10 Tips and Tricks for onlne videos on youtube

Tip 1 Shorter is always better when it comes to Youtube. 

The reason you should try to keep your videos short is because users online have short attention spans. Youtube actually has a filter which separates videos between those that are less than 4 minutes and those that are longer than 4 minutes.  In my experience the shorter the video the more views you get.  Videos longer than 4 minutes get about 50% less views in my experience. 

Tip 2 The more comments you have the more views you get.    

I am unique on Youtube in that I tend to engage the people that leave negative comments more than those who leave positive ones.  The reason being is often the negative viewer will leave more than one comment if you engage them where as a positive viewer likely will only one regardless if you respond back.  Comments get you more traffic in a few ways.

• some users will have comments connected to Twitter.
• some show all comments in their activity feed.
• comments tell search engines the video is creating emotion which matters.

Tip 3 Likes and dislikes are less important than you might think.   

Like comments the thumbs up (like) and thumbs down (dislike) can be shared in the users activity feed and twitter.  However they do not seem to have as much effect on search engines because often it is more indicative of the viewers like the tuber and not a good indicator of a good video.  They are still important but often if you do a thought provoking video people will dislike you for simply disagreeing with them.  Sometimes a 1000 dislikes can indicate your video did a very good job connecting with people. 

Tip 4 Avoid being too politically correct in your videos.

The top tubers on Youtube often talk about sex, carnage and vulgarity in their videos.  If you are a business for example on Youtube you need to think long and hard how to engage people without hurting your core brand.  If you look at "Old Spice" they used the narrative of a guy in a shower which allowed them to push the limits without hurting their core brand.  For individuals who are just doing it for fun it is much easier but still be aware of the long term implications of everything you do online.  I would suggest creating a character which would protect your real name and allow you the freedom to be a little more expressive.

Tip 5 Encourage users to comment and subscribe to your videos.

I am too lazy to do this but if you observe the top partners on Youtube they always tell people both with words and images to comment and subscribe.  Create a generic ending for all your videos and simply reuse it if you don't have time to do a new one for each video. 

Tip 6 Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga are king on Youtube.

In other words trends matter which is why you will often see the top tubers using titles with Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga in them.  Find a few good websites like Twitter, mag.ma or even TMZ and if you can incorporate a trending topic into your video make sure you mention it in the title.  This will help you get found in searches. 

Tip 7 Sex, carnage and vulgarity is king.

We live in a Beavis and Butthead world.  Hate it or love it, this is our world.  Keep in mind if your video does go viral Youtube will ask you if you want to do revenue sharing which means put ads on your video.  This means don't go to far off the deep end because advertisers won't touch it.  KassamG  for example always uses sexually suggestive titles in his videos.  I am not saying if this is right or wrong but it does get you more views.  I call it penis based marketing.

Tip 8 Keyword whoring works.

People will try to make you feel bad for this but all news sites make money off the carnage and sensational stories so why shouldn't you.  The only difference between you and them is they get paid a lot more. 

Tip 9 Keep current with new applications and website.

Everyday I check out techcrunch.com and mashables.com.  The reason being is they both cover new websites, applications and technology related to both mobile and the web.  If you know other good sites leave a comment and let me know.  The reason I like to keep up to date is because often you come across stuff that can help you create better videos and help you market them. 

Tip 10 Understand the online user and keep boundaries.

I refuse to go past private email with anyone.  I don't care how old or how young they are the most I will ever do is maybe a private email and even then I am still hesitant.  there are many reason for this however in terms of marketing it makes little sense to invest time in a private way that does not help promote your video.  Public comments say in a Facebook Fan Page is just marketing so your time is not wasted. 

I also suggest really keeping clear boundaries with people.  Avoid topics which can and will get you into trouble.  You do not know the mental stability of the person on the other end and things can turn badly for you very quickly.  That is not to say you have to be cold or mean.  Just encourage them to seek out help in their real life.  The internet should not replace real person interaction. 

Warnings

• People will hate on you for no reason on Youtube. DO NOT TAKE IT PERSONALY.
• Do not encourage people to kill themselves.  Cyberbullying is a crime.
• Do not kill yourself is someone tells you to.  Tell someone or flag, remove and block the user.
• People might threaten to kill you and sadly some mean it so be careful.  Just got my first death threat for asking a simple question. 

Although I don't have any videos up keep subscribe to my youtube channel to keep up with all my videos.  Some I will blog but others I will not because I want you to to subscribe to the channel.  I know I am a bastard.. sue me.. actually don't sue me cause I don't have much money.. you could sue to get my bills sent to you.  In fact if you want to pay my bills I would be more than happy to send them to you..

http://youtube.com/gebacards

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Everything is a story

I suppose this blog is where I am going to post all my ideas, thoughts and have it be a sounding board.  I am not going to SEO this with keywords or anything, at least not the brainstorming aspect.  It has been awhile since I last really got serious about writing.  For a long time I just have not felt stable inside enough to write.  you see the thing about words is they cost you something if you share them.  Meaning they are dripped in the blood of the soul.  Forgive me that was morbid which is just the mind set I got into doing a another post to my http://togocats.com blog.  I am trying to run 12 or 13 blogs at once.  Part of me thinks I am trying to do too much with this character.  A guy with multiple personality disorder.  It might be too much for people who follow me to keep up.  I think all my blogs are linked to http://gebula.com

The main reason I did things this way was so people could choose what they wanted to follow because in some of my blogs I go into areas that might be hard to read.  Meaning they deal with issues that could create emotion in people.  I know from personal experience that I have to avoid things that create emotion in me. 

I am still trying how to do each character.  It is hard to first person fantasy.. like I am writing a letter to someone telling them things.  I think that is the way I prefer to write as if I am telling someone.  togocats will be my fantasy blog where I mix in my imagination more than the other blogs.  It is strange writing.. because it isn't something you can just do.  It takes awhile to get into the practice of it, plus most of the time it is something I just can't do.. I don't want to go to the places that give my words.. for so long I use to write hoping one person.. the right person would read those words.. sadly in this world life never goes as we want it.  boy meets girl..boy wants to impress girl.. girl doesn't know boy exists.. story of my life and why I no longer date anymore.  I don't want my words to be for anyone anymore because it leaves you empty when they do not have the desired effect. 

I think I am going to look for a typing game.  I am always trying to improve myself in hopes that I will get a job.  It is hard to motivate yourself when you are without work.  It is easy to get distracted by life and the internet offers so many distractions.  I think this is one of the biggest problems in industry. how to give people access to the large database that is the web without them wasting time on Farmville.  I think if I could code I would build a service for businesses which would use peer pressure to deal with people wasting time.  I would simply display the websites people go to and how much time they spend on them.  So if someone was spending time playing farmville other people in the office would know and the person playing farmville would know other people know.  I wonder if that would work.  It is such an interesting thing keeping people motivated. at my last job I found that the less productive you were the better.   You could do nothing all day long and as long as you were quiet you were a good worker.  I am never quiet because the way we did things was so frustrating. 

today or tonight my goal is to practice typing and get through http://www.w3schools.com/js  a javascript tutorial.  I know HTML at least decent enough and some CSS.  I bought a book called the missing manual or something http://amzn.to/9cicdn  so far it is pretty good although I still think most if not all books about how to do something are still too complex for the average person.  The secret with the internet is to slow yourself down.  Meaning that everything in life seems to be going a million miles a minute and when it comes to code it needs to be about an inch a minute.  Little things matter so much.  Plus it is very complex stuff that most people's minds are not really ready to handle.. so you have to slow it down and be patient. 

Anyways till we speak again blog... Ivan

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Cover letter for edmontonsun.com as Web Controller

Dear Director of Online Operations,

It is like fate has brought us together.   Me the jock turned nerd and you the person at Sun Media who decided to write the the job posting for Web Controller.  Do you hear the singing in the background?  No, well that is because I have no singing talent to speak of and if someone doesn't give me a job, I will never eat.  I figure the reason you have not found a Web Controller yet is because you have been waiting for me to apply. 
I suppose I could tell you that I was the marketing and sales manager for a small software company in Edmonton.  I could tell you that I have been all over the world selling software to large industry and have a ton of experience working with people of different cultures and beliefs.  I could tell you how I have a lot of experience with the social web and how I could help a newspaper in that area.  I could even talk about SEO, PPC, FTP, CMS, CSS, HTML and other fancy keywords to impress upon you I have basic knowledge of each.

Sadly if I did that you might fall asleep at your desk because if you are posting a job for Web Controller you might not have enough help.  This might mean you are overworked and underpaid.  Maybe your head hits the keyboard when you fall asleep and you accidentally
 delete all the Sun Media websites.  Everyone goes broke and I have to join the French Foreign Legion so I can eat.
This leaves me with only once choice for a cover letter and it is funny or die.  http://bit.ly/ineedajob
Hopefully this weekend you can go home and tell someone that you will finally get to sleep at a decent hour because you have found the new Web Controller.  He may not be perfect but he is willing to work hard and there is not anything he cannot figure out, except how to get a second date.
Sincerely,

Ivan Mahony

“If a man is called a streetsweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry.  He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and Earth will pause to say, Here lived a great streetsweeper who did his job well.”  ~Martin Luther King, Jr.

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another in the wild and wacky cover letters to westword.ca

Dear westworld.ca:

I called 911 because it is apparent that you must be in need of some medical attention as you still have not called me about my resume.  I will send it again because you don't want to miss out on the biggest thing to ever come to your store.  I mean that literally because I am 6'4 230 pounds of all man.  I wish I could say muscle but sadly as you get older in life you start to grow horizontally not vertically.  I tried to contact Lenscrafters about using funny glass to make me appear skinny but they hung up on me. 

Maybe you just were using a PC, it crashed because a PC is like an American car, made to break and you lost my resume.  No worries I am willing to share with you my genius once again.  You are talking about the guy who once had to do a sales presentation commando style. Air Canada lost my luggage and then to make matters more fun the Hampton puts its towel racks above the toilet so when I reached for the towel in the morning I knocked my only pair of underwear into the toilet. 

You are talking to the guy who could give ijustine a run for her money in terms of bad dancing skills.  When you think about how good bad dancing does on youtube how could you not hire me?

Of course you could have a bad guy pointing a gun at you right now saying do not hire this guy but the chances of that happening are kind of like Microsoft coming out with a PC that doesn't need the motherboard changed every few months. 

As the gremlins say to me in my dreams always leave them with "Funny or Die."  (Short video)

http://bit.ly/ineedajob

I need a job.

Sincerely,

Ivan Mahony

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Rogers Sleep Shop cover letter I am going to shoot you in the butt

Dear Rogers Sleep Shop,

Forgive me for being a tad confused but I am stupid.  I see the name Rogers Sleep Shop and I can't help but wonder what do you do to make people fall asleep?  Do you play some politician giving a speech or do you use hardcore trank guns?  Do I get to shoot people when they walk in the store with a trank dart?  If so I would be all about working at Rogers Sleep Shop.  They wouldn't let me shoot people in the Navy which is why I got out.  I traveled the world under the guise of a software salesman hoping to find some place where I could get paid to shoot people, but no such luck.  I was hoping with Rogers Sleep Shop I could finally get a job where I can tell my friends I get paid to shoot people.

I just had a thought.  It doesn't happen often with me as no good can ever come from thinking.  It is like if your girlfriend is late to come over because she got a flat tire, your brain starts thinking of all sorts of other scenarios.  No good can come from those thoughts so in general I boycott thinking.  However in this case I am going to make an exception to the rule. 

My one thought is maybe you sell beds which would also be a dream.  If I don't get enough sleep at home I can go to work and take a nap.  We can call it modeling the products.  Maybe we do a Glee like song jumping on the beds.  Maybe we could have a big sleep over and I could come to work in my pajamas, if I wore any.  Does Rogers Sleep Shop mind if I come to work wearing just by boxers?  When you think about it I am expert on the art of sleeping.  You will not find somebody who is more talented in the art of sleeping. 

I hope I made you smile.  I cannot stand to be boring in life.  As they say in Hollywood "funny or die."(short funny video)

http://bit.ly/ineedajob

Sincerely,

Ivan "Connect the Dots"  Mahony

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