Something that is so smack-myself-on-the-forehead stupid, I couldn’t believe it.

Something that made such an exponential difference in increasing views for my videos I was astonished.

Something that made me say, “I should know better.”

Take a look at the screenshot below. These are all videos about keyword research, but one has exceptionally higher views than the others. Can you figure out the reason why?

It’s not totally obvious because YouTube truncated the video name of the first one.

It’s name is “Steal This Niche – How to Do Keyword Research.”

The other two vides have less keyword centric names (and, to be fair, the “Intro” vid was just uploaded to YouTube a couple of weeks ago – it had previously been hosted on Viddler and received about 8,000 views there). Their generic titles of “Intro” or “For the Shortys” won’t drive a lot – or any – keyword centered traffic.

But “How to Do Keyword Research,” the name of the first video, received 25,000 views. Everything else is the same – the vids were posted on my site, they were embedded as part of a keyword research training series, and I mailed my list when each one was initially published to let folks know they existed.

As much as I go on and on about keyword research, choosing the right keywords and on-page optimization, I got caught with my pants down here! I didn’t even USE proper keywords on those two lower view count videos and whaddya know, they didn’t get the same kind of traffic as keyword optimized vids.

Where that extra traffic came from might surprise you though. Here’s the stats from YouTube:

There were about 5,600 views from embeds – most likely views from the video being embedded here, on my own site.

But there were 12,948 from YouTube Suggested Video – that is, those videos that appear in the right hand sidebar or after a video when you’re done watching a clip. That’s where most of the bonus traffic from this video came from.

I want to take a minute to remind you (and myself) that while it’s unlikely I’ll rank on Page 1 of Google with my video for the highly competitive keyword phrase “keyword research,” it’s highly likely that YouTube identifies my video’s content and is able to drive MASSIVE traffic with *just* the “Suggested” function. I don’t even have to rank highly in YouTube’s regular search – and it doesn’t appear I do, with only 1,300 views coming from YouTube search. I just have to have appropriate keywords in my video title so that YouTube can display my video as “Suggested” and users, from the title, will understand what it’s about and click through.

Here’s a look at the videos that are referring “Suggested” traffic to my video:

While there’s one that’s sent about 1,700 views, you can see that overall, it’s a case of many videos sending a little traffic, not one huge spike from one source. It’s the long tail.

I’ve missed out on a combined 34,000 extra video views by not properly optimizing the titles on my other two vides.

I think the market was so focused on getting YouTube videos into Google search results as part of Universal Search that the idea of getting internal YouTube traffic was overlooked.

Here’s proof it’s there, and it’s WELL worth optimizing for.

Head on over to YouTube and check your videos – are there titles and descriptions you could update to be more keyword-centric?

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I TALK TO PPL ON THE WEBERNETS

Buffer announced it has an iPhone app – neat! I first talked about Buffer in May 2011 (were you on that webinar?), and it’s really picking up steam of late as many of the digerati got on board and are using it themselves. Here’s a video I made on using Buffer’s email feature. With the new app, you can manage your stream, add new posts, etc. Very handy functionality we didn’t have before.

Paul Colligan announced he’s stopped blogging and will only be doing the social media thing. Listen in his own words. It’s not  something I’m willing to try, but I am interested in hearing his results.

I UTERLIZE TOOLZ

Market Samurai is back in action - and better than ever. When your tool uses data from outside sources (it makes sense for a keyword tool to get data from Google) it’s also at the mercy of those outside sources. Market Samurai has made adjustments to Google’s throttling their data and your software is fully operational.

I was on a webinar hosted by Meeting Burner this week – it was the most seamless, attractive and pleasant webinar I’ve ever been on. No plugins to download. it JUST WORKED. It’ll hold up over 1,000 people and is a SOLID replacement for GoToWebinar. There are free accounts so you can test it out too.

I IS A PUBLISHER

“Blink and You’ll Miss It – The Real Story of Apple’s Move Into Education” is, by far, the best article I’ve seen on why Apple’s iBooks Author matters to content producers, writers and bloggers like you and me.

There’s even a video follow-up with a gorgeous example.

Pricing is another issue we consider in publishing, and this video from Seth Godin asks the question, “Why race to the bottom [on price] when you can race to the top?” Epiphany time – it’s 8 minutes and well worth the watch.

I LERVS THE LOLZ

This is my favorite of his videos. Joaquin Phoenix and Worcesterchire are also gems.

If you cry at the happy, sad, and hysterically funny ends of the emotional scale, you’ll be sobbing with me as Kristen Bell freaks out about a sloth:

Have a great week!

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The How To Start a Blog That Matters Bonus

You must purchase How To Start a Blog That Matters from my affiliate link by 11:59pm Pacific on Friday, February 3rd.

Then forward your Clickbank receipt to michellemacphearson AT me DOT com and I’ll hook you up with a free copy of 30 Minute Backlinks (it sells every day for $97).

Between “How to Start a Blog That Matters” and “30 Minute Backlinks“, you’ll have a 90 day blueprint to creating a site that inspires and excites your audience (by a guy who gets over 100,000 monthly visitors to his sites!) as well as a 1 year promotional strategy to continually build links in the most natural way Google is looking for.

No fine print.

Go make a difference to your audience.

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It’s one of the ways the face of SEO has dramatically shifted in the last 12 months.

What Google had admitted to is that WHO you are matters in SEO. Google is actively monitoring how much the blog posts YOU produce are shared, tweeted, linked on Facebook Fan Pages, etc. Google knows that if the internet as a whole isn’t listening to you and isn’t sharing your sites, it’s probably not great work. And if it’s not great work, it probably doesn’t deserve to be ranked highly in Google and get all that free SEO traffic.

That’s the situation in a nutshell. This kind of outside engagement via social media – and who YOU and YOUR blog are (and Google’s interpretation of your popularity in the marketplace) that are gonna matter more and more in 2012.

I’m super excited about these changes because it means that big corporate brands or the people with the biggest link building budgets won’t necessarily be the automatic winners in the top 10 of the SERPs.

Who’s going to win are the folks doing work that matters – the folks creating something worth sharing.

It’s where I’ve focused my 2012 business plan and where I hope you will too. I sincerely believe that if you don’t, your sites will be left behind, an ancient (in internet years, anyway!) but useless relic.

This idea – really putting your reputation (which Google is looking at) on the line and making a difference in your niche – is a lot scarier than buying some PLR articles, installing WordPress and adding Adsense to the mix. It’s dangerous. You could fail. It might be embarrassing.

But it’s deeply inspiring too.

If the idea of creating a legacy with your business resonates with you, take a look at the movement behind this page.

Invigorating, isn’t it?

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Cheers! Hip hip hooray!

It seems like just yesterday you were starting off and yet…

It’s the end of a long road, isn’t it?!

No!

I mean, yes it’s the end of the Makeover, but it’s not the end of the road for you pushing your sites and your business to be exceptional. To rise above the rest and become the example others strive towards.

I’ve put a pretty exceptional amount of work into creating this resource for you too! And while I haven’t asked for a thing during the whole Makeover, today I’m going to.

Share this incredible resource with your Twitter friends and Facebook fans. If you have a mailing list, let them know about the Makeover. Bloggers, let your audience know what’s available for them in the Internet Marketing Makeover.

You’ve had 30 days with me and I’ve held nothing back. Now I ask this one thing of you. Let people know about the Makeover. This is the page to refer people to so they can signup and experience it for themselves.

So that you have easy access to all of the course material, here’s a complete Table of Contents you can bookmark and refer back to at any time:

[Most of the posts here are for everyone to read - but the rest of this post is for members only. The good news? Membership is free. Sign up here or log in here.]

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What I want you to consider today is systemization and how you’ll take what you’ve done in the Makeover and carry it forward through the coming months.

DAY 30 OBJECTIVE

Get organized so you can systemize!

DAY 30 ASSIGNMENT

In a web based business like yours, so much of your input – that is, what you’re taking in and then deciding to act on, or not, is via email. You get email from teachers like myself, you get email from service providers, you get email selling you stuff, etc. A lot of it isn’t actionable or useful (of course MY stuff is!) but some of it is.

Plus, you probably keep up with a couple of internet marketing blogs and will see posts rom time to time that have tips or tricks you want to implement.

And, of course, when you’re out and about, falling asleep at night or waiting for the barber, you get ideas for your business, strategies, etc.

All of this has to be captured in a trusted system so that you can put it into action (or review it later). If you’re not familiar with the importance of capture, read Getting Things Done – it’s the classic on the topic.

For the trusted system to be effective, it has to be available to you from just about anywhere – anywhere you might need to capture.

And you need the ability to delegate tasks – perhaps to your virtual assistant, perhaps to your spouse (they love that…)

I’ve tried just about every tool out there, and have been very pleased with Flow mainly because it works seamlessly with email – a capture tool I have available to me from just about anywhere – and because I can easily delegate a task by adding the “@” symbol followed by the name of the person I want to delegate to. It even allows me to delegate to folks who don’t have a Flow account (although all my team members have accounts now).

When I think of something I need to do, I email it to Flow.

When I think of something someone else needs to do, I delegate it to them in Flow.

When I get an email I want to act on, I forward it to Flow.

When I read a blog post I want to act on, I use Reeder’s “Mail Article” function to email the article to my Flow account and create a task for me – or whomever I delegate to.

Of course, there’s an iPhone app, but it also has a well-done HTML5 version for all mobile browsers – that means you too, Android folks.

With the “Activity Feed” I can see everything my team did at night while I was asleep. With live updating comments, everyone is ALWAYS on the same page. With recurring tasks, links are built and rankings maintained without input from me.

If you can’t tell, I really do like Flow. Something better might come around, but this is what I love right now and the above is why.

Whatever your trusted system is, you need one. Give Flow App a try if you don’t have something yet that works for you, they have a 14 day free trial, no credit card required.

Here are some of the tasks I put in my “trusted system” for myself or others to do that will probably be helpful to you:

These are just some of the things I put in my system. That way my brain NEVER has to work – except when I sit down to do that actual work. But it doesn’t have to work at remembering what the work is!

I know you know so much about internet marketing by now, and I want you to prosper, to make money, to build a business with it. The Internet Marketing Makeover is a start, but you’ve got to be carrying on what came from this in the months ahead. Whatever trusted system YOU choose, get one and start using it.

By the end of today’s Makeover, you have:

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It’s the end of Week 4, and today is a day of recap and rest. If you’ve kept up this week, you can take the day off. If you’re behind, today is a day to catch up with what you’ve missed.

Take a peek at what we’ve been up to this week and see if anything’s been overlooked:

DAY 29 OBJECTIVE

Complete this week’s Makeover assignments!

DAY 29 ASSIGNMENT

Review the previous Internet Marketing Makeover posts and their tasks and complete anything you haven’t gotten to yet:

[Most of the posts here are for everyone to read - but the rest of this post is for members only. The good news? Membership is free. Sign up here or log in here.]

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We’ve talked about the effects of using social media in terms of both search engine optimization and in terms of becoming a market leader.

Today you’re going to be introduced to a new concept that is part social media optimization, part market leadership and part search engine optimization. Welcome to “Satellite Sites.”

[Most of the posts here are for everyone to read - but the rest of this post is for members only. The good news? Membership is free. Sign up here or log in here.]

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It’s true – visitors can get lost on our sites! Whether it’s a out-of-date bookmark or simply a broken or mistyped link, 404 errors (“Page Not Found”) lead many site visitors to simply abandon their quest and try finding what they want somewhere else.

In today’s Internet Marketing Makeover assignment, you’ll give visitors who reach a 404 error page alternatives, so they stay on your site!

[Most of the posts here are for everyone to read - but the rest of this post is for members only. The good news? Membership is free. Sign up here or log in here.]

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We all surround ourselves by what we are comfortable with, and online, that might mean the blogs we regularly read, the Twitter friends and the Facebook fans we interact with.

But now that we’ve established a lead generation funnel for our sites, it’s time to break out of that comfort zone and bring new prospects, customers and friends into our sphere of influence.

[Most of the posts here are for everyone to read - but the rest of this post is for members only. The good news? Membership is free. Sign up here or log in here.]

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