Online Video Newsletter for November

Nearly 139 million U.S. Internet users watched online video in March 2008

comScore (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today, released March 2008 data from the comScore Video Metrix service, indicating that U.S. Internet users viewed 11.5 billion online videos during the month, representing a 13-percent gain versus February and a 64-percent gain versus March 2007.Nearly 139 million U.S. Internet users watched an average of 83 videos per viewer in March. Google Sites also attracted the most viewers (85.7 million), where they watched an average of 51 videos per person. Fox Interactive attracted the second most viewers (54.3 million), followed by Yahoo! Sites (37.5 million) and Viacom Digital (26.6 million).

Other notable findings from March 2008 include:

• 73.7 percent of the total U.S. Internet audience viewed online video.

• 84.8 million viewers watched 4.3 billion videos on YouTube.com (50.4 videos per viewer).

• 47.7 million viewers watched 400 million videos on MySpace.com (8.4 videos per viewer).

• The average online video duration was 2.8 minutes.

• The average online video viewer watched 235 minutes of video.

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Five Ways to Get Your YouTube Video Noticed


1. Tag and Categorize

Once you have created your video - or imported it from elsewhere - one important step to consider is choosing the right category and tags for your video. This is the stage that is most often rushed or overlooked, but if you take the time to check out the other popular videos in your niche, and see how they have been tagged and placed within the YouTube categories, it will finally pay off.

Categories aren't always as straightforward as they seem, and it could be that your content doesn't fit snugly into any one of the options available. The key here is to run a search on similar content by keyword, and then make a note of how that content has been tagged and categorized.

It is also worth paying attention to less popular categories if they fit your content, as you may be able to reduce your competition, and thus propel your video to the most popular or most viewed within your specific category.

When it comes to tagging, don't be shy about adding as many keywords as you can, and again, see if you can match them to other existing content. You may well then find your video being recommended in the 'related' videos sidebar next to other users videos, thus driving traffic to your own content and profile.


2.Create Niche-Targeted Playlists

Making playlists

Whether you create your own video or plan to bring together other users videos, putting playlists together is a very simple prospect. If you are using your own videos, you can do so by selecting clips from the My Videos section of your account and adding them to a new playlist.

If you want to do the same with other users' content, all you have to do is add the individual videos to your list of favorites, and then add them to playlists in the same way that you would your own videos.

You can do this by visiting the video you are interested in and choosing the 'save to favorites' option directly under the video player. You are even given the option of saving the video directly to any playlists you have already created.


Why make playlists?

The advantages of creating playlists are two-fold.

First of all, you can gather individual clips into a niche-targeted context so that viewers can find related content quickly and easily without having to search for the individual items themselves. By putting in the time and research you can provide this service and boost your web traffic without ever recording a single video of your own.

Secondly, you can gather your own videos either by thematic relevance, or as part of a series. If you have a longer video, it makes sense to break it down into several clips, each with a clear title, so that viewers can opt to skip to particularly interesting parts of your movie.

Either way, you have cut out some of the search and navigation work required of your potential audience, and won them over in the process. The ability to select and bring to other people's attention little-seen videos is a skill in and of itself, and people will thank you for taking the time.

The key is to look for videos with a small amount of views where possible, as you will then be promoting content that has not already done the rounds a thousand times before.


3.Promote Your Video with YouTube Email and Bulletins

If you want to get your video seen, your profile visited and your web traffic subsequently increased, it isn't enough to sit back and passively wait for viewers to come to you. YouTube provides you with a number of self-promotion opportunities, and among them is the ability to send emails to other users, and create bulletins from your profile or other users' channel pages.


YouTube Emails

People often forget that YouTube is a social community as much as it is a video-sharing site. As such, there is nothing terrible about reaching out to other users and letting them know about your content, your thoughts, or your admiration of their work.

The Robin Good YouTube Channel gets a lot of incoming emails pointing out new videos or recommendations of great content to be found in the depths of the YouTube vaults. This has led to whole articles being written on the content of the videos suggested before now, and is a great way of spreading the word in an informal way.

Obviously you don't want to spam people with totally irrelevant links, but if you have put in a little research and found other users with similar tastes and interests, it is certainly worth letting them know about your videos and playlists.


Bulletins

Bulletins are an even easier way of creating short messages on your own channel profile, or leaving messages for users on their profile pages. Bulletins are super-short messages about your status, new releases or anything else you might want to broadcast to the world via your YouTube channel.

This is a great way of leaving quick comments on other user's pages, and in doing so you are likely to pique their interest enough for them to come and check out your profile and maybe even subscribe if they like what they see.

Posting bulletins to your own profile is also an effective way to keep your viewers in the loop, and creates a sense of consistency and presence even when you haven't posted any new videos for a while.


4. Leave Video Responses

1. Another effective way of getting yourself seen is to leave a video response to another user's clip. These video responses can be created right from underneath the main video player, and can be chosen from your previously uploaded videos, uploaded there and then, or even captured directly from your webcam.

As such video responses can be relevant content that matches the theme of the original video or direct and personal responses from your webcam. Either way, there are a couple of things to keep in mind when leaving a response:

1. Keep it relevant - nobody will thank you for leaving a totally irrelevant video response, and you are likely to make enemies this way

2. Keep it civil - unless you are really aiming for a shock tactic, you are unlikely to win new supporters by being aggressive or unpleasant

3. Choose your target video well - if your goal is to boost visits to your profile and website, there is little point in leaving a response to a little-seen, less-than-dynamite video. Hone in on who the most popular video-makers are in your niche area, and leave well-timed responses to their videos. You will then be in a good position to siphon off their viewers to your video and profile.

4. Strike at the right time - The ideal situation is to get in early and get your response at the top of the pile, so that it gets seen. If you are the thirtieth person to leave a comment, chances are you are a little late


5. Join or Create YouTube Groups

YouTube has a strong community of groups that exist for users to discuss and share videos. You can browse for groups to join by category, or create your own group from the YouTube Groups page. There are advantages to both approaches.


Joining an existing group
If you manage to find a group that fits your content-niche, you can join it in a single click, and then have the ability to post videos or comments to the group discussion area.
Taking part in a group won't necessarily take up a great deal of your time, but it will provide you with a very nicely segmented, targeted audience for your content. You can then add your videos, describe and discuss them and interact with other like-minded users. All the while you will be building your network of YouTube contacts, and potentially winning new subscribers to your channel.

The major advantage of joining a pre-existing group is the fact that it will already have at least a small group of active users from the word go, while creating your own group may involve waiting for new members to join before you have any opportunity to promote your work.


Creating your own group
Nevertheless, with time and a little promotion via other YouTube community features, building a group around your own niche-interest, or even your website or business, is another great way to boost your YouTube presence and potentially win new site visitors.
Once you have clicked on the create a group button you can choose a name, tags, description, URL and categories for it.
You can also choose whether content will be posted directly to the group, or whether it will first require your approval. Obviously, if self promotion is your goal, it makes sense to make your group public rather than invitation only, which is another option available to you.

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Why Put Yourself or Your Product Online?


If your advertising goals include communicating product benefits and features to online shoppers at the exact time and place they're actively considering a purchase, video product tours are not only the most effective, but the most cost-effective media buy a marketer can make.

According to the National Retail Federation, more than 90% of consumers research products online prior to pur?chasing them. The online retail product page is the key point of influence in purchase decisions, and by using video to elevate it beyond a static “picture and a paragraph,” marketers can sway con?sumers when it matters most — in the act of shopping.

Video product tours can be syndicated to every online merchant carrying a product; marketers can buy placement with a video product syndication service much like it would on an ad network. For about the same price as a banner ad, marketers can secure video product placement on highly trafficked sites such as Wal-Mart and Best Buy.

Unlike other online advertising platforms such as pre-roll and post-roll, video product tours are effective because they're opt-in, relevant to the viewers, and usually positioned beside the “buy” button. The resulting uplift in sales con?versions is impressive. Studies show a 12% to 30% increase in online purchase conversion rates among shoppers who view a video product tour compared with those who don't.

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