YouTube Tips and Tricks For Bloggers – Part 3

This is the final installment of my YouTube marketing tactics series. In part 1, we covered how to approach video marketing, as well as what to include in your recordings for maximum impact. In part 2, we discussed the importance of optimizing the Title, Description and Tags of your video, and I included a few cool tricks to help you “snipe” traffic from other popular videos.

In part 3, we’re going to cover some tips and tricks that you can do with your video after it’s uploaded. Much like with blogging (and iPhone apps), the work should not stop once your content is live. There are a few things you should do before you can just let YouTube and the Internet do it’s thing and drive traffic to your videos and ultimately your blog automatically. Again, it’s about putting in the hard work now, so you can continuously reap the benefits later.

Place the Video on Your Blog

An easy way to increase traffic to your video is to show it to an audience that you already have! In addition, if your post Title matches the title of the video (and tags and urls as well), then you’re giving a nice boost in SEO to both your video and your blog post at the same time.

I used this technique in my keyword research experiment.

When you include a video on a blog post, be sure that you also include a link to the YouTube video as well.

Why?

Because many RSS feed readers will not play the video, but if you have the link in there as well (preferably with keyword anchor text), then you’ll be all good to go.

Blast it Onto Social Media Platforms

This is a given.

If you’re on Facebook, Twitter, or anywhere else on the web that has (targeted & relevant) people following you, then post links to your YouTube video.

Bonus Tip: Instead of just saying: “Check out my new YouTube video…”, why not post a tweet or a wall post that has a good reason for people to click on it to watch, for example:

Whoa! Lots of controversy on my latest video – check it out! (insert link)
I almost didn’t publish this video. You can see why. (insert link)
Doesn’t my hair look awesome in my latest video?! (insert link)
I need your opinion on my latest video. Too much powerpoint. What do you think? (insert link)
This may be the only video you every need to watch about [niche]. (insert link)

You get the idea. Put your copywriting skills to the test, and get more clicks to your video!

Utilize the Video Responses Option

If you haven’t noticed already, underneath most popular YouTube videos there is a section called Video Responses. These are videos that people have submitted as a response to the particular video that is loaded.

Many people strategically place their own videos as responses to popular, highly viewed videos so they can “ride the back” of the traffic of that particular video. It’s another easy way for you to get a lot of exposure on YouTube.

To post a video response to another video:

1. Find a popular, highly viewed video. The more relevant to your response video, the better.

2. Click inside the comment field immediately below the video, and then click on Attacha Video.

3. Here, you can either record a video response using a camera for your computer, or choose a video that you’ve already uploaded to YouTube.

Please understand, however, that your video responses will not post automatically. If they did, there would be spam everywhere. Your video must first be approved by the person who uploaded the original video in order for yours to be shown with it. In many cases, if your video is somewhat related, it will indeed be approved by the owner. If not, no worries – just try it again on another video later.

Annotations

Annotations are severely underutilized in the “blogger gone YouTube” world. I’ll admit that I don’t use them as much as I should either.

If you don’t know what an annotation is, it’s an ugly, small little popup that shows up on top of the video that has some text inside. It reminds me of “Pop-Up Videos” on VH1 from way back in the day.

Here’s how to make them for your uploaded video:

1. Go to your “videos” area to see all of the videos you’ve uploaded.

2. Find the video that you want to create annotations for, and click on Annotations at the bottom.

3. Use the timeline to create as many annotations as you want!

They are ugly, but that’s good.

Why?

Because you can’t miss ‘em – as you can see below:

annotation quote You can change the shape the the annotation and select from a few different colors too, but what’s most important is what you put in them.

At the beginning and end of your videos, you should have an annotation that asks your viewers to either subscribe to your channel, leave a comment or a rating, or all of the above. You can add more in the middle if you think your video needs it.

Again, this is another simple way to provide a call to action to your viewers that may otherwise not be there.

The Video Thumbnail

The video thumbnail, or poster frame, is the picture that shows up when ever your video is shown around YouTube. The thumbnail itself can have a huge impact on your traffic because an eye-catching picture will get clicks, and a dull one will get lost in the sea of other dull thumbnails.

Fortunately, we can choose our thumbail (yay!). Unfortunately, we only have three choices that we do not really have control over (boo!).

Or do we?

We can actually strategically “place” optimized pictures within our recorded videos at the perfect time for YouTube to capture them as one of our 3 options. There is some math involved though.

Here’s how it works:

X = Video length (in sec.)
Y = X divided by 4 or X/4 (in sec.)

Y is the 1st thumbnail.

2 times Y or 2xY (in sec.) is the 2nd thumbnail (poster frame).
3 times Y or 3xY (in sec.) is the 3rd thumbnail.

For some, this may be too much. To be honest, I don’t strategically place pictures in my videos. But, I do make sure to go into the “edit” section of my YouTube videos to select the most eye-catching option. Which of these three do you think I use for my video?

youtube thumbnails

Well, I hope you’ve enjoyed my YouTube series for bloggers (and non-bloggers too!). Thanks for all of your support, and I wish you all the best! Please spread the word if you have the time by retweeting or sharing this article. Thank you!

Cheers!

Posted on : July 2nd, 2010

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27 Comments (Click Here to Leave a Comment Below)

Reply Passive Income on July 2nd, 2010 at 2:54 am

Video marketing is such a great opportunity to build a relationship with a prospective customer. What a great series of posts!

Reply Pat on July 2nd, 2010 at 7:39 am

Thanks Peter – I totally agree. It’s like being face to face with a prospective customer, which is what most people are comfortable with because that’s how transactions occur in real life.

Reply Dev | Technshare on July 2nd, 2010 at 3:44 am

Hey Pat,

Another great post about videos. You’re doing awesome Job man.
Thanks for sharing this another great post.

~Dev

Reply Pat on July 2nd, 2010 at 7:39 am
Thanks Dev – thanks for all of the comments during this series of posts. I appreciate it! Cheers!

Reply Nabeel | Create Your First Website on July 2nd, 2010 at 3:49 am

Pat,

I have finally uploaded a video to Youtube for the first time. And all credit goes to you.

What an awesome series you have done. It was very, very informative. I have tried to implement each of your guideline.

I was looking for a good guide for video marketing since a long time, and this series was perfect.

I guided people on a video marketing thread in DigitalPoint to your series.

Thanks a lot Pat!

Nabeel

Reply Gary David | Build Your List Fast on July 2nd, 2010 at 6:50 am

Hi Nabeel,

Congratulations on your first video on Youtube. Care to share the video that you uploaded?=)

Gary

Reply Pat on July 2nd, 2010 at 7:40 am

Congrats Nabeel! I’m glad I could help you out! Thanks for spreading the word and helping me out in return. Do you have a link to your video – I’ve love to check it out!

Reply dotcomchick on July 2nd, 2010 at 4:50 am
Awesome post! Thanks for sharing.
- Reply Pat on July 2nd, 2010 at 7:40 am
  Thanks!

Reply Onibalsi Bamidele on July 2nd, 2010 at 5:08 am

Really great post Pat!

Using the video response option is another effective way to get more views to your videos.

Thanks a lot for the great post,
-Onibalusi

Reply Pat on July 2nd, 2010 at 7:41 am
Yep – I mentioned that in the article under “Utilize the Video Response Option”.

Cheers!

Reply Gary David | Build Your List Fast on July 2nd, 2010 at 6:52 am

Thanks for the wonderful series Pat. I definitely learned a lot about video marketing through Youtube. Looking forward to your future amazing posts. =)

Reply Pat on July 2nd, 2010 at 7:42 am
Thanks Gary – I’m glad you enjoyed it. Cheers!

Reply Debra Dalgleish on July 2nd, 2010 at 7:29 am

You can also add a link to a YouTube annotation, to take viewers to another related video of yours, or your channel or one of your playlists

Reply Pat on July 2nd, 2010 at 7:42 am
Great tip – thanks for adding that Debra!

Reply Eric on July 2nd, 2010 at 7:51 am

Some good information here as well. I actually started doing videos with each blog post a while back. I’m not doing annotations just yet but so far everyone seems to like my videos so I’m glad about that.

What I like is the fact that I can reach a larger audience with videos. They either can read what I’ve written or watch the video, or what I normally do, both.

Good stuff here!

Reply Eric | My 4-Hour Workweek on July 2nd, 2010 at 8:33 am

Thanks again, Pat! I especially like your tips for sharing your videos on social media platforms (with the catchy “teaser” phrases). I might try to brainstorm a few more and then share them here.

Reply Todd on July 2nd, 2010 at 8:06 pm

Pat…
How disappointed I was to read that you were so proud of the headline ”
I f*ckn love Pat Flynn and his website, SmartPassiveIncome” You have no idea how much I have been spreading the word to my co-workers and church members about you and your blog! I’m not judging you Pat but I can’t understand why the profanity had to be included…what a bummer! Sadly, it changes my perspective!
Words do make a difference… and character counts!

Reply Pat on July 2nd, 2010 at 8:43 pm

Hi Todd, I’m sorry you feel that way, and I apologize if I let you down or caused you any problems because that headline had profanity in it.

I wasn’t proud of the profanity part of the headline – I was proud that someone thought so highly of me and wrote an entire blog post about me. I was appreciative of that. It just so happened that the blogger used a tactic to make the headline even more eye catching, which was not under my control, obviously.

So I spend two years+ providing great content, being here for everyone and not charging a dime, and I mention another blogger’s article that has a tiny bit of profanity in it, and it changes everything for you. Well, I can’t change the way you feel, but I can ask you kindly to please reconsider how you feel about me, and know that I’m still the same person as before.

All my best to you, Todd.

Reply Justin Popovic on July 7th, 2010 at 5:02 am

Well said. If a bit of profanity is going to change how you receive the incredible value Pat is delivering, perhaps it speaks more to your level of tolerance and acceptance for people as they are than it does Pat’s choice to use this as an example?

Reply Todd on July 2nd, 2010 at 9:55 pm

Pat…
You’re a great guy…no need for you to apologize…this is your blog and I’m just giving one person’s perspective. I feel a little guilty about my first post. I have the highest respect for you and I guess the headline really caught me off guard! I would be proud of a post like this as well… and you absolutely deserve the recognition…I just felt you were better than that headline! My perspective changed in the sense that I just forwarded your URL to a few pastors last week…bad timing on my part. Thanks for all you do!
Todd

Reply Pat on July 2nd, 2010 at 10:06 pm

Thanks for the response Todd. Bad timing indeed.

Well, I don’t think you have anything to worry about. I only announced that link on Twitter and on Facebook, and the only link to that headline here on this blog only showed up in my Twitter feed module on the right hand side, which doesn’t even show it anymore.

Thanks again for your understanding. Cheers!

Reply Julius on July 4th, 2010 at 2:22 pm
I especially like the “video responses” idea. Thanks!
Reply Dustin Stevens-Baier on July 5th, 2010 at 8:47 am
A great finish to your series. Looking forward to that eBook!

Reply RobBurnsBrain.com on July 6th, 2010 at 10:20 am

Hey Pat,

Great post. Good timing I have been doing some stuff with video marketing. I am wondering if you had any tips on getting your videos to show up on G’s organic results and also any info on how you may be getting them to rank, aside from the usual title, tag, content methods?

Reply Justin Popovic on July 7th, 2010 at 4:57 am

The video thumb nail blew my mind!!!! I had NO idea. Definitely going to use that one.

Annotations… not so much. I can see why they are useful by they drive me insane as a viewer. I wouldn’t be okay with myself if I did it lol. Just my personal opinion I guess.

And finally I will admit that I stole your suggestion for a tweet I sent out. It was just too good to pass up: http://twitter.com/justin_popovic/status/17942944085

Thanks for the tips Pat. Awesome stuff here.