Why You Should Build A YouTube Channel (And How To Do It)

[Jay Wessman]

Why You Should Build A YouTube Channel (And How To Do It)

In this guide I will show you why YouTube is something that I've been getting really into lately and marketing on YouTube is actually very similar to SEO. In fact the basics of getting your videos to rank are almost the same as with SEO.

To get your videos ranking in YouTube you just need to:

1) Put time into making good videos that people will actually watch, enjoy and re-share elsewhere.

2) Make sure that your videos target keywords that get searched for and include those keywords in your video titles, descriptions and tags.

3) Build backlinks to your videos.

4) Promote your videos on social sites and forums.

5) Get views and people to interact with your videos (likes, comments, subscribers etc).

So why bother with YouTube?

More and more video is being consumed each year and as people become completely addicted to their iPads, iPhones, tablets and other mobile devices people are now watching YouTube videos on all sorts of devices too.

Now the downside to creating videos for YouTube is that they take a lot more time and effort than it does to write an article but there's also a huge advantage to this... and it's that since it takes more work to make videos far fewer people are willing to actually do it and as a result there is MUCH less competition in the YouTube search than there is in the Google search.

Compare for example the keyword 'How To Build Backlinks' which has over 7 million results turning up in Google:

In Youtube? That number is only 60,000:

Hell I created a video that's only been up for about a week now and it's already on the first page of YouTube for that keyword:

And that video has directly resulted already in a few people signing up to Screw95. And at $97 a pop that's not too bad for a video that still has less than 1,000 views.

But that video will be around accumulating views for as long as YouTube is around. And so will all of my other videos.

But it's not JUST about the 'YouTube search' traffic...

Because on top of this if you do it right you'll also find your videos starting to pop up in the related videos lists on other niche related videos like this:

And you can get a LOT of views from the 'related videos' section.

Just think about how many times you've gone to YouTube to watch one video and have then seen another interesting video in the related videos section and clicked it... only to watch another and another and before you know it you've just watched 10 different videos.

People do this all the time and making YouTube videos allows you to tap into this traffic.

And to make your videos POP so that lots of people click them after seeing them in the 'related videos' you can add awesome and eye catching thumbnail images that will allow you to stand out. It used to be that only YouTube partners could do this but these days anyone can do it. You simply have to enable 'monetization' on your account (you don't actually have to add ads to your videos though) and you are good to go.

You don't need millions of views to make good money...

Lets say you have 100 videos that only get 20 views a day. That's adds up to a cool 2,000 views a day. And lets say that just three of those 2,000 people that watch your videos every day end up buying something where you get a $35 commission... that's over $100/day right there.

And good videos convert EXTREMELY well. There's something about the medium of video that allows you to cut through the clutter and stand out. I can't tell you how many times I've had people mention to me that they found my LazyAssStoner.com site (and the Screw95 course) from finding my videos on YouTube and enjoying seeing someone just sit in front of a camera and give them 'straight talk' about how to do things.

There's a certain element of trust and authenticity that you get from watching someone reviewing a product or explaining how to do something on YouTube that's hard to match in a simple article. And creating a great and converting YouTube video can be as simple as reviewing products and talking about them to the camera as if you were telling a friend 'what you think is cool' about that product.... no hard selling necessary.

And what's also cool about YouTube is that you can now integrate external links to your videos. Have you noticed how I've started to say at the end of my YouTube videos 'and if you want to learn more to you can check out here to get my free crash course' or whatever? And then it takes them to an opt in page where they join my list? And then puts them on an autoresponder sequence promoting my blog posts, the Screw95 course and a bunch of my other videos helping them to get more interactions and increase in their rankings EVEN more?

So if you are reviewing products you can say 'want a discount? click here!' or if you want to get them on your mailing list you can say 'get your free guide to xxx' by clicking here!.

And if you make your videos informative and interesting people WILL click that link at the end and they WILL buy stuff that you have to sell them.

So what do you need to get started on YouTube?

Well a cheap camera is really all you need.

Ideally you would want to get a good microphone and some lighting eventually (as I've wound up doing) but to start out you really just need a cheap camera that'll cost you a couple hundred bucks or so.

But what if you don't want to show your face on YouTube?

I have channels for some of my sites where I don't even show my face. I simply write a short script. Record it on a mic and then accompany that with some music and niche related stock images or videos. This still works extremely well.

But I don't know how to edit videos?

Learn! It's really not that hard I promise. Hell all Windows machines come with 'Windows Movie Maker' free these days and that thing is extremely easy to use. You literally just cut your clips here and there, string them all together and then BAM you have a video.

Should I buy views?

I know a lot of people do but I don't. I figure that Google is smart enough to tell a real user from a fake user (they can easily see if that person has an active plus account, has uploaded videos and watched other videos etc) but even if they can't tell yet they probably will eventually. And I want my videos to stay up long term.

Besides I have no problems getting my videos ranked without having to resort to buying views.

Other reasons to create videos?

• You can rank for your keyword in BOTH Google AND YouTube.
• Embedding your videos on to your sites keeps people on your site for longer which Google likes to see which helps with your SEO.
• People love to share videos and will often re-share them on social networks, forums and on other sites.
• Videos are where the internet is heading!

Plus:

If you already have an SEO site that's getting traffic you have a massive advantage and will have a much easier time getting your YouTube channel off the ground.

Just make videos based around your pages that are getting a lot of visitors and embed them into those pages and then you'll start to get views, comments, interactions and all that good stuff that'll start to get that video ranking on it's own... easy!

If you've got a page that's ranking for 'Garden Ornaments' you could make a video 'The 10 Coolest Ever Garden Ornaments!' or something along those lines and just embed it to your page and over time that video should start to rank for 'Garden Ornaments' in YouTube.

Final Thoughts...

YouTube is so much more than a place to host your videos. It's a community just like Facebook is. People 'subscribe' to channels they are interested in and then whenever your subscribers are logged in (which since it's the same account people use for plus, gmail etc they almost always are) your videos appear more prominently and people are able to constantly check back on your new vids and follow your progress.

It's not like Television where everything needs to be super professional and shot with thousand dollar equipment. It's about being real, showing your personality, letting people get to know you (and hopefully addicted) to you. Look at almost any successful YouTube channel and you'll see their first videos are shot on shitty cameras, often in the dark and the person feels totally uncomfortable on camera... that doesn't matter at all. In fact people enjoy following your progress from "I have no idea what I am doing" to becoming YouTube famous.

These days there are thousands of young kids making a FULL TIME living just off of the tube. Literally all they do is make videos about their lives or of their cats or whatever and live off that.

And if they can do that with absolutely zero marketing experience... think about what us guys with SEO/marketing/affiliate knowledge can pull off

So stop putting YouTube off and build yourself up a damn channel already!

 

[boussakka]

Great Artice Jay, I've just started with youtube and my videos is 2n in the 1s page of google, after 2days
I'm really excited about the power of video marketing.
Here is something you (all fixers) might be interested in www.youtube.com/fan_finder yup you can promote your YT channel for free

Hit like if you love it

 

[Dario]

Great guide as always!!

Two questions...

1) Free ways how to build quality backlinks to your videos?

2) Could you rank yt videos just with good titles,descriptions and tags?(without backlinks,buying views,etc)

 

[K]

Amazing as usual Jay.

Jay recently advised me with my channels and things have started to pick up already!

 

[K]

Jay, is there a way to show only YOUR related videos at the end of playing?

 

[Jay Wessman]

Jay, is there a way to show only YOUR related videos at the end of playing?

Not that I know of but after a bit of time your other videos should start to appear naturally. Though they wont be all yours.

 

[Jay Wessman]

Not that I know of but after a bit of time your other videos should start to appear naturally. Though they wont be all yours.

To kind of expand on this though when I first thought about making videos to use on my sites I didn't want to use YouTube to do it for fear of losing people to these other related videos or just to YouTube land in general.

I see a lot of people uploading their videos to Vimeo and other hosts and I think a lot of it is because of this fear. They want there to be no escaping to other parts of the internet.

But I think this is a big mistake because the benefits of using YouTube far outweigh the negatives so even though you have to kind of promote other people's videos - other people have to also promote yours. It's kind of like one giant traffic exchange.

On top of this YouTube likes videos that keep people on YouTube for as long as possible and they reward those videos with better rankings. So even if that person watches someone elses video after yours it's still actually good for you.

And if your videos are any good and leave an impression it realistically doesn't matter if you lose a few people to other videos. They can always come back later

 

[boussakka]

To kind of expand on this though when I first thought about making videos to use on my sites I didn't want to use YouTube to do it for fear of .....
And if your videos are any good and leave an impression it realistically doesn't matter if you lose a few people to other videos. They can always come back later

I saw many videos with "blank" content at the end, I mean they make the last 30 second or something like this without any content after delivering the message, so the visitor is going to close the window without going anywhere else, I don't know if this is a good tactic!

 

[Dario]

Jay

With which software you are adding/editing your videos?
I mean how to add these cool texts to your video...
Is it just Windows Movie Maker or something else?

 

[Snoop]

Very interesting read, thanks Jay

 

[Jay Wessman]

I saw many videos with "blank" content at the end, I mean they make the last 30 second or something like this without any content after delivering the message, so the visitor is going to close the window without going anywhere else, I don't know if this is a good tactic!

I wouldn't do this.

Some people will do anything to avoid promoting other people's videos (such as not using YouTube full stop) but as I mentioned before it's actually not a big deal at all and the rewards that you get from using YouTube far outweigh having to promote other videos.

With which software you are adding/editing your videos?
I mean how to add these cool texts to your video...
Is it just Windows Movie Maker or something else?

I use Photoshop to create the titles and then I import them to Adobe Premiere Pro where I edit them all.

However most video editing programs do have in built 'text' and 'title' features that you can use. They might not look as snazzy as when you make them yourself in something like Photoshop but it still works fine.

The actual content of your videos is much more important than your titles/graphics and if you look at a lot of the really big/famous YouTubers out there you'll see that many of them just use Windows Movie Maker and slap together very simple titles and it works for them fine.

 

[Andrew Waatz]

View attachment 2007
Why You Should Build A YouTube Channel (And How To Do It)

In this guide I will show you why YouTube is something that I've been getting really into lately and marketing on YouTube is actually very similar to SEO. In fact the basics of getting your videos to rank are almost the same as with SEO.

To get your videos ranking in YouTube you just need to:

1) Put time into making good videos that people will actually watch, enjoy and re-share elsewhere.

2) Make sure that your videos target keywords that get searched for and include those keywords in your video titles, descriptions and tags.

3) Build backlinks to your videos.

4) Promote your videos on social sites and forums.

5) Get views and people to interact with your videos (likes, comments, subscribers etc).

Awesome thanks

So why bother with YouTube?

More and more video is being consumed each year and as people become completely addicted to their iPads, iPhones, tablets and other mobile devices people are now watching YouTube videos on all sorts of devices too.

Now the downside to creating videos for YouTube is that they take a lot more time and effort than it does to write an article but there's also a huge advantage to this... and it's that since it takes more work to make videos far fewer people are willing to actually do it and as a result there is MUCH less competition in the YouTube search than there is in the Google search.

Compare for example the keyword 'How To Build Backlinks' which has over 7 million results turning up in Google:

In Youtube? That number is only 60,000:

Hell I created a video that's only been up for about a week now and it's already on the first page of YouTube for that keyword:

And that video has directly resulted already in a few people signing up to Screw95. And at $97 a pop that's not too bad for a video that still has less than 1,000 views.

But that video will be around accumulating views for as long as YouTube is around. And so will all of my other videos.

But it's not JUST about the 'YouTube search' traffic...

Because on top of this if you do it right you'll also find your videos starting to pop up in the related videos lists on other niche related videos like this:

And you can get a LOT of views from the 'related videos' section.

Just think about how many times you've gone to YouTube to watch one video and have then seen another interesting video in the related videos section and clicked it... only to watch another and another and before you know it you've just watched 10 different videos.

People do this all the time and making YouTube videos allows you to tap into this traffic.

And to make your videos POP so that lots of people click them after seeing them in the 'related videos' you can add awesome and eye catching thumbnail images that will allow you to stand out. It used to be that only YouTube partners could do this but these days anyone can do it. You simply have to enable 'monetization' on your account (you don't actually have to add ads to your videos though) and you are good to go.

You don't need millions of views to make good money...

Lets say you have 100 videos that only get 20 views a day. That's adds up to a cool 2,000 views a day. And lets say that just three of those 2,000 people that watch your videos every day end up buying something where you get a $35 commission... that's over $100/day right there.

And good videos convert EXTREMELY well. There's something about the medium of video that allows you to cut through the clutter and stand out. I can't tell you how many times I've had people mention to me that they found my LazyAssStoner.com site (and the Screw95 course) from finding my videos on YouTube and enjoying seeing someone just sit in front of a camera and give them 'straight talk' about how to do things.

There's a certain element of trust and authenticity that you get from watching someone reviewing a product or explaining how to do something on YouTube that's hard to match in a simple article. And creating a great and converting YouTube video can be as simple as reviewing products and talking about them to the camera as if you were telling a friend 'what you think is cool' about that product.... no hard selling necessary.

And what's also cool about YouTube is that you can now integrate external links to your videos. Have you noticed how I've started to say at the end of my YouTube videos 'and if you want to learn more to you can check out here to get my free crash course' or whatever? And then it takes them to an opt in page where they join my list? And then puts them on an autoresponder sequence promoting my blog posts, the Screw95 course and a bunch of my other videos helping them to get more interactions and increase in their rankings EVEN more?

So if you are reviewing products you can say 'want a discount? click here!' or if you want to get them on your mailing list you can say 'get your free guide to xxx' by clicking here!.

And if you make your videos informative and interesting people WILL click that link at the end and they WILL buy stuff that you have to sell them.

So what do you need to get started on YouTube?

Well a cheap camera is really all you need.

Ideally you would want to get a good microphone and some lighting eventually (as I've wound up doing) but to start out you really just need a cheap camera that'll cost you a couple hundred bucks or so.

But what if you don't want to show your face on YouTube?

I have channels for some of my sites where I don't even show my face. I simply write a short script. Record it on a mic and then accompany that with some music and niche related stock images or videos. This still works extremely well.

But I don't know how to edit videos?

Learn! It's really not that hard I promise. Hell all Windows machines come with 'Windows Movie Maker' free these days and that thing is extremely easy to use. You literally just cut your clips here and there, string them all together and then BAM you have a video.

Should I buy views?

I know a lot of people do but I don't. I figure that Google is smart enough to tell a real user from a fake user (they can easily see if that person has an active plus account, has uploaded videos and watched other videos etc) but even if they can't tell yet they probably will eventually. And I want my videos to stay up long term.

Besides I have no problems getting my videos ranked without having to resort to buying views.

Other reasons to create videos?

• You can rank for your keyword in BOTH Google AND YouTube.
• Embedding your videos on to your sites keeps people on your site for longer which Google likes to see which helps with your SEO.
• People love to share videos and will often re-share them on social networks, forums and on other sites.
• Videos are where the internet is heading!

Plus:

If you already have an SEO site that's getting traffic you have a massive advantage and will have a much easier time getting your YouTube channel off the ground.

Just make videos based around your pages that are getting a lot of visitors and embed them into those pages and then you'll start to get views, comments, interactions and all that good stuff that'll start to get that video ranking on it's own... easy!

If you've got a page that's ranking for 'Garden Ornaments' you could make a video 'The 10 Coolest Ever Garden Ornaments!' or something along those lines and just embed it to your page and over time that video should start to rank for 'Garden Ornaments' in YouTube.

Final Thoughts...

YouTube is so much more than a place to host your videos. It's a community just like Facebook is. People 'subscribe' to channels they are interested in and then whenever your subscribers are logged in (which since it's the same account people use for plus, gmail etc they almost always are) your videos appear more prominently and people are able to constantly check back on your new vids and follow your progress.

It's not like Television where everything needs to be super professional and shot with thousand dollar equipment. It's about being real, showing your personality, letting people get to know you (and hopefully addicted) to you. Look at almost any successful YouTube channel and you'll see their first videos are shot on shitty cameras, often in the dark and the person feels totally uncomfortable on camera... that doesn't matter at all. In fact people enjoy following your progress from "I have no idea what I am doing" to becoming YouTube famous.

These days there are thousands of young kids making a FULL TIME living just off of the tube. Literally all they do is make videos about their lives or of their cats or whatever and live off that.

And if they can do that with absolutely zero marketing experience... think about what us guys with SEO/marketing/affiliate knowledge can pull off

So stop putting YouTube off and build yourself up a damn channel already!

 

[rcchang]

Thanks for the guide Jay! I've been thinking of starting off on YouTube for a long time, but never actually started a channel. How do you usually get your videos to rank higher on YT?

 

[azgold]

Jay wrote this post in 2013 but it still works today.

 

[rcchang]

Wow! XD

 

[Lak]

Good article to feel..