At least four new products — Pure Digital's Flip camcorders, Sony's Net-sharing CAM, Casio Exilim digital cameras and Apple's latest version of iMovie — promise to make uploading videos to YouTube easier than ever. But how difficult is it to create, upload to and optimize your videos for YouTube? What are the advantages to e-tailers and small retailers for posting videos on YouTube?
Why YouTube Posting videos related to your product or service on YouTube is an inexpensive way to enhance your marketing message and get attention. "YouTube gets millions of eyeballs," said Michael Miller, author of YouTube 4 You and the blog Video Blogging for Business. "If you post a video that's informative and entertaining, you can promote your business to hundreds or even thousands of potential customers."
For example, Miller cites the YouTube videos of Charles Smith, an Alabama potter whose video demonstration of pottery making has been viewed over 11,572 times. Smith's videos are "interesting, informative, and they have the URL to his Web site at the beginning," Miller said. Clearly, this is a great way to drive traffic to Smith's site, where visitors can browse his pottery and place telephone or e-mail orders.
But don't simply post a video ad, Miller advises. "Give step-by-step instructions or do something else that's interesting and entertaining," he explains. "If you just post an ad, you probably won't get many viewers."
Creating and Editing YouTube Videos The most difficult part of getting on YouTube is shooting and editing your video, according to Miller, particularly if you aren't experienced with digital video. He recommends keeping your video as simple as possible. YouTube videos appear in fairly small windows on the site, he said, that aren't well suited for displaying expansive landscapes or lots of frenetic motion. Instead, shoot close-ups of people and objects against simple, static backgrounds.
To shoot your video, you can use anything from a $100 (or less) Webcam to a digital video camcorder costing several hundred dollars. "I prefer hard drive-based camcorders because they capture good quality and make transferring videos to a computer easy," said Miller. Videos are captured on hard drive-based camcorders as digital files. By comparison, videos captured on tape-based digital camcorders must be imported into a digital video editing application first and then saved as digital computer files.
For basic video editing software, Miller recommends iMovie on Macs and Windows Movie Maker for Windows PCs. Both programs are preinstalled on most Macs and Windows PCs, respectively, and don't cost extra. With both programs you can add still images, titles, transitions, music and effects. Apple's iMovie '08, the latest version, now includes an option for exporting and uploading directly to YouTube.
YouTube Capture Mode In recent months Casio has announced four new Exilim digital cameras that provide a YouTube video capture mode, which Casio says will be unique to its cameras through the holiday 2007 shopping season. The Exilim cameras with YouTube mode also offer an eBay photo mode, for taking pictures optimized for eBay.
Using the YouTube mode, you can capture video clips pre-formatted for YouTube. Currently, there are four Exilim digital cameras offering the YouTube capture mode:
Exilim Card EX-S880 ($280 list), with 8.1 megapixels, in black and red;
Exilim Zoom EX-Z1080 (list $280), with 10.1 million megapixels, in blue, black, gray and pink;
Exilim Hi-Zoom EX-V8 ($330 list), with 8.1 million megapixels . This is the only model of the four that captures stereo audio sound in video clips (though YouTube video audio is mono.)
In informal tests of the Exilim Zoom EX-277, video quality recorded with the YouTube capture mode passed with flying colors. To see for yourself, take a look at a video clip captured in bright daylight with the EX-277 and another recorded during a full moon.
Also, the Casio cameras ship with a convenient Windows XP and Vista utility that consolidates into one dialog box the multiple steps required to upload to YouTube. But if you want to edit your video clips or add titles, transitions, audio tracks and such, you'll need to perform those tasks in a video-editing application such as iMovie or Windows Movie Maker first before uploading.
Flip Camcorders automatically format videos for YouTube.
Another product, Pure Digital's line of Flip camcorders ($120-$180 list) provides Windows and Mac software that automatically formats your videos for YouTube and begins the process of uploading for you. But unlike the Casio YouTube utility, you must still go to the YouTube site to complete the steps.
Also, the Flip Windows and Mac software automatically adds a brief animation advertising the Flip camcorder at the end of each video you upload using the software. You can't delete the promo, though YouTube offers a Remixer tool that enables you to adjust your video's endpoint. To use this feature, go to YouTube, click My Account and My Videos, select the Remix Video button next to the video you want to edit and follow the steps.
Sony's Net-sharing CAM, which began shipping in mid September for $200 list, also comes with PC software designed to make uploading to YouTube and other sites easy. Unlike the Flip camcorders, Sony's pocket cam features a pop-out, 2.4 inch color LCD.
Uploading to YouTube Though the Casio cameras simplify YouTube uploads, the process isn't all that difficult to begin with, notes Doug Sahlin, co-author of YouTube For Dummies. After creating a YouTube account, click the 'Upload' link on the home page's upper right corner. Give your video a title, description and tags (keywords that help others find your video in a search). Next, select a category (such as "How To & DIY") and choose broadcast options (to make your video public or private), date and map options (such as when and where your video was recorded) and sharing options (such as allowing others to post comments automatically about your video). Then click the 'Upload a Video' button, browse to select the video file on your hard drive and you're done. Your video will appear within several minutes, depending upon its length and other factors.
Promoting Your Videos After you post your video, Miller said you need to promote it so it will find an audience. Among the promotional tips he offers:
Create a YouTube channel for your business, so all videos are grouped together.
Write a compelling description to accompany each video, to incite interest.
Be as descriptive as possible when adding tags to your video, to ensure that the widest possible audience can find it using keyword searches.
Embed your YouTube videos in your own Web site. Unless you specify otherwise, each video you post on YouTube includes HTML code that you, or others, can easily copy and paste into an HTML page, to embed the video on that page.
Send out an e-mail to customers or others, informing them whenever a new video is posted and providing a link to the clip. Only send e-mail to those who have opted in to receive updates from your company, however. Otherwise, you're spamming your customers-and that's never a good idea.
"With so many videos out there," said Sahlin, "if you don't promote it properly, your video won't get seen."
San Francisco-based James A. Martin has decades of experience covering technology and is a new contributor to ECommerce-Guide.com.
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YouTube for E-Tailers: Tips, Camcorder Reviews
