You get it, right?…
By 2017, Cisco estimates that 67% of web traffic will be video content. Not only are videos much easier to create than long-winded articles, they’re also consumed with a higher retention rate.
Most people don’t read…
Other than FaceBook, Twitter, Tumblr, etc. Most visitors will spend only a few seconds on text-based content before clicking the “back” button, or moving on to something else (likely a video).
Video, on the other hand, retains visitors for longer. And in general, is much easier at getting traffic in the first place. Even though articles are quickly losing their grasp on visitor attention, there are also many more articles on the inter-webs than videos.
In other words, less videos are getting a LOT more traffic.
Convinced yet?
What do I know about making videos?
In the last 30 days, my YouTube videos have been seen over 72,000 times.
This is not to brag. But creating only 80 videos, and receiving that kind of traffic, would be unheard of with a comparable amount of articles. That’s almost 1,000 pairs of eyeballs per video (on average).
Not to mention, these views are all in the highly competitive “make money online” space.
Even better results (numbers-wise) could be had in LOADS of other niches.
What can you do with video traffic?
You have lots of options with video.
You can:
- collect leads
- make affiliate sales
- adsense revenue
- branding
- website promotion
Pretty much anything you can do with a blog, you can do with a video.
What kind of videos?
Making videos is easy. To start, you have a few options.
- Talking head
- Slideshow
- Screen Capture
A brief explanation of each:
- Talking Head- Person(s) in front of a camera. Discussing a niche-related topic.
- Slideshow- A series of slides or animations with a voice over.
- Screen Capture- The speaker records screen while giving instructions.
In my opinion, the video style you choose should depend on your niche.
My favourite, and the style I use the most, is Slideshow or Screen Capture
A screen recording with voiceover sounds as boring as cats, but with the tools on the market today, you can easily make a snazzy looking video that both impresses and earns sales.
People eat these vids up… And with a step-by-step format, it’s very realistic to get eyeballs to engage and take action on your videos. This is CRUCIAL in making sales.
You can see the screen capture videos I create, right here.
How to create these videos?
You can do all this stuff 100% for free, and in the next few minutes with a tool called Microsoft Expression Encoder.
You will have some limitations with this tool, though.
First off, you’re only able to record 10 minutes max. For many of us – that’s a problem.
And it lacks features you’ll get with a premium tool.
Always gotta give a shout out to Microsoft for making Expression Encoder free. Not all of us have a budget to use on a video editing tool.
If you do have even a tiny amount of cash to invest, then you absolutely should get a premium tool.
What you should buy!
There are dozens of video creation tools on the market. All of them feature their own perks and have their own drawbacks.
The learning curve is very high for most of them.
VideoMakerFX is the video creator that I recommend the most to newbies – because it’s easy to use, and creates some really badass videos.
It’s focus is slideshow vids with cool animations. Take a look here!
This is an especially good option for people that prefer not to show their face on camera. I remember starting my own video creation in the beginning. I refused to show my face – I was too damn shy. This tool would have been a godsend back then.
VideoMakerFX has everything you need, for less than $97…
Here’s what you get…
Most other video creators either cost WAYYY Too much money, or offer no online support for their products.
VideoMakerFX offers top notch online support, and is priced very reasonably.
How many people are using VideoMakerFX?
One concern about software tools (in general) is future updates. The problem with many of these softwares is that once the product creator’s made the moola, they have no incentive to keep their customers happy – they move on to the next shiny object.
VideoMakerFX has sold over 29,500 copies… It’s not going away. You can confidently expect future updates for many years. You may not realize how important that is… Lots of these video tools come and go… You can have full confidence that this will be here for good.
It’s actually the #1 selling product of all-time on JvZoo. Forget the “product of the day” awards. This one’s the best seller… Ever!
Okay, okay Brendan…
It’s the best seller of all time on JvZoo. Beating out all the other alternatives. That’s pretty impressive.
So far, I know that:
- It’s easy to use (unlike most alternatives)
- It creates high quality slideshow videos
- It includes background music
- It includes tons of background images
- Also comes with 140+ animation slides
I also know that video is literally the way of the future.
In less than a decade, over 60% of web traffic will be to videos.
So I should create videos, if I want to be successful from here on out.
Is this really the right tool for me?
Hmmm…. Why not see a sample created for yourself.
Here’s what you could do with VideoMakerFX in the next few mins.
This is the easiest, and most impressive video tool under $200.
…
==> Grab Your Copy While it’s Still on Special <==
…
You’ll be able to throw together simple YouTube vids in the next few minutes.
Free $97 Bonus for a Social Share (Next 72 Hours Only)
This bonus is video graphics (worth $97) for VideoMakerFX, or any video creator. Getting these graphics designed would cost you hundreds of dollars. Get your copy here for free.
Bonus Expires in less than 3 Days…
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Click here to get My Video Graphics (Part 1)
How to Become a RockStar YouTuber in the Next 30 Days
The traffic numbers you can get from YouTube is absolutely outrageous!
Right now, I’m getting about 3,100 visitors per day, and it continues to climb every week.
What would you do with that much traffic?
- Redirect them to your blog
- Get email subscribers
- Make affiliate commissions
- Quit your job
With the traffic you can get from YouTube, you could easily make a comfortable living in no time.
HOWEVER
There’s a couple things you have to know.
- Your videos can’t be pointless
- You need to promote them
Your videos are POINTLESS if they do not get more fans to your channel or make you affiliate commissions with product placement.
At the beginning, your priority should be about growing your fan base and getting more views on your videos.
There are TWO main ways to grow your channel
- Email List
- YouTube Organic
Growing an email list (highly recommended) is like having traffic on tap. At any time – send visitors to whatever you want. In other words… having a list could be more like having money on tap.
Of course, you’ll send a lot of your email traffic to affiliate promotions, or traffic exchanges. That’s where you can make some REAL BIG MOOLA.
Still, sending visitors to video is an excellent opportunity to build trust with your subscribers, while growing your YouTube channel at the same time.
I like to mix in a few video promotions per week to my mailing list. I send emails daily. To get on my list, go here.
I have no real hard data that proves my email-to-video promotions are impactful. These have helped me grow my channel a lot, though. Your email subs are some of your biggest fans. Showing them what you’re doing on YouTube is going to be well received by them.
To learn how to grow an email list fast. I have a full step-by-step guide here: How to Build a List Fast
With your email list — you’ll have traffic forever!
Growing the Organic Way
YouTube is a search engine, just like Google.com
Getting organic traffic from YouTube is as simple as ranking in their search listings.
OR… an easier way, is to be listed in their related vids sidebar… More on that later. It’s UBER powerful, and is used by the better YouTube marketers.
Let’s get back…
In order to reach the top spots of YouTube search, you need to impress the YouTube algorithm.
Let’s be clear… YouTube is owned by Google.
That means, it operates the SAME way.
YouTube’s algorithm has metrics (things it pays attention to). Get the best #’s on YouTube’s metrics, and the top spot is yours. It’s that simple.
Let’s talk about the metrics!
How YouTube Ranks Videos?
There are 5 main factors for YouTube ranking.
- Optimization – Video title, description, tags, etc.
- Engagement – Likes, shares, comments, embeds, etc.
- Retention – How long viewers are watching…
- Authority – Channel views, subscribers, etc.
- # of Views – Self explanatory. # of views on the video.
Video optimization is easy to master. It’s a simple science of picking the search term(s) you want ranked, and then selecting a title and description that focus on that term(s).
Engagement on your vids is important. A simple way to increase your likes, shares and comments is to ask (in-video) for them. Sounds stupidly simple – but it works!
Retention rate is a crucial metric. In short, it’s how long your visitors watch your video. Full watch-throughs will improve this metric. Cutting out before midway will seriously impede your video’s rank. Retention is life or death. You WILL NOT rank without a good score.
There are a few tricks to improve retention. In general, though, the quality of your video matters most. Videos that use humour, curiosity, or legitimately stimulate viewers will usually have higher retention rates.
Authority is a reward to channel owners that consistently create high retention videos. This will not be granted overnight – it’s a growing gift that increases as you publish more quality videos. My channel started with zero authority – now my videos get ranked much more easily than before.
# of views is much easier when you already have ranked videos or channel authority. Without the luxury of having an established channel, you’ll have to work a bit harder to get this one improved. Sharing videos on social networks or mailing to your list are two great ways to get more views. Something to think about…
Those are the 5 main factors in YouTube’s algorithm. The last two are usually going to take some time for new YouTubers — the first three are what you should focus on.
Getting your videos ranked organically is a lot of free traffic.
Once you have an established YouTube channel (like mine), organic rankings will come a lot easier.
How to Optimize your Video for the Right Traffic?
This is the same as finding keywords for a blog post. Your best bet is to use Google Keyword Planner, or if you have some spare change, invest in LongTailPro.
I created keyword research tutorials here, here and here.
… Let’s start from scratch, though. This’ll be quick.
Go to Google Keyword Planner.
Click on the button shown in the image below.
Once you click on “Search for new keywords…”
You’ll get this drop down.
Now you just need to fiddle around for a few minutes and find some seed keyword ideas.
Examples of seed keywords:
- affiliate marketing
- link building
- get traffic
- create a blog
- keyword research
Once you get your seed keywords, now plug them into YouTube search and see what results pop up.
For example…
From this quick method – I can see a few GREAT keyword opportunities.
- Get Traffic to Your Blog
- Get Traffic from Reddit
- Get Traffic to My Website
- How to Get Traffic from Google
There is a SIMPLE method to getting more views. Even for high authority channels. I’m about to share the #1 best way to get video views — it’s not organic search.
Advanced Method for YouTube Views
There is a traffic source that trumps organic search. It’s called “suggested videos,” and it can be massive.
Here’s a look at my YouTube traffic sources.
My traffic from suggested videos almost DOUBLES YouTube search. And that’s analytics from a channel with a dozen or so ranked videos. As a newbie, suggested videos are even MORE important. This is your video goldmine.
What can you do to get more Suggested Views?
Do a quick YouTube search for relevant keywords. <– Do not worry about organic search competition. With this method, we are not trying to rank our video. We are getting our video to show up on the right sidebar for videos that are already ranking.
For example…
Let’s say we decided on the keyword “how to make money with YouTube”
Here’s the videos that are currently ranking:
You’ll notice:
- The #1 ranked video has over 800,000 views.
- The #2 ranked video has over 350,000 views.
We’re not gonna try and outrank these videos. Maybe one day… But right now, these are exceptionally high quality videos created by channels that have WAYY more authority than ours!
Instead, we want to be the video that shows up on the sidebar for one of these videos.
Like this:
I put a red circle around one of the suggested vids.
Notice how most of these sidebar videos have 700,000+ views…
That’s almost (and in some cases, more) views than the top ranked video.
Clearly, getting to the top spots of these suggested videos is very valuable.
How to do it!
The algorithm for suggested videos is very simple.
- Video Similarity
- Video Quality
There are a few other factors – but these are the main two.
Video Similarity is the MOST important factor. We’re going to maximize our chance of getting suggested traffic by making our video as similar as possible to already ranking videos.
In other words…
We’re going to find out:
- the title of ranking videos
- the description
- a brief look at the video content
- lastly, the tags of the video
Then, we’re going to optimize our video’s: title, description, content and tags. So that it’s very close – but different – to the ranking video.
Let’s look at the top ranking video again…
The first three factors are easy to find and emulate. Video Tags are a little harder to uncover – they’re the secret sauce to claiming your spot, tho. So pay attention!
Title = How to Make Money on YouTube (4 Simple Strategies)
Description = In this video, James Wedmore discusses the FOUR simple strategies for actually monetizing your efforts on YouTube.com. However, even though James mentions FOUR strategies, he only recommends one…the last one… (Continued…)
Content = James is talking about 4 strategies that you can use to make money from YouTube.
Video Tags = I bolded the title of “video tags” cause this is easily the most important of the bunch. You’ve prolly heard at one point or another that tags are insignificant. That may be true when it comes to Google Search – YouTube’s algorithm is different. It relies on video tags to understand what the video is about…
Why is this the case?
Because Google spiders cannot enter videos. It’s a geeky story – trust me though. Google spiders can easily whip through text-based content in no time. When a G-bot runs into a video, it skips over it, and looks at any other indicators to decide the content.
So video tags, are literally a conversation piece to the YouTube algorithm. You’re telling it exactly what your video is all about. This is where you want to have to tags similar to our target video.
How to Find Video Tags
The easiest way to find YouTube tags is to use this chrome extension.
Here’s the step-by-step:
- Open up Google Chrome (or download it)
- Go to http://vidiq.com/apps/vision/
- Go to YouTube and pick video to uncover tags
- Make sure you’re logged into Vision
- Video Tags on right sidebar
If you completed this process, you should see a box that looks like this…
Pretty cool, huh?
These are the video tags for the #1 ranking video on “How to Make Money on YouTube”
My advice is to copy 60% of these tags and paste them unchanged into your video.
Then find another similar video with a good amount of views, and copy 20%-50% of its tags.
Finally, create 5-10 original tags, one of which is your channel name (more on this later…)
By simply focussing on:
- similar tags
- descriptions
- title
- content
You are increasing your chance of being the #1 suggested vid
When you go to YouTube, how many videos do you watch?
Chances are, you watch more than one video. The suggested video sidebar gets used ALL THE TIME.
The slogan for YouTube, could easily be “bet ya can’t watch just one”
The average user watches 3+ videos on EACH session.
That’s why it’s so powerful to have your video in the sidebar.
One More Advanced U-Tube Trick for even MORE Traffic
There’s one more way to use video tags to get more traffic.
Take a look here:
This is one of my videos on How to Create a Video Niche Site
For what I’m about to show you – I could have chosen ANY of my videos.
Basically, you want to create a tag for ALL of your videos that is UNIQUE to YOU.
The tag I use is “Brendan Mace”
You’ll notice that I have THREE suggested videos above the fold. That’s more than half of all videos showing in the sidebar.
Really simple:
- My video showing includes my unique tag: “Brendan Mace”
- My suggested videos also include tag: “Brendan Mace”
For every video I create, I include this tag. This increases the odds of YouTube including MY VIDEOS in the suggested sidebar.
So if the average user watches 3+ videos in a single session. There is a damn good chance they’ll watch 2+ of my videos, if they view a vid on my channel.
Pretty cool, huh?
Those two advanced YouTube marketing secrets alone have OUTRAGEOUSLY increased my popularity.
If I can do it – so can you!
Now, Let’s Look at that Bottom Line
You can get all the traffic in the world, but you won’t make a penny without monetizing it.
The easiest form of monetization also happens to be the least lucrative.
Monetizing with Adsense – Should you do it?
To make money with Adsense on YouTube – All you have to do is become a YouTube Partner and activate ads on all your videos.
This one’s tough… Most marketers are on one side of the fence, or the other.
James Wedmore claims that Adsense monetization is a waste, and there are more lucrative ways to make money from YouTube videos.
That’s 100% true. There are better ways to make FAT STACKS from YouTube.
The question is… Should you do both?
I use YouTube adsense for a several hundred dollar income stream (not allowed to reveal any exact figures).
I make WAYY more with product placement links. I’m happy with some extra hundreds every month, though. In the end, it’s all up to you!
Making the Real FAT STACKS on YouTube – What Most are Missing!
The best way to make money with YouTube is actually a fairly untapped strategy. It’s using in-video annotations to direct traffic to affiliate products.
Be CAREFUL!
There’s a good way to do this…
Take a look at this video.
In this video, I shared a full 23 minute tutorial on how to create a niche site
Watch the video – you’ll notice the promotion complements the tutorial.
You want to give away LOADS of value for two reasons.
- Your vids will not be considered spammy
- Your vids will get WAYY more exposure (people will actually share them)
Most marketers get a little lazy here, and tell viewers to click a link in the description.
That’s an alright strategy – you will make some sales.
The BETTER option is to have video annotations.
Your CTR is WAYY higher with in-video annotation. Lemme show ya how to do that.
How to Create In-Video Annotations – For MAX CTR
First off – you need to actually be a YouTube partner to use annotations. Which is valuable for many reasons. Become one ASAP!
— I created a video on how to do this —
Getting annotations for your videos is UBER important. Be sure to do this – your results will be much better.
The one question you likely have at this point… is so what, annotations can only be sent to associated website links.
Ahhhhhhh…..
Good question – you’re 100% right.
Annotations can only link to your site – we have a nice little workaround, though…
To direct traffic to affiliate products, or anything for that matter – you just need to create redirect links on your website.
A good tool for this is called PrettyLink
The Lite Version (which is all you need) can host links on your site that direct to ANY address you want.
Cool eh?
So for example…
You could have a link on your site that’s www.yoursite.com/anything
That link could technically be hosted by your site – but will redirect anywhere you want.
And that’s EXACTLY how you get away with sending traffic from annotations to anywhere you want.
What Does YouTube Think About This?
They’re fine with it. There are many YouTube publishers that use this exact strategy to get traffic to where they want. It’s 100% TOS compliant.
However!
YouTube does care about “low quality content” that’s SOLELY created to get visitors to affiliate links.
This is, again, where my insistence on quality videos is important.
With high quality videos, YouTube is happy to help you be successful.
You want to work with YouTube – not against them.
A Quick Way to Boost Views, Embeds and Shares
Remember earlier we discussed the importance of video engagement and views.
How many times your video is embedded and/or shared on FB and Twitter has an impact on your video rankings.
Here’s a list of what YouTube looks for….
Includes lots of social behaviour:
FB likes/comments, Tweets, Google +1’s, YouTube shares/likes.
… And Embeds.
Hmmmmmm…
How can we get this ball rolling?
Embeds are where you share the video on another website.
It’s easy – Copy the embed code, enter into another site.
It looks like this:
When you embed the video on your site, it’ll show up like this:
Not only will you get extra video views (a ranking factor), it’ll also count as an embed source (also a ranking factor).
So TWO ranking boosts, all in one go…
Pretty damn cool.
Where else can we embed our vids?
I like to create video niche sites where I publish ALL my YouTube videos.
They look like this one here: http://macevidz.com
Every single one of my videos gets an additional embed – as well as shares, views, etc.
The theme I use for this is called CovertVideoPress
I love this theme for the embeds – but it’s also exceptional at getting FB likes and social shares.
Here’s a quick look:
Take a look at the bottom left…
There’s a “like” and “share” button.
These work because they’re located right where YouTube’s like and share buttons would be…
Except in this case, visitors are liking the video on FACEBOOK instead of YouTube.
Which will also work to distribute the video to all their friends. And get even more exposure to your video(s).
Where else can we share?
Another great option is on all your social networks.
FaceBook, Pinterest, Twitter, Tumblr, Social Blogs, Etc.
With most of these networks, you just need to post the URL of the video, and they’ll take care of the code for you.
This will get ya an extra embed – and with some FB friends, you could even get a few FaceBook likes and views.
Here’s an example:
Easy, right?!
That’s a simple way to boost your traffic and shares.
Cheap Outsourcing for Quicker Results – Fiverr is Your Friend
Fiverr is a site that sells things for $5.
There’s a few things you should buy that will REALLY ramp things up.
- Video intro
- Video outro
- Channel art
- Video thumbnails
- Social bookmarks
A video intro and channel art is an important professional touch.
When viewers check out your channel – they are way more likely to subscribe if you’re channel looks like a million bucks.
All in – channel art and a video intro will cost ya 10 bucks.
There’s NO REASON to skip this step. It’s the cheapest way to add a TON of subscribers and views to your bottom line.
Go to Fiverr and search for “video intro” and “YouTube header”
A video outro is important for three reasons:
- looks professional
- subscriber collector
- related views
Similar to the intro, it’s a nice touch to your videos.
It ALSO has the function of getting more subscribers and related views.
Here’s a look at my outro:
It includes links to other videos on my channel.
Most importantly – it has the “Subscribe” button.
These are all connected to video annotations. So when visitors click on the buttons, they actually perform the appropriate tasks.
This is an awesome way to collect a bunch of extra leads and views.
You should do this!
Video thumbnails are crucial for more views
Part of the YouTube algorithm (not yet discussed) is CTR.
When your video shows up in search or in the suggested videos, you need people to actually CLICK on the thumbnail of your video.
By default, YouTube will take a snapshot of the middle of your video, and use it as the thumbnail.
The better option, is to submit a custom thumbnail.
You could make this yourself.
Cause I’m lazy – and want it done professionally. I spend… you guessed it… $5 to get all my thumbnails done on Fiverr.
Check them out here: Brendan Mace’s YouTube Channel
All those thumbnails cost me $5 a piece.
That’s a steal – in my opinion.
Social bookmarks will boost your YouTube and Google rankings.
You could do social bookmarking all manually.
OR, you could get hundreds of bookmarks for $5.
For example:
A few hundred social bookmarks will improve your video seo.
Social bookmarks are optional – these can all be earned manually.
Adding some additional one’s through Fiverr is not a bad idea, though.
And cheap!
Wrapping it All Up
Here’s a quick look at my YouTube stats (last 30 days)
In the last month – 336,626 minutes = 234 days worth of viewing time.
Imagine how many sales you could make with that viewing time.
It’s easy:
- Get VideoMakerFX to create videos
- Optimize your videos for engagement
- Pick the right keywords
- Use video tags to steal competitors traffic
- Video annotations for maximum sales
- Embed videos on other sites/networks
- Use Fiverr for cheap, professional designs
And don’t forget to claim your bonus…
Free $97 Bonus for a Social Share (Next 72 Hours Only)
This bonus is video graphics (worth $97) for VideoMakerFX, or any video creator. Getting these graphics designed would cost you hundreds of dollars. Get your copy here for free.
Bonus Expires in less than 3 Days…
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That’s everything I know about video marketing. My YouTube channel makes me about $2k/month on complete autopilot.
Once you have this stuff up and running – you can relax.
Travel the world. Live your life!
Passive income has always been the goal for me. Creating a growing YouTube channel with all the sneaky tricks and embellishments can give you the life of your dreams.
Remember – I’m here to help. Living in Medellin, Colombia – helping as many of my followers as possible achieve the laptop lifestyle. You could be next!
Please leave a comment below for anything. Wanna chat? That’s cool. Questions about landing pages, that works, too. I love connecting with my peers. Chat with me!
