Good move or bad move? How does it affect the Video Marketer?

I’m personally hoping that the change is just until further work is done on YouTube.  Having no front end Insight statistics will not only be a hindrance to YouTube publishers but also to marketers. YouTube insight, gives us that, insight, into how & where our competitors are gaining their external traffic. Indeed we have had publishers in the past whom wanted to keep this data ‘secret’ &  were able to disable the function within the YouTube Video settings to do so.

So understandably they may have opted for non disclosure of traffic and views source  by calculating the amount of publishers whom press the ‘none disclosure’ button. However publishers now have to deal with the issue of having to translate the YouTube back end insight statistics to study their own stats & referrals.

Although YouTube insight doesn’t require a ‘brain surgeon’ to understand its data, the quick view  ‘snap shot’ of data including embeds, referring videos, countries viewing etc has now gone, with the alternate being a long winded -  click through several pages -  to extract the same information but on a more intense scale. While it is good that YouTube provides such information, it is also essential that it is accessible to the average you tuber.

Maybe a better idea would be for those that wish to have access to their ‘snap shot’ data confirmed this during upload? As opposed to enforcing a one rule for all?

As originally said, I do hope that this is a temporary measure while upgrades are being made. If, however, this is something that YouTube intends to implement for the long haul, I really hope that they will reconsider.

Just as a website or blog RSS is important in assisting you to get targeted traffic and that you are providing an update of fresh content; The same applies to your YouTube Channel RSS

To access your YouTube RSS feed you need to replace YOURCHANNELNAME is the following URL:

http://www.youtube.com/rss/user/YOURCHANNELNAME/videos.rss

And to show you how it is formatted you can look at the VDO.me YouTube channel (work in progress!):

YouTube Channel RSS

As you can see it includes your titles, descriptions, ratings, upload date, views count & video time length. It doesn’t however include your Video keywords, so this is another reason why it is important to put keywords within the video description.

Now that you know your YouTube RSS feed URL you can submit it to RSS Feed Aggregators either manually or via your chosen software.

For a more detailed explanation on RSS in general try this guide

If you would like to receive RSS updates from VDO.me please feel free to subscribe here:

A video sitemap is essential for google to crawl & index your videos correctly, without it spiders simply ignore most of the videos.

Here is a simple video explaining the need for a Video Sitemap by Googlewebmasterhelp

And here is the link to the data & tags required when creating your map: Videositemap

If you are using WordPress there is a simple plugin that can create your Video Sitemap at the click of a button:

Google XML Sitemap For Videos WordPress Plugin

It is limited to YouTube embedded videos only & you must be using your own hosted WordPress blog & not a free blogging platform.

Here is a video tutorial on how to install the plugin & create your sitemap.

How To Create A Video Sitemap For WordPress

If you prefer to install your WordPress plugins via FTP here is the direct link: Google XML SiteMap For Video

As you may have noticed on my tutorial, all videos had the same title as they were embedded solely on a page with no other information. Be sure to add a title heading for your video like my embedded video above.

If you have any further information on Video Sitemaps for other blogging platforms please let me know by posting a comment!

Video Marketing

From Subscribing & Commenting to adding Friends & mass Messaging, Tube ToolBox has the added bonus of being able to gather YouTube users I.D’s based on keywords.

As an avid user I explain the pros & cons of Tube Toolbox

I will first explain that this software only works within the realms of YouTubes Terms of Service, so it is considered perfectly safe to use & you are not breaching YouTubes TOS by using it.

So what does it do? Well its easier for me to list its capabilities so here goes:

It Can Gather YouTube User ID’s via:

Keywords (target your Niche)

Country &Age

From Other Channels Friends & Subscribers Lists

Plus it also has filters for: User Last Log In & Amount Videos,Subscribers & Friends each ID has

Once You Have Your Gathered List You Can:

Send Friend Invites (approx 1 every 5 minutes)

Send Mass Messages

Send Mass Channel Comments

Send Mass Video Comments (you must also gather Videos when gathering ID’s)

Subscribe To Channels

Send Your Video To Friends/Subscribers

Here are a couple of screenshots:

Tube ToolBox Full Screen:

A Closer View of The Options List:

So what is this software used for?

I personally use Tube Toolbox to build up my YouTube channel. I gather people related to my niche, then send out mass friend invites which results in gaining new friends, subscribers, comments, likes & views to my videos. If you are  already Video Marketing on YouTube, you will know that gaining all of these not only helps your Videos to rise up in YouTube search engine ranking position (SERPS), but you now also have a targeted list of friends & subscribers that you can send your new videos too.

So to list the Pros & Cons:

Pros:

• It does everything you can do on YouTube but automated
• It can gather user ID’s via keyword (target your Niche)
• It can gather ID’s via Country & Age
• It has filters so that you can determine the gather via: last time a user logged in, amount of friends & subscribers & videos
• It builds up your channel & helps SERPS with friends, subscribers, comments, likes & views
• It builds up a targeted list
• It’s updated all the time & has a support forum

Cons:

• Proxy support isn’t available
• You can only change your own YouTube ID every 3 days
• No Captcha support – Captcha comes up on YouTube when posting comments – however you do have the option to set the software to wait for captcha to time out (10 minutes)
• Can be considered hard to use – there are tutorials – but it takes a little time to ‘get to know the software’ & use it for the best results

Tube Toolbox is free to try, although it does have limitations, if you chose to purchase they offer a variety of subscription choices:

$9.95 a month or $70 per year or $140 for a lifetime licence.

I would consider this my number 1 YouTube Video Marketing software, I will be adding tutorials on how to use it effectively in the near future.

Try It Free: Tube ToolBox

LinkedTube allows you to input your YouTube video ID, add the link you wish to promote & chose the button, headline & subline text. Once done, you grab the embed code given and you get the following:

As you can see it looks quite impressive & it can help to improve click through rates. The one drawback there is, is that it shows the embed code after someone clicks your link, which is, for want of a better word, rather ugly. You do however get your video placed on the Linked Tube site in the ‘recently linked videos’ which might also get you an additional visitior or 2.

Visit Site:

Linked Tube

Here we have 5 more HD Video backdrops for you to use in your creations

Demo Available:

5 Royalty Free HD Video Backgrounds Vol 2

See the demo of them in action:

5 Royalty Free HD Video Backgrounds

Jaycut also offers developers an application programming interface (API) so that the editor can be embedded into your site; for private or public use. They provide easy to use instructions on how to integrate the editor into Joomla, WordPress & Drupal, and of course full API documentation for those clever enough to know what to do with it!

Following the instructions to embed into WordPress – which only requires a PHP Plugin and copy & pasting of code – I have unfortunately failed to integrate Jaycut into this very website. But I am forgiving and will put this failure down to the recent WordPress update & assume that the plugin needs updating.

So is Jaycut any good as an online editor?

If you are a beginner to video editing & creation then I would say yes. It can give you the look & feel of editing software such as Windows Movie Maker or Cyberlink Power Director without the need of a download. The transitions & text effects are minimal, but again to a beginner this can be a help as opposed to being overwhelmed with 100′s of different styles & effects. The exporting direct to YouTube is a bonus along with the fact that Jaycut is free to use.

The API looks interesting enough, especially for developers. I beleive that you can rebrand the editor to swap out the Jaycut branding with your own, which might be a nice little traffic bringing addition to your site. The API is free, but there is a price to pay if you want to the ability to create videos en mass.

Good for the beginner editor

Interesting concept for developers

Jaycut

So how is it done?

First you will want to target videos within your niche ( the higher the competing keyword -  the better). Steer clear of posting your video for an amazon turkey baster as a response to a gaming video or you will probably have you video flagged as spam..

Once you find a highly viewed video that fits your niche (usually first page of YouTube Search) check that the comments are recent & if insight is available, that the video is still receiving plenty of views.

So should I post my response now? Well actually I wouldn’t bother, as you can see there are no other Video Responses to be seen (usually shown under Highest Rated Comments) so the owner of this video has auto response turned off (a recent YouTube default) & it looks like he/she is denying any video response requests… for a 16 million views video I’m sure there have been plenty!

So I now need to find a video that meets the criteria of the above, but also includes Video Responses…

Ok not as popular as the first video but at half a million views & plenty of recent comments I won’t complain! Now I need to post my video as a response:

Step 1

Step 2

Step 3

Now to see if the Video Response has been successful or not:

The first image shows that the response is indeed a success & if I were to go back to the Video I would see my video in Video Responses. The second image however shows that my response to another video still requires approval from the video owner. This gives me the option to either wait for the approval or I can move onto another video that allows auto response ( I am impatient so prefer the latter).

So that’s it .. well almost .. you now really need to keep track of your video responses as when the next couple of responses from other youtubers are posted your video will disappear from that vital front page spot. If you find your video has gone from the front page, I advise posting the same video as a response to a video that will be rejected ( need approval) & then repost it to the original video and claim back the top spot.

Also note that your video can only be a response to one video at a time

It’s a simple as picking your style ( from a choice of 6) and then adding your pictures/video/text & then choosing your desired music.

So whats the catch I hear you ask? Well as nothing in life comes for free, Animoto is much the same. With a free account you can create 30 second videos, which, if you havent got much to say might well do. To unlock the 30 second time limit you need to upgrade to an unlimited account at the cost of $30 a year or $5 per month – and of course there is a discount if you have a referrer ( shamelessly inserts referral link here) which is $5 off a yearly subscription bringing it down to $25 per year.

But upgrading to an unlimited package isn’t as exciting as it seems. There are still limitations such as videos are in Standard Definition (SD), Videos are still branded with the Animoto logo & your stuck with the same 6 styles – which, believe me, you will soon get very bored off.

The other available option is to upgrade to a professional account (pro). This gives you: Unbranded Videos, High Definition (HD) video, 8 more styles to chose from & a call to action button – meaning you can place a link onto the end of your video to direct your viewers to your Affiliate Link/CPA Offer/Blog or whatever your heart desires. It does come with a hefty price tag though at $249 a year, but if you are a mass video creator it can save you a lot of time & it is cost effective if you are going to use it to create at least 4-5 videos per week. Again another shameless referral link will get you an extra free month of Animoto Pro.. but hold your horses..

Although I like the concept of Animoto, the one draw back is that the videos (regardless of branding or not) are instantly recognisable as being ‘Animoto Videos’, which could turn the viewer to the ‘off’ button. But as a Video Marketer myself, I would say that, as I have seen many many Animoto videos in circulation.  I think you will find the average viewer, that does venture into YouTube for 8 hours a day, will be fairly impressed to see an embedded Animoto video, & the same if you are catering for a small niche & google front page placement. But if you plan to market to the masses and aim for the high competition keywords I would steer clear of Animoto & create something unique that viewers will want to watch.

Pros:

• Easy To Use
• Royalty Free Music
• Time & Cost Effective for Mass Production
• HD (Pro Account Only)
• Call To Action Button (Pro Account Only)

Cons:

• Cost
• Instantly Recognisable – May Put Viewers Off
• Not Enough Styles

Try It for yourself by creating a free 30 second video

Animoto