Welcome to the first of many posts, brought to you exclusively from theNetFool.com, focused on getting the maximum amount of traffic to your website or blog. You can access all of our traffic tips by checking out our traffic techniques section of the blog.

Today, I’d like to talk about one of the increasingly popular methods of funneling thousands upon thousands of unique visitors to your website or blog. Video marketing is a technique that has been historically thought of as a bit too under-developed to really work. However, over 2008 and onward into 2009, site owners have not only seen video traffic become a viable resource for new visitors, but it has become an accelerating traffic trend that has made many entrepreneurs millionaires overnight.

Why is video marketing, or even video blogging (vlogging), such a great alternative to plain ol’ text anyway? I have found that with video, not only do you have your content on your website, but you can have your thoughts, opinion and brand name spread all over the internet… we’re talking embedded on random websites and streamed from the source. Video blogging has caught some major traction as of late, and using video to market your website has become just as popular.

There are two primary means that I see as extraordinarily useful in video marketing to gain traffic: search engine optimization, and YouTube popularity. Let’s dissect each method and get you in the know.

Video Marketing for Search Engine Optimization

Many search engine optimization professionals pour hundreds of dollars into getting top-tier placements in the Google search engine for various keywords. I would have to say that one of the roots of internet marketing is in obtaining high Search Engine Results Pages (or “SERPs”), so that your website is one of the top search results for relevant common phrases that people search through on a daily basis. Gone are the days that content-rich websites rule the boards here… it’s been typical now to see videos appear as the #1 or #2 results under high-powered keyword search results.

HINT: You MUST have a link back to your site in the “description” section of all videos!

How can you use video marketing to get that high search engine result? There are plenty of ways… and I would recommend promoting your videos just like anything else that you would. This means creating articles and using article marketing to target the keywords that you think will hit for your video. Additionally, you could create some profiles on places like HubPages and Squidoo to get more links pointing to your video. There are ton’s of methods that all involve getting extra links to your video, and you always want to link up to the video using a targetted search term that both lacks competition and has plenty of search volume. Heck, if you’d like to learn a bit more about “friendly marketing,” check out the article I wrote a while back on some ordinary methods to get extraordinary traffic.

Finally, by getting enough backlinks to your video, you will start to appear on organic Google search engine results. With this, you’ll start seeing the traffic roll in! Need a hand? I actually use a program called Video Post Robot to get my video uploaded to dozens of video-upload websites (i.e. YouTube, MetaCafe, etc.) at once!

Getting Noticed Through YouTube

Yes, I have YouTube as an entirely separate entity for getting traffic to your website. Why? Well, it is really like the difference between getting a high search engine result on Google versus Yahoo or MSN… it’s the king! With over 60 million unique viewers every month, rest assured that YouTube commands something like 90-95% of the online video scene. YouTube is optimized for 18 different languages and has a large presence in the Asian marketplace… not only this, but it’s the fourth most popular website in the entire U.S! What this means is that you can get an insane amount of traffic to your website if you have a popular video on YouTube (with a link in the video’s description to your website, of course), so let’s see how we do this!

Getting lots of hits on YouTube is easiest done if you can land a video on the front page of YouTube. There is a specific algorithm that determines which videos make it, and it is largely based on the videos that gets the most views, favorites and comments. Again, getting on the front page isn’t the only way… but it certainly makes it easier!

First off, your video needs to be new and fresh. Much like any social bookmarking service like Digg.com, YouTube will give your video a higher ranking if it is brand new… because it is seen as more relevant and well-liked. Therefore, I would actually recommend re-submitting your video to YouTube if you don’t hit it off right from the start. This is an area that video has a huge advantage, because no service can track whether you are re-submitting the same video correctly… whereas re-submitting a text article to a network is caught easily.

Next, you should focus on creating a power profile. When YouTube determines which videos will appear on their front page, it is typically a function of how popular said user’s profile is. How many friends have you made on YouTube? How popular are your videos typically? It will be much easier for a consistent user to get a video on the front page of YouTube than one that just signed up… though not  impossible.

Finally, from each visitor that you get to your video, you should ask them to favorite it, comment on it, and rate it five stars. These ratings aren’t just imaginary… and they are actually used to determine the popularity and relevance of various videos. Not only will this help for the front page of YouTube.com, but it will rank you up higher in YouTube’s own video search system. Nobody knows for sure which is more heavily weighted (views, favorites, ratings or comments), so make sure that you go for all four!

How can you get traffic to your YouTube video to make it all possible? Again, there are literally hundreds of marketing methods… so it is up to you to decide. I would recommend to start by simply sharing the link with your friends. Then, you could even use a different social media website (Digg or StumbleUpon are my favorites here) to link up to the YouTube video and get a rush of traffic when you need it most.

Bottom Line: Video marketing is an increasingly popular way to get tons of traffic and popularity to your website. Even if the video isn’t originally hosted on your site, having a third party directing loads of traffic your way can be a huge boost to your daily traffic… and is typically a method that also will rank high in Google. There’s no two bits about it: the future of the internet is in interactivity and video, so get in on it while the industry is relatively young!

-Jimvesting

Lets get right down to it,

Another crazy week in the books! A lot has happened in a short period of time, and heck, with exams around the corner I have been a very busy man. But hey, before I get into the news…. lets get to reading some of my favorite articles and posts from the week ending May 3rd.

• Winning the Web – The Power of Social Proof – All the Cool Kids Are Using It
• Courtney Tuttle – Introduction to Lead Blogging
• The Blog Entrepreneur – Blogging is a BAD Way to Make Money Online
• Monkey Blogger – Consistency People!
• The Germz – Get more traffic to your site

Okay, lots of good stuff this week. There has been a lot of mindless rambling after the most recent Google PageRank. Apparently I now have a PR of 4, which I completely don’t believe for now. Though it may be correct, I have to be hesitant to believe I moved from a 0 to a 4 in a month…. a 4 would put me in the ranks of only the most elite bloggers, and definitely a few steps ahead of blogs that have even 20x the number of subscribers that I do. These articles posted are mainly about increasing traffic to your blog by writing good stuff, and how to do it well. Nothing out of the ordinarily, but definitely some nice material.

So what happened this week?

Blogosphere:
Things were pretty much on edge after the PageRank update that I mentioned. No, there weren’t any more blogging fights / major controversies, but pretty much all of the ‘make money online’ blogs released their earnings statements which is always interesting. I’d suggest going to some of the more popular ones to see how they are making their cash online. One of the funnier ones was from OneMansGoal.com, yes the blog that was bought out for $10,000 by some kid, which reported “Income $27″…hahaha . Other than that, quite a few bloggers posted more fantastic earnings, so its good to see things moving along.

Stock Market:
Pretty interesting week here, amid lots of talk about the supposed commodity bubble bursting and the weak US Dollar coming back from the dead. So many conflicting views here, but we definitely had a good week as the Federal Reserve cut the Federal Funds Rate down 25 basis points (that’s 0.25% if you are confused by the terminology) to 2.00%. This is probably the last cut in a long time, as we are down from 5.25% in September 2007.

Remember my pitch of Harsco (NYSE: HSC) in early April? Well, it would appear that once again… Jim Cramer is reading my blog and once again stealing my ideas! Enough is enough Jim! Okay, but all kidding aside, it’s good to see people taking notice of this company. We’re keeping an eye on gold (commodity), because it is essentially hanging in the balance around $850-$875… we’ll see what turns up.

Jimvesting’s Outrageous Blog Contest:
Right so finally, let’s talk about the contest that is underway here. Lots of entries so far, and things are definitely picking up. I have my finger on the trigger in purchasing some sponsored reviews on other popular blogs, and should see a nice spike in traffic following this move.

What… you want another way to enter you say?! Okay. Fine.

1 Entry For “Favoriting” My Blog on Technorati!
So how do you do this? Simply follow this link for the direct method. You will need a Technorati account, which I suggest that you do if you don’t have one already. Basically, Technorati is a huge social networking website, and having more people favorite my blog is a step in the right direction in taking over the world making new friends online!

This week, I am going to be posting some more guest bloggers’ posts because of exams. But other than that, I should be able to sneak in some great articles on blogging… and some good controversial smack-downs. I have a lot of ideas right now on my idea pad, so whenever I get enough time to sit down and write them out… its going to be some great new material!

… oh, and stay bullish on the net!
-Jimvesting