Is YouTube The Number 1 Online Marketing Solution For Artists?

Online marketing has come a long way in a short time and over the last few years video marketing has been cast as the best way to market your business online by a growing number of people but is it really the right solution for you and your art business? Let’s take a look at the GrandDaddy of video sharing sites to see what all the fuss is about.

• YouTube

What Photobucket is to stills, YouTube is to moving pictures. Think video sharing, think YouTube, the number 1 Global video platform of its kind. Recent estimates suggest that a whopping 20% of all Internet traffic is captured by YouTube. That figure attests to the world wide popularity of this site and gives some clue as to why it is the biggest and in many cases, the best video sharing site available today. Without a doubt, they are the benchmark for all the rest to follow and when it comes to marketing online YouTube offers the intelligent marketer a number of powerful options to share content, build an audience and attract targeted website traffic. To that end, YouTube’s community building and video sharing is second to none and has become the blueprint for building similar sites on today’s Internet.

Froma  users point of view you can watch any video without having to become a member and it’s free. The community created is vast and one of its strengths. Here users interact, comment and post videos promoting their special interests for others to see. One would be hard pressed to find any topic that is not represented be it work related, leisure time activity or human interest and for the artist and art lover there is a growing landscape of videos to reach all tastes. So popular and so big a part of life, YouTube has become a star-making machine. Think of Evolution of Dance, Chocolate Rain, Star Wars Kid and you get the idea.So, for an artist looking to expand that online portfolio look no further if video marketing takes your interest.

But before heading off into the unknown take a little time to do your research and learn how to market your artwork using videos, otherwise you’ll be making movies that nobody will see and your art will sit untouched and without a buying audience.  Learn how to use video sharing sites to market and sell your art online and you’ll have a low cost marketing solution that fits the art niche like a glove. Take a look at SellMyART on Youtube

With one of the biggest video libraries in the world, a large and diverse community mix, a commitment to making video sharing an easy task, no wonder You Tube sits at number 1 in our Top 10 ranking.

• Viewing features

With the vast majority of YouTube users being the audience and not content producers, search functions are designed to cater to viewers and make what you are looking for, easy to find. Search by category, ratings, descriptions, previews name and more. If you have an account, you can comment on and post ratings on any video providing they are within the boundaries of decency. The YouTube comment system is regulated by all account holding users who can either promote or deny postings within a certain set of criteria. Customized features abound. Beyond the norm like screen size and volume you can create a playlist of your favourites and enjoy them in the order and the way you like.

There is even an RSS feed that gets you up to the minute information on new videos by category or user. Contributing to its Number 1 Ranking and size, is YouTube’s ability to embed their videos in other sites who don’t have to host a video file but simply import it.

• For Content Producers

There are a number of useful features to help make every video producer feel like an award winner. You can control your audience as to who can view your work, or is allowed to comment and post replies, list time, date and location of principal photography and the date of the upload. Cell phone cinematographers will like the ease of uploading video captured on their phones. This is becoming a social phenomenon used by more and more people each and every day.

• Targeting your audience

To post a video on YouTube, it needs a title, a short description of the content, the category it belongs to, and a set of “tags” for identification. The tags assist in making suggestions for like clips to view with similar content and also help you to target your video towards your potential market.

This is where your marketing knowledge needs to kick into play and to help you understand and make the most of who is searching for your content and what they are searching for Google has produced a keyword research tool specifically for YouTube which you will find HERE.

The YouTube keyword tool is a great tool and one which allows you to find keywords related to your artwork and tag them to your videos to find potential viewers who will appreciate your work. This is a great solution to those of us shooting in the dark when it comes to YouTube and an indication that video sharing sites and the people who frequent them have their own search habits.

• Content uploads

Uploading videos to YouTube is pretty straightforward and the time it takes to complete the upload will allow you to tag the videos title, description and tags appropriately.

A special upload manager allows you to streamline the process especially useful when dealing with large files or several files at once. Content should be under 10 minutes running time and less than 1 gigabyte. Acceptable formats include the most popular for amateur video producers like MPG, MOV, WVM and AVI. Once uploaded, they are converted into Adobe Flash format. YouTube does this because most people already have Flash software loaded on their computers.

• Easy to use syndication features

Once you have found what you are looking for, press play, adjust the volume and screen size, sit back and enjoy. How easy is that? Much the same results are achieved when using the upload manager for larger files making it really easy to place content in YouTube. Add to this, YouTube have intergrated a share option beneath each video and for those logged into their own YouTube account, the option to comment and vote on user content. Youtube users are active and passionate about leaving comments and sharing good content so make your videos to meet your target audiences needs and wants and you’ll soon see the benefit.

• Getting started making online videos

One of the best support features on YouTube is the tutorial videos that show you how to upload videos and manage your account, step by step. This only makes sense when you consider that YouTube is a video site and its users are accustomed to watching videos. Make the most of the videos and use them to set up your channel correctly, find friends and join groups as well as follow best practise to ensure your account stays live and works well in marketing your art business online.

YouTube is the most popular video sharing site because it is without doubt the best out there, and that’s why we ranked it number one among our list of top ten video sharing sites. That many people just can’t be wrong. It has all the features you need, both to watch and post videos and if you’re looking for an online marketing solution that is fast, accurate and has the potential to go viral, then video marketing on YouTube could be just what you are looking for.