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The Best Way to Optimize your Videos on YouTube
If you're looking for a quick and easy way to get your business website on the first page of Google you may want to try video marketing. However it is important to optimize your video the right way on YouTube for it to work its magic in the search engine rankings. Here are a few pointers to help you do just that.

1. Title- always use your main keywords within your title. It is best to try and place them at the beginning of your title. For example, if you own an Italian Restaurant called Mario's Restaurant and are targeting the keywords "Italian restaurant in Harvard square", the best way to write your title would be "Italian Restaurant in Harvard Square: Mario's Restaurant"

2. Description- there are three vital components to put in your description box- your full website URL, some text and a call to action. Type in your website URL first, then add some text copy that you can borrow from your website making sure to use your targeted keywords in the first sentence of your text. Always include a call to action such as directing people to your website or to call a telephone number.

3. Tags- if you are targeting one keyword or a number of keywords, put all of them in the Tags area separated by a comma. In our above example about the Italian restaurant, they may enter "Italian restaurant in Harvard square, Italian restaurants that deliver, best Italian restaurant in Cambridge"

4. Category- it is important to upload your video under the right category. For example if you own a video game shop, and have produced a video about the latest Play station game you should choosing the gaming category.

5. Back linking- after uploading your video to your YouTube channel it helps to create some backlinks to it to help boost its ranking power. You can create backlinks to it from your social media sites, on blog comments, or from other YouTube videos.

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The 10 Benefits of Video Marketing: Part 2

In Part 1 of this article series, we look at the first 5 benefits of video marketing that related to higher conversion rates and higher engagement from website visitors. In Part 2, we look at 5 more benefits of video marketing.

1. Personal levels of engagement- online marketers are often accused of being faceless and impersonal.

Video marketing helps to solve this problem as it allows you as a business owner to connect on a personal level with your audience. They get to know how you look, how your voice sounds, your character, sense of humor, your outlook and approach, amongst so many other features. Video marketing really works well for businesses that are service-oriented as people like to do business with people they like, know and trust.

2. Traffic to your Website- video marketing is a fantastic way to drive traffic to your website.

If you have just set up a new website or your current website lacks a lot of traffic, you can produce quality and content rich videos, upload them to public sharing sites like YouTube or to your social media accounts like Facebook and include a strong call to action that drives viewers to your website.

3. Speed- video marketing is one of the easiest and fastest ways to create content for your business website.

With simple, readily available and inexpensive equipment, one can easily create a 5 minute video for your business.

4. Helps your SEO – if you've been struggling to rank your site better for certain keywords, video can help you achieve better rankings because video rankings are less competitive yet contribute to a websites overall ranking. Plus, after submitting a video to a site like YouTube, it can easily get high rankings in a day or two or sometimes in a matter of hours.

5. Builds Trust- by continually producing videos and getting your face out in front of your customers and prospects, you can easily create a higher level of trust than with other forms of content creation. As people get used to watching your videos and seeing you on screen, they feel they are actually getting to know you better and feel comfortable trusting you when you make a sales pitch leading to higher conversion rates.

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The 10 Benefits of Video Marketing: Part 1
If you're still undecided whether to start using video marketing strategies for your business online, here are the first 5 of 10 benefits of video marketing that may convince you.

1. Higher Conversion Rates- Video sales pages have higher conversion rates than text sales pages. It is estimated that websites that contain video convert more than double compared to normal websites. If you add videos to your website and your sales pages you will notice an increase in the number of people who end up doing business with you.

2. Higher Viewing Rates- over 50% of people who watch a video will watch it to the end compared to the paltry 10% who will read the entire text on a website. Indeed most people will skim over a block of text, yet people canít skim over a video. Video is therefore a more effective way to get your entire sales message across and get it fully understood.

3. Leverage- the number of people you can reach with video can reach into thousands and even hundreds of thousands in a very short period of time.
Some YouTube videos even have over a million views. That kind of traffic on your text website would probably crash your server, but can be easily handled on social media sites like YouTube or Facebook.

4. Greater interest- video piques the interest of your website visitors more than a block of text and it has been proven that people will be more willing to spend 5 minutes watching a video than 5 minutes reading a block of text.

5. Positions you as an expert- video enables you to present yourself as an expert in your field because a personal appearance builds a level of credibility that makes your business look more professional.

Also it gives you an edge over your competitors because not many business owners are utilizing video as part of their marketing strategy.
In the next article we will look at 5 more benefits of video marketing

2 Tips to Creating a Convincing Talking Head Video

Video marketing has become the one of most popular marketing methods for entrepreneurs today. Talking head videos have increased in number as people have found them easy and affordable to create and engaging with viewers. Here are 2 tips to creating a convincing talking head video

1. Eye Contact – eye contact is the number one factor for a successful talking head video. Just as you would normally look straight at a person during a conversation, the same applies when creating a video. You want to look straight into the camera instead of at your notes, desk, wall or other surroundings. When you don’t look straight into the camera, you look uncomfortable, disinterested and sometimes suspicious. Please note, however, that looking straight into the camera does not mean just staring without even blinking. That only makes you look unnatural and also unsettles your viewers. If you tend to get nervous, it helps to just relax, get comfortable and pretend you’re talking to a friend you have known all your life.

2. Be Natural – one of the most common mistakes people make when shooting a talking head video is trying to act like someone else. For example, if they are shooting a sales video they think they need to a hyper and bubbly salesperson. That’s okay if that is your natural personality, but if its not you’re not going to be able to pull it off and it will appear phony. If you are a natural extrovert, be one and if you are a natural introvert, use that to your advantage. If you like giving stories, use storytelling as part of your content. If you are a more straight-to-the point sort of person, let that shape your video. It’s always best to just be yourself because your viewers will appreciate your honesty.

Basic Equipment to create Great Videos yourself

If you're operating on a tight budget and can't afford the expenses of hiring a professional video production company to create business videos for you, you can still create great videos yourself using basic and affordable equipment. Once you realize how you can create quality videos on your own, you can continue using this equipment for many years to come for future videos. Here are some basic equipment one needs to create a great video by yourself:

1. Lights – If you're shooting a video using your webcam seated at your desk you can get good lighting from one or two desk lamps. If you're shooting a video using a video camera or recorder while standing up, it's best to purchase clamp lights. These are lights that have large metallic cover over the bulbs often seen in film studios. They are relatively inexpensive. Whether using desk lamps or clamp lights, use soft white bulbs of not more than 100W.

2. Sound – It's always best to buy a microphone than relying on the inbuilt audio features of your computer, camera or video recorder. You can use a headset that has earphones and microphone built into one, or you can buy a corded microphone or better yet invest in a lapel mic. All these should be corded to plug into your computer, camera or recorder for the best quality sound. Cordless mics are also a convenient option though they have lower sound quality.

3. Background – Whether shooting your video at home or in your business premises, a clean and white background always works best. You can use a white wall or whiteboard as your background and still look professional.

4. Video Recording Equipment – There are a wide range of cameras and video recorders one may use but for anyone on a limited budget, you can use your smart phone, a simple digital camera with recording ability or a flip camera.

Answering Common Questions Posed By Customers: The Video Solution

Businesses often get flooded with common questions about their products or services and business owners can use video as a FAQ facility to address all these questions. Here are the benefits of using video to answer common questions posed by customers:

It offers a more Personal Approach

When a business owner or department head gets in front of the camera and provides answers to common questions, customers feel they are getting personal one-on-one attention from an influential person in the company. It also gives an element of credibility, trust and likeability compared to just having a FAQ tab on your website. It shows your customer that your business cares and is willing to take the time to personally get involved in customer service matters.

Video also provides your customers a chance to get to know the person or persons behind the business name and with the right verbal and non-verbal communication, a business can build better loyalty from customers. In addition, video can provide a way to personally relate to your clients by you mentioning their name in the video. For example you may say, "This question comes from Chuck Smith in Spring Valley, Atlanta".This approach makes customers feel acknowledged and respected thereby increasing their loyalty to your business.

Video can be leveraged

This means that instead of answering each customer question, one video can be used to address thousands of people who have the same question. Whether loaded onto a public video sharing site or on your business website, these videos can be viewed for many months and years to come. This is especially helpful if your business deals in products that have various model or series numbers. A customer who buys a model in 2010 can watch the same video as a customer who purchased the same model in 1997 and still have their questions about that model addressed.

Advantages of Video Marketing over Article Marketing.

Whether you run a brick and mortar store or run a purely online information product business, convincing your clients that your sales offer is worth investing in can often be a challenge. However by adding video into your marketing mix, you can greatly reduce client resistance and improve your conversion rates. This is because video provides a personal, visual, audio and physical demonstration of exactly what they will get if they decide to purchase from you.

Here are some advantages of video marketing over article marketing:

* Video is entertaining- a large majority of people would rather watch a video about a subject than read a book, which explains why the movie industry is so successful and why YouTube has billions of video views per day. Of course, anything entertaining sells better so using video to market your products and services is a smart choice to plug into the entertainment psychology of prospects.

* Video enables you to showcase your product and service in great detail in a concise and entertaining manner compared to text. Just imagine how difficult it would be for an auto dealer trying to describe the latest Ford model he has on offer compared to his competitor who shot a video of the actual car. Physical products work well with video marketing as their video images alone help to sell the product. Indeed some videos don't even require a voiceover if you know how to properly showcase the physical features of a product.

* Video also provides a faster way to communicate to people. A short and well produced 2 minute video can speak more than a 1000 word article that takes 10 minutes to read.

* Video has fewer distractions – often once people start watching a video, they will often watch it to the very end as compared to text where slight distractions can break their train of thought. Video provides a way to get your marketing message across uninterrupted.

* Videos are easier to produce than articles for most people. Most business owners and people in general hesitate when asked to write an article, but can readily agree to hold a camera and shoot a video . With the advent of smart phone cameras and easy to use digital cameras, just about anyone can shoot a video making it a simple, quick and cheap option to any business owner.

A Basic Guide to Preparing Your Video Content

One of the challenges of creating a video for your offline or online business is preparing the actual content so here are some basic points to help guide you.

1. Come up with your video title- it's always good to start thinking about what to name your video to help get the ball rolling. A good place to start is to list the keywords that you want to target with your video and use them to frame a catchy, interesting title. The title of your video should be attention grabbing and stir the curiosity of your audience so that they will want to play your video.

2. Create a Main Points Outline – the best way to come up with the body of your video is to just list the key points you want to cover in chronological order. Trying to come up with a script isn't advisable as it will be difficult to read each and every word and will appear too rehearsed. If you can just think of the main points you want to get across and what is each point is about, you will find it easier to talk about them than trying to cram a long script. Something else to note is that you should use the first 15-30 seconds to hook your audience into watching the rest of your video. The trick is to clearly tell them what benefit they are going to get out of the video.

3. Finish with a Call to action – your call to action should come at the end of the video. A call to action is a simple message telling your audience exactly what you want them to do. Most people mistakenly believe that the audience will know what to do, but if you don't tell them what to do, they won't (even if it seems very obvious). Your call to action is determined by whatever the ultimate goal of your video was in the first place such as to get people to visit your website, to fill in an opt-in form, to register for an event, to like your Facebook fanpage, to call your business number, to follow you on Twitter, to leave their comments etc.