How To Make Viral Videos

In 2009, the big thing online was about getting your videos on YouTube or Google Video but in my view, 2010 and beyond will demand much more than creating a video or even putting it up on video sharing sites.

In 2010 and beyond, if you want to be noticed, you’re going to have to make more noise!  In other words, your videos are going to have to stand out and be heard as well as seen.

If you want to stand out from the crowd, you have to make your videos viral.

To be viral, your video has to be different – short (less than 3 minutes is best and 15 to 30 seconds even better).  If relevant, make your videos funny, unique, interesting and, I would add to this, inspiring.  In other words, you have to engage your audience enough that they consider your video worthy of sharing with their friends via email, social networking sites such as Twitter or Facebook or even on their own blog.

Avoid making outright ads though.  I have a few of these and I can tell you from experience, they do not get as many clicks as the other videos I make.  Also, if you want to share your videos on as many sites as possible, you really ought to take heed to this advice since some video sharing sites, free or paid, will not accept videos that are just outright ads.  Remember, people are searching for information and not sales pitches.

If you want to solicit comments on your video, engage your audience by having a conversation with yourself  and asking people what they think.  You’ll be amazed at how people respond to being asked to participate.  That said, though, I would moderate my comments because some people are just mean online and there is always one whose aim is to put down other people’s videos in order to promote their own.

And remember to add some interesting Tags to your video and, spice up the thumbnail.  YouTube for example creates a default thumbnail, but you can go into your video profile page and change it.  I admit that sometimes I’m lazy and just don’t bother, but a picture paints a thousand words and often people are more attracted to the images than they are the title.  But whilst we’re on the subject of the title, optimize it!  Use relevant keywords but make the title catchy.

You can literally be duped into spending thousands of dollars learning how to make the most of video marketing online, but here’s a resource that I highly recommend if you want to capture a bigger share of the YouTube Traffic … YouTube Secret Weapon by Julie Perry and Paul Colligan.

I literally spent hours one evening looking for a good reasource on how to optimize my video marketing campaigns online and was about to go to bed disappointed because the only courses I could find were about $2,000, when someone on Twitter (Zeb Olsen), put out a tweet about YouTube Secret Weapon.  After reading the sales letter, I didn’t waste any time to purchase and I would say this course sits in the top 5 courses I purchased in 2009.

Video marketing is cheap, it’s quick and, the results are fast.  With sites such as SlideShare and Animoto, you don’t even have to purchase video cameras or expensive screen capture software if you don’t want to.  It’s true, I have it all but I’ve been collecting since about 2005 when I first purchased Camtasia screen capture software, but for right now, video marketing is my top method for getting traffic besides blogging.  But it’s also true, I like to talk!

Check out Julie Perry and Paul Colligan’s YouTube Secret Weapon course and make it your aim in 2010 to do more than make videos and upload them to video sharing sites … make viral videos.

59WFGY3YJ64H