Add Video to Websites - Where to Publish Your Video Online

Got Video? What can video do for your business? People love to watch video. TV. Movies. And of course, online video. Ever here of YouTube? People want to be entertained. The key to utilizing video in your business is to learn how to educate your customers and prospects while entertaining them. So once you have such a video, what do you do with it? Do you try and distribute it yourself or do you hire a professional to do it for you. There are lots of companies and websites that will help you distribute your web video. But how do you know what’s right for you and your company?

One path to web video success will be to hand your finished video over to an internet advertiser who will advise you on where and when to place your video on the web. There are a number of distribution channels, both paid and free. If you currently use an online advertiser like Google, and you are having some success with banner ads or pay per click ads, you may want to do your video advertising on these same websites. And as always, you will want to test the video ads against your other forms of advertising to see how effective your video advertising is.

When you go this route, there are different types of video ads of which you should be aware. Some pop up and just start playing the minute you hit the ad while others have a “play” button that requires interaction with your visitor. I would advise you to opt for the second option to have the potential customer play the video instead of it just playing to see if they are really interested in the video and your message. Of course, as with any change to your website, test multiple versions of your pages and see how your traffic responds to each of the versions.

You will still need some copy around the video to convey the subject of your video. One way to accomplish this is start your video with a still shot of what your video is about along with a call to action. For instance, your opening slide on the video might say, “If you want to learn more about how to get the coolest blue widgets and at the lowest price, click here.” That should prompt them to click and start your video message. The advantage of video advertising as opposed to banners or pay-per-click listings is that your visitors will likely not hit the ad by accident, costing you a fortune in pay per click advertising.

There are pitfalls with using internet advertising companies. Many web publishers, in order to gain profit from ads that they place on their site from Google and other sources, use tricks to get clicks on the video ads. You do not want this. You are paying for clicks on your video so that you can continue further develop your business and increase your profit margins, not put more cash in the pockets of other websites. Make sure you monitor for this kind of activity on the sites on which you are advertising. Some such tricks include moving objects that often get clicked, close to where the ads are in the hope that the visitor will click on the ad by mistake. The visitor will of course get annoyed. This does nothing for your business. You can block certain websites when you use Google and certain other advertising channels online.

There option would be to place your video on your company website. Either hire someone that can create a video for you, or make your own. This will all depend on your budget for advertising. But there are plenty of individuals and companies out there that would love the opportunity to do this sort of work. You may actually be surprised that the cost is quite affordable.

Depending upon what type of site you have and what you are promoting, you may want to make a home made video. Sometimes these can be more appealing than the slick, professional videos and people may relate more to them and actually want to watch them. Remember, people want to do business with, and interact with, other people. Just look at the popularity of YouTube, which features just such homemade videos. There is usually something that resonates more with people in a home made video that actually may generate more trust within your customer.

Come up with a plan today on how much you can spend. Then decide if you want to outsource to a professional for video production or if you want to make it yourself. Finally, choose where you want the video to be placed on the online. This all depends on the amount of time and money you can budget for the project. But even if you have a minimal advertising budget, your business will benefit tremendously from a little video advertisement on the internet. It is just simply more entertaining than a banner or text ad.

The point of this is that video is showing up in a big way on the internet today. Web video is being used to convey messages, teach or train your customers, market to your prospects and of course entertain your visitors.