Tools, tips and techniques to help you create and profit from web video

Yep! 700 sign-ups per day because of the video - 100% free traffic because of a few videos of me doing a trick on youtube and having them sign up at the magic school to learn how to do it. It's 100% free traffic, and a lot of these people then go on to purchase products from my magic store. To date we have over 25,000 members -- and we're growing our school at a rate of 700+ members per day even though we've only been open just a few months.

Most people are finding my videos on YouTube and some of the other video directories. But YouTube is sending me the most traffic. Some of my videos have been seen over 130,000 times over the last 4-5 months. Here was one of my earlier magic videos -- nothing fancy, very simple and unscripted.

I have a few people who make comments about it not being free, etc., but most of these are the people who aren't confirming their "opt-in" request from Aweber, and thus never receive emails.

Yes, I currently use Traffic Geyser. It submits to about 35 different directories at once, including YouTube.com, AtomFilms.com, iFilm.com, Google Video, Vimeo.com and others.

I'm not getting much traffic from the search engines, yet, but I'm getting more each month. I figured it will catch up. When I use Traffic Geyser, my videos for my keywords actually show up on the default search listings pages within 1-2 days and generally hold position for about 2-3 days, and then slowly go back. People usually find me using terms such as "free magic classes," "learn how to do magic," and just some keywords for individual tricks

I'm not getting many incoming links yet, which I find odd because my Alexa ranking is jumping through hoops each week. I think now my Alexa ranking is about 165,000 and there are times when it dips below 89,000. So I'm surprised my link backs aren't that great.

I'd estimate that 65-70% of my members are children, we even have some 80 year olds who have joined the program. We find that they're learning magic to impress the grandchildren. Many of these kids & adults are learning magic and are enjoying it. Some go on to get very in-depth with the craft and many also end up purchasing magic supplies from our site to learn more skills.

I got started on accident. I woke up late one night with this idea to show others how to do magic and I just threw up a video just to see what would happen and before I knew it, people where signing up in droves. I really wasn't expecting much and boy was I wrong. My members view me as a hero - and that's the benefit of being in a niche... you become the big fish in a small pond.

So far, all of the content is free and will probably remain that way. We just created a setup similar to myspace where each member now has their own page, and own blog on the site. This allows the community to generate content for the site and they can add video and stuff. But for now, the entire thing is free and probably will stay that way. We do have customers who purchase magic products from the site.

Product sales are the main source of income for this site. We have many people who purchase from the site everyday. But I do have other websites that pay the bills each month :-)

We do hold magic contests each month and give away magic tricks to the winner and we found that we generally sell a lot of whatever the prize is. By indirectly giving these prizes away to the winner, people would email and make statements like, "I know I can't win, but where's the link so I can buy the prize myself".

Our #1 selling product is the spongeballs along with a DVD for $17... they love it!

I don't mail my list as often as I should -- each time I do, I just recently started doing 'one-time' offers and they seem to respond to those without much fuss -- provided I'm sending them a trick first. And the offer is a secondary thing.

Right now, my list is on a autoresponder where they receive a video each week (sometimes two in a week). I need to make videos, but I'm so busy with other projects I don't have the time I'd like to have.

That happened by accident with the magic video contests. I will tell you this... my number of signups per day are increasing daily -- why? Because I was sleep one night and had a dream about creating multiple viral type videos for the magic contests each month. The members who participate must submit a video to youtube. In the video, they must say they are doing the trick for the FreeMagicSchool.com web site. Their face must be shown when they say it and it must be clear. That allows them to upload their videos and they all plug back to my main site.

Here are some examples:

• http://youtube.com/watch?v=5Ed_0SbPK3A
• http://youtube.com/watch?v=fDV2l6jnsu4
• http://youtube.com/watch?v=P-sr98QRoq4
• http://youtube.com/watch?v=y0ST3W0XugA

This is just one project - i have some new projects we're starting where we'll be doing infomercial style videos lasting about 10-15 minutes to promote products and services - like that Kevin Trudeau fella. I'm also having great conversion results with my new sites PauldingHomesTV.com and HippoMarketing.com.

We're also using video on a client's website and conversions have been significant: KenCompton.com. People were getting frustrated with all the information on the inside of his membership site, so what we did was shoot videos for each section where he provided outlines and action taking steps and those series of videos actually increased the retention time of customers. Some quit because they were overwhelmed with information and didn't know where to start -- but video fixed that problem.

The WebVideoZone system is simply amazing. I tried YouTube and it worked well, but being a legitimate business, I felt it was necessary that I brand my video players with my company names for each project we worked.

One key feature that has significantly increased our conversion rates was our ability to allow people to click on the screen to get special reports while I was talking. This allows me to direct my viewers to special pages or to get special discounts. It's incredible.

If you want to increase the interactivity between your website and your users, then WebVideoZone is the only way to go. Anything less, and your conversions won't see the light of day. If you find WebVideoZone was a waste of your money, I'll give you your money back! My clients are excited about the product (I host the videos for them -- so far, you've been my secret weapon... I don't want my clients to know about you yet ; )

I'm excited about this technology and all the possibilities the little guy has now because most of the big boys haven't stepped onto the scene yet. I think for a limited time, everyone who uses video combined with your web video tool has the potential to make tons of money.

And remember: Simplicity seems to outperform every time.