Looking at Video on the Web with Ken McCarthy

In previous posts, I showed you how to grab code from Google Video and plant streaming video programs on any page of your site you want.

It literally couldn’t be easier. If you don’t already know how to do this, go to http://www.systemvideoblog.com/2006/06/how_i_made_food.html for details

Now, for the real fun: putting your own videos on Google Video.

First, why would you want to do this?

As someone who has invested well over $15,000 in developing
proprietary Internet video hosting and management systems, I’ve learned to
appreciate simplicity and economy. I love the "whiz bang" system I created (and am continuing to improve) but I’m learning to love Google
Video and even YouTube which I normally like to poke fun at.

Bottom line:

1. It’s easy to upload video to Google Video
2. Google will host and stream your video for free (and they do a good job at it)
3. Milions of people search Google Video every day so if you cover a
subject they’re looking for and you’re ranked high on the search
engine, you’ll be found – and watched
4. Google provides stats so you can track how many people are looking at and downloading your video
5. Google provides a text box to the right of the video that lets you ad sales copy and a live link to any site you chose.

I recently posted a video – just for fun on a hobby interest of mine – and I’m close to 10,000 views already. No it’s not porno!

It’s fun to know thousands of people all over the world are watching your video. 

I’ll be talking about how to get traffic to your Google Videos in later posts, but for now let’s cover some basic basics.

Lesson #1:  First of all – and I made this mistake twice before I figured it out – open your OWN Google Video account and make sure whether you upload your video yourself or someone does it for you, have it uploaded to YOUR account.

Not doing this is a litle like letting someone register your domain name in their name.  If the person is ethical, you won’t have a problem. If they’re not, well, to put it simply, you’re screwed.

Here’s why… if the video is not uploaded to YOUR account:

a. You can’t see the stats
b. You can’t change what’s in the text box
c. The traffic the video generates – which as you see can be significant pretty quickly – is not under your control.

Worst of all, once made, you can’t fix the mistake. A domain name can be transfered. A Google Video cannot. So if you’ve achieved a high position (I’m #1 again for the moment at least for the keyword "marketing") it can all be taken away from you with the click of  a button.

So repeat after me: "When I upload a video to Google I will make sure it is uploaded to my account and no one else’s."

On the other hand, if you’re a vendor and you want to have your clients by the short hairs… but I don’t recommend that.

Lesson #2: Disable the "comments" and the "add a label" function

This may seem terribly undemocratic, but remember this is not your blog and it’s not a community.

Google Video is a space open to any twit who can type and approximate the English language. I very, very rarely see comments that are worthwhile, but I often see junk comments that would be considered substandard even on a bathroom wall. Huge risk. No reward. Don’t let random people make comments about your video.

As for the "add a label" function, it’s up to you to make sure all the keywords you want to go for are in your description of the video. Again, if you leave it up to the Internet Twit Nation (ITN), you’re going to get some ugly surprises.  Also, the more words that are added to the "add a label" function, the less room there is for your ad copy. Enough said.

Lesson #3:  Send friendly folks to your video first to star it

Hopefully you have a list of people who like you.  Hopefully, it’s longer rather than shorter. Send them to the video first so they can give you high (hopefully five) star ratings.

You can disable the star rating system if you want, but it looks cool and if you get your guys there first, you’ll have a nice four and half to five star rating that’s hard fort the ITN (Internet Twit Nation) to dilute. And yes, there are folks who like to give videos a one star rating (the lowest) just for the thrill of seeing your average brought down.

Lesson #4. Good title/relevant URL under the stars

There are three lines of copy underneath the stars. 

Line one is your video’s title. Make it a good one and think it through because you’re stuck with it once it’s uploaded.

Line two is the video’s length. That’s out of your hands. Google stamps it automatically. Try to avoid 6:66 (just kidding)

The third line is for your URL.

Lesson #5: Copywriting time

If you’ve followed my sage advice and disabled the "add a label function" you have about 80 words that appear above-the-fold. Use them wisely.

Remember, if you can get someone to read the first 50 words, you’ve got a good shot at getting them to read the next 500, but in this format they can only see the first 80 so they better tell the whole story. You actually can (and should)  use the entire 1,200 word space they give you, but keep in mind only the first 80 words will be visible without scrolling.

Good news: While you can’t change your title, you can change your copy as much as you like.

Lesson #6:  Random fine points

* Make sure every keyword and phrase you want to be found for is in your video description. Google also allows you to upload the transcript for your video – word for word. Do it. The more copy the merrier.

* Repeat the link you want viewers to visit in the first 80 or so words of your ad copy, above-the-fold so its visiable.

* End your video with your web address. Or a phone number or both. The last frame of a video on Google hangs there like a graphic. Use it.  This way you can have your URL in three places: a) on the screen at the end of the video, b) on the second line of the three lines under the stars and c) in the first 80 words that appear above-the-fold in your video description.

Lesson #7:  Building traffic

If you followed my successful ICANN letter campaign, you can probably guess some of the strategy I’m going to recommend.  I’ll explain my video strategy in much more detail in future posts, but here’s the essence for folks who are quick studies:

Video lets you double dip.

Not only can your video get high ratings on sites like Digg if the community likes it, you can do a "bank shot" and use the very same traffic to get high ratings on Google Video.

Why does this matter?  High traffic on Google Video could put you on Google Video’s  "up and comers" list or even on its "most popular" list. Videos that make it to the top ten of these lists appear right on Google Video’s home page, a lovely piece of real estate which will buy you a lot of free – though not necessarily high quality – traffic.

And that’s just Google Video. In some ways, YouTube is even more amazing, but that’s for another day.

I like to use Google Video for the image it projects – it’s nice to be associated with the most powerful media company on the planet – but YouTube has humongous traffic and you might as well use them too.

Ken McCarthy

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