Looking at Video on the Web with Ken McCarthy

You’ve probably seen that Google search results feature videos now, often above-the-fold in the top ten rankings.

Do you think people click on these videos? You bet they do.

The good news is that while Google displays thousands of results for any given search term, they only display a handful of videos, sometimes just two.

It makes this particular Google “real estate” extremely valuable…

The challenge is how do you get to be one of the lucky ones?

Amazingly, this is actually one of the easiest things to do in search marketing – if you know how.

…And these guys know how.

This is a very solid course and the only Internet video marketing course I’ve ever recommended…even if the promotional video is a little over the top.

Details:

How to use Internet video to beat the search engines

- Ken

This is one of those things I’ve been profiting from for several years and been meaning to share “when I got around to it.”

If you’ve read ALL the articles on this blog, connected all the dots and done a few dozen (or a few hundred) hours of experimentation, you might have already figured it out on your own.

But wouldn’t you know, two guys came along and took it light years beyond even the best cutting-edge strategies I’ve been sharing on these pages.

Why you should get on this now

Long story made short…I was in Toronto last weekend getting some much needed R & R and also attending an outstanding Gauher Chaudhry seminar where I met a lot of very bright folks.

On one of the breaks I heard a guy talking about Internet video marketing and I couldn’t resist eavesdropping.

I assumed I’d pick up a trick or two, but quickly realized he’d taken Internet video marketing to a whole another level.

It turns out his name is Alex Goad. He lives in Montreal (my favorite city) and he and his partner have blown way past even my best recommendations.

Free tools – if you act fast

Better yet – and by lucky coincidence – this weekend Alex is giving away some of his very best stuff to help raise the profile on a new course he’s launching soon

I was so excited about what he showed me that I’ve postponed dinner with a friend to get this message out to you so you don’t miss it.

It’s the best thing I’ve ever seen on using video to market on the Internet.

Details:

How to make Google send you free qualified traffic with Internet video

Best,

Ken

P.S. This is a somewhat slick presentation, but don’t worry. It has nothing to do with those losers known as “The Syndicate.”

It’s an excellent course at a fair and righteous prices…something those Syndicate guys don’t have a clue how to do.

Details:

How to make Google send you free qualified traffic with Internet video

I finally got one…

I won it in a sales contest…never would have bought one.

On the other hand, now that I have one, I’m very glad to have it.

The MacBook Air (my previous lightweight option) was a piece of ****. It was lightweight alright, in every sense of the word. I don’t know anyone who likes “the Air” but I do know many people who foam at the mouth at the very mention of it.

The iPad, in contrast, actually does what it’s supposed to do which is:

1. Let you carry out basic Internet functions (mail, browsing, audio and video)…

2. With a small, lightweight device

iPhones etc. are a little too small for real video watching as far as I’m concerned.

I’m sure someone has mentioned this somewhere already, but it not here goes:

Thanks to the iPad, we now have graduated from 24/7/365 video on demand…(who needs TV anymore?)…to PORTABLE 24/7/365 video on demand (as long as there is a wireless signal.)

That’s a pretty big leap of evolution (even though I know they’ve had something like this in South Korea for at least four years!)

What’s next?

There must be something that’s “next” but once all the world’s video is available on demand 24/7/365 on a portable and truly useful device, what could possibly be next in the video world?

Improvements in detail, in delivery, in price etc. sure, but with this device we’ve reached the Promised Land…if the Promised Land means being able to carry around a device that lets you access video on demand on any subject under the sun at any time of day or night.

Social media is hot.

It’s also one of the hottest refuges for scammers and BS artists.

I recently made the mistake of doing some pro bono work for a good cause run by amateurs. (Long story and a mistake I will never repeat.)

Throughout the process, I’ve been told I have to meet with this social marketing expert and that one, the implication being they have something of value to bring to the party that’s more important than actually getting the job done. (These folks LOVE meetings. They don’t like work.)

Meanwhile, I patiently try to explain to these wing nuts that the only currency that means anything in Internet marketing is the size of your e-mail list (prospects and customers). Not how many “friends” you have, how many people “follow” you on Twitter, or how much chatter there is about you in the blogosphere.

Hey, I like Twitter and I know people who get some good things from Facebook, but I don’t know anyone who would trade a solid e-mail list to become king of Twitter or Facebook.

Conversely, I know plenty of social media masters who are one step away from living in a “van down by the river.” (Google it. If you don’t know the Saturday Night Live routine that phrase is from, you’re in for some serious laughter.)

Anyway, after listening the the millionth and one social media “genius” I took a look at some of my own social media stats. (My social media weapon of choice being video.)

Here are my numbers:

1. I’ve pushed one video over the 2,800,000 views mark
2. I’ve pushed two over the 1,200,000 views mark
3. I’ve pushed seventeen over the 100,000 view mark (sixteen singehandedly, one in partnership)

Total cash expenditure: zero dollars.

It was all accomplished by viral marketing, also know as “word of mouth” and all these hits were kicked off with mailing to an e-mail list. No Twitter. No Facebook.

I’m sure there are social media “gurus” who could turn these stats into speaking gigs at the latest social media conferences, television appearances, and books on how to “crush it.”

Me?

I’m very unimpressed by my own accomplishments.

Why?

I’m in SALES.

How many leads did I generate? How many sales did I close? How many people did I induce to come back and buy a second and third and fourth time?

Let’s get real folks.

Social media is gravy.

You better have a meal to put it on.

Focus on what matters.

…When all the odds are stacked against you

My friend Rick Goldsmith has just received his second nomination for an Academy Award, this time for his feature length documentary “The Most Dangerous Man in America” which he made with Judith Erhlich.

Rick’s previous nomination was for “Tell the Truth and Run.”

That was back in the days when the web was young (mid 1990s.) Rick and I put together one of the first web sites built around a movie. The site looks pretty primitive now, but pioneering things often do. (We haven’t updated it in at least ten years, but it still gets the job done!)

It’s pretty amazing to get nominated for an Academy Award, even more amazing for it to happen twice.. especially for films made on a limited budget and on serious subjects.
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I like the way HD looks, but for the longest time it seemed like overkill.

I mean do we really need digital transmission and HD quality on our television sets? Really?

But here’s a use of HD that is truly exciting: real time transmission of live performances to theater audiences around the world.

A variation of this has existed for a long time (ex. championship boxing matches), but this is a much more interesting use.

The next best thing to being there

The pioneer of this new approach seems to have been the NY Metropolitan Opera.

Make senses.

Opera is expensive to produce and it’s near impossible to take a Met show on the road which means hard core opera fans (and there are few thing more hard core than a hard core opera fan) were deprived of the Met experience.

Prairie Home Companion is another logical candidate

Much of Prairie Home Companion’s charm is the fact that it’s a LIVE show, but of course, a live show can only be in one place at a time.

Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of fans listen to the show on the radio every week. It will be interesting to see how this works. I have a feeling it will be a hit. It’s great to people watch, eat popcorn and laugh along with a good show.

These days, it’s looks like I’m posting every three months. C’est la vie.

The Internet video revolution has come, saw and conquered. What’s left to say?

Well, occasionally things happen that deserve attention.

Here are two big ones that jumped out at me while I was in the UK:

1. YouTube hits 1 billion video downloads a day

Holy smokes!  There are only about 1 billion Internet users. Does this mean that everyone on the Internet is watching an average of at least 1 video a day on YouTube?

I guess it does and then there are people who watch 50 or more a day. Me, for example. It’s not hard to do.

I don’t watch TV. Why bother when I can call up anything I want whenever I want? TV is doomed.

2. The Internet creams TV

Speaking of the UK, the amount of money spent by advertisers on Internet advertising in that country just exceeded the amount spent on TV advertising. The numbers are 1.75 billion for online advertising vs. 1.64 for TV advertising. More evidence that…TV is doomed.

And this is only the beginning.  Looks like the things I predicted when I started this blog four years ago are starting to come to pass.

Speaking of beginnings, I’ve been going over to the UK occasionally for years but something “clicked” for me on my latest trip and after tidying up some business here, I’m heading right back.

Next year, I’m planning on spending a few months there as I do in New Orleans ever year.

One of the reasons I’m going back to the UK so soon is that a bunch of my Internet marketing friends are attending the UFC fights in Manchester. System grad Lloyd Irvin has a team in the competition. To fill out an already busy week, I’m bringing New Orleans jazz poet Chuck Perkins over to do some gigs in that poetry and music loving city to help open the door for other New Orleans musicians looking for new markets to perform in.

Never a dull moment.

Interestingly, all the guys who are coming over for the fights and the seminar are heavy users of Internet video – that’d be Lloyd, me, Greg Davis and Ben Moskel.

Heavy users of video in our marketing – and we’re all doing well. Coincidence? I don’t think so.

Ken

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Hard to believe, but it's been three years since I wrote about a little company called Pure Digital and its
interesting – but dumb – idea for disposable video cameras.

While it was cool to be able to buy a video camera for $29, being able to use it only once was not cool

That's where the hacker came in.

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Can you put your offering in a headline with the formula "Attention (fill in the blank)"?

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