I work the streets with time to spare between doing shows. I'm still attending to my big plan, but know I can do this.

    To wit... Getting permission in a local Irish bar, to film sOme 'generic footage' on my iPhone which I'll transfer to my comouter, edit, put it on one of my yt Chanel's, email them with the link, follow up with a call...and take it from there...

    Could even do it all from my iPhone, if need be. Use an edit suite, upload through yt and once sealed the deal upload through pixel pipe...

    Oh the joys of the Internet...

    Thanks to the OP and others for sharing so much.

    I am hoping my online efforts as such will overtake my busking as a regular income so as to more fully concentrate on my 'big plan'...

    Live it and love it...

    James
  • Do you think Offline marketing will work in India ?
    • [1] reply
    • Offline marketing does work everywhere.
  • I just wanted to chime in and put in my 2 cents as I have been following this thread for a LONG time.

    I do believe this works for businesses 100% as I have tested and landed a few.

    However, do not take for granted this works with any other keywords as well. There are some very good WSO's about getting videos ranked in the top 10 for pretty much any keyword.....the possibilities are endless!

    There are some affiliate offers that can pay out better than $189 a month and you don't need to prospect and close clients, track leads, make sure to get payment, etc...Or maybe you create your own high ranking video that is attached to a lead generation site.....

    The only reason I bring this up is to remind Warriors that there are a lot of ways to rank and monetize videos.....it is most definitely a big business that many IMers are still overlooking.
  • this easy method to do, but i dont like offline marketing
    • [1] reply
    • Profoundly simple.

      I've now another service for my offline offerings.

      Thanks
  • I love this idea. Very Simple!
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  • Ha restaurants good call! I did very well with restaurants. I also did super with Car dealers. Check them out. I promise it will be a winner. Joe
  • Cool concept, I'm interested in getting into offline marketing. This seems simple enough, just need to get out there and speak to some local businesses
  • Wow 2 years old and this is STILL a great ranking technique. The possibilities are endless.
  • The best thing you can do is take this system and methods and put your OWN spin on it...what would help them rank better? What additional services can you add on to improve?

    Don't get me wrong, this is a great thread...but always looking for a way to take it to the next level will in turn, take your business to the next level.
  • I'd like to know if this is still effective. I have found that videos aren't ranking nearly as well as they once were for local search. After all, if you're searching for a local business, how much value does a video really offer a user?
  • $189 I think is a perfect price for one video. But my question is, lets say that your keyword or video is the only video say for example "Chinese Resturant + City" would you charge more or less if they were the only video on top of google?
  • Great read. Also, great idea. I think i have something similar in mind at the moment. Will be testing it out within a couple of months or so.
  • Thanks for sharing, I got one more point to add up in my package that I am coming up with. This will be the package that every one is looking for.

    Thanks Again.
    • [1] reply
    • nice approach thanks for sharing
      its amazing how much bussines owners do not know about the internet those are very easy $189/month
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