Online video has been an untapped technology for more than 5 years.  There were technical problems in utilizing online video in a serious way, but at last the world of search engine marketing is tapping the promise of online videos.

The most recent change in online videos is the development of sites like Google Video, YouTube.com, and many others such as ZippyVideos.com that allows one to upload his videos for free.

Being able to upload videos free is the first step for a new marketing revolution.  What makes these online video sites an important potential marketing vehicle is the viral traffic they can generate. That means a few people may actually see your video. If they find your video interesting,  they will recommend it to others. The web is also a free distribution platform. Word of mouth has always played a part in advertising. The internet simply facilitates word-of-mouth on an unprecented level, and clever, original video advertising will always draw people toward itself.

The challenge for online marketers will be to develop production techniques and creative ideas that actually get people to look at their videos. Boring product videos are not likely to catch people’s attention… although even they might have some value if they start showing up in searches.

In fact we are starting to see videos posted at some of these sites showing up in natural searches on search engines. For example, if you are searching for ‘internet marketing strategies’ on Google, you can see this entry indexed there

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KZ-Evnq1mc

That means such online videos have potential SEM (Search Engine Marketing) value. Of course, standard SEO principles will have to be applied to create your video descriptions - with lots of focused keywords – so that the entries appear in search engines.

 

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