Over $35,000 So Far This Year In A Tough Niche
I wanted to share a little something with you when it comes to content.
When the word content is spoken the first thing most people think of is "text" and I guess that's only natural.
But there is other content available to use for marketing and the other content I'm talking about would be video content.
Now last year I started in a completely new niche, one I knew ZERO about, and to top ift off this niche is crazy competitive.
So when I started in this niche my plan was to use videos as my primary method of content marketing - not blog posts. I'm a video marketer so I had a good feeling about this. And I was right.
So here's what I did:
1) I built a website, this site has 8 pages plus the blog. One of those pages is a video page, I'll explain that in a second.
2) I did a total of 45 posts. My last blog post was May 2014
3) The total number of videos to date (as of this week) is 108 videos. - you can do the added math of how many videos I will have when ever you are reading this at 1 video per week.
I'm currently ranked on the first page of Google between spots 1 and 4 over 63 times (videos). These first page ranking of my videos is always increasing each month.
I'm also ranked on the first page of Google for my domain name and my YouTube channel over 66 times. I got these ranking when the keyword I used for searches did not result in the video itself getting ranked. (yet)
And when people use YouTube as their search engine within this niche many times my videos dominate the whole first page, in fact sometimes the first 10 search results will be all my videos.
The Process I Used
So to create video, oh and I have created a template for the video, this way I can simply replicate the process so all I have to do is voice the video and edit it.
I create a script and then I record the audio within the video template. (I use camtasia)
Now I edit the audio, taking out all the pauses and hum's and such, basically I clean it up.
Now all my videos are just text videos with graphics added, basically I'm a doing a voice over style video.
Total time to have a finished video on average is 2 hours.
Once the video is done I upload it to my youtube channel. Now every video has been keyword researched so the title is the keyword phrase with a tagline added.
For the description I use the all the content from the script, this gives me a detailed description of over 1000 words.
And of course all the other incidental keywords within that script have the opportunity to get indexed. I also make sure that the URL for my website is the before all the text in the description area so that's the first thing the spider crawls.
At the end of the description - I add the keyword title - as well as the link to the video itself (brands the video), plus links to my websites video page.
I have had people take my videos and re-upload them as their own, even though the videos have my brand within them. But when that happens I simple put in a copyright infringement notice to youtube and video is usually removed within hours.
Anyway...
I always create a custom thumbnail for the video, more branding but the custom thumbnail is also a BIG call to action to watch the video
I use annotations within the video. These are links within the video the go to my website, which is a online form for people to complete as well I have our 800 number in the video. These are the calls to actions. Most people fill out the online form.
Update: Annotations no longer available to use. You need to use Cards and End Screens to have clickable links in your videos. If you do have annotations in a published video they still work, but you can't edit them.
I then add my tags making sure I include the keyword title phrase as my first tag, my domain name as my second tag and then I have 10 other keyword tags that I add.
Once the video is uploaded, I then go to my site and remember that video page? I then take the keyword phrase and create a link from my site to the video. So currently there is a list of 108 links, linking to various videos.
I then go to Google webmaster tools and then use the fetch tool and fetch that page.
Now once that's done I now go to my Google + page that I created for this niche and I then share the video. So I create a short post and then link to the video.
And that's it. I simply rinse and repeat this process each week with just videos.
And by doing just that, this little site has generated just over $35,000 for this year (2015), I would guess by year end I will be just under $40,000. UPDATE, year end total earnings for 2015 was just over $50,000.
Total time from start to finish including the creation of the video 2 1/2 hours on average.
Here's another update. As of April of 2016 I now only create a video once every 2 weeks. Because I have such a huge foundation of videos and authority creating a video every 2 weeks is more then enough now. And at the end of 2017, this site earned just over $75,000.
Here's my point to all this....
When you think content, just don't think text, there are other variations of content that work just as good if not better than text.
And I say that because I find my videos get ranked faster then regular content does.
I believe in you
Leo
Recent Comments
396
Hey Leo. You are just awesome. Thank you for this great information.
I have a question too if I may please. I want to do video too, but a little different. I want to have my face or me talking on the video while you can see me and not my screen. Do you know what I can use to do this. I have a good quality webcam.
This is called a talking head video. You can do these any where, - webcams are ok if you don't have a camera. An iPhone can do a great job now a days. A good HD camera is a Go Pro Silver
The biggest thing is the sound - make sure people can here you and there are no goofy outside noise. So many times it's best to have a lapel mic for great sound. You could have the best video but if the sounds sucks people won't watch it.
This is why the WA community is so good, many ideas which work well and have been tested are put out there for others to consider. I have now added another goal to my list of goals, get a video done!! but not yet.
Thanx for the inspiration and advice. Wonderful!
It's because you are Good Leo. I am not such a fool to think just because you did it, I can do it... BUT we are making money doing Videos now. I also realize you did not start off at this level. It took time for you to get here. You don't blow smoke and you don't suck up. YOU ARE THE REAL DEAL and you have my respect.
i provide free of charge to my employee's education in any area that they wish. 2 of them are taking an 8-week hands-on video class.
Back in 2008 I did thousands of videos personally. I was working for IBM running stuff for Disney and ABC-TV. They are sitting on my server in Houston. I recently spent some bucks updating my Video Software. Needless to say, a lot has changed since 2008.
There are as many fake Video people now as there are Fake Web Designers. They are giving us a bad name.
Thank you for the kind words, and yep lots has changed since 2008, the biggest change is the power video has - in fact it's reported that by 2017 80% of the content consumed will be through video.
And that's simply because people are using more mobile devices
Video-making stuff is not my strength at all... I am more of a writer, although I should consider having a couple of videos here and there.
P.S. I am so bad at video stuff that the process with videos that you described was hard for me to digest ! :o
Leo, thanks for the great post! I also was thinking of adding a video to one of my blog posts. I made a bunch of cooking videos on YouTube. I am not sure how I would go about adding it. Do I add a link to the post, that will take a visitor to my YouTube video?
Hi Leo, great post! I have just recently got on the video bandwagon and think it's a great way to get traffic to your website and generate business.
You are correct in that it's easier to get ranked on YT. My video is not that good (my first) but it's ranked 3 position within 3 hours!
Thanks for sharing all the steps!
That's great, don't worry your videos don't have to be a spielberg productions, as long as you convey your message and get them to your site, it's a success.
Thanks for detailing your process. You have refined the system beautifully. You mentioned this was a very competitive niche--it sounds like video was a great way to sneak in. Obviously you must be providing something of value to keep their interest--I would love to see some of your actual videos or check out your website.
Thanks for the informative post.
In case anybody is wondering, I'm going to guess that the 800 number you refer to on your sites is a Pay Per Call number from a network like SAS or CJ.
I don't see much about Pay Per Call discussed here at WA, but it can be a great addition for an affiliate site.
Thanks for sharing this, Leo! This great stuff!!! Sounds about right what you say about content. I think I would have much more fund with this approach. What camera, editing software, etc. do you use for your videos? Wishing you a happy, healthy and even more prosperous New Year! Adam
For editing I use camtasia - and when I do use a camera which is rare I have a go pro silver I use - I have other cameras but the go pro does what I need it to do
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Yes I agree there's written content, video content, image content, and you can do audio content such as podcasts. Many people can be single minded and forget about other types of content. Myself personally I like to diversify and use different types of content so then people stay engaged and stay on the site longer or return regularly.