Using videos for promotion is a great way to add exposure to your web site…and the great thing is you don’t have to ever be in the video if you don’t want to. I’m hardly ever in the videos that I create. I simply create a multimedia presentation and use a screen and voice capture software and speak over the presentation as I click through the slides. This can be done absolutely free. Of course you need to buy a decent headset and microphone but the software can be free.
To create your presentation you can of course use any of the software that is installed on your computer, like in my case, Microsoft Powerpoint (it came with the computer). If you don’t have any such software on your computer there are two other choices as far as I know. You can download and install free presentation software from OpenOffice.org. The software is called Impress and works similarly to PowerPoint. You can download the OpenOffice.org suite completely and legitimately free here. You can also create your presentation, for free, completely online without downloading any software to your computer using Google Docs.
To capture the screen and your voice you can use Techsmith’s free Jing software (for Windows or Mac) or a free trial of Camtasia. They both work well for what I want to accomplish which is a quick presentation style video with my voice in the background describing what is on the screen.
After the video is created it’s time to publish it. There are a lot of popular video sharing sites out there and probably some specific to the niche you are in. I’ll just be discussing how I go about getting my video on YouTube.
First, I create an account on YouTube specific to the web site or product that I am promoting. When you upload your video to YouTube it gets converted to a popular format viewable by most browsers. After the conversion and when the video is published, I embed it into my blog or web site.
Getting Visitors From Your YouTube Video To Your Web Site or Blog
Let’s go back to the process of adding the video to YouTube. Here are some things that I generally do when adding my video.
- I put my URL somewhere in the title of the video. I don’t include the http:// or the www part though, just the main part of the URL.
- I try to include a keyword in my title if I have the room. Only include it if it’s relevant.
- Add your domain name with the http://www part at the very beginning of the description because it becomes a clickable link.
- Include keywords in your description if they are relevant to the video and only if they sound natural when included.
- If you are able, include a watermark at the bottom of your video that has your domain name and/or brand or logo.
- Mention the domain name near the end of the video. It will be a little redundant, especially for those viewing the video from your web site rather than from YouTube but I do it anyway. Don’t be shy, ask the viewer to come and visit.
- Use relevant one word tags for your video. I always include my domain name with and without the .com (or .net, .ca, etc.) as a tag. Always include the same main tags for all of your videos that pertain to your web site. Also for each individual video, include tags that are unique to it.
- Tell your friends about the video. Ask them to rate it and perhaps add it to their favorites or Social Bookmark it if they feel it’s worthy.
- Also, ask your friends to rate your video with StumbleUpon. (Learn about StumbleUpon on the ‘Using Social Media For Promotion‘ page.)
Fill in your profile at YouTube as well. It includes a spot for your web site address so be sure to take advantage of it.
Web sites mentioned on this post:
- OpenOffice.org – Has a free office suite including presentation software.
- Google Docs – Has free online office applications which include a word processor, spreadsheet and presentation software.
- Jing – Free image, video and audio capture software with easy sharing capabilities.
- Camtasia – Screen and video capture software.
- YouTube – Reach a wide audience with YouTube.
- StumbleUpon – Discover and rate web sites, blogs, photos, videos, etc.
Any questions or comments, please use the comments form.
February 3, 2008
Miscellaneous