Q1

Entertainment through visual stimulation is brain candy for most humans.  We are wired to experience stimulus and access.  Danger or pleasure?  That is why video marketing is beneficial for getting the word out about your mission, your business, your art.  Part of being human and how we are wired is that we need to feel connected to others, even if we don’t actually connect, we want to FEEL connected. Participating in viewing videos that others have viewed (little counter in the right hand corner of YouTube letting me know that 56 other people have a viewed the same video) helps me feel part of something bigger.  Like we are all part of a ‘knowing’ and experience.

Engaging audiences, reach large audiences and showcase goods and services are the benefits of online video marketing.  (Social Media Marketing: A Strategic Approach, Barker, Barker, Bormann and Heher, 2013, P. 144) All the benefits can be met on YouTube, Vimeo, and other online video platforms.

Q2

Old Spice creates videos I want to watch because of the element of surprise, they appeal to women, they are humorous and do not take themselves too seriously, all the while letting me know that there IS an Old Spice product for men’s hair.  Something that I did not know prior to viewing.   Besides writing, producing and posting an entertaining video, the ability for viewer to interact with the Old Spice Guy and his humorous responses, being imitated, guesting on talk shows and being a subject of parody all contributed to the traction and spread of the videos.

Q3

In order for a video to become ‘successful’ meaning being viewed and shared by millions, it must be shared in the holy trinity of sharing: primary, secondary, and tertiary.   Primary sharing happens when I post a video on to my YouTube channel about lowering stress by using breathing and body awareness.  Secondary sharing happens when after letting my Facebook friends, subscribing to my newsletter, attendees of my workshops and family members and they share that video with their friends.  Tertiary (one of my most favorite words in existence to date)  sharing is when online viewers find my decreasing stress video and start sharing it with others because they want to.

Q4

Small business may begin recording informative, instructive, inspiring or entertaining videos about the goods and services they offer.

The nursery business may record and share how to videos on the following topics: plant a container garden, create a compost that doesn’t attract rodents, or how to put together a mini water feature for your deck.  They might showcase specific lawn and garden tools, fertilizers, composts and plants that are ideal for the pacific northwest weather and soil conditions.  The landscape designer might teach the basics to landscape design and them  demonstrate putting together a small landscape using those very elements and criteria.

A life coaching business might create how to design a daily life schedule that honors your creativity and your responsibilities, obligations and commitments.  The life coaching business might teach breathing techniques, basics on nutrition, mindset, healthy boundaries, as well as how to schedule quiet creative time and time to meditate, pray and listen.   The life coaching business might interview other experts and coaches presenting their unique take on a particular aspect of coaching or living your best life. Posting all of these videos on your business’s YouTube channel, sharing them on your FB page and sending out a link in your monthly newsletter are all pieces of the marketing puzzle.  Quality content generation, consistent posting  and high entertainment value must be stressed in all aspects of video creation and sharing.  That is if that business owner wants a large public following.

Q5

Monetize through online videos seems to be easier than ever.  You Tube has a box you can check if you want ads on your channel.  If your channel gets enough views, followers, friends you may earn dollars for those click through ads that appear prior to your video playing or down below horizontally along the bottom of the screen.  Also, affiliate marketing where you endorse another’s product and service and if people go to and buy that product or service through your site/channel you may receive a little piece of the revenue generated.   Businesses have discovered and are utilizing the value of being where the people are and that is in front of YouTube or other video sites and that is where you will find the ads.

An  aside here, Hulu offers a choice in ads before the program starts.  This is genius because it is an instant test market to find out what people want according to the demographic suggested by the programming.  I just LOVE that.  So efficient.  Oh, and last night my husband won an ad free playing of Rake, a new Greg Kinnear show by playing a casino game and winning the hand.  He liked that a lot.  It made more sense after watching the show and finding out that the lawyer also enjoys a  bit of game.   Demographics and aligning with advertising in an entertaining manner.

Q6

Meet Tyler. Found him on YouTube.  He instantly saved me $750.  I just received an email from my current local (PA) website host and website designer (whom I have had to spend hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars to have a site I am less than thrilled with) who said that for $500 upgrade and $250 installation fee he would make my current website responsive. Responsive is the word used to describe how the site is scaled for the mobile devices used (phones and tablets).  Well, while I did my four miles on my treadmill, I just learned how to build my own responsive website on WordPress.  I am not a “techie” I wish I was.  But I am not.  This video is for ANYONE who wants to build a website for less than $25 by watching this video (1:03:29) in about an hour.

He goes over everything from get the host, the domain, picking the theme, adding pages, installing widgets, getting a logo for free, which widgets (visual editor and facebook and youtube) sites to go to.  I kept telling my husband, “I learned so much!  He made it so easy to understand and follow.  I love this!”  Enjoy!

I wanted to post this video that we had made a couple of years ago by an amateur videographer.  The videos are long.  That is something I would change for the future, but I thought I would take the opportunity to share on this forum.