With just over 1.1 Billion (1,100,000,000) unique monthly visitors Google’s video sharing platform Youtube is the 2nd largest website in the world, right after Google.com.
We’ve all heard of popular Youtubers who are creating quite an impressive income through Youtube’s display ads. Most of them didn’t start their Youtube channels for the sake of making money but rather because they wanted to share their content with the world. Creating good videos takes time and a lot of effort, I realize this by simply looking at my girlfriend Elizabeth who started her own channel in 2016 (check it out here and subscribe if you enjoy her work).
Youtube is not only a great platform for simply sharing your work and possibly making some money from ad-revenue, this platform could be an awesome source of targeted traffic and income as a result. So how can you use Youtube to get more visitors to your website and your business? Create videos. I understand that you might be completely clueless about video creation and you may be uncomfortable in front of the camera. This post will give you some idea of how I make videos that attract targeted traffic and generate income.
1. Become the video star
This is the most obvious ways to make your videos. Take out your phone or a camera and film yourself talking. Of course it’s preferable to have a camera capable of filming in HD. Of course it’s preferable to have an external microphone that records high quality sound. Of course it’s a great idea to set up a backdrop and great lighting for your shots – but none of it is necessary.
I haven’t done that yet but I feel like I will be starting some time this year. I think this is a great way to connect with your audience and share your expertise. However if you are seriously uncomfortable being on video and/or if you simply don’t have a camera you can do another kind of videos.
2. Record screen-casts
Many of my videos are simple recordings of my computer screen. You can show your website and explain what it is and how it works. You can create a tutorial on how to do something specific (how to create a website, how to set-up an affiliate link, how to create an image, etc). People don’t need to see your face, they need to see your screen. Here is an example of such a video that I created:
This is incredibly simple to do. The software that I use for this kind of video is called Camtasia. I started using Camtasia in 2008 or so and it’s still the most popular software for creating screen videos, however there are many others available.
3. Make Animated Videos
You can make animated videos, cartoon videos and whiteboard videos. Sounds like a challenge? Well, that’s what I though as wel until I came across Sparkol. This service allows you to create animated whiteboard videos with ease. Write your text, move it around, use provided images and music as well! At only $12/month it’s a steal!
Hint: companies pay $100-$1,000 per 30 seconds of animated video. You can make serious bank by simply creating these videos for others. I have done that a few times with Sparkol.
Here is a quick idea of what you can do with Sparkol (available on computers as well as mobile devices):
How awesome is that?
There are many other companies that offer similar services at different prices. I can’t really suggest any other company because Sparkol is the only one I tried in order to create videos for my clients and my own business.
4. Pay for videos
Just a few paragraphs above I mentioned that animated videos can cost a lot of money. I know that even though you can create your own videos using a camera, camtasia or sparkol you might still prefer to outsource this task to someone else. Although you aren’t wiling to pay hundreds or thousands of dollars for it.
Well there is a cheaper solution that I can recommend. Have you noticed the introduction in the first video on this post? Yes, the one with the Extra Paycheck logo. I actually paid someone to do it for me and I was charged a whopping $5. I am talking about Fiverr.com (click on this link and you can order your first video or any other gig for free).
There are tons of people willing to make an animated video for you or even be on camera for only $5. You can’t expect a 10 minute video with special effects at this price but you can certainly get a quick high quality video.
Getting the most out of your videos
Okay, you’ve got the video. Now what?
Video SEO
Uploading to youtube is pretty straight forward. However, you must pay attention to a few elements that could be very beneficial to your video. Just like Google ranks our websites in their search results, Youtube ranks the videos in their search. There is no 100% guaranteed way to get to the top of their search but certain things definitely help.
Make sure you did your keyword research. If you want your video to rank for a phrase “How to make a pillow”, you can’t leave the video title as “DC03994.avi”. Put the keyword phrase in your title.
There is also a box where you can enter several keywords, use it. Type in your main keywords and several relevant keywords as well.
Don’t forget to add the main keyword phrase in the video description as well. To be honest I prefer to add a few paragraphs in the description to explain what the video is all about. This helps Youtube understand where it should be ranked.
Link To Your Site
Your main goal is to get more traffic to your website, right? This means that you need to have a way for your visitors to find your link. I usually add my link in the very first line of the video description. There is a little trick to keep in mind though.
If you type your link such as www.yourwebsite .com – it will not be clickable. Make sure to type the full url starting with http://
Normally I also include clickable links directly into the video. A little pop-up appears with a call to action and if people click on it they are taken to my site. This option is not available by default so you need to do a little work to make it happen. I made an easy to follow video tutorial on how to get the magic done 😉 Here it is.
More tricks
Often you will only find HD videos ranking in the top 10-20 of Youtube search results. Make sure your video is in HD, 720p or more.
Another thing I’ve done (that seemed to help me) was enabling CC (closed caption) for some of my videos. Youtube can provide you with free automatic cc however you should go through it and edit it because there will be quite a few mistakes.
Share Your Video
Last but not least, you need to get people sharing your video and talking about it. The more people view and share it – the higher chance you have of Youtube picking it up and putting in the “suggested” category.
Sharing could be done in very different ways and my last blog post concentrated on getting the most of your content. So please check my case study on how to make your content go viral.
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– Alex
