Of course you’ve probably already noticed that the comment system has been reformatted, and now when users rate up comments, it can have a big impact. The reason for this is that the top rated comments are featured above all the other comments. Aside from the content of the video, the next thing people’s eyeballs are on is the comment area. If your comment is one of the featured ones, due to thumbs up love, it will get plenty of attention on the right videos.

So, how do we game it?
Pretty straight-forward. Leave a comment related to the popular video that is also promoting whatever you’re trying to promote. Use your copywriting skills to drum up interest. I can’t give you specifics without knowing what you’re promoting so you’re on your own here. It should be something that makes people curious.

You should already have several YouTube accounts. The more, the merrier. Now, all you need to do is thumbs up that comment from all your different accounts and have your friends do the same. It shouldn’t be too hard to get it above the rest. However, if you don’t make an effort to make it relevant to the content of the video at all, and the video gets lots of traffic (and it should, to be worth your time), it can get thumbs-downed back into oblivion. So, the content of your comment is crucial.

That’s all for now! Maybe I’ll be back sooner rather than later…

More and more YouTube has been cracking down lately on people uploading content containing copywritten music or people uploading entire films/tv shows. However, there is still very much that can be safely done below the radar.

One such trick I’ll tell you I’ve been using lately is to use rare interviews with celebrities and bands. Luckily for me, I have a local shop that sells rare bootlegs of such material where I can find all sorts of great stuff that isn’t yet on YouTube for only maybe $5-$10 per DVD.

Obviously you need a DVD drive and software such as Sony Vegas to import the footage. Then you can either watermark it with a domain you own or maybe just use Tiny URL to drop an affiliate link in the description. If you only use the affiliate link in the description, I recommend of course using annotations to increase your CTR.

How you monetize that traffic is up to you, but you can get a TON of clicks this way.

If you don’t have the convenience of a local dvd shop like mine, you’ll just have to be a little more resourceful. Rare bootlegs can be purchased and in many cases even downloaded for free online.

Time to start snooping around!

First of all, this whole site would be pretty pointless if you couldn’t still make money with YouTube. I personally know several individuals that are doing $x,xxx/month or more from YouTube marketing alone. Of course, for every one person that really applies themselves and achieves that sort of success, there will be several more that give up after not seeing any initial results or hitting a couple bumps in the road.

The number one reason that people fail at making money this way is because they simply don’t do enough. If you put up 5 videos and expect the dough to start pouring in, then you need a reality check. Some of us are uploading 100-200 videos a day or more. It doesn’t happen by accident. There is no real “luck” involved when you look at the big picture. It’s much more about persistence and doing the leg work than it is about spinning the roulette wheel.

If you’re just starting out, it’s unreasonable to expect you’ll be able to put up videos in that volume. At this point, I outsource a lot of the work, especially account creation. Just creating 30-40 YouTube accounts takes more time than most people think, but it’s part of the gig if you’re just starting out.

Also, I’m sorry for generalizing a bit in this post. I know not everyone has the exact same approach to marketing on YT and I know that there are other successful methods than mass uploading of watermarked videos. However, for myself and the people I work with, that is what’s working for us right now, and I’m just here to share that with you. If you find another avenue of success on YT, by all means, please share it here by leaving a comment (if you want to).

Sorry this was more of a rant than it was a helpful post. The next will be of more substance. Until then, check out this YouTube account creation software. It’s not free, but there is a free trial available. If you’re not ready to start outsourcing account creation and all that, this might be a helpful tool to help you start building your business.

Keep on trucking!

Of course, just because this works today, does not necessarily mean it will work tomorrow. Also, you will need to be prepared to sacrficie a bit of audio quality (or at least the integrity of the original audio).

The Solution?

Reverb. That’s right. After all my tweaking of EQ trying to find the right way to skew a track enough to make it unidentifiable, I discovered that getting around the filter was as easy as adding a little bit of reverb. I’m no audio expert, but I’m guessing the reason that it works so well is because adding a healthy amount of reverb seriously alters the digital footprint of the audio file. You can see how different a wav looks after reverb is applied. Basically there is just a bunch of sound data where there wasn’t before, creating a uniqe file. For the user, it just sounds like the song is being played in a large room (depending on the amount of reverb).

My software of choice, Sony Vegas, has this effect built in. I’d imagine that most video editing software packages probably have some sort of default reverb effect, as it is a  pretty common one.

I have so far tested this on three different videos, all of which originally had their audio track disabled. All three have been successfully uploaded and are still live with the reverb-tweaked audio files still in tact.

In some cases, the new sound of the audio will actually complement the video. Personally, I think it sounds pretty cool. I haven’t yet determined the exact amount of reverb that needs to be applied to safely evade the filter, but it’s safe to say that the more you apply, the less chance you’ll have of having any problems.

I know this has been a very frustrating problem for many of you, so hopefully this will make your lives a bit easier! I don’t expect this method to work forever, but until it becomes obsolete, enjoy!

Final Note

In some cases, having your audio match third party content will not cause it to be removed, but rather YouTube will display advertisments on the video that will benefit the rightful copyright holder. This may or may not be a problem for you (the advertisement makes it difficult to use annotations as we’ve talked about here before).

First of all, this is not a seminar on how to sell things on eBay. If you’re looking for one of those, check out the late night infomercials on TV!

Being a seller on eBay is not the only way to make money with the site. Did you know that eBay also has an affiliate program? Ebay Partner Network (aka EPN) allows you to earn money by sending traffic to eBay auctions and search results. Depending on which site you’re sending traffic to (eBay US, eBay UK, eBay AU, etc), the commission structure will be different. For US, the bottom tier is 50% commission on the final value fee of any auction won by someone you referred to the site. The tracking cookie lasts for 7 days, as far as the window of time in which your referrals can make a purchase and you will still receive a credit. There is also a commission structure for referring new members to eBay. If one of your referrals happens to be new to eBay and they sign up and make a winning bid (or execute a “buy it now”), then it is called an ACRU. The value of the ACRU will vary, and I’m not going to get into all that right now! But it can be anywhere between $1-$50. ACRU tracking lasts for a whole 30 days.

Getting Approved
Not everyone will be approved for eBay Partner Network, since they’re a bit selective about who they approve. If you have an established website and you detail how you’re going to drive traffic to their site in your application, you’ll have a better chance of being approved. I definitely do NOT recommend you mention that you’re planning to use YouTube (although it may not be expressly against their terms, it’s not something they would look favorably upon in an application).

Get Ready to Redirect
Since we’re being selective about how much we reveal about our traffic methods, obviously we’re going to want to disguise the YouTube traffic. You could do this with a service like Tiny URL, but that alone isn’t the cleanest way to go about it. Your best bet is to use your own domain for redirects. If you have hosting for your domain, even better. Some domain registrars will allow you to redirect domains you have registered with them without the need to purchase hosting, but then you’re limited to just one URL you can redirect to. If you have hosting setup, then you could have several portals for redirects. For instance, if your site was “items.com”, you could redirect different things by using sub-directories: “items.com/coffeemugs”, “items.com/mp3players”, etc. If you’re planning on promoting a few different things, this way will be much cheaper than buying a new domain for every product you want to sell!

Note: If you want to take an extra step to be super cautious, you could always use Tiny URL to redirect to your redirect, or vice versa, but that may get a bit complicated.

Promote Something!
This is where your creativeness comes into play. You’re going to need to think of a physical product that you can promote (something for sale on eBay). You don’t need to go and make a whole elaborate video on your own. If you’ve read the other articles on this site you know how to rip videos and edit them, to some degree. Find a video that can be used to promote whatever it is you want to promote. Tweak it if necessary with music or text, drop your redirecting link in the description box, add an annotation that points to that link, and you’re good to go!

The video is obviously a crucial element. If it doesn’t get views, you don’t get clicks, and you won’t make any $. The best way to go about it is to look at which videos are currently very popular or rising to popularity and think of how you could use that video to promote something. If it’s a popular music video, that’s easy. Let’s say Green Day just released a new video. You could link to “Green Day Autographs!” If you click that link you’ll see you’re taken to a list of search results for autographed green day memorabilia (note the redirect). Your customized links can be created from within your EPN account. Think outside the box and see what you can come up with.

A Little Proof
I know that you guys like to see proof of results, so I took a screenshot for you. I’m not going to reveal the video or even the nature of the video, as it is still a growing niche for me. But rest assured, there are still countless ways to game YouTube, and this one has all sorts of possibilities.

The stats you see below are for this month, the campaign that is not blurred out is the one in question. It’s not a ton of money just yet, but the link has only been there for a little over a week. Of course, the video it’s on is doing very well, getting around 8,000 views a day at the moment. We can’t expect every video to perform that well, but if you follow the trends closely and keep at it then you’ll see it’s not that hard to pull off.

Not bad for a video that only took a couple hours to create. If my current ACRU payout was higher, it would obviously be better. The views will of course slow down and taper off soon enough, but I don’t think this particular one has reached its full potential yet. Keep in mind that every time someone clicks through, a cookie is placed in their browser that lasts for 30 days (7 days for auction commissions, 30 days for ACRU’s).

Hopefully you can see the potential. Now get those creative juices flowing and make some money!

One and one last thing…this site has been getting hit pretty hard with spam comments lately. I moderate everything by hand, so sometims I goof up. Earlier I accidentally marked a legitimate comment as spam, and I have no idea who it was from. For all I know there is a way to retreive it but I can’t figure it out…my expertise remains on YouTube! But if you know who you are, please don’t be offended. And please feel free to comment once again!

Many YouTube marketers have been experiencing problems with their videos being removed within minutes after uploading. In some cases, the video will go live for 20-30 minutes, and then get removed once again. Why is this?

With the normal routine process of elimination, you can try different things, different video editing techniques, different content, but you may find you’re still having the same problem.

Occasionally, I correspond with Liam Bowers, a very knowledgeable internet marketer, about these very challenges. In a recent email, Liam shared with me his latest insight on the problem of videos being removed after a brief run, and he agreed to let me share it with you:

YouTube seems to be detecting a pattern in frequently used combinations of description / title / tags, regardless of what the video content actually contains. For example, I have a very reliable set of tags I can use that gets me good, sustained traffic immediately for a particular niche. But I suppose I’ve now uploaded so many videos with these tags and my URL, that YT has detected a pattern and is automatically deleting the account (how they justify this, I don’t know. I’ve never seen anything about this documented and don’t know how it relates to the TOS, because it really doesn’t seem to be related to the video content)

Anyway, I can still use the old faithful tags, but I can’t put a URL ANYWHERE in the description (at first) or it will get deleted within 20 to 30 minutes. The video starts getting traffic as usual…However, after I check back an hour later or so, if the video is still alive, I can alter the description to re-include the URL and it stays up with no problem. Apparently, whatever algorithm is looking for a pattern only does it once when the video is uploaded.

Well, there you have it. It seems title text, description, and keyword tags may very well be getting your videos flagged shortly after processing. This means you’ll have to get creative with the way you tag your videos, since the YouTube traffic you receive still depends heavily on your keyword usage.

Take Liam’s advice. Apply it and see if it improves the success rate of your uploads. Please feel free to share your own results here!

However, dating season is just around the corner. Statistically, the months of January and February are HOT HOT HOT for dating (despite relatively cold temperatures). With New Year’s comes New Year’s resolutions. Many people use New Year’s resolutions as an opportunity to try and improve their lives. For many single people, this means finding a partner. It stays going strong throughout January, and right around where it would trail off…BOOM. Valentine’s Day. As you can see, dating will soon be in its prime once again.

I’ve already noticed things picking up in my stats, thanks to all my dating videos on YouTube that are hiding under the radar, collecting dust, and receiving a healthy amount of organic views. It’s not too late for YOU to get some up there yourself. It’s not going to be as easy as it used to be, but it is still totally doable. All the tools you need to learn how to do so can be found on this site, so get your read on.

Of course, there is no need to think inside the box. Dating is certainly not the only thing you can promote this time of year. Another HUGE niche is weight loss. Let’s face it, a whole lot of Americans could lose a few pounds. Not only is it New Year’s resolution time, but we’re also coming off of the two biggest FEAST holidays of the year. You can bet your bottom dollar that search volume for keywords like “weight loss” are already picking up speed and will soon be through the roof.

Oh wait, I almost forgot to include a dating ad. Silly me! (’tis the season)

If you’re not already familiar, adsense is a popular monetization tool for web publishers (that’s you!). You’ve probably noticed “ads by Google” on several other websites. Basically, the owner of that site is paid a small fee every time someone clicks one of those ads. In large volume, you can make a nice chunk of change with adsense.

Blogger is behind the countless “blogspot” blogs that are published on the web. These blogs are free to register, and blogger goes ahead and hosts them for you also. The benefit to running a blog this way is that it is 100% free. The downside is that you’re a bit limited in what you can do with it, and of course you don’t technically own the blog, it’s just made available to you through blogger. But don’t get me wrong, blogspot blogs are definitely useful!

The method we’re going to talk about today is actually very easy and lots of folks are already using it to drive traffic to their blogspot pages in the hopes of generating adsense clicks.

Basically, you’re going to want to grab a breaking video. Music videos are getting insanely difficult to re-upload because of the advanced duplicate content filters YouTube has been using. I’d suggest something sports related. UFC fights can work WONDERS, but the UFC has a tendency to have their videos removed. They will stick for a little while, though (your own results may vary).

Once you find your hot video, use Zamzar to download it from YouTube. If the thumbnail could be better, consider improving it. I also recommend that you watermark the video with your new URL, both to increase the video’s “uniqueness”, and to help drive additional traffic to the new blogspot page you’re promoting. Don’t have a relevant blogspot blog? Well, that’s fine! In fact, it’s better that you do this with a new blog. Create a blogger blog with a relevant name. For instance, if you were going to do this with a video of the recent Randy Couture Vs Brock Lesnar fight (UFC), you could try to get “LesnarVsCouture.blogspot.com”. Of course, that name may very well be taken, but you can use your imagination.

For best results, you should add some original content to the blog. It doesn’t have to be a whole lot, maybe 300-400 words about the fight. This will increase the chance of your adsense units actually displaying (Google’s quality filters might prevent them from showing up on a site that they feel has no value). Maybe you might also want to embed the fight video or a couple pictures from the event. Blogger makes it really easy to add adsense units to your blog. If you don’t already have an adsense account, you can sign up here (it may take a couple days for you to get approved).

Now, take the video and upload it to your own YouTube channel (you may want to create a new account for this as well). Include a link to your new blog in the description, and use annotations to accentuate the link.

The faster you get this done, the better. Others will likely be uploading the same video, so you want yours to be uploaded sooner in order to boost its chances of ranking higher in YouTube search results. Also, don’t forget to post your video as a response to other relevant videos.

That’s about it! Of course, the more of these mini-systems you set up, the greater your chances of success. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket!

In a previous post, I went into detail about how you can use annotations to significantly boost the CTR (click-through rate) of your videos. Your #1 priority should be getting people to your videos, but your #2 priority is to get them to click to your site!

Now, the trouble here is that YouTube decided to place a little advertisement above (what appears to be) every single non-content partner video on YouTube. So, this applies to the general public and most likely every single YouTube marketer.

For those of us that had hundreds of videos up with annotations pointing perfectly at the URL in the description, this is bad news. Now all of our convenient little annotations point at the completely wrong place. I will show you an example:

Google Adwords provides a powerful keyword research tool that allows you to see the approximate monthly search volume for any given keyword, along with the search volume of related keywords. Of course, this data only reflects what people are searching on Google. How do you effectively do keyword research specifically for YouTube? Well, my method definitely does not give you the same detailed information that you can get doing keyword research for search engines, but it is still a very effective one.

When you type into the search field on YouTube, you’ll notice that you are given suggestions based on the characters you enter. For instance, if you just type the letter “T”, a drop down of suggested search terms will appear. Since they are not listed alphabetically, it makes sense to assume that they are probably listed in order of highest search volume/popularity.

(example)