Success with Youtube at last

[Fiachra Kavanagh]

Hi,

My mentor Lee McIntyre keeps preaching about the importance of giving back and giving information for free, so here ya go:

My internet marketing business to date has been a fairly mixed bag, but due to having a few streams of income from my online endeavours, being single and as someone who lives very cheap ( I never pay more than $10 for Jeans!), I manage to make a living in this crazy business.

Anyway!

I really got very into youtube last summer 07, and started making little videos promoting all sorts of affiliate products. Just simple videos I made using my cellphone (or mobile as we call ‘em here in Europe). The reason I used my cellphone is the video files are recorded in the 3gp format and are very small is size. They tend run about 1mb per 1 minute of video, and therefore would upload very fast with my slowish internet connection. They are a little grainy but since youtube compress all videos anyway, they actually look quiet acceptable.

Another great thing about Youtube that I’m sure many of you know is that you can put a link to your website beside the video in the description, which most other video sites don’t allow.

So I slowly made short videos promoting of myself promoting health products, internet marketing products etc. Trust me the videos I created up until around December were not that great looking, but they brought in some affiliate sales and still do.

The video I created for Willie Crawfords excellent ebook “20 ways to make $100 per day” is still number one on youtube if you search - 20 ways to make $100 - and has the most traffic of any of the videos promoting that product. A lot of that traffic came from the various forums that I participate in, since I had the video in signature file.


The Turning Point - The Saturday Project:

I was out for a few drinks with some friends in the middle of November 07, and we were joined by a young brother of one my friends and his gang of mates. Then one of the young guys, Andrew, asked me about my internet marketing. Turned out he is 21 and studying IT in college, and looking for ways to make some extra cash.

So we arranged to meet the following day, and I was actually delighted to show him what I am doing since most people around here haven’t a clue what I do.

Anyway he was very fascinated but most intrigued with the videos I was doing more than anything else. He felt that with a slightly more professional concept and look, that these videos might be much more profitable. I then added, that like it says in all the good Internet marketing books: Find a niche that isn’t over exhausted and create some good content around that.

So we came up with the following: We would each create a vlog (video blog) around something we both had an interest in, and then create good quality videos around it, and we would work at it together every Saturday from 10 am to 6 pm.

The sites:

1) We picked our niches, and did keyword research using the word tracker free keyword tool.
2) We researched what affiliate possibilities existed. In both cases there were plenty.
3) We registered our domains with Godaddy, and used Hostgator hosting that I already have, and used Wordpress for the vlogs. To date $20 is all we have spent on this - oh and the odd lunch.

The Videos:

We decided on a combination of video types, videos where we talked ourselves, photo slideshows converted into video format, and videos that some of our affiliates supplied, which we then uploaded to youtube. Most of the videos we created were of us reviewing various products to do with that niche. In all cases we added a watermark of our vlog url to each video. We did this using videospin, a free download. It seems to work better than Windows moviemaker for us.

When it came to shooting the videos of ourselves, Andrew was initially convinced that we should use his DVD video camera, and while the results were a little better than using the cell phones, it took a lot of extra time processing the footage.

We both have phones that shoot video in 320 X 240 resolution, he has a Samsung u600, and I have a Sony Ericsson P1i. As long as the light is right, the results are very acceptable, also the sound is fine from the phone microphones as long as you speak loudly.
The real key to this is to have someone to shoot your video while you are performing. So I would shoot Andrew's videos and he would shoot mine. Also there in very little processing and we transfer the videos from the phone to the computer using Bluetooth.

Note - the video I shot for 20 ways to make $100 per day, was shot in much inferior 176 x 144 resolution on an older phone.

Progress to date:

We started in early December 07, working most Saturdays from 10 am till 6pm. We would organise, shoot, edit and upload videos first which often takes 3 or 4 hours. Then we would work on the sites. Adding pages and posts, then going to related forums that allow you to add a signature file, and make posts there. To date the majority of traffic has come from youtube, and forums but the vlogs are doing ok in the major search engines as well lately.

Also in the last couple of weeks, We have ventured into articles, and have written a few articles that we have added to the major article directories, and the articles are now also bringing in traffic.

As for monetization, both vlogs are fairly well plastered with affiliate links, and they do work well. I also have adsense on mine, which brings in a few dollars a day, but Andrew decided to forego this, as he wasn’t impressed with pennies it pays.

So how are the figures stacking up: Well mine made $1164 in March, and Andrews made over $1400. Not bad for 20 Saturdays, and both vlogs are on target to do a bit more this month.
Andrew and his family are very happy as you can imagine, and this money will go towards his year long trip to Australia in May.
It’s a pity that he is going away because I have enjoyed our Saturdays working together. Funny when you start out working alone after years of being in the workforce it’s a great relief having all that freedom and no boss, but the novelty wears off after a while, and its great to work with someone again on a part time basis. Still though I really don’t want to ever go back to a 9 to 5 JOB (just over broke)

Finally I am in the process of writing a complete free step by step guide on how to make money with youtube - the proper way. Should be finished soon, I’ll let you know when it is.

Thanks
Fiachra Kavanagh

[KansasDragon]

Thanks for your report.

It was very informative. Congrats on your success, and I hope it continues to grow.

[ChristyK]

Thanks for sharing! and congrats on your success. Re-affirms that thought that "You don't have to get it right, you just have to get it going". You didn't wait around worrying that you didn't have the perfect hi-tech products. You stuck with something that was good enough and would quickly get the job done. I also love the idea of working on a project side-by-side with someone and it's impressive that you both stuck with it. Great job! and here's to your continued success.

Christy

[Bonnie Lowe]

Terrific post, Fiachra! Congratulations on your success!

Would you mind posting the link to your vlog, or to one of your videos on YouTube, so we can SEE what you're talking about?

[ChristyK]

I was also wondering.. Do you link directly to the affiliate from youtube? (I'd think you'd at least use a redirect for tracking)

[tvanslooten]

Congrats! Very inspiring success story.

Like others have asked, can you provide a link to one of your "cell phone YouTube videos" so we can see what they actually look like? And do you link directly to your vlog or to the affiliate offer in these videos?

Travis

[alexc]