Case study on driving traffic to your site using video.
December 26, 2006
There's been such a buzz around the internet marketing sector lately about driving traffic to your web site using videos uploaded to places like Google Video and YouTube. Since I could never get anyone to give me any solid answers with real data, I decided to do a case study on whether or not this method really works.
To that end, I created two videos, one for my cat pictures blog and another for my dog pictures blog. I created one on the 12th of December and the other on the 13th, and uploaded both of them to Google Video and YouTube.
To watch the videos and, if you like them, send them to your friends and family, here's the links:
Here are snapshots of the Google Video view counts and ratings as of today, December 26th:
Cat Video
Dog Video
That's 5,130 views from just Google Video. I have gotten 624 views from YouTube. That's 5,754 views of my videos so far to date, and the numbers are not slowing down. I'm getting about 800 views a day now, so the numbers are rising fast.
Did This Translate Into Revenue?
The real question here is: sure, a lot of people viewed the video, but did any of those people visit the blog and click the ads? Let's not forget, I created these videos to drive traffic and make money, right? So did that happen?
Absolutely.
Before going into detail, though, let me explain something. I put an advertisement in front of and after the videos telling viewers about the blog. That way the last thing they see after seeing the video is an ad for my site, which is related to the video.
Google Video gives you a link to the site, but it's not very visible and so few people actually click it. YouTube doesn't let you have a link at all. So it's important to advertise your site in the video (at the end especially), so people will type your domain name into their browser.
Since people typing the domain into their browser doesn't give me any referrer data, I have to estimate the traffic figures. That's not so hard to do, though, since I haven't done any advertising or had any change in search engine ranking for either site since I put up the videos. So it's a safe assumption that any significant rise in traffic is due to the videos.
Let me show you my YPN stats for the dog blog so you can see how the numbers played out, and we'll examine them in a bit more detail.
13-day Stats Before Posting the Video
13-day Stats After Posting the Video
Okay, the first thing to notice is that I had 594 more impressions in the 13-days after the video was published than in the 13 days before, a 19% rise in traffic. That by itself is significant, since if you'll recall from my article writing case study, it took more than twice as long to get a little more than half that number of impressions.
But the added traffic isn't important if it doesn't convert into clicks. Traffic is great, but if it doesn't generate revenue, what's the point? That's where the real gold was in creating these videos. Did you look at the click-through rates of the before and after stats?
The click-through rate for the blog more than doubled just from the video traffic, and although I can't show you the dollar figures, I made more than two and a half times as much in the 13 days after the video than in the 13 days before. That proves that the video traffic was revenue-generating traffic.
The cat video generated about the same amount of additional visitors and a 50% increase in revenue. So the videos really helped the bottom line of both sites.
Don't Start Creating Videos Just Yet!
Creating the videos is easy if you have the right tools and know how to use them. But I learned a bunch of tips, tricks and methods for creating great videos using only FREE software tools. Did you notice that my videos got great ratings from the viewers? What I learned is what made that possible.
I also have a way to kick-start the viral spread of a video so it doesn't just get lost in amongst the thousands of other videos out there.
That's why I'm putting together a video tutorial that I'll be releasing next week that shows you how to create videos, add music and the advertising to your videos, and some tricks I used to help the videos generate even more traffic from the traffic that my site was already getting.
Look for an announcement about the video tutorials next week. If you're not on my email list and you want to be notified when the videos are released, sign-up for free here.
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What a lousy day at the golf course has to do with why you're not succeeding.
December 11, 2006
I was at the golf course today, not actually playing a game of golf, but just practicing my swing at the driving range. I'm a newbie when it comes to golf. I've only played two actual games.
Because I'm so new, I was trying to do everything I was told to do to hit the ball right: stand a certain way, grip the club a certain way, swing a certain way. I was pretty sure I was doing what I was told, but it was always ending in disaster. IF the ball went in the right direction, it never went far. But usually it was going everywhere BUT where I THOUGHT I was aiming.
That's when it struck me: the stance I was using and the way I was swinging was very uncomfortable for me. Not because I was doing it wrong, but because I have a bad lower back. You see, I was rear-ended in my car by a large truck about 8 years ago, and since then my lower back gives me problems.
I decided that it just didn't make sense for me to try and stand the way a person with a normal lower back would stand, and to swing the way a person who has a normal lower back would swing. Doing that was hurting me, so it was counter-productive. Realizing this, I changed to a stance and a swing that felt comfortable.
Low and behold, after making those changes I was making beautiful swings and hitting 200-250 yard shots exactly where I wanted them to go 80% of the time. I can't even begin to describe how good that made me feel.
I realized on my way home that there's a lesson in what happened to me out on the driving range. A lesson I thought I would share with you here.
If what works for somebody else is working against you, it doesn't matter how hard you try to duplicate somebody else's success THEIR WAY–it's probably not going to work for you.
You need to focus on your strengths. Perhaps work in a field that you know to be profitable, but work in it in a way that is productive FOR YOU, not necessarily the way that is productive for somebody else–regardless of how successful they are.
An example that relates to Internet Marketing: I think I've proven in this blog that writing articles is a great way to bring a lot of free traffic to your web site. If you love to write, this is great news!
But what if you hate writing? What if there's nothing you hate more than researching and writing articles? How well do you think article marketing is going to work for you?
True, you might find some success with it if you keep working harder and harder, but it's not going to make you happy. You're not going to have a sense of satisfaction after completing an article. It will probably just leave you drained.
When you then start comparing your own limited success to the enormous success that's been attained by somebody who LOVES to write, it will only dishearten you and make you want to give up.
So what do you do? You know articles can bring a lot of traffic, and you want traffic, but you hate writing! Well then, find a solution that's more comfortable for you. Perhaps hire a ghost writer, or join a private label rights program so you don't have to write much yourself. Don't give up on articles, just find a way to work with them that works for you.
It's just like my time at the driving range. I wanted to succeed at hitting the ball well, but trying to approach it the way the other players were approaching it was hurting me, not making me better.
It didn't matter how beautiful the shots of those other players were. My strengths (and weaknesses) were different, and I had to accept that and find a way to work with my strengths. When I did that, the improvement was remarkable.
Thomas Edison tried 1,500 different materials before discovering the one that worked in a light bulb. Fifteen-hundred. That's a lot. But because he kept trying and found the one that worked, we have light (and so much more)!
What would have happened if Edison had kept trying the same material over and over again because he was sure that it SHOULD work?
So learn from what others are finding success at, and try it their way at first in case it works for you. But if it doesn't, don't keep trying harder and harder at something that just doesn't fit you or your personality. Either do it YOUR way, or move on to something else.
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A case study on the traffic-building power of article writing (final update).
December 1, 2006
Okay guys. Here are the final numbers for the article traffic building case study, from start to finish.
November 8 (one week in)
| Page Views | Signups | Sales |
| 68 | 25 | 0 |
| In Google? | In Yahoo? | In MSN? |
| Yes | No | No |
| Google Backlinks | Yahoo Backlinks | MSN Backlinks |
| 0 | 0 | 0 |
November 15 (two weeks in)
| Page Views | Signups | Sales |
| 224 | 74 | 0 |
| In Google? | In Yahoo? | In MSN? |
| Yes | No | No |
| Google Backlinks | Yahoo Backlinks | MSN Backlinks |
| 0 | 0 | 0 |
November 23 (three weeks in)
| Page Views | Signups | Sales |
| 279 | 98 | 1 |
| In Google? | In Yahoo? | In MSN? |
| Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Google Backlinks | Yahoo Backlinks | MSN Backlinks |
| 0 | 2 | 5 |
December 1 (four weeks in)
| Page Views | Signups | Sales |
| 341 | 126 | 1 |
| In Google? | In Yahoo? | In MSN? |
| Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Google Backlinks | Yahoo Backlinks | MSN Backlinks |
| 0 | 3 | 6 |
So from zero to 31 days, I managed 341 visitors to the site and 126 opt-ins to the free mini-course. Plus I made a sale on the course with a very cheesy sales pitch (I must admit). I made about $25 off this deal, and I have reason to believe that dog training courses are a tough sell since people are searching for free info when looking for dog training, and aren't really "geared" to buy anything.
All this from submitting only 5 articles to 3 article distribution sites: EzineArticles.com, ArticleCity.com and GoArticles.com. No search engine optimization, no link building efforts, nothing but writing and distributing 5 articles.
Let's compare this to AdSense. If I could manage a 10% click through rate on the page, that's about 34 clicks. I would have to earn about 75 cents per click to earn the $25 I made from that one sale. The average bids on the term "dog training" are between $2 and $3 at AdWords, so it's possible–but it's a toss up.
Of course you don't have to try and sell anybody on anything with AdSense, so it could be potentially easier money.
I hope this case study has enlightened you to the power of writing articles to gain traffic to your sites. It certainly has enlightened me! I will be writing a lot more articles in the future.
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Like what you see? Then subscribe to Marketing Insiders and reap big benefits! By subscribing to my free Marketing Insiders email list, you will regularly receive special member-only insider information, discounts and freebies. You will also be notified when new articles are posted here at the blog. It's absolutely free to subscribe, and you can leave the list at any time. For subscribing today, I will give you a valuable free gift as well! |
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Jonathan Leger has been earning his living online full-time since the fall of 2004. He regularly posts advice about search engine optimization (his current passion), AdSense and Internet Marketing. He is the creator of a suite of popular software tools, including: Jonathan L Leger 
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