Traffic Generation

YouTube: It’s kind of a big deal!

Let me throw some fact-oids at you.

• YouTube is the #1 source of online entertainment

• 3rd biggest site for global traffic just behind Google and facebook.

• 2nd largest search engine, apart from Google, YouTube is the next place people now go to when searching for something online.

The average time spent on YouTube is 15 – 20 minutes – That’s 2.9 billion hours of video views per month!

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Internet users already spend 60% of their time online watching videos, compare that with facebook that gets 20% and you can see that online video is already massive and set to get even bigger.

If you are marketing anything online then you need to be working with YouTube, it’s free easy to use and almost everyone will have a webcam on their laptops so you will have everything you need to get started.

Just as an example, I made a video and put it on YouTube a few years back about wholesale directory sites and today it has nearly 25,000 views! That’s 25,000 people that have listened to me and my message at the end of the video. It took me around 20 minutes to make and that one video alone still drives around  50 visitors each month to my site. Can you imagine what would happen if you created one new video a week? I think you get the idea.

YouTube quite simply is a must if you are marketing online, it’s fast and easy to use and whats more if YouTube likes your stuff they may invite you to their partner network where you then get paid for placing ads next to your videos, so you’re then getting it coming and going ! A real win win situation.

There are several pieces of software you can use to help you create great looking videos, Camtasia is one, a screen capture and editing suite it’s quite expensive but very powerful. Prezzi is another of my favourites it lets you create great looking video presentations really easily and quickly.

Ways to use YouTube for marketing:

Product reviews, if you are selling products then you can create a YouTube channel and review some of the more popular items you sell, make sure you mention that the viewer can purchse this item from your estore or eBay shop then direct them to a link in the description box below.

Fan community, if what you are marketing or selling has a community you can create videos aimed at community members, get involved with the other YouTube members and chat about the niche, you can add them as a friend and they will be notified each time you upload a new video.

Sale announcements, if you have a great deal coming up on a certain product like why not create a quick video letting the YouTube community know about it, you can also embed the video on the front page of your own website that will draw the attention of your site visitors too.

Vlogging Channel, you can use your YouTube channel to keep a video diary and upload your everday thought about life the universe and everything, people love to watch reality TV and these type of channels can become very popular and once you have a good size following you have a great audience to mention your products to.

So if you’re not using YouTube to help boost your marketing efforts take this article as a proverbial kick up the you know what!

Give it a try and see the results for yourself.

I was having a chat with someone recently about promoting eBay businesses, it’s something that can make a massive difference yet many eBay sellers stop at listing their auctions and hoping for the best. So Here are my top five ways to drive more traffic to your online auctions in double quick time.

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Facebook, almost everyone has an account these days even if you don’t use it much it’s something that is an excellent way to provide visibility to your business with no money invested. Build a page for your eBay store, make some posts about what you sell, add some cool pictures of your stuff, search for some groups on facebook in a similar niche and interact with them. Update your Facebook page when you have fresh stock listed in your store or if you have a sale going on. It doesn’t take much to add a little update every now and then. You will be surprised how much extra traffic you will generate.

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Twitter, the quickest and easiest form of social media today, you can tweet from your mobile cell phone whole taking a bus or waiting for a train, it takes seconds and gets your message out there to the people that are interested.  You can even queue up a load of pre written tweets using desktop software that will send out your tweets at predetermined intervals.  If you only do one thing for your business, this is by far the easiest traffic generating exercise you can do.

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Online Communities, If you can imagine the most obscure niche or strangest group of obsessive geeks you can think of you know there will be an active online community. They are great places as they will be regularly frequented by passionate and involved people that will be looking for niche items, if you can find the communities that are relevant to the products you sell you will be in a great position to offer them what they want with a high chance of repeat custom. Find you audience online and build a relationship with you buyers, find out what they really want and offer it to them.

Email Signature This is something everyone can do in seconds, we all send a few emails each day some of us more than others. You can create an automated signature within your chosen mail program that puts your signature at the bottom of every email. Simply add a few lines of text with your shop link and every time you email anyone you’re promoting your business. Simple and effective. People are generally curious and I know that I have clicked on many of these types of links just to see what type of site it is and how it looks, it’s very effective and takes no time at all.

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YouTube, one of the biggest sites on the internet, YouTube has now become the second biggest place people search for things online. If you have an online business you are missing out on allot of free traffic if you aren’t making videos for YouTube.  It’s easy to create a profile and if you don’t want to show your face you can do a screen capture of your computer screen using software like Camtasia. YouTube has had many updates recently and it’s easier than ever to quickly upload a video to share with the world.  This is probably one of the most powerful social media platforms now and for the future that will continue to grow every day. Build this site into your traffic building plan and you will reap the rewards.