YouTube has made video posting a great way to earn money and also promote your business or service globally. It has gained significant popularity as high-quality video recording has become less expensive. All you need these days is a decent standalone camera or a good smartphone and you can create some footage to compete with big-budget video. It’s all about creativity and a good angle to forge a response from your potential viewers.Startup
Before you start imagining yourself as the next Danny Boyle, you better do your research on what kind of video you want. Are you looking to make direct money or are you looking to use your video to promote engagement? Sometimes it is common to be doing this for both reasons. What and why you film and post to YouTube determines the type of content you upload. In view of the direct or indirect income from your video, it is clear that the measure of success is the number of views and shares of your video. So what goes viral? We can never really predict what will happen, but based on past trends we can make some educated guesses. Even if your video doesn’t become a worldwide hit, you can still cash in on the camcorder revenue and a little extra money for your troubles.
Delivery
Depending on the goal of the video, you can build interest by presenting facts in an authoritative way to keep the viewer informed or curious, and adding outside clips that relate to your topic where appropriate. If you go for the light-hearted casual approach, keeping your video entertaining and fun while still relating to your area of business is key to your success. Use informative or ‘how to’ tutorials presented with a tongue-in-cheek attitude to increase your viewing numbers. Humor is always a good angle. There are many free video editing tools that would create nice graphics for your clip, text sliders, and embedded audio that is easier to create and add than you might think. A video review works well for direct sales or promotion if it is well organized. Short, sharp and fast is the way to go. Remember, online viewers have a very short attention span. You have the first 8 seconds to keep the spectator in your space. Start with a bang and keep it interesting by removing any irrelevant parts.
Sell! Sell! Sell!
If you sell a product or service, it pays to get customer testimonials that can be embedded on your website. It goes way beyond text testimonials as anyone can make a fake testimonial in a matter of seconds. This will not only improve your YouTube rendering, but will also be useful editable material in your other venture – a video ad!
If you’re introducing a new product or service, you can film an accompanying how-to video, giving both your business and your new device a boost. Publishers and authors do it all the time. Provide useful information on the topic your product relates to. Tell your viewers things they don’t know, and then present your product without too much of a hard sell.
The dollar razor club clip continues to trend as the benchmark of all trading-focused YouTube videos. A total cost of $3,000 and a few unemployed staff helped Michael Dubin get over 5 million views and a huge $1,00 worth of shaving stick sales. It is an example of what imagination can do to make your message go viral. Gained a huge fan base, but also getting a 3% global sales conversion is nothing short of great. Look at the success of Dollar Shave Club.
As a good starting point, make a fun business video that showcases your company culture or typical customer scenario. Showing footage of your busy work environment, fulfilling orders, or demonstrating the benefits of your business would need entertainment or impact to transform one viewer into 10 or 20. A good video is only great for a single viewer to respond or engage. But to go viral it has to be funny, controversial, or highly informative. A video that your viewers share on social media is what you want. That is the true meaning of a viral attack spread by those who are exposed to it. We advise that controversy traffic be left to professional sellers or those who are just looking for a crowd of viewers and nothing more. It can produce risky results.
For those new to posting on YouTube, it’s probably best to just be yourself. Be sure to present your unique selling point. As tempting as it is to hire a glamorous blonde as your spokesperson, this tactic usually manages to put people off, so get some real people on camera and let your clients see that they can trust you. Successful videos that have worked like a dream for creators are usually makeup artists, business trainers, fancy retailers, and entertainment web companies. Music has also enjoyed commercial exposure on YouTube, and we’re not talking about a major artist or record label. Dub FX was a dub artist who plied his trade for a few pounds on Camden and other similar European streets. Footage of him performing on YouTube got a huge number of views and now, let’s say he got baptized at Glastonbury.
click and buy
New media technology doesn’t sit idle, especially when it comes to finding ways to create direct sales as you interact with media. Some started the idea with product placement while watching a clip on YouTube. You can now click on a highlighted item in the videos and purchase the item via the click link. The setup is much cheaper than when the technology was in Beta a few years ago. You can have the program running on your YouTube video for £20 for a monthly package. A good way to pretty much set up a YouTube store is to have a drop down catalog with audio commentary and some interesting images to keep the viewer interested. Your content should grab the viewer’s attention and keep it there. If it’s fashion, talk about trends, tips and styles, add a few celebrity photos and then showcase your items. The same goes for services. You can have clickable scrolling text as you introduce your unique service. Order now, reserve your spot, and other call-to-action phrases can earn you some direct income.
Ranking and AdSense
YouTube is a great vitamin for your health from Google. Search engine rankings and web ranking of your web presence can do wonders for browsing engagement and commerce. Once you’ve uploaded your video, be sure to enter a title, description, and tags. Once you’ve managed your established keywords and phrases with supporting descriptions, you’re on your way to getting a little bit of a traffic boost courtesy of Google. Your video should get a few hundred views if you take advantage of strategic links and spread the word on your social network or from your website. Your video should start appearing on Google, based on your key phrases. Website clicks enjoy a healthy percentage of video searches commonly connected to YouTube. Page ranking with the help of your video on YouTube is therefore worthy of great consideration. Research how AdSense works and the income from here can be realistic and consistent. YouTube pays into a Google AdSense account, and once you’re fully enrolled in the program, you’ll also be able to turn on Google ads alongside or on top of your videos. This can generate additional income through pay-per-click and affiliate earnings, and all you have to do is keep your video content fresh and enjoy the earnings. In addition to direct payment, there are other ways you can build your reputation on YouTube to develop other sources of income. You may be selling some products on eBay or need to get more visitors for your income generating blog; it makes sense to include a link to your site. You can engage with other businesses in your industry and offer to endorse their products in your videos, for a 5-10% commission on top of what YouTube pays you, or simply join an affiliate association. Do this without intermediaries, affiliated companies and your commission is only yours.
The partner program
The Partner Program is where your videos really start working for you. Once you’re a partner, you can expect to earn around $2.50-$5 (£1.56-£3.13) for every 1,000 views of your video, and while this doesn’t sound like a lot right now, if you manage to create the next viral sensation you generate million views, you can expect to earn a lot of dotcom for your hard work. Consider making money by selling scrolling text embedded in your video. A certain number of viewers is all the proof needed to have a platform for a related business to be interested in. Product placement and endorsements as part of content are effective means of promoting the business of a paying advertiser, large or small.
fans coin
Make your uploads unique and positively different and you are sure to create a dedicated following of fans. Video marketing is not a get-rich-quick scheme and can be unpredictable to some extent; patience and careful planning should help. The videos can be a lot of fun making, and once they start generating income for you, chances are they’ll keep doing it month after month. Feed your fans, feature videos of others who have some kind of connection to yours. By the time you’ve built a library of 15 or more videos, you should be getting a good number of views per video. Once all of your videos reach a minimum of 1,000 views each, YouTube will contact you to ask if you’d like to apply to become a partner.
Posting videos on YouTube is a very public thing. So you need to be clear about the permission and terms for posting a video. Play it safe and make sure you have permission where appropriate so you don’t find that your good work is not an exercise in vain. Situational footage where you testify with your video is exempt in some cases, so it’s a good idea to know what the parameters are for this. Make sure your video doesn’t infringe someone else’s copyright. Please take a few minutes and read the YouTube guidelines. They are also there to protect their own good work from others; you would need to know when your copyright interests have also been infringed. See YouTube copyright advice and guidance. Earning money through YouTube has more options than we are used to. It’s up to you to put together compelling material and manipulate the revenue once the viewing figures start to rise. It’s an open playground, let’s start filming.
