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

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 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.

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.

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.

Rick specializes in making films about people who tell the truth under difficult circumstances, something this country and world can use a lot more of.

How to get nominated for an Academy Award – Step One

Truth be told, I don’t know 101 techniques to get nominated for an Academy Award, but I do know the details of how Rick got nominated the first time. It’s a story that has inspired me continuously since the day I first heard it and I’ve shared it with many people over the years.

The topic: George Seldes…the grandfather of investigative journalism in America.

Among other things, Seldes was the first to report on the cover up of the science that showed modern cigarettes were designed to be addictive and caused cancer (this back in the 1940s!) His work inspired Studs Turkel, Howard Zinn, Ralph Nader, IF Stone, and the subject of “The Most Dangerous Man in America” Daniel Ellsberg.

Rick learned about Seldes after learning that Seldes had passed his 100th birthday and shot some interviews with him using a Hi8 video camera.

Over time (and on his own time), Rick developed these interviews into a full length feature documentary Tell the Truth and Run which captured not only the details of Seldes’ remarkable career, but also many of the big events of world history from the World War I to the Cold War. Along the way, he recruited Susan Sarandon and Ed Asner as narrators.

Step One: Make a great piece on a subject you believe in and get it done any way you can.

How to get nominated for an Academy Award – Step Two

The original version of “Tell the Truth and Run” was actually a video which made it ineligible for an Academy Award, so getting a nomination was the furthest thing from Rick’s mind. Nonetheless, he carried out the second essential task in making a film which is to tirelessly promote the finished work.

One of the places he brought his work to was the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival. A lady in the audience came up to him and said: “That’s such a great film. It should be nominated for an Academy Award.”

Rick filled her in on the facts. In order for a film to be nominated, it has to be on film (not video) and it has to have a run in a New York or Los Angeles theater. (Dear reader: Check the details. The requirements may have changed since the mid 1990s.)

The lady then asked Rick what it would cost to transfer the video to film and exhibit in a “real” theater in order for the film to be qualified. He told her and she raised the money and made it happen.

How to get nominated for an Academy Award – Step Three

Step Three is to contact the Academy and put your film in the running. I imagine all the current information you need to know about how to do this is on their web site.

Here are key take-aways from this story:

1. Rick made the film he believed in, not something he thought would be sexy or award winning
2. He made a beautifully crafted piece of work, in spite of a low budget and in spite of a scarcity of free time
3. He got the film out there and by doing so created fans for it
4. With the help of one fan, he thought “outside the box” (don’t you hate that term?) and turned an illegible video into an eligible one by learning and and following the rules
5. He threw his hat in the ring

End result: An Academy Award nomination.

So what happened?

Did “Tell the Truth and Run” win?

No, that year the prize went to an acquaintance of mine Leon Gast from my Film Center days in New York City. (If you’re in the film biz you know the legendary/notorious Film Center on Ninth Avenue.)

Actually, Leon was more than an acquaintance. He was the client of an audio post-production firm I helped my friend Bill Markle (aka William Markle) get off the ground back in the late 1980s when digital sound editing was brand new.

Leon’s film: “When We Were Kings” – a documentary about boxer Mohammed Ali.

Truth be told, no one was going to beat Ali in 1996, but this year, for “The Most Dangerous Man in America”? – I’m cautiously optimistic.

After all, the Saints won the Super Bowl. This may be the year when ANYTHING can happen.

I’ll be watching the Award ceremony in New Orleans and you know what happened the last time that happened…Go Rick!

Ken McCarthy

P.S. I’m not going to miss an opportunity to plug my own work…

Our annual seminar is coming up soon – April 9 – 11 in Chicago.

You can learn about it and actually start learning from some of the industry’s leading experts, right now – for free.

Details: The annual System Seminar 2010 – Chicago

Why you should consider investing your time in looking into this?

If you’re interested in Internet marketing, it’s possible to learn directly from the guy who put on the original Internet marketing seminar and was an early innovator in the areas of: banner advertising (1994), legitimate e-mail marketing (1994), auto-responders (1997), PPC (2000), online video advertising (2004) and now mobile marketing (2007.)

Since then, we’ve put on dozens of trainings and helped countless people – including many folks who are now industry leaders – get started in the business on the right foot.

You could be our next success story. Why not? Our students, friends, and clients have a remarkable track record of doing great things.

Details: The annual System Seminar 2010 – Chicago

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.

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

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.

As I reported nearly three years ago, hackers were already at work to unlock the camera's "one use"
limitation so it could be used over and over again.

To its credit, the Pure Digital got a clue, raised the price on its cameras significantly and took over the market for super small, super cheap video cameras beating giants like Sony and Panasonic.

The result is they just sold their company to Cicso for $590 million dollars. Not bad considering all the gloom and doom these days.

What's the message? There are actually lots of them.

1. Listen to your customers – even people who are hacking your products

2. The right idea at the right time executed the right way trumps bad times and big companies

3. You really should be paying close attention to what we're up to at the System. We constantly catch meaningul trends and opportunities long before they appear on the radar screens of others.

They're still time to find out what we're doing at System 2009 this march 27 & 29 in Chicago:

http://www.thesystemseminar.com/inc.html

.

I could also add to that the word "diffident" which means "lacking in confidence" – something marketers who don't have a
clear target in mind eventually become.

The solution is another "diff" word: differentiate, one meaning of which is "to make specialized or distinct."

If you're aiming at a target, it helps a lot if there's one clear target and there's a big red bulls eye painted on it.

What does this have to do with monetizing web video?

A lot.

There
are many fascinating topics in the world, but unless you want to become
like "YouTube" what you're really looking for is not a topic, but a
clearly differentiated market.

One of the bells your advertising MUST ring in your prospect's mind if you want to be successful is the "This is for ME!" bell.

That's hard to do if you're trying to be all things to all people.

I see this mistake being made over and over again.

If
you're YouTube, maybe you can get away with it (though I'm not sure that YouTube with its tens of billions of views is doing that well. )

But if have e a one-person operation (or one that aspires to run "lean and mean" forever) you need tightly focused targets.

It's
true that one micro-market might not be enough to support you, but if
you target a micro-market you will get that business to its natural critical mass
much faster and you'll get a much better yield on the market you attract. Then,
once that enterprise is on solid ground, you can start another one.

What does all this have to so with marketing video on the web?

A lot.

Here's an example of someone who "gets" this.

If you're a jazz fan, you will LOVE it and will want to subscribe and tell all your fellow jazz fans about it.

If you're not, you should still study what this guy is doing. Simplicity can be deceiving.

http://www.jazzonthetube.com/page/16.html

Ken