YouTube certainly isn’t the only option for somewhere to stick your video once you’re ready for people to watch it, but it’s hard to turn away from the fact that YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world. That being said, there is some merit to hosting your videos there.

But how can hosting videos on YouTube help me with SEO? Well I am glad you asked!

The simple fact that you put your video up on YouTube won’t help you that much at all. OK, well maybe it will a little, but it’s how you optimize your video on YouTube that makes all the difference in the world. Let me explain. There are 3 major areas that YouTube uses to determine your ranking in the search results.

1. The text you use in your titles and descriptions

2. How many times your video has been viewed and how it is trending

3. How well (or poorly) your video is rated by viewers

Let’s look at optimizing your titles first. You have 99 characters available for title text, so make sure to include your main keywords there, but keep it relevant. No one wants to see a title that is nothing more than a random string of keywords. As for your description, there you are allowed to use up to 5,000 characters. This will give you plenty of space to write all you can about your video. Maintain a good keyword density and don’t forget to include your URL somewhere in there. It’s also a great idea to ask viewers to rate and comment on your video.

To get massive amounts of views on your video, share it around! Post it to your Facebook profile, your Twitter account, put it on your blog…let everyone know about it! The more people you can get to watch your video the better, and the higher the chance that some of those folks will share it around as well. Don’t be shy, post links to your video all over the place! Another good idea is to post your video as a “video reply” to some other related videos.

As far as getting ranking goes, help yourself out a little. It’s not a crime to give your own video a good rating! Make sure you ask your viewers to do the same though, either in the description or in the video itself. Even better yet, ask them both places!

If you can follow these simple suggestions on how to optimize your video on YouTube, you can rest assured that more people will see it. Here’s another cool little piece of info; once your video starts to rank highly on YouTube, it’ll also show up in Google’s search results. (Remember Google owns YouTube?)

Go to YouTube and optimize your videos right away. If you don’t have any yet, make a video and get it uploaded and optimized. I’ll be looking for it at the top of the search results!

I recently spent 7 days on vacation with my wife’s family on Lake Wallenpaupack over the Fourth of July weekend. It was a great week of relaxation, and of course fishing. Anyone who knows me well knows that I can’t go anywhere, especially to a lake, without going fishing. It just runs in my blood.

As I was out on the lake fishing from my kayak, enjoying the serenity of the morning and evening, I had a lot of time to clear my mind. I was able to recharge my batteries and collect my thoughts in preparation to return home and hit the ground running with some client attraction strategies.

What I came home with is a gameplan to start a “crusade” in the local business world. There are so many businesses right in my backyard that are paying out the nose for things like Yellow Page ads and various other dead end marketing “strategies”. Right off the top of my head, I can think of a handful of businesses that are spending unbelievable amounts of money each month on marketing that is really getting them nowhere. Take an ad in the local Yellow Pages for example. I mean really, how many people turn to the Yellow Pages anymore when they are looking for a product or service? Almost no one! Do you have any idea how much an ad in the phone book costs? You can easily put out a couple hundred a month for even a small ad. Furthermore, how can one know precisely how many customers they acquired from such an ad? And I’m only talking about the Yellow Pages. There are plenty of people out there charging up to $1000 per month to handle one aspect of a marketing campaign.

In my opinion, that is a bunch of crap.

I will be offering an all-inclusive online marketing campaign to businesses that will…encompass all areas of online marketing for equal to or less than what they are currently paying for one single service. Everything I do is measurable and I can show my clients exactly how many customers they are attracting based on the services that I perform. Instead of only handling one single aspect of online marketing, I will offer everything from web design to SEO to e-mail marketing to social media management to video marketing and more. Anything that can be done online to attract clients to a business is part of my offering. These businesses are already spending money on marketing like it is going out of style, why not get more value out of it?

Even though these are the same services I have already been doing for some of my clients, the difference in my mind now is my approach to offering these as monthly services and also my target market has changed a bit. I have gotten some really good feedback from some of my clients and other local businesses on this new approach and I’m excited to see how well it is received…especially by those who I will be saving from wasting their money on other dead-end marketing ploys.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention…I caught a nice bass on vacation too!

Is your business tagged on Google?

If you haven’t heard about it yet, allow me to introduce you to the Google Local Business Center. As we all know, Google is the number 1 most visited site on the entire internet and by far the most widely used search engine. Powerful? Very.

If you want people to find your website out there in cyberspace, it only makes sense to want to be tied in with the website that is “King of the Web”. With Google Local Business Center, you can be. It allows you to put a pin on the map where your business is located, upload several pictures and a video that highlights your business, and obtain reviews from satisfied customers.

The single biggest benefit is the SEO. Google Local Business Center will catapult you past your competitors and get visitors to your site. There are millions of local searches being done every month and who better for those search results to feature than you?

Go get yourself a Google account today and get yourself tagged. If you have a question or need help, shoot me an e-mail. In the words Bill Parlaman: “Now go dominate Google!”

(Video: Watch this video on the post page)

Join the team at Relevant Marketing on May 21 for The Ultimate FREE RESOURCE Workshop!

I just got in from another awesome GKIC-Philly meeting. It was a packed house, full of local entrepreneurs who all came out to hear the guest speaker, Sydney Biddle Barrows. While many people’s thoughts immediately go to what she refers to as her “previous life” when she was the “Mayflower Madam”, Sydney will be the first to tell you that her main focus is not, nor was it ever the “sex business”. The element that made her successful was creating the customer experience, which just happened to have its beginnings in an escort service.

After losing her job and becoming unemployed, it was a friend that suggested she come and answer phones at an escort service in New York City to make some extra money on the side. After a while, she and her friend decided that they could do better on their own, so they started their own escort business. By creating a unique and compelling customer experience, they quickly became successful and rose to the top of their local industry.

Now, years later, Sydney is a marketing consultant, putting into practice the skills she learned from the escort business. She helps companies of all types improve their sales by analyzing the customer experience. Often times the experience is all that stands between a customer and a sale.

It all must start with the story of your business. Every business has one and in order for things to run as smoothly as possible and for customers to buy and be totally satisfied, you must be doing business in accordance with your businesses story. From that story, you can create the customer experience. Consumers are weary of generic buying experiences and more and more are seeking to have a meaningful, memorable, fun, interesting and/or exciting experience during the selection and buying process. The more compelling an experience you give them, the more you will differentiate yourself from your competitors, you will be able to charge more and they will willingly pay more, you will see an increase in referrals, and happy, loyal customers will be out there telling everyone they know about you.

The most obvious, yet most compelling piece of information that I took from hearing Sydney speak was that you have got to make it easy for your customers to do business with you. If they can’t find your place of business, or can’t find a phone number or contact information, or if there are huge inconsistencies between your marketing and your actual sale, the experience will be shot and you will likely lose a customer or two. You have to go overboard in making it easy for the customer. Sounds so simple, yet there are so many businesses out there that just make it down right difficult to do business with them.

For more information on what Sydney is up to these days, check out her website at http://www.sydneybarrows.com. And don’t forget, make sure your customers are having good experiences with you!

If you are among the people out there who believes that social media is just a fad, watch this video and see if it changes your view on social media.

As we get farther away from January 12, 2010, our minds begin to move on to other things happening around us and we so quickly forget about the people in Haiti who are still in need of our help as they try to rebuild what was lost during the earthquake. I posted this letter from the TENTS FOR HAITI Project so that you can remember what happened a month and a half ago and if you haven’t done something to help, maybe this could be a way for you to do so. I feel especially connected to this cause for several reasons. The main reason being that I have been to Haiti several times with groups from Souderton Mennonite Church and have experienced first hand what life is like in a third-world country. Secondly, my sister and brother-in-law were with the group mentioned in the following letter in Haiti during the earthquake and the experiences they had as a result will not quickly be forgotten. So please, read this letter from the TENTS FOR HAITI Project and consider any way that you would be able to contribute and help someone in Haiti who so desperately needs you.

Dear Members of the Community,

On January 9, 2010, a group of 27 people from our community traveled to Haiti to help with organizations called Water for Life and Tree of Life. Both of these organizations have been helping the people of Haiti for many years, drilling wells for fresh drinking water and providing medical services to small villages southwest of Port Au Prince. The individuals from our community who were there, as young as 14 years old, were able to offer first-hand assistance to the people of Cotes de Fer soon after the earthquake hit. The people of this village had fled to the top of a mountain, fearing a tsunami, and set up a makeshift village using only sheets, blankets and sticks. The team from our community was able to provide these people with food and some medical care. The people of the village of Cotes de Fer are still residing at the top of the mountain since none of the buildings in their village are left standing, or are structurally sound enough for them to return. Before the earthquake hit, the village of Cotes de Fer was much like our community with schools, houses, businesses and people helping one another. We would like to help them to begin rebuilding their community with the help from ours. Below is a list of items that we are collecting to ship down to Haiti to help these people.

• Tents – 4 person or larger, new or gently used, in good condition with all parts
• Tarps – 8’ x 10’ or larger (these will be used to put over the tents to provide protection)
• 5-Gallon Buckets – Must be clean, with or without lids, for the villagers to carry and store water
• Hygiene Items
o Large Bars Bath Soap (in wrapping)
o Plastic Bottles Shampoo (13-24oz, place in resealable bag)
o Squeeze Tubes Toothpaste (Minimum 6oz, leave in box)
o Adult-Size Toothbrushes (Leave in Packaging)
o New Bath Towels (Medium Weight, dark colors)
o Wide-Tooth combs (6-8 inches)
o Fingernail Clippers
o Boxes of Adhesive Bandages (Minimum 40, assorted sizes)
o Packages of Sanitary Pads (18-24 thin, maxi)
o Blankets/Flat Sheets (Any size, in new/like new condition – it gets very cold in the early morning hours)
• Money
o Checks in any amount made payable to Souderton Mennonite Church, with “Haiti Relief” as the memo
Mail to: Souderton Mennonite Church, 105 W Chestnut St., Souderton PA 18964

Items can be dropped off at the West Street Community Center at Souderton Mennonite Church during the following times:

Saturdays: 9-11 am
Mondays: 7-9 pm
Tuesdays: 7-9 pm
Thursdays: 7-9 pm

We appreciate anything that you are willing to provide for this cause. Each and every item and dollar donated will go very far to help the people in the Haitian community of Cotes de Fer. For further information or to contact us become a fan of Tents for Haiti Project on Facebook or email us at tentsforhaiti@hotmail.com

Thank You,

“TENTS FOR HAITI Project” Committee Members

My guess is that most of you who read this that are involved with any kind of internet or information marketing have some sort of drip campaign set up to periodically touch your prospects and opt-ins. If you don’t, maybe this will give you a nudge to get something going.

Let’s start with the basics. What is a drip campaign? The premise is that most people will not buy a product or service in their first opportunity, so if they don’t buy, but leave you their name and e-mail address, you still have a chance. In short, a drip campaign is a series of e-mails that are sent out to prospects on a regular basis in order to keep your company or product in the front of their mind while also providing them with something. It could be a tidbit of information, a product review, or a variety of other things. The frequency of a drip campaign differs from business to business, but maybe an e-mail goes out every week or every other. Each person has different needs and each person’s prospects need to be touched differently to make them more likely to convert to a customer. It’s important to note, though, that we are not trying to bombard these people with e-mails. That is surely the best way to get them to unsubscribe from your list.

So once you decide to incorporate a drip campaign, how do you effectively use it? The best way to use a drip campaign is to provide your prospective customers with relevant content that they are interested in reading. It will most likely be relative to the product or service you are selling. Along with this information, you want to subtly remind the prospect of you and your company. When it comes time for them to buy, they should already know that they are coming to you to do so. For example, in one of my drip campaigns, I include in each e-mail one of the 101 Key Strategies to Attract More Clients. My business is helping people attract more clients to their business, so I give them information about doing that. Each point is short and quick to read, but provides good, relevant content. I also mention in each drip that if they have questions or would like more information on how to implement a certain strategy that they shouldn’t hesitate to contact me. I don’t push a hard sale, rather just let them know that I’m there if they have any questions. It keeps me fresh in their mind without hassling them.

I subscribe to quite a few lists of successful marketers and receive drip e-mails on an almost daily basis. I like to see what other people are doing and see how it looks on the other end. Many of them are great. If I was interested in their product or service, I would definitely go to them for it. Others however, are not so good. I get some drip e-mails that are just “Hey, how are you?” and “Just touching base with you to see…”. They provide virtually no content, do not hold my interest, and really give me no reason to believe that they are the authority on whatever topic they are talking about. For me, they are perfect examples of what not to do in my e-mail marketing.

So what about your drip campaign? Does it add up to anything?

With all the melting going on after the last few snowstorms we have had here in PA, there are a lot of icicles hanging around. They remind me a lot of drip campaigns. The more they drip, the longer and stronger they get. That’s what a good drip campaign should look like. Each e-mail adds interest and makes the recipient just a little more interested in buying.

OK, so it isn’t the best analogy ever invented in the world, but you get my point! If you don’t have a drip campaign, set one up! You’ll convert more prospects. If you have one, check the quality of what you are sending to your list. Is it relevant and interesting information? Do you subtly remind that person that you are the authority in your field and that they should buy from you when they are ready?

Most importantly: Does it add up to anything?

I decided today to talk a little bit about Twitter and more importantly tell you the secret to becoming popular and getting a lot of followers.

Some of you are avid Tweeters, some have an account set up and check it every now and then, and some of you might even think I am referring to the sound a bird makes when I say “tweet”. If you are one of those who think I’m talking about the birds, I’ll give you a quick overview. Twitter is a micro-blogging website where users can enter messages called “tweets” that are limited to 140 characters and the bottom line is this: Twitter is one of the most widely used forms of social media on the web today and it can be successfully used by teenagers keeping up on high school gossip just as well as a professional entrepreneur promoting his or her business.

If you don’t have a Twitter account, I would recommend that you sign up for one. Heck, it’s free. Why not? #justdoit The cool thing about Twitter (and most other forms of social media by now) is that it is easily integrated with other sites such as Facebook or your blog. For example, you can easily link Twitter and Facebook so that when you send a tweet, it automatically gets sent to your Facebook account as a status update. This will save time and cut down on all the jumping around from site to site. I have all of my social media accounts linked up so that when I submit this blog post, it will go to Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and a couple of others. Talk about an easy way to get your content in front of a lot of readers! #spreadtheword

Okay, on to that big secret! The wonderful thing about this secret is that it applies to everyone. I don’t care if you send 100 tweets everyday or if you just signed up for Twitter after reading this post, this will make you popular on Twitter.

In a nutshell, the secret is: Treat Twitter like a party!

What the heck does that mean? #hashelosthismind?

Well, basically what that means is think of being on Twitter like being at a party. You are standing there and people are talking all around you. When you see or hear someone that interests you, you go up and say hi and introduce yourself. Do the same on Twitter. Once you begin to follow a few people and they start tweeting things that spark your attention, send them a @reply. Introduce yourself. You’ll eventually get to tweeting about things that interest you. There’s a good chance someone else will see that and walk up and join the conversation. #veryinteresting

As you read tweets in the public timeline, reply and retweet things that you like and follow those people who are involved with those tweets. The more genuine interaction you have with people, the more followers you will gain. And you have to be a little patient. You won’t get 40,000 followers overnight. #patienceisavirtue

It’s important to remember that you can have just as much influence on 10,000 followers that are engaged and interested as you can on 1,000,000,000 that are just following you for the heck of it.

Be genuine in your “conversations” at the Twitter party. Tweet interesting and engaging content and watch how other popular people at the party act. Do as they do. Mix up your tweets with reply messages, general tweets, and throw in some links to pages you like every now and then.

If you follow these simple guidelines, you will become popular on Twitter!

#theend

Are you on Twitter? If so, let me know some of the things that have helped you gain a following. If not, GO SIGN UP! http://twitter.com.

Join the conversation below by adding a comment or send me a tweet @joshcassel. #doitnow