YouTube Is Your Small Business Friend

Who hasn't seen some goofy video on YouTube hawking an insane topic? There's plenty on YouTube that you probably wouldn't want to watch, but there's also a hidden marketing opportunity there. So says Michael Miller, author of YouTube 4 You, a recently released book that shares YouTube secrets. Here are three simple ideas you can put into action today.

1. Use Your YouTube Videos to Promote Other Products and Services
You can upload videos that function either as blatant advertisements or infomercials, or as "teasers” for additional services. If you have a product to sell, make it a how-to video to attract viewers, and prominently display your web page address or phone number in the video. If you're a consultant and want to promote your services, try demonstrating what you have to offer potential clients by uploading a motivational lecture or a slideshow about specific business practices. Use the video to establish your expert status and then display your email address or web page URL to solicit business for your services. If you're an author, read an excerpt of your book in the video. If you're a musician with a CD to sell, create a music video. If you're an artist, create a photo slideshow of your work.

2. Sell Product Placement in Your Videos.
Just as movie studios and television networks sell product placement in their movies and tv shows, you can sell them in your YouTube videos, especially if you have a track record of high viewership. If you need extra resources to sell product placements, you can use the services of Entertainment Media Works www.entmediaworks.com, a company that specializes in product placements. You can use plinking, the process of adding a link to a product or service to an object or image in a video, such as a jacket you're wearing.

3. Sell Advertising Around Embedded YouTube Videos on Your Own Website.
All you need for this is a YouTube video or two, your own website, and a free subscription to Google AdSense. The key to this approach is to generate revenues from your own website, from traffic driven by embedded YouTube videos. The more interesting the videos, the more traffic you'll attract; the more traffic you attract, the more click-throughs you'll get on the ads you place on your site. Google AdSense will place content-targeted ads on your site, sell those ads to appropriate advertisers, monitor visitor click-throughs, track how much money is owed to you, and then pay you what your earn.