HOW TO DRIVE TRAFFIC YOUR SITE POSTING VIDEOS ON YOUTUBE..

 HOW TO DRIVE TRAFFIC TO           YOUR SITE BY  

POSTING VIDEOS ON YOUTUBE

Web 2.0 offers many cost-effective ways of promoting

your website and YouTube is no different. And that’s

just one part of YouTubing. It is also one of the most

fun ways of promoting your website. There is music, there is video,

there is creativity, and there is marketing. A terrific mix, isn’t it?

YouTubing is not going to sell your product. What it can do,

however, is get people interested in your services. How? Let’s

take a look.

BROWSE around

If you are new to YouTube, this should be your first step. It’s

a fascinating world out there. Plunge right in and look around a

bit. Look at the kind of videos others have made. You’ll find

some of your favorite music videos, movie scenes, vintage

videos, personal videos, documentaries, and of course, a glut of

marketing videos. If you find something in your niche, make a

note of it. When you make your own video, you’ll need to come

up with something different from your competitors.

CREATE a video

That’s what you’re there for. Grab a video recording device –

your camcorder, digital camera, webcam, or your cell phone, and

get started. Like anything else, you won’t get it right the very first

time. If you look at your first video and feel like pulling your hair out,

remember that you’re not alone. Making a video is much easier in

your mind than in practice. Over a period of time, you’ll get better at

it. Which brings me to another point; just one video won’t win it for

you. Once you’ve uploaded your first video, start working on the

second video and then the third. Yes it’s not easy but it’s much

easier than some of the other marketing techniques. This will also

give you an opportunity to experiment with a variety of techniques.

Some may flop miserably while some may enjoy wide popularity

and may turn into a rewarding viral distribution.

SPARE a thought for the viewers

YouTube is free but viewership has to be earned. So here is

humble advice. Do not make videos that take forever to load.

People have other things on their mind. And a site like YouTube

has many choices for them to pick from. A study on video￾sharing websites suggests that a video works best when it is

under 5 minutes in length. So even though YouTube allows you

a maximum of 10 minutes, keep it under 5 minutes.

Before you upload your video, ensure that the file format is

accepted. YouTube accepts .WMV, .AVI, .MOV and .MPG formats.

ENTERTAIN

I’ll say this a hundred times over – YouTube is not your marketing

collateral. DO NOT sell your product on YouTube. Use it wisely to get

people interested. Once they start flocking to your website, you can

sell all you want. The minute you start boring them with your ‘Buy Me’

messages, they’ll turn the other way. The best way is to come up with

something entertaining that the viewer would want to sit through. When you have six interesting videos on something,

the viewer will surely want to know you. That’s when your

marketing begins.

ADD YOUR WEBSITE URL

You’ve made a great video and you’re getting a lot of

comments. All of it will count for nothing if it doesn’t result in

increased traffic to your website. So add that all-important URL

with your video. You may add one before the video and one

after the video. Add your URL to your YouTube profile as well.

MARKET THROUGH OTHERS

Whoever said you need your own videos to attract traffic? If you

don’t want to spend time creating a video, approach a popular

YouTube user. Offer them a payment for displaying your link on their

videos. That’s encouragement for them to come up with interesting

videos and a marketing platform for you without sweating too much.

PUT up a video on your social networking profile

This may not seem relevant at first but it will surely help you

get popular. Put up a bunch of hit YouTube videos on the other

social networking profiles that you use. A few examples are

Digg, De.li.-cious, Orkut, and Reddit. That will make your profile

attractive and help in getting new contacts.

PARTICIPATE

If you want others to visit your profile on YouTube, start with

visiting their profiles. Browse through videos, add comments for

their videos. Don’t spam their profiles. Offer genuine comments

and try to initiate a dialogue.

SPREAD THE WORD

If you have uploaded your own video, get your friends and

family members to view it and rate it. Nothing works like a five star

rating. Ask them to chip in with a few good comments as well. The

biggest mistake is to assume that uploading a video is the end of it.

It needs a lot of promotion to make your video visible.

TAG YOUR VIDEO

Now this one is the most obvious idea. Use appropriate and

rele-vant tags for your video. You wouldn’t want a person to miss

out on your video if he or she is looking for something similar.

What you’ve read above are just a few ideas you can use to

drive traffic to your YouTube profile and thus to your website.

You’ll find more as you go along. As you see other users, you’ll

pick up a few interesting tactics. The bottomline – be innovative,

be observant and be smart.