Promoting Your Online Video Content

Since there's no model that has high traffic (YouTube) AND pay-for-content (Revver), this has been my strategy for making money through online video. Use it as your own risk.

1. Create good stuff. I'm hit or miss, and still experimenting. Since I'm not interested in making sexy videos, I focus on humor. Sometimes topical, sometimes corny, sometimes I find a hit. Most of them are short, but the 1.5 minute ones sometimes work well.
2. Market the hell out of it. People think they can post on Revver and watch their account grow. Wrong. There's no guarantee that good content gets viewed, and no guarantee that bad content won't get viewed. It's arbitrary and requires persistence, luck and promotion.

So how do you promote your video?

• eMail friends. I'm not crazy about this because I feel like an Amway salesman. Unless it's something really good.
• Befriend a blogger. Steve Rubel (www.Micropersuasion.com) has linked to a few of my videos and that has worked very nicely.
• Create a site. I run www.CubeBreak.com on a shoe-string. Nothing but my time and a small hosting fee from Yahoo. But I get 1,000-3,500 people per day. So it helps.
• Use YouTube to get famous, and drive people to a location on which you can profit. Since most of my CubeBreak visitors are typing in the name directly, I can only assume they're finding me because they've seen my bumper on my YouTube videos. Maybe there's some word of mouth.
• Issue a press release. If you have good stuff, you can write a story for www.PRWeb.com and get some decent pickup. It costs about $80 though.
• Most importantly, you have to tap a nerve. Who knows what makes something viral. Why do people flock to Mentos and Coke? Why are we obsessed with Asian lip synchers or the Numa Numa kid? Who knows. But I'll continue to experiment to see what hits, and I'll let you know.