YouTube Traffic

Video Marketing online has been a buzzword for quite some time now. Likewise, YouTube is often mentioned as one of the most profitable ways to generate large amounts of traffic from posting a few videos.

While it may be true that YouTube can generate a lot of traffic for your website, it is also true that the majority of people who attempt to undertake video promotion online fail miserably.

And all because they fail to realize a few of the basic rules behind Video Marketing Online.

YouTube.com, the 4^th most popular website online according to Alexa.com, has been the most watched, the most analyzed website for video sharing in the world. American's alone watched over 10 billion videos online in 2007. And the online video market has been growing ever since with no sign of stopping.

As internet access, bandwidth and improvements in consumer hardware have improved, so has the online video market. Increased access to larger file transfer sizes has allowed people in other regions to demand more than just plain text HTML pages, they want videos.

YouTube allows videos to be uploaded in a variety of formats and converted to their proprietary format which saves on the bandwidth and can deliver streaming videos to most of todays computers.

But you probably already know that.

What you don't know is how to make the most of your video.

Once you have the right to use a video you should start with the following:

Research and use the most highly searched keywords as tags that are relevant to your video. Don't just guess, do some research with Adwords, check to see what other competing videos use as tags compared to how many times those videos have been viewed.

Add a URL watermark to the entire length of the video. This can be done with the majority of video editing software out there today. A simple mywebsite.com at the bottom of the entire video might increase website visitor conversion by 10%.

Add a link to the site description, i.e. http://www.mywebsite.com. In YouTube the hyperlink with the http:// included is active, though it does not provide a DoFollow link it will get you some traffic if your video manages to get viewed with any regularity. Other websites vary in how they allow you to add links. Some are aggressively against any self promotion, such as Blip.tv and FlixYa.com.

In editing your video you should also consider thinking about adding a standardized intro and video wrap up that promotes your video or video series. This is great if you are promoting the same website across a number of videos.

The biggest secret in getting more views, in promoting your video to a larger audience online is to add it as a response to a highly ranked, highly viewed competitive video. This video must be the top listed, most viewed video for your search term.