I’m here to talk about our subject which is the form of building traffic to a given website. You can go to YouTube and see many videos that try to teach you how to drive traffic to your site, but most of them don’t really go into in-dept details that will allow you to become a so call traffic guru.

My YouTube Story

First and foremost you must start here first if you want to really follow the current guidelines of building traffic. Because websites like YouTube allow you to build these big profiles of subscribers that allows you to network and market to Million of people. But here goes how I was able to turn a struggling YouTube account to over 12,673 subscribers and over 1.1 million video video views in 12 months.

Back in 2007 I started my first YouTube Channel only because I was bored and wanted to try this new thing people were talking about. You see I’m not too much of a big fan of social marketing sites but I decided to give this one a try because for one it free and plus I thought people will love the videos I will be doing.

First I went to Wal-Market and bought this crazy looking Logitech Webcam in which I still have today that sits on top of my desktop. You know back then the video quality wasn’t at all as it is of today, but at the time it looked good enough to do short videos.

So I hooked this thing up, which to remind you it only cost me $29 at that time so to my surprise it worked like a charm. Keep in mind that I’m a seo guy so I just wanted to do a couple seo videos and maybe add some in-depth internet marketing videos. Plus at times I was thinking it will be wise to show people how to make a little money with affiliate programs also.

So basically I had a big plan on making certain videos, but I didn’t expect things to happen the way it did as I got rolling. Honestly my aim was just to make some videos every now an then so I can educate people on building more traffic for their site. I had no extension on making money or even growing my reader base because I was already making money from my offline seo company and still making good money with affiliate programs I get paid passive income from.

Then It Happen

I started to do three to four videos a week on a variety of subjects that I thought the YouTube community will be proud of. After a month I had about 20 videos or so and gaining subscribers and even my video views where high. Just remember the videos I did where just me being in front of this cheap web cam and talking about traffic building and making money online subjects.

People really started to navigate to make site so I said let me capitalize off this by putting together a product for only $20 and see can I make some money off of it. So I linked the product to videos and started to create more and more videos that started to get more subscribers and video views.

Before I knew it after 8 months I had about 160 videos getting about 3000 video views per day and sending my product page to my website between 300 to 600 visitors per day. I was so surprise to see these amazing results only from me doing these 3 to 5 minute videos on my niche.

To sum this up.. you can really achieve these same results with a lot of hard work.  You see my videos was able to get over 1.1 million video views and I have made a cool $19,492.84 by just uploading some informational type videos.

How Can You Do It?

First and foremost, like I said earlier is that I had not intensions on making this into a profitable business or even thinking of driving free traffic my site. I was mainly looking to make video to help other people gain a advantage of building traffic over their competitors. But if you want to get results like this or do something similar, I will say you will need to find something your passion about and start your journey.

Go out today and invest in a video camera if you don’t already have one. Next you should write down the title of subjects you want to discuss. Once you have a list of things you want to talk about, next you need to just get in front of the web cam and start your presentation.

Upload your videos and let nature take it course. Remember in all your videos you should ask people to subscribe to your channel, because if you don’t ask then they won’t know. Subscribers are the ones who get you video views up because once you submit a video, it automatically goes out to them first.

Look, go into this with a open mind because you have to be patient and let this develop on it s on. You may not see signs of growth in the beginning, but just keep it going by being consistence and motivated. There is no guarantee how your YouTube Channel will stack up with others, the only thing you can do is work hard and see what will happen.

This is not rocket science so don’t make it like building a rocket, just make videos you like and if you think their good then other people will share them. Being successful online is all about taken action and being consistence, if you don’t believe me then you can start here first .

Don’t wait another minute on delaying your YouTube channel, you can set one up today and be gaining traffic by tomorrow.

Let’s Talk..Leave a Comment

The Internet has always touted that people are busy. You should grab their attention very quickly with your blog posts and keep the content short to allow for their waning attention span. Once in awhile you can throw a longer post in the mix. If people like you they will read it even if it’s lengthy. It’s good practice.

It seems that everyone has gone to using video in some way or another these days. In the beginning it was extremely popular, very trendy and a new, cool way to get in touch with your audience. Now when you click on a sales page, instead of being able to skim through a long bit of sales copy you’re forced to listen to a 20 or 30 minute (sometimes even longer) sales pitch to find out what the product is about and how much it costs. If your readers are busy or have a short attention span, where does this leave them? It causes them to click off your page because they are looking for a solution and they want it now.

I’m not saying you should never use video, but you should be responsible and considerate to your audience. Some prefer video and some prefer being able to read sales copy themselves. Some people read extremely fast and want to get through the material in about 15 seconds so they can decide quickly if they want your product. Those types of people will click off very quickly because they do want something right now.

What can you do to remedy the problem and still get the attention of both kinds of people?

For one thing you can run split testing. Create a video version and a written sales copy version of your sales page. Share both links in different locations throughout the day or week or ever how long you’ll be running the test. After a week go check the stats to see which page got the most attention, which page converted the best and which page got clicked off of the fastest.

Another easy test is to add a link from your video page to a written page. Give the reader the option to either watch the video or to click to your written sales page. Don’t forget to check your stats each week to see which option people choose.

It will require more work on your part, but it could be worth it in added sales and reader retention.

Let’s say 100 people visit your video page.

75 of those click off almost immediately or within the first 15 seconds. They’re gone. You’ve lost them.

Let’s say the same 100 people visit your video page but you have an option for them to click to a written page.

Those 75 that would have left otherwise click to read the sales copy. They were given an option and stayed longer than they would have by using video alone.

Maybe only 1 out 100 will actually make a purchase, but that’s one more sale than you had. Over time that will add up.

No one likes to be forced into anything. If all you’re using is video on your sales page, you’re skipping a lot of people that could be potential customers. Never make your reader feel they are being forced to do something. Give your readers several ways to ingest your material instead of sending them looking for your competition.

For more solutions to the video problem you can check out my post, “Video Killed the Radio Star.” It addresses the use of webinars and having written transcripts available for people who can’t attend the actual event.

The bottom line is, as usual, give people options. Marketers who offer options attract more customers.

Depending on your age and the country you live in, you may or may not recognize the title of this post. It’s a song from the 80′s, back when MTV had just hit TV’s around the country and everyone loved to watch videos of their favorite bands and musicians. The message of the song is that video left radio in the dust. And while it may not have completely killed radio, it did put a big dent in who was listening to the radio.

In recent years, the big hit has been Youtube because you can watch almost any video you want. It’s also opened the doors for video marketing. Smart marketers saw the potential and ran with it. Video presentations are becoming more popular each day.

Using video is absolutely necessary in today’s marketing, but if you only do video presentations, you may be leaving money on the table—as the big guys like to say.

Yes, times are changing and we have to keep up with them, but there are also many people still on the Internet using dial up. This makes watching a video presentation impossible. There are also people who have an old dinosaur of a computer and they simply can’t handle video processing even with high speed internet. And then there are those who don’t want to sit through hours of video presentations every day. If I watched every presentation that came through my inbox, I’d never get anything else done.

You want your message to reach as many people as possible. Video is the next wave and will likely be here for a very long time, but you still need options for people who haven’t “stepped into the light” when it comes to video.

So what’s the solution?

Offer a transcript of your video presentation. It can be in simple outline form or a full blown report, but you need to accommodate those left behind, to some degree.

Another solution, which is aimed at busy people instead of those who may not have the sources to watch video, is to offer a podcast. Podcasts are great because they can be downloaded to mp3 players and listened to at a later time.

People like options. If you’re trying to build a business in marketing then give people as many options as possible so you can reach a larger target audience. You can’t cater to everyone, but you can cater to more people by having more options than your competition does.

What are your thoughts? Do you use video presentations? Do you also give your followers another option to get your materials?

The idea behind Xtranormal is that you provide the service your script and it converts it into a movie using 3D animated characters, text-to-speech reading of your words in one of many different voices as well as animations and camera angles that you select.

The results are not always convincing, as you can see in the video below, you can certainly do some impressive things with Xtranormal. It can be especially useful for quickly “mocking up” a video or putting an idea out there for others to see.

In short, it may not be a replacement for a real video with humans, but it might be a way to get a project up in a hurry if you don’t have the resources or time to do it yourself.

How it Works

After creating an account with Xtranormal and signing in to the service, you’ll be given the chance to start creating your own movie. You’ll first be asked to choose from one of a series of “showpaks” that feature a variety of animation styles and settings. Once you’ve chosen your “showpak” and the number of characters you want, you’ll be greeted with a three-pane interface that looks like this:

You’ll likely start your editing at the bottom pane where you can choose your scene, your actors and their voices. You’ll likely want to experiment some with the voices later but should set it to something at least close to what you want for the time being.

Once you’ve got the basics of the scene down, you can then look at the upper-left hand pane, where most of the editing will be done. You’ll likely first start by adding in the text from your script, this is done by selecting the character you want to speak the line and simply pasting or typing in the words. You can then add new lines below the existing one, creating the dialog in the scene.

Once you’ve got the words down, you’ll likely want to add some direction to the scene, which is what the icons on the far left are for. The icons on the left represent cameras, animations, expressions, looks, points, pauses and sounds. You insert these into the script, between words or at the beginning/end of lines, and they instruct your animated characters to execute the action.

Once you’ve finished directing the video and are ready to test it, simply hit the “Preview” button in the right-hand frame and let Xtranormal spin as it animates your video. You can then preview it, make adjustments to it and, when ready, publish it.

Publishing the video, however, is not free but Xtranormal’s pricing system is somewhat unique. Rather than paying for the individual video, you pay for the scene and characters. This means that, if you create another video using the same scene and/or characters, there is no charge but each additional character or scene you use will incur a charge. You can buy credits for the price of $5 for 300 and the most expensive a scene can be (two actors and one background) is 114.

Once you’ve published the video, you can then either view it live on Xtranormal’s site or upload it to YouTube via the site’s YouTube uploader.

All in all, creating my first video, “The Principal and the Lazy Plagiarist” required about an hour of work on my part for a clip that is about four minutes long.

The Limitations of Xtranormal

To be clear Xtranormal, as neat as it is, is also far from perfect. It’s not meant to be a replacement for human actors or hand-created animation and instead focuses on quick, cheap and easy video production. Specifically, be aware of the following issues:

1. Text-To-Speech Limitations: Though the text-to-speech is good as far as such technology goes, it is not great. The voices are flat and the characters struggle with many words. I had to make many changes to my script so everything could be understood and even then the video sounds flat.
2. Limited Animations: The animation and expression selection is limited. Characters can not interact with one another, only make gestures and point, so you won’t be choreographing a fight scene with Xtranormal.
3. Directing Difficulties: I had minor problems where pauses and gestures would be placed in the middle of words causing the word to be broken in two. Also, the timing on gestures is odd and takes some getting used to.

The biggest problem, right now at least, is more of a technical one. Previewing a video can take an incredibly long amount of time. Though I spent only an hour working on my video I probably waited for previews to load for at least three or four and that was only with a handful of previews. This problem is much less during off-peak hours but it is an issue Xtranormal acknowledges.

The best you can do is plan to get a big meal while waiting for a preview, even for just a short clip.

Bottom Line

All in all if you want to do a quick, dirty and cheap video, Xtranormal is a great service, if you’re willing to wait for previewing (or just willing work on the video in the wee hours of the morning). It won’t win you any awards nor will it rival the quality of what humans can do, but it is the fastest way to go from concept to video I’ve seen.

If you’re interested in it and can deal with its limitations, give Xtranormal a try. There are many situations where it can be useful.

If nothing else, it can be a lot of fun to play around with.

Sample Video

There are two versions of the camera available. The MHS-PM5 is the basic model and retails for $149.99 in the USA. The MHS-CM5 is a little more advanced and looks more like a traditional Handycam. It retails for $199.99. Some regions also have a 2nd version of the basic model called the MHS-PM5K.

Both models can video record in 1920×1080 HD and 5MP still images and boasts SteadyShot® image stabilization and a built in USB arm for uploading and charging.

There are some differences between the two models. The PM5 has a 2.4″ LCD screen whilst the CM5′s screen is slightly larger at 2.5″. The camera on the PM5 can swivel round 270 degrees but it stationary on the CM5. However, the LCD screen on the PM5 is stationary whilst more advanced CM5 can swivel it’s screen around 270 degrees.

The PM5 can zoom 4 times digitally whilst the more advanced CM5 boasts 20X digital zoon (and 5X optically). For me the biggest difference between the two is the addition of a much needed HDMI output on the CM5, something which I believe should be standard on all full HD devices.

The basic model has a more fun look to it which is reminiscent of the popular Flip camera though I believe the more advanced CM5 offers better value for money as for an extra $50 you get a much stronger zoom and the ability to connect directly to your computer and television using HDMI.

I haven’t tried the Bloggie out yet but it looks like a great option for video bloggers who want to do quick videos for youtube. It comes in a range of colours too so you should find one which fits your personality.

As usual, Sony have used some strange currency converter for us in Europe as the basic PM5 model costs £159.00 and £199.00 for the more advanced CM5 (which at todays rates converts to around $239.40 and $299.62 respectively). Therefore it may be worth importing the Bloggie form North America rather than purchasing it locally.

If you are serious about getting the Sony Bloggie then I would encourage you to go to your local electronics store and try it out in person to see if it does what you need.

Thanks for reading

Kevin

Link: Sony

1. Get a YouTube Account

YouTube dominates the online video space. If you upload your videos to only one video network YouTube is your best bet. They are the biggest video platform online and serve over one billion videos daily. There is also significant niche traffic to be had by uploading Videos to numerous networks, and a great way to manage this is with a site called TubeMogul. TubeMogul is a video syndication service that allows you to distribute your videos to multiple video sites at once. TubeMogul also has built in analytics allowing you to see where your videos are being watched the most.

2. Be professional

You don’t need to be wearing a suit and tie but at least remember to shave. If you want to produce a Viral Video you probably won’t do it looking like a slob. Find yourself a good professional setting. I just use a couch but it works for me because that is where I feel most relaxed, which brings me to my next point.

3. Get comfortable

Video Blogging is a little nerve racking, so it helps to be comfortable. Find the place where you feel most comfortable, your favorite couch or chair perhaps, and get set up. Plenty of light is also a necessity, but not so much that it feels unnatural. Personally I prefer to record when no one is around so I can focus on the video at hand and not what others in the immediate area are thinking about what I am doing.

4. Make sure your batteries are charged

Real simple suggestion here. It sucks if you get into a good dialogue and it is cut off mid sentence due to a failing battery. Then the battery need to be charged, or an AC adapter attached, and the entire flow is interrupted.

5. Use a script

Having a script makes the production process significantly less stressful. Knowing exactly what you want to say before you say it allows you to focus on delivery when the camera is rolling. It is best to look at the camera as much as possible so point form might suffice so that you can ensure you achieve the best results possible.

6. Remember that YouTube has a 10 minute video limit

Even though they support HD Video YouTube still implements a 10 minute video length cap. If your plan is to create a video longer than 10 minutes you will need to chop it up into pieces so that each file you upload is at least 10 minutes or less.

7. Practice makes perfect

The more videos you are able to make the more natural it will feel for you to be in front of a camera. If you can break your video into sections this will allow you to do multiple takes for each section. If you were going to make a video of these tips, for example, the best way would be to record each tip separately several times and then take the best clip of each tip. With this method during the editing process you will simply need to determine the best take of each section and piece them together.

8. Use a Tripod

I bought a compact tripod from a local electronics store for only $15 and I use it almost everytime I shoot. I also had a HD tripod stand given to me and I use this as well for some scenes. A steady camera is a necessity so if you do not have a tripod handy ensure the person handling the camera is careful to hold it as still as possible.

9. Give yourself time to edit

The Photographer Thomas Hawk says that for about every ten pictures he takes he usually only keeps about one. With Video a similar rule applies. Shoot a lot, use a little.

10. Syndicate your video

If you are unfamiliar about how Podcasting works check out this tutorial about how to make a video podcast. Once you have created your video you can submit it to Podcastblaster and iTunes and it will be a registered podcasts.

Scobleizer Summarizes

Earlier this year I had a chance to visit Robert Scoble at his home. My cousin Luke even took Scobleizer surfing. Scoble is a really down to earth guy and in the video below he shares 5 of his best video blogging secrets.

Do you have a YouTube channel? If you do feel free to share it in the comments below.

The Video Rant

Just because the rant is the easiest and most common video blog format, that doesn’t mean that it’s an instant success. Rather, a video rant should be (1) timely, (2) topical, and (3) between 30 and 90 seconds in length. You can go as high as 120 seconds, but the most successful online video rants are about 30 seconds long.

Here’s a good example of a video rant from Loren Feldman. It was cut around the time Facebook was really gaining popularity, is about how Loren doesn’t get why it’s so popular, and is 58 seconds long. And as you can see, the only editing is inserting a pre- and post-roll.

The How To Video

Videos that show audience members how to do something are great for both helping your audience achieve some goal, as well as generating more search engine traffic. When shooting how-to videos, you should include step-by-step shots of what you’re showing.

This video on how to escape from handcuffs is a great example of a how-to video. It’s short (1 minute, 12 seconds), and it features plenty of close-up shots of how the host escapes from the handcuffs. This helps viewers easily understand a mimic the video’s instructions.

The Screencast

Another variant of the how-to video, a screencast is super simple to pull off and is great for either showing your audience how to do something technical or for marketing a service or piece of software. Also, screencasts can be as long as you like, but you should really try to stick to the basic steps of what you’re trying to demonstrate. A good way to do this is to break your demonstration down into steps in advance, and maybe rehearse it a few times before recording your final product.

And when it comes to screencast software, there are many options. You can find a list of 10 frees screencast software choices here, but I personally recommend CamStudio

Here’s one excellent example of a screencast from the Google Analytics YouTube channel. In less than 60 seconds, it shows you how to grant other users access to your Google Analytics account.

Video Event Coverage

Covering events that are relevant to your audience can also be a great way to engage viewers. It allows you to (1) appeal to those who couldn’t be there, and (2) connect with those who were.

The easiest way to cover and event is to take footage throughout the event and then cut it into a montage of the event’s highlights. And an easy and fun way to get a lot of great event footage without missing out on the event itself is to pass your camera around to people you trust. This way, you’ll get a lot of different perspectives of the event, and even get to be in the video yourself.

Here’s an example of just such a video. It’s montage of the opening party of the first ever Podcamp Montreal. The inaugural Podcamp featured attendees that ranged from super-geek execs from Seesmic to rock star David Usher, so it was fun to (1) share the opening party with those who couldn’t make it and (2)document it for those who were there.

The Video Interview

Conducting video interviews on topics relevant to your audience is not only a great way to produce easy-to-edit video content, but also to attract links from both the interviewee and others who watch and share the video. It’s important, however, to make sure that both the interviewee and the what you discuss with them stays relevant to your audience.

This is an interview with Marc Poirier, founder of Acquisio, a company that develops PPC software and bid management tools. In it, Marc discusses PPC trends in 2009, and we shot if for the NVI search marketing blog, so it it was specifically tailored for it’s audience — i.e. we’re two search marketers discussing search engine marketing. Because it was also shot at SMX East 2009, a search marketing conference, it also doubles as even coverage.

The 5×5 Video

A video blog genre also known as the 5×5 Vignette, it consists in stringing together 5 shots that are 5 seconds long (hence the “5×5″ ). There’s often some underlying theme that ties the five shots together, like a particularly day in the video bloggers life, and this makes them great for creating supplemental content for you blog.

This is a 5×5 of a cooperative exercise between the Dutch, German and Belgian police forces, but you can find all kinds of 5x5s to inspire you on the 5×5 Vimeo Channel.

The Lip Dub Video

There are some pretty darn famous lip dubs out there, and I don’t mean Milli Vanilli. The Harvey Danger Flagpole Sitta lip dub is just one that comes to mind. Produced by the staff of Vimeo to market the video sharing site, it was a viral success and launched the site into the main stream.

The potential of lip dub videos is that they give you a chance to show off your personality, and as a result, really help build a bond with your audience. Here’s one my own favorite lip dubs of Melanie’s “Brand New Key.” Not only does it show how lip dubs don’t need to have the production crew behind them that the Flagpole Sitta one did, but that they are also a great way to help people smile when they’re feeling down in the dumps.

The Karaoke Video

Of course, if you have the pipes to back you up, you might forego the lip dub and strut your stuff, in hi def. To help you along in with your internet karaoke stardom, Online Karaoke Channel offers the largest library of karaoke downloads — some are free, and the rest are pretty reasonably priced. And if you’re not quite sure that you want to invest in a karaoke library yet, their karaoke YouTube channel features a few hundred uploads to help you acquire a taste for digital karaoke.

In addition to entertaining your viewers, doing karaoke will also help you content get found by new users searching for videos of popular songs. And as this rendition of Lady GaGa’s “Poker Face” demonstrates, it doesn’t take much editing at all.

The Parody

For video bloggers who are bit more “in your face,” there’s the parody. Now, with parody, you have to be careful what country you’re in, but the last time I checked, parody is protected by law in the US (where YouTube servers are housed). Now, I am not a lawyer, but from what I understand, this means that unless you say something that’s explicitly untrue and venture into the world of libel and slander, uploading your parodies to YouTube shouldn’t get you into any legal trouble.

When done well, moreover, parody can be a great instigator and piece of linkbait. It is also a genre that Loren Feldman has run with quite a bit. Although known more for his ock-puppet parodies of Shel Israel, he’s also done Dave Winer, Michael Arrington, and as this recent clip demonstrate, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.

The Video Prank

Finally, there’s the video prankster. This doesn’t require any real editing, but it does take some imagination and planning. You also need an opportune place to hide the camera – somewhere where it (1) won’t be seen, (2) will have a good view of the victim, and (3) will be able to pick up everything being said. And if done right, you can end up with tons of views (like how the one below has over a million).

Video is considered as one of the best methods for communicating with audiences but there a lot of sites that use video and it not doing them any good.

I came across a website recently that was of a graphic designer. The trouble was that when I visited the homepage, on the right there was a video it made me check it out but it was not related to the graphic designer. It looked very good, I actually watched the whole thing and it was just over ten minutes long. I don’t often do that but this video was very creative and it captivated me. Having a video on your website is great but it has to be for the right reasons. When it is not your video or it is not about you then you should question why should you use it?.

After I had watched the video I simply closed the browser tab and carried on what I was doing. I was not engaged in the website or who it was about in fact I cannot remember who it was or anything about them or their work, all I can remember is the YouTube video they had on their site.

Some good reasons to use video on your website are for example to use video to draw in your visitor to show such things as an existing client using your product or service, tutorials, before and after showreels or to bring something to life so the visitor can see it for themselves in action.

Video is best for communicating a simple, convincing message

Another problem with some videos is that they can be overly long and can also be overly technical. A long video, even if it makes some really good points, drives people away. A good video will communicate what your business is about  and will further explain why someone should do business with you or engage with you on your blog.

Video blogging can be a great way of getting a message over to your visitor in a animated way either with you being filmed or with animated effects. How many of you do video blogging? Do you feel they are good or bad? Personally I feel they can be good but as I have explained above they can also drive your visitor away so don’t push them in your visitors face. I like ti when they are an option to view them rather than a necessity.

If you are going to use a video on your website make sure it is relevant to your site and does not drive your visitors away by being to long, too technical for your audeience or simply not engaging.

Some of the benefits of using TubeMogul:

• It saves you time by eliminating the hassle of having to upload videos to numerous sites individually plus, you can track all your videos in one central location.
• By taking advantage of the option to upload your videos to multiple sites, you can reach a larger audience and increase your viewership.
• The in-depth charts, graphs and analytics allow you to better understand your viewers so that your content can be more targeted towards their interests.
• The ability to share your data with others is a great addition to marketing campaigns and also nice for sending to interested advertisers and sponsors.
• The marketplace is a great place for potential advertising to find you.

Not only can you track your own videos and content on TubeMogul, but you can also track those from other video producers. Unfortunately, you can only follow up to five producers for free.

To do this, you simply need to choose which site the video or producer is on and then enter either their URL, username, or the video URL. If you choose, you can then put these videos and/or producers into custom groupings for comparing or just viewing all their stats at one glance. Once again, you can only create up to five groups. If you want to follow or create more than five, you will need to upgrade your account – which of course costs money.

The chart above is similar to part of what you will see on your dashboard. This chart can be edited to display any video or publisher that you’d like to track. Also, once your add your own videos, you’ll have the option to add those to the chart as well. From your dashboard, you will also be able to see stats at a glance of each videos and/or producer that you’re following. From there you can choose to view reports for each one individually. This can also be great for marketing purposes because you can see how your competition compares to you.

When uploading your video, you can enter metadata – title, tag, and description. You can also choose which sites you’d like the video to be uploaded to. After doing this, you will be able to keep track of the status of your videos per site. TubeMogul then stores the links and embed codes to all of your videos, making them easily accessible to you. Once your video has successfully been added to each site, you will also receive an email notifying you along with a link to the video on each site.

Once you fill out your profile you’ll need to verify your credentials for each account that you add. Doing this proves that you are who you say you are and ensures that your stats are reported accurately.

In your account settings you’ll also be able to keep track of how many videos you publish each month. You only can only publish 100 videos a month for free. If you are a power video publisher, you’ll need to upgrade to publish more than 100 videos per month.

There’s also the TubeMogul marketplace which, is great for advertising purposes. Your stats are displayed for potential advertisers to see. In the marketplace you can browse and search all users and also see who was recently added.

Lastly there are the email reports that you can choose to receive. It’s nice because you can pick and choose which reports you receive on a daily or weekly basis. As you can see below, not only can you get reports for your own content but also from the producers that you’ve bookmarked. Once again, this allows you to keep up with those competitors on a daily or weekly basis.

So as you can see, TubeMogul is a must use marketing tool for video publishers and those wanting to stay on top of their competition. I definitely feel that it can benefit video bloggers as well. If you are already a TubeMogul user, feel free to share your experiences with us in the comments. If not, is this something you plan on trying and utilizing for your videos?

Please let us know int he comments.

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Name: Loren Feldman
Site URL: 1938Media.com
This tough talking New Yorker calls it like it is. Although he’s made a name for himself covering primarily tech, he doesn’t shy away from touching on larger pop-culture issues, and is best known for being controversial. In fact, his spoof on black tech bloggers cost him a contract with Podtech.

There are probably two major lessons that you can draw from Loren. First, you don’t need high-end equipment to blog. In fact, 99% of his clips are shot with the built in camera in a Mac. Second, being controversial (and even antagonistic) is fine so long as you’re interesting and know what you’re talking about. Loren regularly calls out others on their bulls**t. However, he only does so when it’s something that matters to his audience. Furthermore, he doesn’t over-step his bounds by treading on unfamiliar ground, and pretending to know about topics that he doesn’t.

Name: Jay Smooth
Site URL: IllDoctrine.com
Founder of NYC’s longest running hip-hop radio show and HipHopMusic.com, Jay Smooth discusses the implications of hip-hop in a larger pop-culture context. Rather than blindly evangelizing hip-hop music, he actually speaks with a voice of reason that’s nothing short of compelling. In fact, artists and mainstream commentators alike are vulnerable to both criticism and praise from Jay.

The most important video blogging lesson that you can learn from Jay Smooth is to apply your understanding of your audience to your final product. Jay doesn’t only resonate with his viewers (hip-hop fans) because he’s working to make sure that good apples of the industry don’t get lumped in with the bad. He also produces a product that mimics many of the very same characteristics of his topic: hip-hop music.

Jay’s clips are on the higher-end of the production scale, but that’s because his rants are cut up into punchy, syllogistic segments that lend them a lot of the same rhythm as a hip-hop track. Basically, he’s speaking to his audience in a style that they already relate to.

Name: Jay Grandin
Site URL: JayGrandin.com and Jay Video on MySpace
Now, this Jay is known for churning out random, sometimes slapstick comedy clips. They range anywhere from jolly rants about marketing bulls**t, to scripted skits about cultural stereotypes.

The kind of comedic talent that Jay Grandin employs is rare. What you can learn from him, however, is the importance of social media marketing and growing an online community.

Essentially, long before Jay Grandin hosted his own video blog, he was active on MySpace. There, he’d upload videos and network to publicize them. The result was a serious viral following. In fact, the response was so positive that before leaving for Europe, he put out a call on MySpace for places to stay. The result was that he found free room and board in London and Grenoble, Strasburg and Munich, and Gratz and Vienna.

Video blogging needn’t be stressful. Generally, it’s pretty easy and fun to do. But we want results from it. We want to capture and hold our viewers’ attention and deliver strong value. More and more bloggers are getting into video, now. I think that’s wonderful, but it puts a little more pressure on us to do the best job we can with it.

Since blogs are not mainstream media content, they conform to an entirely different set of standards than print media. Well, the same is true of video blogs: they’re not made-for-TV clips, and are governed by entirely different rules of quality.

A couple of weeks ago, I went over hardware and software basics for video blogging. My point was that you don’t need fancy euipment to video blog: any camera and some free software will do fine. Well, Dave Starr brought up an important point with the following comment:

One thing not mentioned here is, to my mind, the most difficult hurdle of all … and it can’t be solved with a piece of software.
[...]
Your video production must have a reason to be a video. So much of what I see being promoted as “video blogs” are just what the TV industry calls “talking heads”. If you watch TV … and most of us do … just watch something as mundane as the local news and notice that the camera never stays fixed on the “talent’s head” for more than few seconds at a time. Even if the commentator keeps talking, the view cuts away to the scene being talked about, people involved, even a map of the area, then comes back to the speaker only breifly …. and then on to something else.

Do _not_ just sit in front of a camera and talk … it will fall flat … because your viewers expect to see more than your face.

What Dave fails to appreciate is that anchormen have to conform to standards of objective journalism and are, therefore, chronically dry in their delivery. If we didn’t have the stock footage to break it up, we’d fall asleep before the next commercial break.

Where video blogging is different, is that (1) a video blogger can express themselves however they want, and (2) vlog posts should be short and sweet, so you have less time to lose your audience’s interest. The point is that just as video blogs aren’t television spots, vlogger and television producer are not the same job.

Take vlogger extraordinaire, Loren Feldman. He’s a talking head par excellence, and still gets more views than the History Channel online. Now consider what he said a couple of weeks ago:

99% of what I do is shot with the built in camera in a Mac. The other 1% is shot with bulls**t, consumer grade, you know, cameras — Casios. It doesn’t matter what cameras, it doesn’t matter what computer, [...] because the truth of the matter is that it’s not the equipment, it’s the athelete.

You know what I’m saying? That’s the problem with all these tech guys: they have all this equipment, and they think that they can tell a story.

Editing is a f**king art. Acting is a f**king art. Shooting is a f**king art. Um, and quite frankly, none of you guys have it unless you went to f**king film school, or acting school, or any of that stuff. It’s obvious.

I mean, look at Scoble: he’s got all this HD stuff, and blah, blah, blah… He can’t frame, he can’t do f**king anything, and it’s like that with most of you guys: you just don’t have talent. And it’s not going to matter what film you use, you undestand what I’m saying? It doesn’t matter what camera. That’s it. [,,,] I’m sorry, that’s just the way it is.

Now, Loren talks about editing and shooting, but his own repetoire of clips are pretty straight forward: an irate, bald, talking head gives you the low down on whatever. It’s his delivery that makes him what he is. He frames his shots so that they capture the his mood, and edits out all the superfluous ranting so that the clip cuts straight to the point.

The motion and emotion are all done with his face and tone. In other words, Loren appreciates the importance of showmanship, and that’s what video blogging is all about: showmanship.

Just because the root words of vlog is video and blog, that doesn’t mean that vlogging shares any of its fundamental principles with either of those media. To be a successful vlogger, you have to be a showman and create a spectacle, but you don’t do that by conforming to the standards of mainstream media video. You do it by having a personality.

You see, just like written blogs, the vast majority of video blogs suck. While poorly written blog can still enjoy SEO benefits because the search engines keep coming back to index the keyword intensive (albeit poorly written) content that’s updated regularly, a poorly produced video blog might not even show up in search engines’ video verticals. After all, the meta-info that you append to your clips are appended by the video host of your choice. So when people conduct searches for video on topics that you’ve vlogged about, it’s your YouTube or Blip.tv page that they’re going to find.

If you want to benefit from video blogging, then, you’ll have to be talented and interesting.

Despite what so many people think, the barriers to entering the world of video blogging is nearly non-existent. In fact, there are fewer barriers to video blogging than there are to podcasting, if only because you don’t have to worry about bandwidth.

The barriers that video blogging does share in common with podcasting, however, pertain to (1) hardware, and (2) editing software. You see, at the end of the day, you still have to capture the moment on film and, then, because video blogs should be between 1-2 minutes, you have to edit out some of the superfluous footage or redundant ranting.

Hardware
Plenty of folks subscribe to the ethos that something has to be perfect before it launches. Consequently, they never get their video blogging off of the ground because they assume it requires an expensive camcorder. However, what counts as perfect in the blogsphere is often not only different from the spic and span, polished image of the mainstream media, but at odds with it.

What I’m getting at, here, is that if you any kind of digital camera, you have everything you need to video blog. Personally, I oscillate between an old-school Kodak EasyShare DX7630 and a Canon PowerShot A560. I’m not sure of the model, but Loren Feldman uses $200 Casios when he’s not using the web cam built into his laptop.

The point is that you don’t have to go through the same problems that Vlad did with expensive camcorders. All you really need is a digital camera, camera phone, or web cam, and you’re all set.

Software
So once you’ve shot your piece, you have to bring it down to 1-2 minutes, and that takes some editing. In general, digital cameras record in one of two format: MOV and AVI. The software you’re going to use, however, is going to depend on two things: (1) your operating system, and (2) the file format in which you camera records.

If you’re running Windows, then chances are that you have Windows Movie Maker (WMM). This is an extremely user friendly software. As with all things Bill Gates, however, there are drawbacks. First, when WMM “exports” a file (i.e. when it saves an edited version of your clip), it does so in only in AVI or WMV format. This is not ideal because you want to be picked up by iTunes, and that requires that you provide a video enclosure that links to an MP4.

The second drawback of using WMM is that it cannot open the MOV file format. So if your camera records in this format, you’ll have to worry about getting software to convert the file format. Not only does this create an extra step, but it also tends to erode the quality of the video clip.

If you use a Mac, then you think that you’re better than everyone who uses a PC. Well, you’re right, but that’s not the point. The point is that you probably have iMovie. If for some reason you don’t, iMovie is only available as part of the iLIfe bundle which comes with five other applications and will set you back about $80 USD. Now, that’s not expensive as far as video editing software goes, but it’s a lot if you’re only interested in 1/6 of the software bundle.

Whether you’re stuck with WMM or have a Mac that didn’t come with iMovie, then, your next best choice is QuickTime Pro. This program will allow you to both open and “export” any kind of file format except for WMV. So as far as being able to create file formats to upload to a file host and offer to iTunes respectively, QuickTime Pro will cover all your bases.

However, Vimeo thinks it’s a rip-off, and it kind of is. It will run you $30 USD, so it doesn’t compare to the value of iLife. Even though you’re probably paying too much for what you get, at least you’re not paying for what you don’t need/want (as with the iLife bundle).

Another set back with QuickTime Pro is that it is not very user friendly. Figuring out how to create certain effects can be both time-consuming and difficult to figure out. I’ve been using it for a few months now, and I’m still stumbling on functionality that I think should be more readily accessible. Furthermore, although it can do a few things that WMM cannot do, there are a couple of things that WMM can do that QuickTime Pro cannot.

At the end of the day, however, whether you’re stuck with Windows or have a Mac that didn’t come with iMovie, QuickTime Pro is a perfectly reasonable compromise for routine video blogging, and it’s relatively inexpensive. Provided you already have some kind of digital camera or web cam, then, the only barrier to becoming a video blogger is about $30 USD.

With about a dozen decent alternatives to YouTube, however, deciding how to host you video content can be tough. At the end of the day, video bloggers should strike a healthy balance between bandwidth, distribution/reach, branding, and community. They can do this by choosing to upload their content to YouTube, Blip.tv, and whatever social network that they’re most active on.

Hosting and Bandwidth Bandit Costs
Becoming a popular producer of online content can be expensive. Every visitor to your site is an added strain on your bandwidth, and anyone who has exceeded their monthly bandwidth will tell you that this is where hosting providers make their money. The thing about video files, moreover, is that they’re a lot larger than text. So if you’re hosting your own video content, success can be one of the worse things to happen to your pocket book.

Indeed, this is precisely whey there was such a demand for video hosting/sharing sites. The average Joe/Jane just can’t afford a large audience for their video content. By letting in a middle-man, then, you drastically reduce the costs of video blogging. In fact, you make it affordable.

YouGooTube: The Video Giant
When most users think online video, YouTube is the first name that comes to mind. It is not only the number one destination for online video sharing, but allows users to customize the color scheme and URL structure of their “channels.”

As a video hosting solution, however, YouTube isn’t without its drawbacks. First, the resolution on their video players leaves something to be desired — i.e. it’s terrible. Secondly, the massive user base makes it nearly impossible to attract enough attention to build up your own brand.

Mind you, that very immensity also makes YouTube a must in video hosting. For starters, because it is the largest video sharing site, you cannot afford to pass up on YouTube’s potential reach. Secondly, few vloggers will seem reputable without a presence on YouTube. Finally, because YouTube is owned by Google, content on the site is regulalry indexed by Google. If you want search engine visibility, then, it is imperative that you upload content to YouTube and make sure that each clip is tagged appropriately (see Step #3 of 4 SEO Tips for Universal Search).

Blip.tv: Video Hosting for Vloggers
As far as video hosting sites go, there’s a reason why TechCrunch called Blip.tv “a great platform for videobloggers to host their content.” For starters, Blip.tv offers users a branded channel and social funcionality, just like YouTube. However, some added functionality makes it even more appealing.

First, the player that you embed on your own site is not branded. That is, rather than featuring the logo or look of something that Blip.tv is producing, it looks exactly as though you are hosting the content yourself.

Secondly, if you want, Blip.tv will take care of submitting your content to iTunes for you. This means that you don’t have to worry about including video enclosures of an MP4 version (see 5 Vlogging Basics) in your posts and then submitting your blog’s feed to iTunes. When it comes to actually publishing a video to your blog, this eliminates the rather tedious step of converting the file into an MP4 format that iTunes can pick up.

Finally, Blip.tv features an optional affiliate program that will run ads in your video player. Consequently, you can actually monetize your content if you choose to do so. There are four ad formats, moreover, so that vloggers have a selection from which to choose. If you’re not that fussy, finally, there’s an option to let Blip.tv implement a blend of the four.

Be Social
Blogging and vlogging are just part of the larger phenomenon of user generated content (UGC). It just so happens, moreover, that UGC is just part of the larger phenomenon of Web 2.0. In a nutshell, Web 2.0 is about being social and sharing. It’s no surprise, then, that (1) social networking has also been a huge part of Web 2.0, and (2) the most successful video hosting sites also feature a social element and sharing functionality.

If you’re active on any social network, then, it follows that you should probably be uploading your content there as well (or at least some of it). If you want to be taken seriously as a video vlogger and not just hobbyist, I wouldn’t recommend relying any any give social network to distribute your content. However, uploading your content to any given network will extend your potential reach.

For starters, it will expose those you are already connected with to your work. More to the point, however, it will allow those that discover your content to connect with you. By being able to connect with you on a peer to peer level, you will be able to establish a trust economy with your audience. After all, the marketing potential of social networks lies in the trust-based relationship that they enable you to establish with your audience.